When suffering of diabetes, you have to pay attention to every dietary choice you make. You can live a perfectly normal life and have a balanced diet, as long as you keep in mind some simple rules. Diabetic food exchange list is a method of eating in a right way and of keeping your blood sugar level and your cholesterol level in a good range. It's best to plan your meals together with a nutritionist and to respect his or hers advice in what concerns the amount of carbohydrates you can consume daily.
Diabetic food exchange list allows you to enjoy a variety of foods while keeping the carbohydrate and other nutrients intake under control. Each food falls into a category and all the categories are having the same nutritional value. The six main groups of foods are: fruits, vegetables, starch, meat, dairy products and fat. A nutritionist will offer you pertinent advice in what concerns the number of servings you can have daily from each category.
You can also exchange foods within a group because they contain the same amount of nutrients so this won't affect your blood sugar. However, you are not allowed to do unlimited exchanges and the nutritionist will also set a limit for you. You can for example exchange a small fresh fruit for half a cup of fruit juice, or a cup of raw vegetables for half a cup of vegetable juice or cooked vegetables. Other examples include exchanging a slice of bread for half a cup of pasta or cereals or one ounce of meat for half a cup of dried beans.
This way, having the possibility of exchanging foods in the same group, you won't have to follow a rigid meal plan that will change your life, but you will be capable to add variety to your meals. The diabetes food exchange list might be considered limited or restrictive if you are consuming foods that don't exactly fall in any category. This happens with foods that are basically combinations of many ingredients. You also need to get used to measure what you are eating and, in the beginning, a food scale might turn out useful. However, you will get accustomed with the serving sizes after a while.
You will soon realize that the diabetes food exchange list is a simple way to keep your diet under control and to avoid consuming foods that will make your blood sugar level skyrocket.
