Diabetic Menu

Fri, Feb 6, 2009

Carbohydrates can be found in many foods including bread, pasta, potatoes, vegetables, rice and more. The benefits of the carbohydrate counting diet relate to the weight you can lose and the improvement in your health. The best benefit of this diet is that you don’t have to remove any foods from your regular diet. You can eat what you like, so long as you also eat your daily carbohydrate quota according to your needs. The idea is to choose the foods that are the best sources of carbohydrates. These may include:

- Wholegrain bread
- Wholegrain rice
- Wholegrain pasta
- Seeds and nuts
- Legumes
- Vegetables

There are two types of carbohydrates commonly known as ‘good carbs’ (those listed above) and ‘bad carbs’ (normally in heavily processed foods). Scientifically they are known as complex carbohydrates (the good ones) and simple carbohydrates (the bad ones). Simply carbs are generally found in white bread, white rice, white pasta, junk foods, snack foods and other processed foods. These have little nutritional value.

Another benefit of the Carbohydrate Counting Diet is that you can control your insulin levels. This will regulate your blood glucose levels. Good carbohydrates will normally have a low glycemic index which means that you don’t get that spike that occurs when you eat bad carbohydrates. Constant and severe spikes over time can lead to conditions such as diabetes. If you are already diabetic then you must monitor your carb intake carefully.

By reading food labels you can gain an understanding of how many carbohydrates exist in the foods that you eat. Of course, many carbs are found in vegetables which don’t have labels but you normally do not have to limit these as they have no fat and are very healthy.

Bad carbs also do not contribute to your nutrition as they simply contain many calories but hardly any nutrients. This will obviously result in weight gain and bad health. They will also leave you feeling hungry due to the empty carbohydrates contained with them. Good carbohydrates will always leave you feeling fuller for longer.

Planning your meals is the best way to stick to the carbohydrate counting diet. If you know what you are going to eat on any given day, you are less likely to stray from your diet plan. The carbohydrate counting diet is an excellent diet that will help you maintain your weight as well as your health.