Diet constitutes an essential part of treatment of diabetes mellitus. The restriction in diet is generally misinterpreted as abstinence from all rich and tasty meals. In fact diabetics need more nourishing and better balanced diet than normal people because of certain limitations in their metabolism. In an attempt to normalize blood sugar essential nutrients required for normal growth and

development should not be sacrificed. For a successful management patients must understand their daily food requirements, nutritive values of food items and how to select foods to avoid monotony and embarrassing social situations. Special adjustments are required in case of treatment with Insulin, specially short acting Insulin, or acute illnesses like infections, diarrhea and vomiting or for social, religious occasions like fasts, festivals and get-together’s. The doctors and dieticians can help you to ascertain your individual requirements according to your age, weight, sex, physical activities and suggest you the ideal meal pattern. But your own knowledge of food values will go a long way in stabilizing you diabetes and enjoying life in spite of the disease.

Normally a Diabetic Requires

• 25 to 30 Kilocalorie’s (Kcal) per Kg body weight.
• 1 to 1.5g Proteins per Kg body weight.
• 30 to 50g Fat (preferably 30g unsaturated).
• 200 to 300g Carbohydrates(CHO),mainly starch not sugar.
• Fibres: Fruits, vegetables and cereals contain more fibre.
• Vitamins and minerals.

Standard 1500 Kcal diet of Indian meal pattern along with its calculations of Calories and nutrients (Protein, Fat and Carbohydrate) is presented for your guidance. The food exchange lists have been prepared for selecting alternatives to provide variety and to break the monotony of meal pattern. The exchanges can be used for increasing or decreasing the Calorie or Nutrient allowances from the standard 1500 Kcal diet, if so, advised by your doctor.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 3:19 am and is filed under Diabetes Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.