I've Just Been Diagnosed With Gestational Diabetes – What Can I Eat?
From the moment you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes you are likely to be faced with what seems like an endless list of new tasks: more clinic appointments, more blood tests, taking medications, being more active and eating a healthy, balanced diet. No wonder it can all seem so daunting and overwhelming. One of your first questions is likely to be, “what can I eat?” But, with so much to take in, you could still come away from appointments feeling unsure about the answer. And then, there are lots of myths about diabetes and food that you will need to navigate, too. If you’ve just been diagnosed and aren’t sure about what you can and can’t eat, here’s what you need to know. This may come as a surprise, but you don’t have to go on a special diet when have gestational diabetes. Depending on your current diet, you may have to eat less of some foods and more of others. In the past, people were sent away after their diagnosis with a list of foods they weren't allowed to eat, or often told to simply cut out sugar. Nowadays, you may need to make some changes to your diet, but it’s not a case of cutting things out. Rather, you’ll need to follow the same healthy, balanced diet that’s recommended to everyone. The main aim for managing gestational diabetes is ensuring that your blood glucose levels are under control, so your healthcare team will discuss targets that are right for you. Achieving the targets will increase your chances of having a healthy pregnancy and your food choices play a vital role in this. It is important to enjoy your meals while making changes to your food choices that are realistic and achievable. This will help control your blood glucose levels, and help prevent excessive weight gain during your pregnancy. All carbohydrates will ha Continue reading >>
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Top 10 Worst Diet Choices If You Have Diabetes
If you have diabetes, in many ways your diet is your medicine. As diabetes educators, we help patients understand what food and beverage choices are best to avoid. When foods are high in carbohydrates, fat and sodium, they increase your risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight gain, heart disease and uncontrolled sugar . Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy Sweetened drinks. These include regular pop/soda, fruit punches and iced teas. These are loaded with sugar and calories, and they usually have little or no nutritional value. Instead, try infusing plain water with different berries and fruits so you can enjoy the natural sweetness. “Designer” or specialty coffee drinks – including frappuccinos or cappuccinos. That “once a day special treat” can add up to lots of extra sugar, calories and saturated fat. Instead, go for straight java, either black, with artificial sweetener or a small splash of skim milk. Whole milk. It has too much fat, which can lead to weight gain. Switch to 2 percent, 1 percent – or even better: skim milk. Keep in mind that one cup of skim milk has 12 grams of carbohydrates. If you don’t like milk or are lactose intolerant, you can drink almond milk, rice milk or soy milk instead—but remember to get the low sugar varieties. Hot dogs. These grilled little favorites are still high in saturated fat and sodium—yes, that even includes turkey dogs! Try to avoid them or eat them only occasionally. Packaged lunch meats. These are also high in saturated fat and sodium. Check your deli for low sodium meats—or better yet use sliced meat that you’ve roasted at home to make your sandwic Continue reading >>
Pre-pregnancy Potatoes And Gestational Diabetes
Pre-Pregnancy Potatoes and Gestational Diabetes Five cups of spuds weekly boosts odds by 50 percent, research suggests TUESDAY, Jan. 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Women who eat lots of potatoes before pregnancy appear more likely to develop gestational diabetes , a new study suggests. A woman's risk of gestational diabetes seemed to increase by 27 percent if she regularly consumed between two and four cups of potatoes a week before pregnancy . Five or more cups a week appeared to increase risk by 50 percent, even after researchers accounted for pre-pregnancy obesity and other potential risk factors, the study found. "The more women consumed potatoes, the greater risk they had for gestational diabetes," said senior author Dr. Cuilin Zhang, a senior investigator with the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. "Potatoes are regarded as a kind of vegetable, but not all vegetables are healthy." However, it's important to note that this study only showed an association between potato consumption and the risk of gestational diabetes -- a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy . The study wasn't designed to prove cause-and-effect. Findings from the study were released online Jan. 12 in the BMJ. Potatoes are the third most commonly consumed food crop in the world, after rice and wheat. About 35 percent of U.S. women in their childbearing years eat potatoes daily, according to background information in the study. Potatoes are rich in vitamin C , potassium and fiber. Unfortunately, potatoes also contain a significant amount of simple carbohydrates, which are easily broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream, Zhang said. Eating a cup of potatoes can send blood sugar levels skyrocketing, on par with swigging a can of cola or munching a handful of Continue reading >>
Eating Potatoes Often May Raise The Risk Of Diabetes During Pregnancy
Women who eat more potatoes before they are pregnant may have higher rates of diabetes during pregnancy, according to a study by the Maryland-based National Institutes of Health. The researchers say that substituting potatoes with other vegetables, legumes or whole grains may help lower the risk of gestational diabetes. The study, which has been published in the BMJ, is the first to link potatoes, a common, high-glycemic food, to the development of gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes is a common pregnancy complication that causes high blood sugar levels in the mother. The disorder can lead to future health problems for mother and child. Previous studies have linked foods with a high glycemic index, a measure of the ability to raise blood sugar levels, to a higher risk of gestational or type-2 diabetes. The researchers evaluated more than 15,000 women who filled out a questionnaire on the kinds of foods they had eaten during the previous year every four years. For potatoes, the women were asked if they had consumed baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes, fries or potato chips, with possible responses ranging from ‘never’ to ‘six or more times a day’. The researchers found that women who ate more potatoes had a higher risk of gestational diabetes. The study’s authors estimate that the risk of gestational diabetes could be reduced by as much as 12 per cent if potatoes were substituted with whole grains, 10 per cent for legumes and nine per cent for other vegetables. Cuilin Zhang, lead author, told the BBC: ‘Gestational diabetes can mean women develop pre-eclampsia during pregnancy and hypertension. ‘This can adversely affect the foetus, and in the long term the mother may be at high risk of type-2 diabetes.’ Dr Emily Burns, of Diabetes UK, said: ‘This s Continue reading >>
What Can I Eat If I Have Gestational Diabetes? Food List And More
Gestational diabetes is diabetes that only occurs in pregnant women. That means you can't get gestational diabetes unless you’re pregnant. You may develop gestational diabetes for the first time during pregnancy or you might have a mild undiagnosed case of diabetes that gets worse when you’re pregnant. During pregnancy, the way your body uses insulin changes. Insulin is a hormone that breaks the foods you eat down into glucose, or sugar. You then use that glucose for energy. You’ll naturally become more resistant to insulin when you’re pregnant to help provide your baby with more glucose. In some women, the process goes wrong and your body either stops responding to insulin or doesn't make enough insulin to give you the glucose you need. When that happens, you’ll have too much sugar in your blood. That causes gestational diabetes. If you have recently been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, or are curious about what will happen if you are diagnosed with it, keep reading to learn more about maintaining a healthy pregnancy. Eat protein with every meal. Include daily fruits and vegetables in your diet. Thirty percent or less of your diet should be made up of fat. Limit or avoid processed foods. Pay attention to portion sizes to avoid overeating. If you have gestational diabetes, maintaining a healthy, balanced diet may help you manage your symptoms without needing medication. In general, your diet should include protein plus the right mix of carbohydrates and fats. Once you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, ask your doctor about working with a registered dietitian or nutritionist. They can help you plan your meals and come up with an eating plan that will keep you and your baby healthy. Aim to base your meals around protein. Include lots of fresh foods a Continue reading >>
Dietary Recommendations For Gestational Diabetes
Diabetes diagnosed during pregnancy is called gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes occurs in about 7 percent of all pregnancies. It usually arises in the second half of pregnancy and goes away as soon as the baby is born. However, if gestational diabetes is not treated, you may experience complications. The first step in treating gestational diabetes is to modify your diet to help keep your blood sugar level in the normal range, while still eating a healthy diet. Most women with well-controlled blood sugar deliver healthy babies without any complications. One way of keeping your blood sugar levels in normal range is by monitoring the amount of carbohydrates in your diet. Carbohydrate foods digest and turn into blood glucose (a type of sugar). Glucose in the blood is necessary because it is the fuel for your body and nourishment your baby receives from you. However, it's important that glucose levels stay within target. Carbohydrates in Food Carbohydrates are found in the following foods: Milk and yogurt Fruits and juices Rice, grains, cereals and pasta Breads, tortillas, crackers, bagels and rolls Dried beans, split peas and lentils Potatoes, corn, yams, peas and winter squash Sweets and desserts, such as sugar, honey, syrups, pastries, cookies, soda and candy also typically have large amounts of carbohydrate. Carbohydrates in foods are measured in units called grams. You can count how many carbohydrates are in foods by reading food labels and learning the exchange lists. The two most important pieces of information on food labels for a carbohydrate-controlled diet is the serving size and grams of total carbohydrate in each serving. Dietary Recommendations It is important to be meet with a registered dietitian to have your diet assessed. The dietitian will calcula Continue reading >>
Potato-rich Diet 'may Increase Pregnancy Diabetes Risk'
Potato-rich diet 'may increase pregnancy diabetes risk' These are external links and will open in a new window Eating potatoes or chips on most days of the week may increase a woman's risk of diabetes during pregnancy, say US researchers. This is probably because starch in spuds can trigger a sharp rise in blood sugar levels, they say. Their study in the BMJ tracked more than 21,000 pregnancies. But UK experts say proof is lacking and lots of people need to eat more starchy foods for fibre, as well as fresh fruit and veg. The BMJ study linked high potato consumption to a higher diabetes risk. Swapping a couple of servings a week for other vegetables should counter this, say the authors. UK dietary advice says starchy foods (carbohydrates) such as potatoes should make up about a third of the food people eat. There is no official limit on how much carbohydrate people should consume each week. Foods that contain carbohydrates affect blood sugar. Some - high Glycaemic Index (GI) foods - release the sugar quickly into the bloodstream. Others - low GI foods - release them more steadily. Research suggests eating a low GI diet can help manage diabetes. Pregnancy puts extra demands on the body, and some women develop diabetes at this time. Gestational diabetes, as it is called, usually goes away after the birth but can pose long-term health risks for the mother and baby. The BMJ study set out investigate what might make some women more prone to pregnancy diabetes. The study followed nurses who became pregnant between 1991 and 2001. None of them had any chronic diseases before pregnancy. It is a condition where there is too much glucose (sugar) in the blood About three in every 100 pregnancies are affected in the UK Symptoms include a dry mouth, tiredness and urinating frequentl Continue reading >>
What Is The Best Diet For Gestational Diabetes?
Gestational diabetes can cause a range of complications during pregnancy. Fortunately, a woman can help reduce complications by following a healthful diet. What foods should women eat and what foods should they avoid if they have gestational diabetes? Gestational diabetes occurs if a woman's body cannot produce enough insulin, during her pregnancy. This deficiency leads to high blood sugar. High blood sugar levels may cause problems for the woman and her baby if not managed properly. This article explains what type of diet a woman should follow during pregnancy if she has gestational diabetes. It also considers other treatment options for gestational diabetes and what complications may occur if the condition is not properly managed. Contents of this article: Understanding gestational diabetes Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that can develop during pregnancy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 2 and 10 percent of pregnancies are affected by gestational diabetes each year in the United States. This type of diabetes occurs when a woman's body cannot make enough of the hormone insulin. Insulin is made by the pancreas and helps the body's cells to use sugar from the blood as energy. When a woman is pregnant, her body will produce more hormones, and she may put on weight. Both of these changes may mean that her body's cells may not use insulin as well as they used to. This is called insulin resistance. Becoming resistant to insulin means that the body needs more of it in order to use up the sugar in the blood. Sometimes a woman's body cannot produce enough insulin to keep up. This leads to a sugar buildup in the blood, resulting in high blood sugar levels. Symptoms of gestational diabetes may include: being unusually thirsty Continue reading >>
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Half-baked Coverage Of Potatoes And Gestational Diabetes
Half-baked coverage of potatoes and gestational diabetes The humble potato made big news twice this week. In one instance, a photograph of an unwashed potato sold for $1.5 million (Australian) to a collector. You can see a representation of the image here , for free. Almost as strange, the Washington Post reported that pregnant women should lay off potatoes because eating even one cup a week can increase your risk for gestational diabetes by 20%. Eating five or more servings a week raises the risk a whopping 50%. If youre planning to become pregnant, you might want to lay off the potatoes reads the headline. A number of other news outlets posted similar stories suggesting that spuds might not be safe for pregnant women: Dallas Morning News: Potatoes and pregnancy and a serious complication Gestational diabetes is nothing to laugh at. It puts both the mother and child at risk during delivery, and its linked to Type 2 diabetes later on. But an observational study based on biannual dietary questionnaires designed to track disease outcomes and lifestyle factors not diet during pregnancy doesnt hold water. Especially when the study didnt track weight gain which is a major culprit in gestational diabetes and Type 2 diabetes. Never mind the fact that this type of study cant prove cause and effect, so its just not accurate to state, as the Post story does, that eating potatoes raises risk for the condition. Of course, the Washington Post would have avoided coming off half-baked if it had reached out to at least one nutrition researcher with no connection to the study. Enter Yoni Freedhoff, MD, an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, medical director of the Bariatric Medical Institute and frequent HealthNewsReview.org contributor. Putting aside th Continue reading >>
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Eating Potatoes Like This Can Be Healthy For Diabetics
Home Magazine Diabetes Eating Potatoes Like THIS Can Be Healthy For Diabetics Eating Potatoes Like THIS Can Be Healthy For Diabetics Expert-reviewed byAshwini S.Kanade, Registered Dietician and Certified Diabetes Educator with 17 years of experience Bake them, mash them, grill them or deep-fry them, potatoes in any form or shape are a delight to eat! Touted to be an important food staple and the number one vegetable crop in the world, they are available all year-round in India.But did you know that potatoes are a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum? They are a complex carbohydrate similar to rice, wheat and other ground provisions. Carbohydrate options for diabetes is usually defined by the Glycemic Index value. The glycemic index rating of potatoes makes them a bad carb. Any GI score above 70 is high, indicating the food causes a rapid spike in blood sugar. The GI of potatoes is variable between 58 and 111; on an average, it is 78 for a boiled one and 87 for an instant cooked one. However, potatoes are incredibly popular worldwide an, arent considered unhealthy unless and until deep fried. So, should diabetics really be eating potatoes? Let us find out! First of all, Lets Understand the Relationship Between Glycemic Index and Diabetes According to Dr Manoj Kutteri, Wellness Director at Atmantan Wellness Centre, Our body performs at an optimum level when the blood sugar is kept relatively constant and not fluctuating to the extremes. When the blood sugar drops too low, one becomes lethargic and experience increased hunger. If it goes very high, our brain signals the pancreas to secrete more insulin. Insulin helps to strike a balance in the blood sugar level by converting the excess sugar to fat.The higher the blood sugar level, the more wi Continue reading >>
Eating Potatoes Linked To Gestational Diabetes
A new study suggests that eating potatoes before you get pregnant or when trying to conceive is linked with a higher chance of gestational diabetes. Doesn't the list of what you should and shouldn't consume during, and even before, pregnancy seems so long? Well, you might want to add another food to the list: the seemingly harmless potato. In a recent study published in The BMJ, researchers found a connection between eating the starchy veggie pre-pregnancy and a greater risk for gestational diabetes (GD) while expecting. Potato, potato? Researchers looked at more than 15,000 women who became pregnant over a ten-year period. Through self-reported surveys, the scientists tracked the women's food intake and compared it with which ones were diagnosed with gestational diabetes (also called gestational diabetes mellitus, or GDM), a condition marked by high blood sugar, during pregnancy. They found that the women who ate more potatoes, including baked, boiled, mashed and fried, had a higher rate of gestational diabetes during pregnancy—even after they took into account other factors like weight and overall diet quality. "Pre-pregnancy potato consumption was significantly and positively associated with the risk of GDM," the study's senior author Cuilin Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., a senior investigator at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), tells Fit Pregnancy. This is the first study to look at potatoes' effect on the development of GDM. Although it didn't identify a specific threshold over which it's unhealthy to eat potatoes, "our data indicated that the more potato women consumed before pregnancy, the greater their risk," Dr. Zhang says. "In particular, consuming five or more than five servings per week was related to more t Continue reading >>
Diet For Gestational Diabetes
I have gestational diabetes. Why do I have to watch what I eat? Eating well is an important way to stay healthy for all women in pregnancy. But if you have gestational diabetes (GD), choosing the right food is especially important. When you eat, your digestive system breaks most of your food down into a type of sugar called glucose. Glucose is one of your body’s main sources of energy. Glucose enters your bloodstream and then, with the help of insulin (a hormone made by your pancreas), your cells use the glucose as fuel. However, if your body doesn't produce enough insulin – or your cells have a problem responding to the insulin – too much glucose stays in your blood, instead of moving into the cells and getting converted to energy. Pregnancy hormones reduce the effect of insulin, so your body has to make more of it. If your body can't keep up with the demands for insulin, your blood sugar levels can get too high. That's when GD happens. It's important to control it, as it can lead to problems for your baby. You may be able to control GD by changing what you eat and combining a healthy diet with regular exercise. Learn all about gestational diabetes, including risk factors, symptoms to watch out for, and how it's managed. How will I have to change my diet? If you’ve been diagnosed with GD, your doctor should refer you to a dietitian who can work out a special diet for you. Every pregnancy is different, so what works for one woman may not work for you. You’ll probably need to experiment with different foods and combinations of foods before you work out what’s best for your body. Your dietitian will be able to help you with this. Women with GD say the foods they can tolerate often change as their pregnancy progresses, which can be frustrating. Others say their Continue reading >>
Potatoes.... - Gestational Diabetes | Forums | What To Expect
Whenever I eat any baked or mashed potatoes I have great numbers. Tonight was steak and mashed potatoes with onions...blood glucose 2 hours later was 86! Anybody else okay with potatoes, or am I just lucky? Me!!!! I found that theres a very fine line for me with them (like just right amount of potatoes= 95, one more bite = 155!!) BUT yes, for the most part I can eat potatoes till the cows come home! Theyre a nice change from whole wheat grains! Me!! I can have a small potato and be perfectly fine! I cut them into wedges and season with olive oil, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and parm cheese and roast them. Omg, so good! This is why it bugs me when some people insist that potatoes are off limits. I've been fine I measured it though I have less than 1 serve. I've also found pasta great but bread and cereal forget it. Im medicated for fasting only. Never had an issue after eating potatoes prior to being medicated. GD is hard enough... we dont need to make it worse by scaring people into thinking something will def cause an issue before they even try it. Not once did my nutritionist or NP say to me to stay away from potatoes, pasta, rice or even bread. They said try it. Eat portions. Whole wheat and grains are better. They make whole wheat breads and pastas. Were all pregnant and all going through this together. Pregnancy is hard as it is. Do we really need to completely suck the joy out of it with this diagnosis? No we dont. Not everything we eat will have a nutritional value. Sometimes, we just want to eat something because, well, we want to. Being as restrictive as this diet is, it doesnt hurt to TRY something at least once. Especially if its something you like. A stressed out and depressed mama is not good for baby either, can we agree on that? I know I Continue reading >>
Gestational Diabetes And Your Diet
If you have gestational diabetes, your diet will become an important part of managing your condition and keeping your pregnancy safe. Some women who are diagnosed with gestational diabetes manage to keep their blood sugar levels under control using diet and exercise alone. If you have gestational diabetes, you need to limit the amount of sugary foods and drinks you have. These foods raise your blood sugar levels very quickly. You will be shown how to monitor your blood glucose levels and, as you go on, you will see which foods are raising these levels too high. You are also likely to find that your tolerance to certain foods could change during pregnancy. Some women can start out eating cereal without a problem for example, but as their pregnancy gets on they find that the same food causes a blood sugar spike. I was diet controlled all the way through but I had to be very strict and it found it was harder to get good blood sugar reading the further along I was, even with the same foods that had been fine for ages. For me following a low carb, high fat, high protein rule worked. I managed to avoid insulin and also lost excess weight I was carrying around for no reason. My little boy was born a healthy 6lb 10. Its helpful to understand how carbohydrates (carbs) work. Carbohydratesare the sugars, starches and fibres found in fruits, grains, vegetables and milk products. They are the body's main source of energy. Some carbs release sugar into the bloodstream faster than others. These are called simple carbs. This raises your blood sugar levels. Others release sugar more slowly. These are called complex or starchy carbs. The glycaemic index shows which foods release sugar quickly and which ones don't. High glycaemic foods = release sugar quickly Low to moderate glycaemic in Continue reading >>
11 Superfoods For Your Diabetes Diet
Getty Images What to Eat to Beat Type 2 Diabetes What makes a food “super”? When it comes to type 2 diabetes, it’s not just about foods that pack lots of nutrients. For a diabetes-friendly diet, you also need foods that will help keep your blood sugar levels in check. “Look for items that contain healthy fats and are high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber,” says Sue McLaughlin, RD, a certified diabetes educator at Burgess Health Center in Onawa, Iowa. It’s also crucial to eat a wide variety of foods to make sure you’re getting a healthy mix of phytochemicals and essential fatty acids. Add these 11 superfoods to your grocery cart to keep your diet diabetes-friendly. Continue reading >>
