What Foods Should Diabetics Avoid?

If you have diabetes, your body cannot make or properly use insulin. This leads to high blood sugar levels, which can result in serious health complications. To help control your blood sugar levels, you need to eat a healthy diet. That means avoiding certain foods that can raise your blood sugar too much.

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Foods to avoid with diabetes

If you have diabetes, your body cannot make or properly use insulin. This leads to high blood sugar levels. Over time, high blood sugar can lead to serious problems with your heart, eyes, kidneys, nerves, and gums and teeth.

You can help control your diabetes by eating healthy foods and maintaining a healthy weight. Eating healthy foods includes choosing the right kinds of foods. Some foods should be avoided if you have diabetes. These foods include:

-Sugary drinks: sodas, fruit juices, sweetened iced tea
-Starchy vegetables: potatoes, corn, green peas
-Fruits: bananas, raisins, apples with added sugar
-High fat dairy products: whole milk, butter, regular cheese
-Sweets: cakes, cookies, pies, ice cream
-Snacks and other desserts with added sugars: candy bars, chocolate chip cookies

Foods to limit with diabetes

When you have diabetes, there are two types of foods you need to limit:
1) those that have a lot of sugar and
2) those that have a high glycemic index (GI). Foods with a high GI raise your blood glucose more than foods with a lower GI.

You should also limit saturated and trans fats, which can raise your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and make heart disease more likely. And you may need to limit sodium (salt) if you have high blood pressure.

Carbohydrate-rich foods to avoid or limit with diabetes

If you have diabetes, you know that managing your blood sugar levels is key to maintaining your health. One of the ways you can do this is by paying attention to the types of foods you eat.

Certain foods can cause your blood sugar levels to rise more than others. These are mostly foods that are high in carbohydrates, which get broken down into sugar in your body.

To help keep your blood sugar levels in check, it’s important to limit or avoid carbohydrate-rich foods, especially if you’re eating them in large amounts. These foods include:
-Breads and pastries
-Chips and crackers
-Cookies and cake
-Fruit juice and sports drinks
-Fruits and sweeteners like honey or syrup
-Pasta and rice
-Soda and other sugary beverages
-Starchy vegetables like potatoes, corn, and peas

High-fat foods to avoid or limit with diabetes

Diabetes means that your blood sugar (or glucose) levels are too high. When you eat, your digestive system breaks food down into types of sugar, including glucose. Glucose enters your bloodstream, and then insulin helps move it from your blood into your cells to be used for energy. With diabetes, there is either a problem with making insulin or using it properly. Too much glucose in your blood can cause serious health problems.

You can help control your blood sugar levels by eating healthy foods, maintaining a healthy weight, and being active. One key part of a healthy diet is limiting how much saturated and trans fat you eat. Saturated fat is found in animal products such as butter, lard, and cream, as well as in some plant foods such as coconut oil and palm oil. Trans fat is found in food made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, such as some margarines, vegetable shortening, and fried foods like French fries and doughnuts.

Saturated and trans fats raise low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad” cholesterol levels in your blood. High LDL cholesterol increases your risk for heart disease and stroke. You can help lower your LDL cholesterol by choosing leaner cuts of meat; removing skin from chicken; eating more fish; choosing lower-fat dairy products; replacing some fats with vegetable oils; and choosing snacks wisely. In general, you should limit saturated fats to no more than 10% of the calories you consume each day and trans fats to no more than 1% of the calories you consume each day.

High-sodium foods to avoid or limit with diabetes

If you have diabetes, it’s important to avoid foods high in sodium — also known as salt. That’s because high sodium foods can increase your risk for high blood pressure, which is a leading cause of heart disease and stroke.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), people with diabetes should consume no more than 2,300 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day. However, the AHA recommends an even lower limit of 1,500 mg per day for people with diabetes who also have other risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure or a family history of heart disease.

Unfortunately, many of the foods that are highest in sodium are also some of the most delicious. To help you make healthier choices, here are a few high-sodium foods to avoid or limit:

Processed foods to avoid or limit with diabetes

If you have diabetes, you may think that you have to avoid all sugar. However, you can still enjoy small amounts of some foods with sugar. It’s important to pay attention to the amount and type of sugar in your diet, as well as the amount of carbohydrates you eat. You should also limit or avoid processed foods, which can be high in calories, unhealthy fats, and added sugars.

processed food example list
*refined carbohydrates: white bread, pastries, white rice
*added sugars: soda, candy, table sugar
*unhealthy fats: fried food

Alcohol and diabetes

Alcohol can cause low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) in people with diabetes. It is important to check your blood sugar level before drinking and to drink only in moderation. If you are taking insulin or another diabetes medication that can cause low blood sugar, you should be especially cautious when drinking alcohol.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) defines moderate alcohol consumption as up to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women. A “drink” is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor.

Beer and wine have carbohydrates that can raise blood sugar levels, so it is important to account for these drinks when planning your meals. liquor has very little effect on blood sugar levels.

If you choose to drink alcohol, the ADA recommends that you do so with food and never consume more than the recommended amounts. You should also always check your blood sugar level before and after drinking alcohol to ensure that it does not drop too low.

Caffeine and diabetes

Caffeine and diabetes have a complicated relationship. On one hand, coffee and tea can help control blood sugar levels. On the other hand, caffeinated drinks can cause short-term spikes in blood sugar.

The American Diabetes Association recommends that people with diabetes limit their caffeine intake to no more than two 8-ounce cups of coffee per day. They also advise limiting other caffeinated beverages, such as sodas and energy drinks.

In general, it’s best to avoid sugary drinks, including fruit juices and sports drinks. These drinks can cause blood sugar levels to spike. If you have diabetes, it’s important to monitor your blood sugar levels carefully.

Sugar-sweetened beverages and diabetes

If you have diabetes, it’s important to avoid or limit sugar-sweetened beverages. These include soda, sports drinks, and fruit juice. They’re also sometimes called “empty calories” because they don’t have any nutritional value.

Sugar-sweetened beverages are the main source of added sugar in the American diet. They account for about 47% of all added sugars consumed by people in the United States. And they’re a major contributor to weight gain.

People who drink one or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day have a 26% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than people who don’t drink them. And the risk goes up with every additional serving.

Drinking just one 12-ounce can of soda a day can increase your risk of type 2 diabetes by 22%. And drinking two or more sugary drinks a day raises your risk even more. In fact, studies show that people who drink two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day are at an even greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes than people who are obese.

So if you have diabetes or are at risk for it, cutting back on sugary drinks is an important step in managing your health.

unhealthy eating habits to avoid with diabetes

If you have diabetes, you need to take extra care of your body and watch what you eat. That doesn’t mean you have to give up all your favorite foods, but it does mean that you need to be more mindful about what you eat and how it will affect your blood sugar levels.

There are some unhealthy eating habits that diabetics should avoid, such as:

-Eating too many processed foods: Processed foods are high in unhealthy fats, salt, and sugar, which can all contribute to diabetes.
-Eating too much red meat: Red meat is high in saturated fat, which can increase your risk of diabetes.
-Eating too many refined carbs: Refined carbs are found in white bread, pasta, and pastries. They are quickly absorbed by the body and can cause spikes in blood sugar levels.
-Eating too much sugar: Sugar is found in candy, desserts, and sugary drinks. It can cause weight gain and spikes in blood sugar levels.
-Eating too many unhealthy fats: Unhealthy fats are found in fried foods, processed meats, and full-fat dairy products. They can increase your risk of diabetes.