Precautions to Control Diabetes

There are three methods to control diabetes.

1. Diet and exercise
2. Diet and oral drugs
3. Diet and insulin

Diet, therefore, plays an important role in the control of diabetes.

1. In all types of diabetics, the amount and time of food intake, particularly carbohydrate, should be controlled, so as to prevent as far as possible, fluctuations of blood glucose beyond the normal range. Therefore, diabetics should not keep irregular timings for meals.
2. Intake of refined sugars should be low, because their consumption is followed by absorption and a high peak of blood glucose.
3. Diabetics should avoid fasting or feasting.
4. Their diet from day to day should be maintained with adjustments for exercise and appetite; they should not miss a meal or over indulge.
5. There are two essential points about a diabetic diet. First, energy intake should be adjusted to maintain ideal body weight in obese, maturity-onset diabetes. Secondly, all patients taking insulin should follow a regular pattern of meals, matched to the injected insulin.
6. Alcohol consumption should be least or best avoided, because it causes severe hypoglycemia and damage to nerves and heart.
7. Diabetics should go for foods of low glycaemic index value.
8. Greasy snacks and rich spicy food are not only difficult to digest, especially in old obese diabetics, but they also cause stomach irritation.
9. Diabetics should make the habit of regular testing of sugar level in the urine with dipsticks. They should change the quality and quantity of food intake accordingly.