Simplifying what to eat with diabetes.
Nutrition Consulting. Telehealth. Resources. Blog.
Cam Johnson
Specialist Diabetes Dietitian (APD)
Melbourne, Australia
During festive periods, time with friends and family includes meals together, and gifts of the food variety. Chocolate Easter Eggs and hot cross buns often feature on this list.
So how does someone with diabetes get through this period?
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#SmartEatingWeek
Rather than a short term "Diet" - "Smart Eating" is a lifestyle, a behaviour that should be maintained, be lived daily, rather than done for a week.
It's better to do "Smart Eating" that you can maintain, rather than "Perfect Eating" which is restrictive, makes you hungry, and can't be followed.
Smart eating focuses on eating behaviours.
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With food intake its easy to blame one thing for affecting diabetes or weight. Like blaming carbohydrate in isolation. Or sugars. Or fructose. Or Glycemic Index. Or fats. Or saturated fat. Or alcohol.
Blaming one macronutrient, whilst ignoring total intake and energy contribution as a whole is shortsighted.
We need to look at the whole diet, and what makes it up as pieces of the puzzle.
Read MoreIt never surprises me that it costs more to purchase healthier, more nutritious foods than it does to purchase higher fat, sugar, and salt convenience foods.
At the cafe, a fruit salad or yoghurt costs more than a chocolate donut. This does no make
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This week is Diabetes Blog Week.
Today's brief is: "Diabetes can sometimes seem to play by a rulebook that makes no sense, tossing out unexpected challenges at random. What are your best tips for being prepared when the unexpected happens?".
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We know that from an average health professional consultation most people can recall very little of what's been communicated.
Simplifying messages improves understanding and recall of information.
The way of presenting the message both verbally and with written materials can be simplified, simply by simplifying it.
How can messages be understood and recalled?
Simply, Simplify.
Read MoreWhen it come to improving dietary intake, Is it more important to add, or subtract?
Many clients think I'm going to tell them what not to eat. The things that need to be subtracted, or removed from the shopping list, or the plate.
I'm more focused on what clients should eat. This means adding foods, and ensuring enough good nutrition. So let me go into this first.
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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