1. Sugary Foods
No surprise here. Diabetes is a condition in which your body’s insulin becomes overwhelmed by the sugar in your bloodstream and can no longer process it into energy. Diabetics and #prediabetics alike must be careful about #eating #sugar to avoid dangerous spikes in blood glucose levels. That means eschewing things that have a ton of sugar but no redeeming nutritional value, like candy, soda, and baked desserts.
However, our bodies truly need sugar to fuel all life processes, so you don’t need to avoid it all together. The important thing is to enjoy your sweet treats mostly in the form of fruit. Fruit contains fiber along with sugar, which can moderate the rate at which the sugar hits your blood stream. If you have a high-protein snack along with your fruit, you will make even better use of that sugar.
2. Fruit Juice
While fruit is your best option for sweetness, drinking it in the #form #of #juice just isn’t healthy. That’s because juice has all the sugar in fruit but none of the fiber. The sugar is also more concentrated in juice than you’d find in the whole fruit. The result of drinking juice is a skyrocketing blood sugar level.
Fruit juice also doesn’t tend to make you feel as full as whole fruit does (fiber plays a huge role in satiety). That can lead to overeating, or simply forgetting about those sugary calories when you plan your next meal. To enjoy fruit flavor without #overdoing #the #sugar, try sparkling water with just a splash of juice added.
3. Full-Fat Dairy Products
Diabetes brings with it a higher risk for many additional diseases, including heart and cardiovascular concerns. High cholesterol, also a major risk factor for heart disease, therefore exacerbates the damage done by diabetes. But that’s not all. Studies have shown that a diet high in saturated fat can actually #worsen #insulin #resistance, making it that much harder to reverse prediabetes.
It is better to skip full fat dairy products like yogurt, cream, cream cheese, butter, and ice cream. Luckily, there are low-fat or reduced fat versions of these products that you can still enjoy in moderation. Avocado and coconut milk are alternative foods that can provide the smooth mouth-feel of fat without a ton of it.
