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Diabetic Grocery list: Nutritional Facts and Ingredients

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The incidence of diabetes in the U.S. is on the rise and will likely affect over 37 million Americans by 2015, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. As we all know, treatment for diabetes depends on a healthy eating regiment, which helps to keep blood sugar levels closer to normal and prevent complications. While grocery shopping, those with diabetes should take an especially close look at food labels to understand exactly how many carbohydrates, sugars, and fats they are consuming.

Reading Labels for Your Diabetic Grocery List

There are a few key factors to look out for when you’re shopping for someone with diabetes:

  • Fiber: The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends that those with diabetes get 25-30 g of fiber per day. Keep this in mind as you’re grocery shopping and preparing servings during mealtime. You could also try calculating how much fiber you’re getting on an average day, and then adjust your diet to meet ADA requirements. Foods that are high in fiber include bran, which you can find in bran cereals. Just one cup of rice and wheat bran provides about 25 g of fiber. In addition to bran cereals, include spices, cauliflower, artichokes, and eggplant on your diabetic grocery list for optimal fiber intake.
  • Total Carbohydrate: The grams of sugar carbs and fiber carbs are often combined into total grams of carbohydrates. Instead of estimating the breakdown of total carbs as you’re grocery shopping, do a little bit of subtraction to get a better estimate of the carbohydrate content. “If a food has 5 grams or more of fiber in a serving, subtract half the fiber grams from the total grams of carbohydrate for a more accurate estimate of the carbohydrate content,” according to the American Diabetes Association.  Fiber is good.  Sugar carbs are not!
  • Sugar-free: Just because it says “Sugar Free” on the label, doesn’t necessarily mean that the food item is carbohydrate-free.  For instance, some companies use high-fructose syrup or honey as a sweetener, which have a high carb content.  The doctors at Mayo Clinic recommend that you compare sugar-free products side-by-side with their standard counterparts. Compare their carbohydrate grams and purchase the product with fewer total carbohydrates when trying to find the best product for your diabetic grocery list.
  • Total fat: Total fat tells you how much fat is in a food per serving. However the “total fat” includes both “good fats” and “bad fats,” like saturated and trans fats. Mono and polyunsaturated fats, or “good fats,” can help to lower your blood cholesterol and protect your heart. However, saturated and trans fats can raise your cholesterol. Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils should be avoided, in addition to other ingredients high in saturated fat, like coconut oil or palm oil.  When you’re shopping for the items on your grocery list, make sure to take a closer look at the breakdown of fats on a label, rather than simply looking at the total fat counts.

Take a second glance at all of your labels to make sure that you are achieving diabetic-friendly sugar levels, a heart-healthy diet, and the perfect diabetic grocery list.

Calculating Glycemic Index and Diabetic Meal Planning

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The statistics on diabetes in the US are shocking: 18.8 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes, 7 million remain undiagnosed, and about 79 million people are pre-diabetic. Of course, diet plays a huge role in maintaining health for those with diabetes. If you or a loved one has been recently diagnosed with diabetes, you may be feeling overwhelmed with all of the dietary requirements. Luckily, it can be fairly easy to calculate glycemic index and find diabetic-appropriate meals.

Calculating The Glycemic Load of Your Meals

The glycemic index (GI) is a measure of the effect that a particular food has on your blood sugar level. A GI level can range from 0-100, glucose being 100 and foods with no carbs being 0. GIs can be found on diabetes databases for nearly every food, so just look your foods up online to calculate GI. The glycemic load (GL) is a ranking system for carbohydrate content in food portions based on their glycemic index and it combines both quality and quantity of the carbohydrates into one number, giving you the best way to gauge how blood glucose levels will change for different types and amounts of food.

You can approximate GL of a meal with simple calculations, multiplying the absolute GI value by the grams of available carbohydrates in the serving and dividing by 100:

GL = GI * Grams of Available Carbs / 100

For example, 1 cup of sliced bananas, or 225 g, has a GI of 52 and carb content of 45.5 g. Therefore, GL = 52 * 45.5 / 100 = 24. The GL of 1 cup of sliced bananas is therefore 24.

Use the GL of your meals to make sure that you are maintaining safe blood sugar levels.

Organizing the Food on Your Plate

While calculating GL and trying to determine your glucose levels, you may want to stick to a few rules which could help anyone struggling with diabetes eat healthier:

  • Fill the largest section of plate (about half of your dish) with non-starchy veggies, like broccoli, salad, green beans, and tomato.
  • Only 25% of your plate should be allotted to a small serving of starchy foods, like potatoes, corn, or rice.
  • The remaining 25% of your plate should be allocated for meat or a meat substitute, like beef, tofu, chicken, or turkey.
  • You can also add an 8oz glass of milk and a fruit salad for a complete meal.

While it may seem overwhelming at first, diabetic meal planning is easy once you learn the basics, like how to calculate glycemic load and organize your plate. Just stick to these rules and you’ll be healthier than ever.