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Get Your Fiber
Eating right is key to managing diabetes.Fortunately, your food "prescription" includes filling, flavorful fare that tastes like anything but medicine. A diet rich in these 10 "super foods" will help minimize blood sugar and even throw your disease into reverse. Dig in!
1. Vegetables. The advantages of eating more vegetables are undeniable. Packed with powerhouse nutrients, vegetables are naturally low in calories, and they're full of fiber, so they're plenty filling. Loading your plate with more vegetables will automatically mean you're eating fewer simple carbs (which raise blood sugar) and saturated fats (which increase insulin resistance). Aim to get four or five servings a day. (A serving is 1/2 cup canned or cooked vegetables or 1 cup raw vegetables.) Go easier on starchy vegetables -- including potatoes and corn, and legumes such as lima beans and peas -- which are higher in calories than other vegetables.
2. Fruit. It has more natural sugar and calories than most vegetables, so you can't eat it with utter abandon, but fruit has almost all the advantages that vegetables do -- it's brimming with nutrients you need, it's low in fat, it's high in fiber, and it's relatively low in calories compared with most other foods. Best of all, it's loaded with antioxidants that help protect your nerves, your eyes, and your heart.
Aim to get three or four servings a day. (A serving is one piece of whole fruit, 1/2 cup cooked or canned fruit, or 1 cup raw fruit.) Strive to make most of your fruit servings real produce, not juice. Many of the nutrients and a lot of the fiber found in the skin, flesh, and seeds of fruit are eliminated during juicing, and the calories and sugar are concentrated in juice.
3. Beans. Beans are just about your best source of dietary fiber. Fiber slows digestion and keeps blood sugar from rising quickly after a meal. This effect is so powerful that it can even lower your overall blood sugar levels. Because it slows digestion, fiber also keeps you feeling full longer.
Throw canned beans into every salad you make (rinse them first), and add them to pasta dishes and chili. Black bean, split pea, or lentil soup, even it comes from a can, is an excellent lunch.
4. Cereal. The right breakfast cereal is your absolute best opportunity to pack more fiber into your day. There's a bonus: Studies show that people who start the morning with a high-fiber cereal actually eat less later on. So don't forgo breakfast. And choose a cereal brand with at least 5 grams fiber per serving. Good choices include Kashi GoLean Crunch! (10 grams), Kellogg's Raisin Bran (8 grams), General Mills Multi-Bran Chex (8 grams), Post Wheat 'N Bran Spoon Size (8 grams), Kellogg's All-Bran Original (10 grams) and General Mills Fiber One (14 grams). Top your cereal with fruit and you've checked off a fruit serving for the day.
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