Type 1 Diabetes Diet Meal Plan
Type 1 Diabetes Diet Meal Planning
With Type 1 Diabetes it is mainly about discovering the right balance between food and medicine intake. The right choice and quantity of food eaten makes a big difference in helping reduce the amount and frequency of medication required. The human body needs sugar in order to function well, however the food consumed must be monitored because it is also important that sugar level is controlled. All foods eaten are broken down into sugars which then result in the release of insulin into the bloodstream. In the Type 1 diabetic person, the pancreas fails to produce insulin and therefore must instead be injected to prevent the accumulation of glucose in the bloodstream.
The first thing to do if you have type 1 diabetes is to have a journal where you can record your meals and the results of your glucose tests. By doing this, you can easily identify the problem and eventually improve your meal plan to achieve the right balance. In accordance with your diet meal plan is regular exercise that will help you burn the calories you don’t need. With insulin dependent diabetes, the insulin is injected before eating meals. When a diabetic person has a meal plan, it is easier to match the insulin dosage required. As for diabetic children, this must be carefully monitored because their diet often changes and insulin requirements will also change as they grow.
In a diabetic’s diet, carbohydrates are usually the culprit of a sugar spike, however carbs are still important to ones diet since these are the source of energy. Carbohydrates are classified into two groups: simple carbs and complex carbs. Simple carbohydrates usually include glucose, fructose and lactose while complex carbohydrates include starches and indigestible dietary fiber. With careful carb intake, insulin balance, and regular exercise, proper glucose level can be maintained the in the blood. But if diet fluctuations occur, it will make it difficult to know the accurate amount of insulin needed. For type 1 diabetes, only about 16 calories per pound of body weight is needed per day. The amount of carbohydrates must not be more than 50-60% of the total.
Discipline and self control must be practiced at all times if you are a diabetic person. If you are going to set your meal time on a regular basis, you can easily prevent fluctuations of your sugar level. It is about eating a balanced diet to help control your glucose level. Thus meal planning is a very important way of evenly assimilating the sugar from the food you eat. With the right diabetic diet meal plan, Type 1 diabetes can be monitored and controlled easily.