Tuesday, December 4, 2012

what is the average cost of a diabetic diet?

Q. I live in Boise, ID, I want to avoid having to take insulin, and I am able to control my diabetes by diet, but need to know what a diabetic diet would cost me.

A. My husband and I are on a diabetic diet. It cost about $125 - $150 per week for both of us together in Mississippi, so I would say for one it would cost $60 - $100 a week.

I also look for sales in the groceries stores and stock up when I run across a good deal. This helps cut down some to. I buy the boneless, skinless chicken breast fillets in the 3lbs bag. This would last one person 2 or 3 weeks. I use Great Value brand from Wal - Mart, which are cheaper than name brands.

During the winter when strawberries are so high I buy a 4lbs bag of frozen strawberries, which are just as good as fresh and cheaper. The name is Frozsun Fruits and Vegetables. I also get these at Wal - Mart in the frozen freezer section.

I hope this will help you and good luck with your diabetes.


How do you create a diabetic diet plan?
Q. I am showing signs of being a diabetic. Since most of my family members are diagnosed to be diabetics, I want to be vigilant and create a diabetic diet plan for myself so that it won�t get worse.

A. A low carb diet is in order. Mendosa's Low Glycemic Index Diet is the best you can get . In one week you will know what to eat and what not and how much. http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

This table includes the glycemic index and glycemic load of more than 2,480 individual food items. Not all of them, however, are available in the United States. They represent a true international effort of testing around the world.


The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers�the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike. A list of carbohydrates with their glycemic values is shown below. A GI is 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 inclusive is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.


The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn't tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food's effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn't a lot of it, so watermelon's glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.


Foods that have a low GL almost always have a low GI. Foods with an intermediate or high GL range from very low to very high GI.


Both GI and GL are listed here. The GI is of foods based on the glucose index�where glucose is set to equal 100. The other is the glycemic load, which is the glycemic index divided by 100 multiplied by its available carbohydrate content (i.e. carbohydrates minus fiber) in grams. (The "Serve size (g)" column is the serving size in grams for calculating the glycemic load; for simplicity of presentation I have left out an intermediate column that shows the available carbohydrates in the stated serving sizes.) Take, watermelon as an example of calculating glycemic load. Its glycemic index is pretty high, about 72. According to the calculations by the people at the University of Sydney's Human Nutrition Unit, in a serving of 120 grams it has 6 grams of available carbohydrate per serving, so its glycemic load is pretty low, 72/100*6=4.32, rounded to 4.

You can forget the metformin for now.
There are 4 key steps to controlling glucose levels.
Here are the 4 keys:
1) Knowledge- http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/index.ph� This is a great site for info
2) Meds. Metformin to start. Never , ever take Actos or Avandia. They may kill you. Bone fractures, heart problems and what diabetics really don't need is that they change Bone Stem Cells to Fat Cells.
3)diet- A low carb diet is in order. I can't count carbs so I use Mendosa's Glycemic Index Diet. Great for the whole family. http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm
4) EXERCISE- Walking is fine but Nordic Walking is Great. Exercise also lowers Glucose levels , lowers Cholesterol and lowers Blood Pressure. Google it.
Exercise is very important.

Take care

Tin


Does anybody knows that changing to diabetic diet affect the glucose tolerance test?
Q. I am 32 weeks pregnant and diagnosed with gestational diabetes. My doctor wants me to follow a diabetic diet and will repeat the glucose tolerance test in 2 weeks. Does anybody knows that changing to diabetic diet affect the glucose tolerance test? If yes do you think 2 weeks is enough?

A. The doctor has already determined that you are diabetic at this point. I am thinking that the reason he wants you to follow a diabetic diet then check again in two weeks is to make sure that the diabetes is not getting worse and can be controlled by diet alone. If it appears that it can't, he may make the decision to go ahead and put you on insulin. Good luck and congratulations on your new baby :)


Are fried bananas better for a diabetic diet?
Q. A good friend of mine has type 2 diabetes, and I often hear him say that what he misses most are banana splits. I want to make him a diabetic safe split for Christmas and the bananas are the hard part since they are high in sugar and don't exactly come in sugar free. But I've heard that fried bananas are much better for a diabetic diet then raw. Is this true?

A. Bananas are not the problem. Fruit is a recommended part of a diabetic diet.

The problem with a banana split is the usual overabundance of ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

You can get sugar free ice cream (but - the carbohydrate count is not much less than standard ice cream since a lot of the carbs come from the milk portion); you can get sugar free chocolate syrup (again, however, the carb count will probably only be slightly less than real syrup); and whipped cream really does not contain much in the way of carbs.

Diabetics can eat everything that a non-diabetic can eat -- they simply have to account for the carbs much more carefully. Does your friend exercise as part of his way of controlling blood sugar levels? Then have a small banana split, and 20 minutes later, go for a half hour walk.





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