What foods should you eat if you have diabetes? Fortunately, planning healthy meals to treat diabetes doesn’t have to be complicated.
Some of you may be using carbohydrate counting and some of you may be using the Diabetic Exchange diet to help control your blood sugar. One way that can help is by following the healthy diabetes plate. A Swedish nutritionist devised a visual method to teach diabetic meal planning and called it the Swedish plate method. In the 1990s, a group of dietitians in Idaho modified this method to meet the nutritional guidelines of the American Diabetes Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and renamed it the Idaho Plate Method, now Healthy Diabetes Plate. The Healthy Diabetes Plate contains concepts and information on each of these methods. It encompasses the five food groups and will usually help you prepare a healthy and tasty breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There is no need to measure or weigh your food or buy special foods. All you need is a 9-inch plate for vegetables, starch, and egg whites, and a small bowl and / or glass for fruit and dairy products.
Using the Healthy Diabetes Plate is easy. You simply divide your plate in half. Half of your plate should have non-starchy vegetables like spinach, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, cauliflower, okra, or many other vegetables. The other half should contain a quarter of your plate of a starchy lining, which can include a starchy vegetable like a small potato or corn, or whole grains like brown rice, pasta, or bread. The other quarter of your plate should be a protein. You will also need a fruit like a bowl of strawberries or half a banana and a serving of dairy products, which can be milk or yogurt.
There are many benefits to using the Healthy Diabetes Plate. It saves time and money by using regular food. That means fewer impulse purchases and fewer trips to the grocery store.
It also makes meals healthy by including all five food groups. You get the vitamins and minerals your body needs to stay healthy.
It helps keep blood sugar under control by limiting food servings. This minimizes the damage that high blood sugar levels can do to the kidneys, nerves, heart, and eyes.
It is for all family members. You don’t have to be a certain age or have diabetes to benefit from the Healthy Diabetes Plate. It’s a great way to eat healthily for everyone.
Do well with Diabetes II grades
You can learn more about the Healthy Diabetes Plates, how to count carbohydrates and control your diabetes by taking part in the “Do Well Be Well with Diabetes” educational series. The Texas A & M AgriLife Extension is offering a series of diabetes education programs from Wednesday, May 5, 2021 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The class will meet on Wednesdays through June 2nd for five weeks. Courses are offered in person at The Parker County Extension office located at 604 N. Main St., Weatherford and available online through Zoom.
The topics include: how foods affect your blood sugar; Are You Eating The Right Number Of Carbohydrates? Beyond Diet: Exercise to improve your blood sugar control; Improving your blood sugar control with medication; and celebration of diabetes control and avoidance of complications.
The cost of the class series is $ 15. You can sign up or learn more about the courses by calling 817-598-6168 or emailing Kathy Smith at kl-smith@tamu.edu.
Kathy Smith is a Texas A&M AgriLife consultant based in Parker County.
