Simplify Eating with Diabetes
Simplifying what to eat with diabetes.
Nutrition Consulting. Telehealth. Resources. Blog.
Cam Johnson
Specialist Diabetes Dietitian (APD)
Melbourne, Australia
By paying attention to the food we have on our plate, the preparation, flavours, aromas, setting of the meal, and avoiding distractions we become more mindful of our intake.
This is often called mindful eating or conscious eating.
Read MoreToo often people on "diets" look at the scales in isolation, as a measure of progress. Weight loss occurs as a side effect of modifying behaviour.
Focus on the behaviour, particularly successful behaviour changes rather than the number on the scales.
This post lists what we are simultaneously missing when we are not looking at all, when something obscures the sight of vision, or we are looking at one thing exclusively.
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Eyes on Diabetes. What are you focusing on?
This week it is World Diabetes Day.
The theme for this year is "Eyes on Diabetes". This campaign raises awareness about eye damage complications from diabetes.
There are a number of pieces of the puzzle making up the right diet for diabetes. These include what to eat, how much to eat, and when to eat. Fats, fibre, salt, protein, the amount (including carbohydrate counting) and type of carbohydrate (glycemic index), including sugar, are all important pieces of this puzzle.
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One question I ask all my dietetic students is:
"If your patient walks out of your outpatient consultation, and does one thing, what would be the most important thing for them to do?"
By narrowing down or distilling what is going to make the biggest difference allows clients to focus on what is important
Read MoreWhy, as a dietitian is this focusing on behaviour, rather than a change in body weigh so important, and for my clients, so useful?
This includes a client's successful changes to what's in their shopping basket, what's on their plate, their ability to keep to a meal plan, having enough food so they are not feeling deprived or hungry.
What has worked, and what changes have been successfully made is more important than what hasn't.
Read MoreMy Client looked at me, with a look of disbelief at what I had just said. So I repeated myself. "I'm not talking about what you weigh on the scale".
She replied "that's what I came here for".
I proceeded to explain myself. "No, what you came for was assistance to be able to learn some behavioral patterns to assist you on the path to creating a healthier life. Specifically, learning how to have a healthy relationship with food, what to put into your shopping basket, how to structure a meal plan, setting you a number of behaviour goals and tasks and give you the confidence to change what you eat, and how much you eat".
By establishing these behaviours and habits, the weight on the scale will take care of itself. We need to create regular patterns of behaviour (diet and exercise), which will, in turn result in a measurable change on the scale or blood glucose reading.
So what are these behaviours?
Welcome to my blog. Welcome to Deconstructing Diabetes.