There are several aspects in the treatment of diabetes, each one with a very important role. I am not a doctor or other medically trained specialist. I am a type 2 Diabetic who has learned how to optimize my own Diabetic Diet so my blood glucose is extremely well controlled. It is my goal on this site to share what has worked for me, and for others whom I have shared these Diabetic Diet strategies.

The NutriCoach Diabetic Diet Strategies, which are used for this site, are different than just about anything else I have been able to find. The NutriCoach Diabetic Diet Strategies combine the best from many different sources while avoiding the pitfalls in other Diabetic Diet strategies. 

The mainstays of treatment are:

1.     Working towards obtaining ideal body weight

2.     Following a diabetic diet

3.     Regular exercise

4.     Diabetic medication if needed

Note: Type 1 Diabetes must be treated with insulin. This involves injecting insulin under the skin for it to work. Insulin cannot be taken as a pill because the digestive juices in the stomach would destroy the insulin before it could work. Scientists are looking for new ways to give insulin. But today, shots are the only method.  There are, however, new methods to give the shots...Insulin Pumps are now being widely used and many people are having great results.   A new page on insulin pumps will be on line soon.

Working towards obtaining ideal body weight.

I will make it easy for you to determine your ideal body weight. Fill out the form From this link and you will get an in-depth report to get you started.

A low glycemic diabetic diet is very important in diabetes. There are differing philosophies on what is the BEST Diabetic Diet but below is a guideline with some general principles.

This site deals primarily with Type 2 Diabetes but Patients with Type 1 Diabetes can benefit also.

Selecting the proper amount of carbohydrates is important as well as the type of carbohydrates. Mainstream medicine says all carbs are the same. A little common sense and current nutrition research tells us that concept is out of date and is far from the truth.

(See a more complete discussion of this under "Low Glycemic Carbohydrates)

Generally speaking, a diabetic should have a diet that has approximately 35 calories per kg of body weight per day (or 16 calories per pound of body weight per day). Patients with Type 2 diabetes generally are put on a 1500-1800 calorie diet per day to promote weight loss and then the maintenance of ideal body weight. However, this may vary depending on the person's age, sex, activity level, current weight and body style. More obese individuals may need more calories initially until their weight is less. This is because it takes more calories to maintain a larger body and a 1600-calorie diet for them may promote weight loss that is too fast to be healthy. Men have more muscle mass in general and therefore may require more calories. Muscle burns more calories per hour than fat. (Thus also one reason to regularly exercise and build up muscle!) Also, people whose activity level is low will have less daily caloric needs.

Generally, low glycemic carbohydrates should make up about 50 percent of the daily calories (with the accepted range 40-60 percent). In general, lower carbohydrate intake is associated with lower sugar levels in the blood. However the benefits of this can be cancelled out by the problems associated with a higher fat or higher protein diet taken in to compensate for the lower amount of carbohydrates. This problem can be improved by substituting monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats for saturated fats.

Most people with diabetes find that it is quite helpful to sit down with a dietician or nutritionist who is current with recent research for a consult about what is the best diet for them and how many daily calories they need. It is quite important for diabetics to understand the principles of properly balanced diet and how to help control blood sugar levels through proper diet. Below are some general principles about the diabetic diet.

Understanding Food Groups

There are three basic food groups: fats, proteins and carbohydrates. The carbohydrates are the foods that can be broken down into sugar. It is essential to have all three food groups in your diet to have good nutrition. All three food groups need to be broken down further. There are good carbs and bad carbs, good fats and bad fats, good protein choices and bad protein choices.

Why count carbohydrates?

All foods can be converted to blood glucose. Carbohydrate makes your blood glucose level go up faster than fat or protein. If you know how much carbohydrate you've eaten and the glycemic index or glycemic load, you have a good idea what your blood glucose level is going to do. The more carbohydrates you eat, the higher your blood sugar will go up. High glycemic foods will raise your blood glucose faster and farther than low glycemic carbohydrates.

Which foods contain carbohydrate?

Most of the carbohydrate we eat comes from three food groups: starch, sugars and fiber. Fruits, vegetables grains and milk contain carbohydrates, but foods in the meat and fat groups contain very little carbohydrate. Sugars may be added or may be naturally present (such as in fruits vegetables and dairy). The nutrient term for sugars can also be identified by looking for -ose at the end of a word ( i.e. glucose, fructose, sucrose, lactose etc. are all sugars). Look for these on food labels to help identify foods that contain sugar.

Below are some examples of carbohydrate grams for some common food items:

A popular means of counting carbohydrates is the Exchanges Diet promoted by the American Diabetic Association and others. A quick review of that method makes it very apparent why it is much better to use good nutrition tracking software such as the Nutribase Personal Diet software we recommend.

To make things easy, many people begin carbohydrate counting by rounding the carbohydrate value of milk up to 15. In other words, one serving of starch, fruit or milk all contain 15 grams carbohydrate or one carbohydrate serving. Three servings of vegetable also contain 15 grams. Each meal and snack will contain a specific total number of grams of carbohydrate. As you can see this method very quickly compounds errors in tracking and becomes rather inaccurate as well as rather wieldy.

For example: Each gram of carbohydrate provides 4 calories. A diabetic on a 1600 calorie diet should get 50% of these calories from carbohydrate. (No distinction between high and low glycemic carbs.) This would be a total of 800 calories or 200 gms of carbohydrate (at 4 calories per gram) spread out over the day. At 15 grams per exchange, this would be about 13 exchanges of carbohydrate per day.

The amount of food you eat is closely related to blood sugar control. If you eat more food than is recommended on your meal plan, your blood sugar goes up. Although foods containing high glycemic carbohydrates (carbs) have the most impact on blood sugars, the calories from all foods will affect blood sugar. The only way you can tell if you are eating the right amount is to measure your foods carefully. Also, it is important to space your carbohydrates out throughout the day to avoid sugar "loading." Measuring your blood sugar regularly also provides important feedback on how high your sugar went based on what you ate and your level of activity.

Where do you get carbohydrate information?

The "Nutrition Facts" label on most foods is the normal way to get carbohydrate information, but not all foods have labels and many labels are misleading. Your local bookstore and library have books that list the carbohydrate in restaurant foods, fast foods, convenience foods and fresh foods. These can be very time consuming and often have very limited nutrient values. The best method I know of is software such as the NutriBase Diet software we recommend which tracks 88 nutrient values and shows you the balance between protein, carbs and fat. You will still need to weigh or measure the foods to know the amount of grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fats present.

How do you count carbohydrate?

Carbohydrates can be counted in number of grams or can be counted as exchanges. One carbohydrate exchange equals 15 grams of carbohydrate. Counting the actual weight in grams or ounces is far superior and only takes a minute or two more.

Free Foods:

The standard advice allows for free foods. The NutriCoach diabetic diet stratagies say to count everything.

They say, "There are foods that you can eat without counting. A free food or drink is one that contains less than 20 calories and 5 grams or less of carbohydrate per serving. If your serving or a food contains more than 5 grams of carbohydrate, you should count it in your meal plan."

Examples of free foods:

Bouillon or broth
Carbonated or mineral water
Club soda
Coffee or tea
Diet soft drinks
Drink mixes, sugar-free
Tonic water, sugar free
Sugar-free hard candy
Sugar-free Jell-O
Sugar-free gum
Jam or jelly, light or low-sugar, 2 tsp.
Sugar free syrup, 2 tsp.

They say, "You should spread out free foods throughout the day and not eat them in one sitting." I say, "There are no free foods. Count everything that goes into your mouth."

Fitting Sugar in Your Meal Plan

It is commonly thought that people with diabetes should avoid all forms of sugar. Most people with diabetes can eat foods containing sugar as long as the total amount of carbohydrate (carb) for that meal or snack is glycemic. Many medium and low glycemic fruits and vegetables contain sugar. Many research studies have shown that meals, which contain high glycemic carbs, do make the blood sugar rise higher than meals of equal carbohydrate levels which do not contain high glycemic carbs. However, if the meal contains higher glycemic carbs, the blood sugar levels will go up faster. Sugar is a high glycemic carb. You might be surprised to learn that white rice and potatoes are higher on the glycemic index.

(See Low Glycemic carbohydrates for more.)

Does this mean I can eat cake and not worry about it?

No! A slice of white cake with chocolate icing ( 1/12 of a cake or 80 gram weight) will give you about 300 calories, 45 grams of high glycemic carbs and 12 grams of fat. Before you have a slice of cake, ask yourself the following questions: Will that small piece of cake be satisfying or will I still be hungry? How will it fit into my meal plan? Do I have 300 calories to "spend" on this? Are there other choices I could make which would contribute less bad fat? A 1/12 slice of angel food cake has less than 1 gram of fat and only 30 carb. This may be a better choice.

Controlling all carbohydrates

It is important to realize that sugar is not the only carbohydrate that you have to "control". The body will convert all carbohydrates to glucose - so eating extra servings of rice, pasta, bread, fruit or other carbohydrate foods will make the blood sugar rise. Just because something doesn't have sugar in it doesn't mean you can eat as much as you want. Your meal plan is designed so that the carbohydrate content of your meals remains as consistent as possible from day to day.

A word of caution:

If you choose to drink a 12 ounce can of a sugar-sweetened soft drink, that would use up about 45 grams of high glycemic carbohydrates - and you wouldn't have gotten any nutrition (protein, vitamins or minerals). What a waste of calories and carbs! High sugar foods are more concentrated in carb. Therefore the volume would be smaller than a low sugar food. High sugar foods might not be a good choice if they will just tempt you to eat more. If you would rather eat larger portions, select low glycemic choices.      

In addition, many sugar-containing foods also contain a lot of fat. Foods such as cookies, pastries, ice cream and cakes should be avoided largely because of the fat content and because they don't contribute much nutritional value. If you do want a "sweet" - make a low-glycemic choice, such as sugar free frozen yogurt, a low glycemic fruit or whole grain snack bar and substitute it for another carbohydrates on your meal plan.