How To Change Over To A Diabetic Friendly Lifestyle
Being diagnosed with diabetes is utterly life-changing. You may not be able to add extra sugar to your coffee anymore, but you will also have a new opportunity to change your eating habits around for the better. The fact of the matter is that the average American consumes entirely too much sugar and does not get nearly enough exercise. Find other ways to stay energized rather than drinking sugar-laden caffeinated beverages and you will look better, feel stronger, and possibly live longer. The easy diabetic recipes listed below are proof that eating foods that maintain safe blood sugar levels is completely doable. Change when, what, and how you eat to keep diabetes from running your life.
Identifying All Sources of Sugar
Forget about dumping out your sugar bowl – there’s sugar to be found in almost every part of your kitchen. Rich pasta with heavy tomato sauces can be as unhealthy to eat as a big slice of German chocolate cake. There’s sugar in bread and even potatoes after your body breaks down the carbohydrates. As such, you’re going to need to look at all of the foods you eat normally to figure out how you can get your sugar intake down to a reasonable level. While you are definitely going to need to reduce the number of baked goods you consume, there’s also juice and even some fruits to be wary of.
Finding Sugar Substitutes That Taste Good
By now, you should have mastered the art of preparing low-carb pasta with pesto or even olive oil and sun-dried tomatoes instead of standard spaghetti sauce. There are also ways to enjoy baked goods, particularly when they are homemade and created with diabetic-friendly sugar substitutes. If you are concerned with your new diet not tasting as good as you want it to, trial and error are going to be necessary. You might find that you love Splenda but Sweet ‘n’ Low could taste horrible to you. There’s also the running debate between diabetics about which diet sugar tastes the best.
Tweaking the Foods and Meals You Can’t Live Without
If it takes a steaming hot mug of espresso to get you out of bed, don’t think that being diagnosed with diabetes means you have to say goodbye to coffee altogether. Gourmet coffee blends taste better than commercial coffee products, both with sugar and without. Then there’s flavor, low sugar creamers that can make your favorite drink taste better than ever. Pretty much all of the foods that you love to eat the most can be altered just a bit by substituting sugar with artificial sweeteners that are low sugar or completely sugar-free. So don’t worry, you can still enjoy a great movie night with some tasty snacks.
Drinking more water than anything else is a great first step for people recently diagnosed with diabetes. With fewer foods high in sugar to choose from, you should be able to easily find room for more vegetables and whole grains. Every week, find a low sugar food that you enjoy and find something that is high in sugar to substitute it for.
