FaktualNews.co – When diagnosed with diabetes, life certainly doesn’t feel the same as before anymore. If you want to stay healthy and avoid serious complications, people with diabetes must make lifestyle changes. These changes are part of diabetes care, which is as important as medical treatment.
Reported from halodoc.comAs a diabetes treatment at home, people with diabetes need to have a healthier diet, exercise regularly, and check their blood sugar regularly. Want to know more about self-care diabetes at home? Come on, see the discussion!
The Importance of a Healthy Diet as a Diabetes Treatment
Resetting your diet is important as part of diabetes treatment. Actually, there is no special diet, people with diabetes just need to plan healthy meals that can help control blood sugar.
So, people with diabetes should eat the healthiest foods in moderation, and stick to regular meal times. Overall, a healthy eating plan for people with diabetes should be rich in nutrients, and low in fat and calories.
Some people with diabetes also rely on the glycemic index to choose foods, especially carbohydrates. As described in a study published in the journal NutrientsThe glycemic index is a number on a 1-100 scale that shows how quickly a food containing carbohydrates is processed into glucose in the body.
The higher the glycemic index value of a food, the faster the carbohydrates contained in the food are processed into glucose and cause an increase in blood sugar.
Carbohydrates break down into glucose, so they have the greatest impact on blood sugar levels. So, people with diabetes need to learn to count the amount of carbohydrates consumed. It’s important to keep track of the amount of carbohydrates in each meal or snack.
When it comes to meal planning, the American Diabetes Association offers a simple method of meal planning, called the plate method (Diabetes Plate Method).
In essence, this meal plan focuses on eating more vegetables. Here are the tips:
– Fill half the plate with non-starchy vegetables, such as spinach, carrots, and tomatoes.
– Fill a quarter of the plate with protein, such as fish or chicken.
– Fill the last quarter with whole grains, brown rice, or starchy vegetables, such as green beans.
– Include good fats like nuts or avocado in small amounts.
– Add a serving of fruit or milk and a glass of water or unsweetened tea or coffee.
Sport is No Less Important
For people with diabetes, regular exercise is very important. Exercising can help reduce body fat, increase muscle mass, improve balance, reduce stress, and may even reduce the need for injectable insulin.
Here are some recommended exercises:
Take a leisurely walk. If you don’t have a previous exercise routine, start with a leisurely walk, for 30 minutes per day.
Weight training. This exercise is beneficial for building muscle mass, which is important for people with diabetes. Loss of muscle mass can make it harder for the body to maintain blood sugar levels.
Yoga. This type of exercise can help reduce stress and manage diabetes.
Swimming. This is an ideal aerobic exercise for people with diabetes because it doesn’t put stress on the joints.
That’s a discussion about how to treat diabetes that can be done at home. Talk to your doctor a lot about dietary adjustments during diabetes treatment.
Usually, the general practitioner will refer to a nutritionist to make a healthy eating plan. Be sure to follow any instructions from your doctor if you are diagnosed with diabetes, if you want to stay healthy and avoid complications.
Talking about complications, people with diabetes also need to have regular health checks. Not only blood sugar checks, an examination to an internal medicine doctor may also be needed, to determine health status. That way, any complications or other health problems due to diabetes can be detected as early as possible.
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