The condition commonly referred to as pre-diabetes causes elevated blood glucose levels that are abnormally high but not high enough to warrant a diagnosis of diabetes. If a person has prediabetes, the doctor may suggest a pre-diabetes diet.
People who have pre-diabetes have a high risk of developing diabetes. Pre-diabetes diets are used to try to lower the risk of diabetes.
If the person is obese, this tends to increase the risk of diabetes. Therefore, the pre-diabetes diet will also be aimed at weight loss.
Some physicians have diabetes diet plans that they give to patients who have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes. The doctor may recommend for the patient to consult a dietician to develop a customized diabetes diet.
Many mainstream diets like “The Food Lovers Fat Loss System” work with the body’s metabolism and glycemic index to help people lose weight and get healthy. Diabetic patients may want to talk to their doctor about switching diets if they are having difficulty staying on the diet that they were given.
Patients who have been given a diet for diabetes should not deviate from the diet without consulting the physician or dietician. Though some patients may not understand the reasons for it, the meal plans for diabetes are constructed to keep blood glucose levels in a healthy range.
A diet for pre-diabetes will often have general guidelines that the diabetic patient is to follow for every meal and snack. The guidelines for a snack might be one carbohydrate and one protein.
The dietician might have also given a food exchange list that has examples of the different types of foods such as lists of different types of protein and carbohydrates. Therefore, the patient can look at the food exchange list and make choices that fit within the diet plan.
For the example of a snack that was given above, the patient can consult the food exchange list and select a carbohydrate from the list of carbs and a protein from the list of proteins. The person may choose to have cheese and crackers as their snack or toast with peanut butter.
There are numerous possible combinations that a diabetic patient can choose. However, many people who follow a diet tend to eat the same foods repeatedly. This can cause boredom with the diet and lead to cravings.
The diabetic patient should try to eat a variety of foods to prevent cravings and the subsequent temptation to cheat on the diabetes diet. Eating a variety of foods can also ensure that the person is getting all their vitamins and minerals.
Sometimes if the patient is struggling to follow a diabetes diet, the nutritionist may make some alterations to it. If the patients are finding the diet difficult to follow, they should follow up with the doctor or dietician. It’s possible that the patient may be making mistakes with food choices or serving sizes that are making the diet more difficult to follow.