Barriers to a Healthy Diabetes Diet

Your diet plays a major role in your overall health. If you have diabetes, controlling your diet is probably the most important step you can take in controlling your diabetes. What, how much and when you eat determine whether your blood glucose levels are healthy or out of control. Unfortunately, in our fast-paced modern lifestyle, eating a healthy diet is difficult. Lack of information and lack of time are major barriers, but lack of planning is the biggest stumbling block to eating a healthy diabetic diet.

Information

• Hopefully, when you found out you had diabetes your doctor prescribed a course of diabetes education. These classes, taught by certified diabetes educators, provide a wealth of information about the disease and how to live with it. Part of your diabetes education includes information about a diet that's healthy for you and consultation with a dietitian or nutritionist, who will determine your daily calorie needs and create a personal meal plan for you.

Lack of Information

• You cannot implement healthy dietary changes if you don't know what a healthy diet means for you in your unique circumstances. If you have not taken a diabetes education course, you must educate yourself. The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse provides an online information and planning tool. Since diabetes can cause heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, nerve damage, amputation and death, you should learn as much as you can about a healthy diet as quickly as you can. Enlist the help of a friend who's a medical professional, or buddy up with another diabetic to learn more quickly.

Lack of Time

• Americans' lives are extremely busy, and many of us do not take the time to prepare and eat nutritious, balanced meals. To control your diabetes, you must not let a lack of time prevent you from eating a healthy diet. If you know your day will be extra busy, prepare a lunch the night before to take with you to work, and do as much dinner preparation for the next day as you can. Don't skimp on breakfast and make sure you take a healthy snack(s) with you when you leave the house. Do some research and plan ahead for a nutritious restaurant meal if you can't bring food from home. If you do eat out, make sure the non-restaurant meals that day emphasize whatever your restaurant meal may have lacked (such as enough vegetables and fiber).

Fast Food

• If you must go the fast-food route occasionally, it needn't crash your healthy diet. Arm yourself with knowledge about what's on the menu and portion sizes. If you aren't sure what's in a particular dish, ask. Eliminate words like, "large," "super" or "up-size" from your food-ordering vocabulary and order regular or even "junior" portions. Avoid breaded and fried selections, choosing grilled or broiled items instead. Most toppings are heavy on calories, fat and/or sugar, so skip those and get your flavor zing from mustard, herbs or spices. Vegetable salad is a good choice if you go easy on the dressings and skip toppings like bacon bits. Avoid macaroni, potato, and other "salads" glued together with mayonnaise. Review the American Diabetes Association publication, "Your Guide to Eating Out". Many restaurants and fast-food chains post their menus and nutrition information online. Use these resources to plan ahead.

Lack of Planning

• A meal plan is not a menu. It shows you the portions of the proper food groups to eat at breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack(s), but you still need to plan your actual menus and put that meal plan into action. Many of us are not accustomed to planning our meals ahead of time, and changing habits relating to what we eat is difficult. You may have to make some of these changes in small steps, but diabetic meal planning will quickly become a habit. Lacking a plan is a diabetic's biggest stumbling block to a healthy diet.

Plan Your Meals

• Sit down once a week, with your family members if appropriate, and review your schedule for the upcoming week. Identify any potential challenges, such as days when your schedule is overbooked or you'll attend a social get-together where others will provide the food. Develop a strategy for incorporating these events into your overall healthy eating for the day. You should also plan a strategy in advance for how you will eat if you are sick.

  Once you've dealt with the problem areas, use your meal plan as a guide for planning your actual meals and snacks for the upcoming week. Take advantage of local sales and coupons and build your menus around fresh produce in season--you'll save money and enjoy more nutritious meals. Select some dishes to make in larger quantities, and freeze the extra in single-portion sizes to pull out for lunches or dinners when you're rushed.

Conclusion

• The importance of planning for healthy meals cannot be overemphasized. Proper planning can help you avoid skipping meals or making poor choices, and can make all the difference between healthy blood sugar levels and diabetes that is out of control.