Veggies Can Be Heroes In A Diabetic Diet

Foods That Vegetarians Eat Are Just Right For a Diabetic Diet

 The choice of food in a diabetic diet really can be a matter of life and death. Diabetes affects people of all ages and both sexes and can cause blindness, kidney failure and gangrene of the hands and feet if left untreated. Diet is one of the most important ways of controlling diabetes, and a vegetarian lifestyle with its emphasis on low fat, high carbohydrate and high fiber foods is particularly suitable as part of a diabetic diet.

Usually, most of the food we eat is digested and converted to glucose. The hormone insulin then helps glucose pass into cells. But diabetics are unable to control the amount of glucose in their blood. Insulin is either absent, present in insufficient quantities or ineffective. As a result glucose builds up in the bloodstream and leads to problems If the balance of food and insulin isn't right in a diabetic diet, then diabetics can have a "hypo", which means their blood sugar levels are too low. If not corrected this can lead to coma and even death.

A diabetic diet has to be low in fat (especially saturated fat), high in carbohydrate, and high in fiber. Diabetics have to ensure they eat regular meals that include a wide variety of foods such as whole grain bread, baked potatoes, beans and lentils.

Some vegetarian diabetics have reported such improvements to their health on a meat-free diet that they have had to inject less insulin. On a purely psychological level, vegetarianism as an approach to a diabetic diet enables many diabetics to feel for perhaps the first time that they, and not the disease, are in control of their lives.