If you have diabetes, your enemy isn’t just sugar. Carbohydrates can turn to sugar in the bloodstream, driving your blood glucose levels through the roof. When your body has too much sugar, it stores the excess as fat. Once the extra sugar goes into storage, your blood sugar level drops again.
The American Diabetes Association suggests eating between 45 and 75 grams of carbohydrates at each meal and 15 to 30 grams of carbohydrates at snack time. This doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to carbs entirely, but you do have to make smart choices.
Swap regular white or egg pasta for whole wheat pasta. The taste is a little different, but you’ll get more fiber and fewer carbs. While you’re picking whole wheat, switch white bread for whole wheat bread! Light whole wheat bread will help you cut calories and carbohydrates — with the thinner slices, you can still have a sandwich and not feel like you’re missing out on too much. Whole grains are available everywhere these days, from whole grain flours for baking to whole grain bread crumbs for breading chicken.
Instead of a bagel for breakfast, toast whole wheat bread. You can save twenty-five grams of carbs that way. Just switching types of tortillas can make a big difference; a corn tortilla saves you six grams of carbohydrates over a flour tortilla. Instead of mashing potatoes, try mashed turnips to save twenty-six grams of carbohydrates for a one cup serving.
Need to satisfy that sweet tooth? Skip the ice cream or frozen yogurt and pick up fruit juice bars — it can save you as much as fourteen grams of carbohydrates. Even fruits aren’t innocent. Pick a kiwi over a banana and save ten grams of carbohydrates. Apple cider is a better choice than apple juice, saving you eight grams of carbs.
Don’t forget the drinks! Choosing diet soda over regular soda can save a whopping thirty eight grams of carbohydrates for twenty ounces of liquid. That’s nearly a meal’s worth of carbs.
More about diabetes from Familes.com!