woman shopping at a supermarket for diabetes-friendly foods
ARTICLE

Diabetes Diet: Choose Foods to Help Manage Blood Sugar

Reviewed by Claudia Levi, R.N.
September 18, 2024

When you have diabetes, diet is important. The food you eat helps you manage your diabetes. It also impacts how you feel and how much energy you have.

Embracing a healthy eating plan is the best way to keep your blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels in range and reduce the risk of diabetes complications. It’s also something you can control.

What Is a Diabetes Diet?

Following a diabetes diet simply means eating the healthiest foods in moderate amounts and sticking to regular mealtimes. In fact, a diet recommended for diabetes is the best eating plan for most people, and you can encourage your family to join in with you.

Foods to Eat with Diabetes

The best foods for diabetes are:

  • Whole fruits: Examples include apples, grapes, melons, berries, and avocados. Fresh, frozen, or canned fruits are all fine, but try to avoid fruit or fruit juice with added sugar. Also, be aware of portion sizes, as fruits contain natural sugars.
  • Non-starchy vegetables: Salad greens, broccoli, celery, onions, sugar snap peas, and many other vegetables are generally low-carb and full of nutrients. Fresh, frozen, or canned veggies can be good choices; just be careful of added salt, sugar, or fat.
  • Whole grains: Whole grain foods contain the bran and germ portion of the wheat kernel, which has nutrients and healthy fiber. Switching to 100% whole grain pasta, bread, and cereal is a great way to keep blood glucose balanced.

Foods with low sugar and low carbohydrates (carbs) will impact blood sugars the least.

There’s also some evidence that higher intake of nuts, berries, yogurt, coffee, and tea are associated with reduced diabetes risk.

Try to Eat Less of These Foods

White or processed carbs tend to cause big blood glucose spikes. These include white bread, white pasta, white rice, and potatoes (especially processed mashed potatoes). This is because these foods are quickly converted into glucose giving a similar effect in the body to consuming actual sugar.

Also, red meats and sugar-sweetened beverages are associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

How to Choose Healthy Foods for Diabetes

Let’s dig a little deeper into what you can do to make healthy food choices:

Opt for Fewer Processed Carbs and Load Up on Veggies

Carbs are important for health, but they also have the biggest effect on your blood glucose levels. After you eat high-carb foods, your blood glucose rises.

Sweet foods and drinks, starchy foods (such as bread, potatoes, and rice), and certain milk products contain a high level of carbs.

Better choices are less processed foods with more fiber and nutrients. Good options are 100% whole wheat bread, oatmeal, brown rice, and non-starchy vegetables like mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes, and cauliflower. (Starchy vegetables are ones with higher carb counts, like potatoes, green peas, and corn.)

Eat Foods Rich in Protein

Protein is needed to maintain health and vital functions. The body uses protein to build, repair, and maintain most of your body’s tissues and organs. Protein has little effect on blood glucose, and if your kidneys are healthy, about 15% to 20% of your daily calories should come from protein.

The USDA Dietary Guidelines recommend most adults eat 5 to 7 ounces of protein-rich food each day. (Exactly how much you should eat depends on your sex, age, and other factors.) Foods that are high in protein include meat, fish, seafood, chicken, eggs, dairy products, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

Stick to Healthy Fats

A healthy, balanced diet is low in fat. Fat is very high in calories compared to protein and carbs. Eating too much fat can lead to weight gain, which can affect your diabetes management and overall health.

Still, fat is an important part of a healthy diet if you eat healthy fats like avocados, olive oil, olives, nuts, and seeds. Healthy fats are also found in certain fish such as salmon.

With all foods you eat, balance is important, and so is portion size.

How to Start Your Diabetes Diet Plan

Understanding how food affects blood glucose is an important part of managing your diabetes. The food you eat is often responsible for out-of-range blood glucose. You can learn a lot about what’s affecting your blood glucose reading by looking at:

  • Your carb intake
  • When you ate
  • How much you ate at a given meal

Consider keeping a daily food log and monitor your blood glucose using a meter. It’s recommended to take a blood glucose reading before a meal and one to two hours after the beginning of the meal.

Talk to your doctor about your target blood glucose range. For most non-pregnant adults, the American Diabetes Association recommends these blood glucose target ranges:

  • Before a meal: 80 – 130 mg/dL
  • 1 – 2 hours after starting the meal: Less than 180 mg/dL

The information you’ll get will help you understand how your diet is affecting your blood glucose levels. It will also give your healthcare team valuable insights into how you’re progressing, so be sure to log your readings.

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