Low-carbohydrate diet for type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus

Many diabetic patients notice that eating foods with a low glycemic index has a positive effect and significantly improves the condition. Indeed, a low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes helps to avoid a sharp increase in blood glucose levels. It is easy to make sure of this, if you regularly measure this level before a meal, and again an hour and a half after it. A particularly pronounced effect is observed if the patient does not take insulin therapy, correcting sugar levels with proper nutrition. [1]

Indications

A low-carbohydrate diet is especially recommended for patients with severe diabetes (with glucose values of more than 15 mmol/liter) or severe obesity. Restriction of carbohydrate intake contributes to rapid weight loss, reduction of fat deposits, stabilization of glucose in the bloodstream. [2]

The use of a low-carbohydrate diet makes diabetes treatment more successful in most cases, and is often used to get rid of excess body weight.

Changes in the diet consist in strictly limiting the amount of carbohydrates, if compared to the usual diet: no more than 30 g (better - less) every day. Under a strict ban fall pasta, bakery products, potatoes. We will tell you more about the prohibited and allowed products in a low-carbohydrate diet. [3]

• Low-carbohydrate diet in type 1 diabetes is prescribed against the background of insulin therapy, but only under the supervision of a doctor. Improper nutrition can lead to a worsening of the patient's condition. It is important to consume products that do not cause a sharp increase in sugar in the bloodstream, and also take into account the amount of carbohydrates consumed with each meal. The bread unit chart offered to patients helps to easily select appropriate carbohydrate foods, avoiding blood sugar fluctuations.
• Low-carbohydrate diet in type 2 diabetes at an early stage of development can replace drug therapy: if you normalize body weight and adjust the diet, you can do without taking sugar-reducing drugs. Medium and severe stage of type 2 diabetes also requires dietary adjustments, but already on the background of additional intake of appropriate medications.
• Low-carbohydrate diet in gestational diabetes is prescribed individually, as changes in nutrition largely depend on the woman's current diet. The main thing is regular monitoring of the amount of carbohydrate food, the level of sugar in the bloodstream. It is necessary to reduce the percentage of carbohydrates in the diet, and the amount of the remaining should be evenly distributed over several meals during the day. This approach will help to keep glucose levels under control, without allowing sharp fluctuations. Specialists advise against such products in gestational diabetes:
  • raw eggs, semi-raw eggs (soft-boiled);
  • sweets, pastries, sugar and dishes with it;
  • liver;
  • whole milk.

With gestational diabetes, it is important to take measures to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes. Therefore, dietary changes should be maintained even after the baby is born.

General information of the a low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes

From the name of the diet, it becomes clear that its main goal is to reduce the amount of carbohydrates consumed and, consequently, prevent fluctuations in the glucose levels in the bloodstream. However, this is not all the factors on which the low-carbohydrate regimen is based:

• Most diabetic patients are overweight, which in itself causes the development of various glycemic disorders. Therefore, one of the goals of a low-carbohydrate diet is to reduce body weight to normal levels.
• In addition to reducing the amount of fast carbohydrates, you should also pay attention to reducing the percentage of saturated fatty acids in the diet. It is desirable to sharply reduce the consumption of animal products, eliminate trans-fats, get rid of addiction to fast food, do not buy convenience foods.
• When consuming meat and dairy products, it is necessary to choose less fatty versions. But the body needs polyunsaturated fatty acids: they help prevent inflammation and prevent the development of atherosclerotic changes in blood vessels.
• The basis of a low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes should be food with a low glycemic index. It is especially good to include in the menu fresh vegetables, cereals, legumes, greens, unsweetened berries and fruits, vegetable oils, cheese, kefir and natural yogurts, egg whites.

Diabetes is a complex disease, which at first runs without obvious painful signs. But it is at the initial stage that it is easiest to stop this disease, and it is the correct low-carbohydrate diet that plays a decisive role in this. [4]

Detailed menu for each day

• Monday breakfast is scrambled eggs with whole-grain toast and a piece of hard cheese. Lunch is vegetable carrot soup, buckwheat casserole. Dinner is baked fish fillet with braised cauliflower. Throughout the day you can have a snack of natural yogurt, an apple or vegetable salad.
• Tuesday breakfast is oatmeal on water with berries and pumpkin seeds, no sweeteners. Lunch is bean stew with vegetable salad and a small amount of tuna. Dinner is vegetable goulash with a piece of low-fat beef. During the day snack on avocado, natural yogurt, cottage cheese pudding.
• Wednesday breakfast is couscous with almond nuts, blueberries and pumpkin seeds. Lunch is vegetable stew with chicken chops. Dinner is meat casserole with Greek yogurt and carrot salad. Between meals you can snack on buckwheat flour tortillas and an apple.
• Thursday breakfast is a mushroom omelet with tomatoes. Lunch is buckwheat soup and a piece of steamed meat with raspberry sauce. For dinner prepare fish fillet with salad leaves, berry compote. For a snack on this day are suitable slices of hard cheese, grilled vegetables.
• Friday breakfast is omelet with whole grain bread and cucumber. Lunch is onion soup, a side dish of barley with a slice of beef. Dinner is a steamed chicken cutlet with brown rice and cauliflower. Throughout the day eat some cottage cheese with berries, ryazhenka.
• On Saturday, you can serve toasted whole wheat toast with mushrooms and cheese for breakfast. Lunch is lentils with chicken meat and a green salad. Dinner is served with fish steak and chopped vegetables. For snacks, sunflower seeds, yogurt and cottage cheese are perfect.
• Sunday breakfast is buckwheat with grated cheese and sesame seeds. Lunch is celery soup, cucumber salad with chicken meat. Dinner is asparagus stew, steamed cutlets with yogurt. As a snack use a few olives, kefir with berries.

Recipes for a low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes

Dishes on a low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes have their own peculiarities, but this does not mean that they will be tasteless and monotonous. For breakfast, lunch or dinner, you can even serve light versions of well-known traditional dishes, and even desserts with berries and cottage cheese.

• Onion omelet.

Chop the green onion feathers. Pour eggs into a bowl, whisk with onions. Put the mass on a heated with oil frying pan, cover with a lid, and a few minutes before cooking sprinkle with grated cheese. Salt is not necessary: if you have diabetes, the salt from the cheese will be enough.

• Turkey steak.

Finely chop turkey fillet with a knife. Add chopped herbs and onions, beaten egg, salt and pepper, a little sour cream, a couple of tablespoons of semolina and flour. Stir. Put a skillet with oil on the fire. With wet hands form steaks from the mass, put them on a frying pan, fry on each side until ready.

• Millet porridge with pumpkin.

Boil millet porridge (for 3 cups of liquid take ½ cup of millet). Add finely chopped pumpkin pulp, continue to cook over low heat, stirring constantly. As soon as the porridge thickens, remove it from the heat, add a little butter, berries, you can add some raisins. The pot with porridge is wrapped with a warm plaid and left for a couple of hours - to languish. After such stewing the dish becomes especially tasty.

The recipes that are proposed for a low-calorie diet for diabetes should involve both caloric and balanced ingredients. It is optimal to prepare dishes based on lentils, soy, vegetables and cereals. Most recipes do not require any serious culinary skills: you can cook without problems in an ordinary home kitchen. The dishes are suitable for both diabetic patients and healthy people.

Benefits

Low-calorie diet in diabetes reduces the carbohydrate load on the body and allows you to control glucose levels without resorting to taking sugar-lowering medications. The basis of the diet consists of such moments:

1. enriching the diet with fiber;
2. Consumption of omega-3-unsaturated fatty acids;
3. Establishment of eating habits, avoiding overeating and periods of starvation;
4. saturation of dishes with vitamins and mineral components.
5. Which foods are most recommended on a low calorie diet and why?

• Legumes are a great source of protein and fiber at the same time. For example, beans are good for satiety while stabilizing sugar levels. In just one hundred grams of dark beans there are 8 g of fiber and protein, no unnecessary fats. Legumes can be successfully used to prepare soups, salads, side dishes.
• Sour milk products are the body's main supplier of calcium and vitamin D. According to scientists, 1200 mg of calcium combined with 800 IU of vitamin D daily reduce the likelihood of diabetes by more than 30%. Experts advise to eat oatmeal with kefir or ryazhenka in the morning, and eat yogurt or some cottage cheese instead of dessert.
• Fish is a rich supplier of omega-3-fatty acids, which protect against vascular disease, strengthen immunity and increase insulin sensitivity. It is recommended to include fish dishes in the diabetes diet up to twice a week. You can add fish flesh to a salad, make it into omelet and casserole.
• Cereals contain fiber, vitamins and useful trace elements, as well as so-called slow carbohydrates, which do not cause a sharp change in the level of glucose in the bloodstream. Therefore, it is impossible to ignore their consumption. A portion of porridge lowers cholesterol, slows the absorption of carbohydrates, improves insulin resistance. Cereal is an ideal option for breakfast, as it gives the body energy and perfectly satiates.
• Berries, herbs and vegetables are rich in fiber, polyphenols, minerals and vitamins. Regular consumption of them improves the digestive tract, prevents cardiac dysfunction, lowers the content of sugar and bad cholesterol in the bloodstream.

When you have diabetes, it is very important to take into account all carbohydrates in your body. To simplify the preparation of a low-carbohydrate diet, a special unit has been defined for diabetics that measures the carbohydrate content of foods - the bread unit (BU). This indicator reflects the amount of carbohydrates in 25 g of bread (about 12 g of sugar). It has been found that one unit raises glucose levels by 2.8 mmol/liter. Therefore, experts have determined the daily rate of consumption of meals: it is calculated separately for each patient, and this norm should be adhered to. It usually ranges from 7 to 28. [5]

In addition, the total carbohydrate amount that the patient receives daily should match the amount of insulin that enters the bloodstream.

What can and what can not?

What can I eat?

A low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes involves eating the following meals and foods:

• lean and low-fat meats, white skinless chicken meat;
• fresh or frozen fish in low-fat versions (carp, hake, pollock, cod, trout);
• egg whites (chicken, quail);
• dietary hard cheese, sour milk products;
• beans, cereals (optimally buckwheat and oatmeal, barley and wheat cereals, lentils, bulgur, couscous);
• vegetables;
• tea, tomato juice, light berry compotes without sweeteners;
• vegetable oils.

First dishes should be prepared on vegetable broths, but it is better to give up bread - for example, in favor of whole-grain croutons or bread.

What can't you eat?

With diabetes of any type, it is better to "forget" about such dishes and products: [6]

• sugar, sweets, chocolate;
• Baked goods, including cakes and pastries, cookies, and even bread;
• alcohol, sodas, fruit juices;
• sweet fruits, dried fruits;
• corn, potatoes;
• hot spices and condiments, mustard, ajika, chili peppers, vasabi, etc;
• lard, fatty meat parts;
• fresh milk, butter, cream, fatty sour cream, processed and smoked cheese;
• pickles, sour and salty snacks and appetizers.

Contraindications

Diabetes is a complex and dangerous disease, and an incorrectly selected diet can cause significant damage to health and exacerbate the pathology. Contraindicated for diabetics starvation, unbalanced and excessively restricted diet, the so-called "monodiets". If the doctor prescribes a low-carbohydrate diet, it should be developed by specialists specifically for this disease.

Diet therapy is an important part of the overall treatment regimen for diabetes, regardless of whether the patient is taking insulin or sugar-lowering medications. In addition to improving well-being, a low-calorie diet allows you to keep your weight in check. If you are overweight, it is recommended that you reduce your body weight by about 6% for ½ to 1 year. Low-calorie diet helps to slowly but steadily lose weight, creating a calorie deficit of 500 to 1000 kcal / day. Total daily calorie intake in women with diabetes should not be less than 1200 kcal, and in men - at least 1500 kcal. Diabetic patients should not be starved categorically.

Possible risks

Can a low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes solve all the problems associated with the disease? Unfortunately, it cannot. About the benefits of such a diet can be said only if the patient will carefully observe a balanced combination of proteins and fats with low carbohydrate intake. But the carbohydrates in the diabetic's diet must necessarily be from the category of slow - for example, cereals. What are the risks of not maintaining this balance?

Firstly, there may be a percentage reduction in muscle tissue. However, this risk can be mitigated by restoring an adequate protein-fat-carbohydrate balance in time. This is often the case when protein foods are lacking in the menu.

A much more serious complication of diabetes can be ketoacidosis. Fat utilization for energy metabolism in the body is called ketosis. Such a condition can not be called dangerous. But the formation of numerous ketone bodies and acetone compounds in diabetes is a very serious condition. It is more often found in patients with type 1 diabetes, but sometimes occurs in the 2nd variant of the disease. It is classified as an emergency condition, so if vomiting, abdominal pain, dehydration, unusual odor from the mouth, loss of consciousness should immediately contact doctors.

Complications

Despite the effectiveness in weight correction and stabilization of glucose levels in the bloodstream, low-carbohydrate diet in diabetes can turn out to be a number of complications. Indeed, a sharp restriction of carbohydrates in the diet can not be associated with the development of ketoacidosis, digestive disorders. Patients often have constipation or diarrhea, bad breath, headaches and a constant feeling of fatigue. If the ratio of protein components is incorrect, the protein load on the kidneys may increase, acid balance may be disturbed, which may cause leaching of minerals from bone tissue, weakening of bones.

Nevertheless, a low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes is one way to quickly and effectively bring weight and sugar levels to normal. Complications will not arise if you choose the diet competently, paying attention to the correct balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. In general, the safety of a properly designed low-carbohydrate diet is confirmed by a huge number of patients who have not noted deterioration of the condition, provided that all the principles of therapeutic nutrition are observed.

Reviews of low carbohydrate diet for diabetes

If you analyze the existing reviews, the low-carbohydrate diet in diabetes is tolerated by patients without special difficulties. Such a diet completely excludes fasting and sudden changes in blood glucose levels, and as a result, the body does not have to additionally fight stress. A minor disadvantage is that the brain may lack energy. This can be manifested by drowsiness, impaired mental alertness, and headaches.

Low-carbohydrate diet in diabetes is not a diet, but rather a normal change of diet. Such a regimen should be followed at least until weight normalization and stabilization of blood sugar levels. Many diabetic patients have adopted dieting as the only true principle of nutrition, based on the restriction of certain (predominantly carbohydrate) foods. However, the question of the duration of such dietary changes should be asked of your doctor: for some patients, dieting is recommended for a two to three week period, while for others it may become a permanent way of life. Consultation with a doctor on this matter will avoid adverse effects on the body.

Results

One of the features of diabetes mellitus is that the disease progresses "silently", without any attacks and exacerbations. Unfortunately, this often leads to the fact that patients do not take the disease too seriously, believing that there is no need to change anything in lifestyle and diet. But we should not forget that when diabetic complications occur, it is too late to change anything.

In diabetes, it is very important that the patient takes responsibility for his or her own health, rather than relying only on the doctor. Even the best doctor will not be able to monitor the patient's lifestyle and diet around the clock. And the results of treatment largely depend on what a person eats or drinks, within what limits his weight is kept, etc. Every patient must understand: a low-carbohydrate diet in diabetes will really help to improve well-being and normalize the amount of sugar in the blood. However, this issue should be taken seriously and responsibly, relying on yourself and your own strength.