Diabetes-Friendly Grocery List: The Do's and Don'ts

28 Oct.,2024

 

Diabetes-Friendly Grocery List: The Do's and Don'ts

Maintaining a diabetes-friendly diet is more complex than just cutting carbs. Don&#;t let that deter you, though. It can be pretty easy to follow a diabetes-friendly diet, especially if you get into the habit of meal planning.

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Weight loss and exercise have shown enormous potential for preventing and treating type 2 diabetes. In some cases, they have even put type 2 diabetes in remission.

If glucose levels are consistently above your target range, it can lead to health complications . Common health complications include:

When you have diabetes, your body has difficulty using the glucose (sugar) that comes from the food you eat. As of , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that over 38.4 million people in the United States have diabetes. Most of those people have type 2 diabetes.

Food choices are a key part of managing diabetes. Eating fewer carbohydrates, limiting highly processed foods, and choosing more natural food options can help you manage your blood sugar.

As you put together your meal plans for the week, follow these tips to find the best foods for you that are both tasty and diabetes-friendly.

All it takes is a one-day commitment to get on the right path, said Toby Smithson, MSNW, RDN, LDN, CDE, co-author of Diabetes Meal Planning and Nutrition for Dummies and a former spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Getting into a routine of meal planning makes staying on track with a healthy eating plan easier. It&#;s especially useful on days when life gets busy or stressful.

Planning your meals might take a little bit of time, but you&#;ll reap the rewards later. If you&#;ve already decided what you&#;re making each night of the week and have your refrigerator stocked, you&#;re that much closer to a healthy meal.

Here&#;s your chance to go wild! Every fruit and vegetable has its own set of nutrients and health benefits.

Try to choose fruits and vegetables in a range of colors, and include some in every meal or snack.

Non-starchy vegetables are the lowest in calories and carbohydrates, so they&#;re a great choice for people with diabetes. Some options include:

You&#;ll need to count the carbs in your fruits and starchy vegetables just as you would for any other carbohydrate food group. This doesn&#;t mean you need to avoid them &#; just be sure the amount you&#;re eating fits into your overall meal plan.

Shelley Wishnick, a registered dietitian and diabetes clinical manager at the medical equipment company Medtronic, recommended that people with diabetes stick to 1 serving of fruit per meal. Grab half a banana, a fruit the size of your fist, or half a cup of chopped fruit.

When shopping for fruits and vegetables, look for choices that are in season to save some money. Frozen produce is also a budget-friendly option that&#;s convenient for busy mornings or weeknights.

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Your Grocery Shopping Game Plan | ADA

Making healthy food choices at home and at the grocery store is an important part of managing blood glucose (blood sugar) levels and can help prevent and manage heart disease, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and other health problems. 

But knowing which foods are the healthy choice can be difficult and time consuming, which is why putting together an action plan before you shop will help remove a lot of the guesswork. 

Start by using these four tips: 

Step 1: Make a weekly menu

Create a list of what you&#;d like to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for the upcoming week. 

Check your grocery store&#;s ad for sale items and incorporate those foods into your menu ideas. Let&#;s say chicken breasts are buy one get one free this week. Plan for Asian Chicken and Vegetable Stew on Sunday and Air Fryer Buttermilk Fried Chicken on Thursday.

Gather your favorite recipes so you can make sure the items are added to your list. Menu planning can help save time through the week, save money at the store, and keep you from being overwhelmed when dinner time rolls around and you have to answer the question, &#;What should we eat tonight?&#;

Take inventory of the foods you already have in stock as you write your shopping list. &#;Shop&#; your pantry first to help reduce food waste!

Not sure what you want to eat this week? For creative dinner ideas, incorporate theme nights like Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, or Breakfast for Dinner Wednesday. Check out the hundreds of delicious diabetes-friendly recipes we have in our Diabetes Food Hub® for inspiration!

Step 2: Prep once, eat twice

You don&#;t need to eat something different every day. Instead, you can alternate between one or two breakfast and lunch menu ideas throughout the week. Developing a standard way of eating (eating meals each with similar foods each day) can help you know how your body responds to specific types of foods. This can also help with learning how your body responds to any changes made to your treatment plan by you and your health care team. 

If you&#;d like to add more variety to breakfast and lunch, you can simply swap the type of fruit, vegetable, or grain at the meal. Or try sprinkling a different spice or herb on your dish. If you prefer, you may eat the same breakfast and/or same lunch every day. That&#;s totally up to you. 

In a hurry at breakfast time? Try the Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats recipe you can prepare the night before, so breakfast is ready when you are.

Step 3: Shop with a grocery list

Make your grocery list and stick to it. The grocery list plays an important role in saving time while shopping and keeping you on track with the foods you need for preparing your meals for the week. 

Categorize your list according to the route you will take while at the store. Think: fruits and vegetables; grains; canned goods and staples; meats, poultry, and fish; dairy; and frozen foods.

Be adventurous! Challenge yourself to try a new fresh food or spice each week. This will add more variety to your meals as well. 

Step 4: Read food labels

As you are making decisions at the shelf, flip the food package over and review the Nutrition Facts label. A good rule of thumb is to pick options that have at least a good source (10% daily value) of positive nutrients like protein and fiber, and less than 10% daily value for nutrients you may be trying to eat less of, like sodium and added sugars.

Fresh produce and meats can often be found along the outside walls of the grocery store, while packaged foods are often found in the middle aisles. Even though the foods we consider traditionally healthy are found along the outside wall, healthy choices can be found throughout the grocery store&#;including the middle aisles. Just be sure to review all the information on the Nutrition Facts label to find out if a packaged food fits into your meal plan. 

Bonus tip: Take a few extra laps around the store to get more steps into your day as part of your physical activity plan. Every step counts!

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