Essentials of a food ration( questions and answers)

People with diabetes often ask: how to balance their diet, how to achieve that food has become one of the important factors in improving the body? The answer here can be only one: the food should become a medicine. It must be balanced and physiologically useful.

The diet of a patient with diabetes should be aimed at normalizing the body weight of the patient, based on an individual calculation of the daily caloric intake of the diet. Food should be a fractional 4-6-time with type II diabetes and 6 times with type I diabetes.

The patient's diet should be coordinated with medications that lower blood sugar levels. It must correct the violations of hormonal changes and metabolism, and its caloric content should cover the energy costs of the body. The calculation is made based on height, body weight, body type, sex, age, profession. These calculations endocrinologist can always do individually for each patient. And knowing the energy costs, you can calculate the specific need for food ingredients for each patient, since here the figures are already more standard. As stated above, the daily diet should consist of calories by 15-20% of proteins, 25-30% - fats, 50-60% - carbohydrates. And then on these percentages it is possible, according to the tables developed for patients with diabetes, to dial a specific set of products, which is distributed according to rations.

In addition to the issue of nutrition balance, patients often ask:

How much can you restrict the intake of carbohydrates in order to reduce the dose of insulin or other hypoglycemic drugs?

With the restriction of carbohydrates in the diet of the patient should be careful. A sharp restriction of carbohydrates in the diet roughly breaks the metabolism - glycogen consumption in the liver increases, and fat takes its place, which causes its fatty degeneration."Fats burn in the flame of carbohydrates," as nutritionists say, and the lack of the latter leads to the accumulation of under-oxidized fat metabolism products with the development of poisoning of the body( ketosis, up to coma).

To replenish the missing carbohydrates, the protein of tissues begins to be consumed, from which the absent carbohydrates are synthesized, which aggravates the dystrophy of the tissues, dramatically increases muscle weakness, etc. Therefore, the amount of carbohydrates in the diet should be reduced gradually, constantly consulting with the doctor in charge.

Is it possible to use split and vegetarian food in diabetes?

Doctors-endocrinologists do not recommend patients with diabetes to use the techniques of separate and vegetarian food. Why? The fact is that the intake of clean carbohydrates leads to a rapid rise in the level of glycemia and to its rapid decline. Mixed food has a more favorable effect on blood sugar and its fluctuations. In addition, different foods are able to increase blood sugar levels differently and their action is averaged, since proteins and fats slow down gastric emptying, digestion and absorption of carbohydrates, which leads to their relatively even, gradual absorption.

You can not rely on vegetarian food because at a diabetes, at least 50% of protein foods should be meat, fish, dairy products. Vegetable proteins( soy, mushrooms, legumes) can be considered relative substitutes for animal protein foods, which, for all their pluses, makes the transition only irrational. Among the fats, two animals and one third of vegetable oils must be dewatering, and this is impossible with vegetarian food.

What types of cereals are recommended for inclusion in the diet?

Of course, in terms of usefulness, you can put buckwheat in the first place. In diabetes, it has on the body not only nutritional, but also therapeutic effect.

In particular, in buckwheat contains substances that along with curd prevent fatty liver changes. Buckwheat contains an amino acid that stimulates the secretion of insulin, is rich in B vitamins, potassium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium.

In addition to buckwheat, the ration can use millet, pearl, rice cereals. Excludes semolina. When compiling a diet, remember that all cereal products are rich in carbohydrates and should be accurately dosed, and with excess weight all portions should be reduced.

Which beverages do you prefer?

You can drink tea, tea with milk, soft coffee, tomato juice, sour-sweet berries and fruit without sugar, rose hips without sugar, and carbonated drinks containing substances that replace sugar.

Can I use honey?

In type I diabetes, honey can be eaten, but not more than 2-3 teaspoons a day, given its carbohydrate composition and calories in the daily ration and the appropriate dosage of insulin and exclusion of any other nutrients that replace sugar.

In type II diabetes, honey is undesirable, since it is very difficult to balance the amount of carbohydrates in it and the dose of drugs that lower blood sugar levels.

In what quantities and what kind of bread should I eat?

It is often said that with diabetes, only black bread is allowed. But this opinion is erroneous. In food you can take protein, porcine bread, Borodino bread, doctor's buns.

The daily dose of bread is 100-150 g. And since one piece of wheat bread with a thickness of just over 1 cm is 50 g, hence the number of pieces should not exceed three. In wheat flour of the highest grade, there are few trace elements, since they are contained mainly in the shell of the grain, which is removed by grinding. Therefore, bread from whole grains or with bran is more rich in vitamins and minerals and less increases the level of blood sugar. For people suffering from diabetes, it is preferable.

Bakery products with salt and spices are not suitable for diabetics. Rye black bread contains dietary fiber, rich in vitamins. But his patients with diabetes mellitus suffer worse because of frequent concomitant diseases of the digestive system, it often causes heartburn, swelling of the intestine.