Healthy Cereal Brands For Diabetes

Healthy Cereal Brands for Diabetes

When you’re in a morning rush, you may not have time to eat anything but a quick bowl of cereal. But many brands of breakfast cereal are loaded with fast-digesting carbohydrates. These carbs usually rate high on the glycemic index. That means your body quickly breaks them down, which rapidly raises your blood sugar levels. If you have diabetes, that can be dangerous.
Fortunately, not all cereals are made the same. Read on to learn about diabetes-friendly cereal options that can get you out of the door quickly, without putting you through a blood sugar rollercoaster ride.
We’ve listed our recommendations from the highest rating on the glycemic index to the lowest rating.
The glycemic index, or GI, measures how quickly carbohydrates raise your blood sugar levels. If you have diabetes, it’s best to choose foods with lower GI ratings. They take longer to digest, which can help prevent spikes in your blood sugar.
According to the Harvard School of Public Health:
low-GI foods have a rating of 55 or less
medium-GI foods have a rating of 56-69
high-GI foods have a rating of 70-100
Mixing foods can influence how they digest and adsorb into your blood, and ultimately their GI rating. For example, eating high-ranked GI cereal with Greek yogurt, nuts, or other low-ranked GI foods can slow your digestion and limit spikes in your blood sugar.
Glycemic load is another measure of how food affects your blood sugar. It takes into account portion size and the digestibility of different carbohydrates. It may be a better way to identify good and bad carb choices. For example, carrots have Continue reading

Rate this article

Total 1 ratings

10 Foods to Avoid With Diabetes

Foods No One With Type 2 Diabetes Should Eat
The top 10 foods that should never be eaten by type 2 diabetics are ones that are high on the glycemic index, full of fats that are easily oxidized or foods high in advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs). These are the foods to avoid with diabetes at all costs.
Here’s a quick view of the list:
Protein bars
Jasmine rice
Tofu ice cream
Genetically-engineered wheat
Fried foods
Trans fat foods
Vegetable oils
Boxed cereals
Pizza
Hot dogs
Read on to learn about why you should be avoiding these foods.
Protein Bars, Rice, Ice Cream, and Wheat
The first foods every diabetic should avoid are Cliff™ protein bars, jasmine rice, tofu ice cream, and genetically engineered wheat.
The glycemic index is a scale from 0 to 100 that measures the rate that sugars are released into the bloodstream from carbohydrate foods. A rating low on this scale between 0 and 55 correlates to a food that is not a problem to diabetics. When these low glycemic index foods are eaten, blood sugar stays low in diabetics. Examples include cherries, apples, lettuce, celery, beans, and chickpeas.
On the other hand, foods high on the glycemic index that are rated 70 to 100+ are ones that cause an exceptionally high burst of insulin after the blood sugar levels skyrocket. This reaction will eventually wear out the pancreas and may even cause the need for insulin at a later date.
Fried Foods, Trans Fat Foods, and Vegetable Oils
The problem with many types of fat is that their chemical structures aren’t stable when heated. The type of fat they have is called unsaturated, Continue reading

What to Eat with Diabetes: Best Cold Cereals

Looking for a better breakfast cereal? Try one of our 18 cereal winners or finalists that are dietitian-approved and taste-tested. We conducted blind taste panels with more than 100 people, including people with diabetes, and awarded the top-rated flakes, O's, and puffed cereals our Diabetic Living What to Eat seal of approval.
Please note that product information, packaging, and availability may have changed since our story first appeared.
Looking for a better breakfast cereal? Try one of our 18 cereal winners or finalists that are dietitian-approved and taste-tested. We conducted blind taste panels with more than 100 people, including people with diabetes, and awarded the top-rated flakes, O's, and puffed cereals our Diabetic Living What to Eat seal of approval.
Please note that product information, packaging, and availability may have changed since our story first appeared.
Looking for a better breakfast cereal? Try one of our 18 cereal winners or finalists that are dietitian-approved and taste-tested. We conducted blind taste panels with more than 100 people, including people with diabetes, and awarded the top-rated flakes, O's, and puffed cereals our Diabetic Living What to Eat seal of approval.
Please note that product information, packaging, and availability may have changed since our story first appeared.
Looking for a better breakfast cereal? Try one of our 18 cereal winners or finalists that are dietitian-approved and taste-tested. We conducted blind taste panels with more than 100 people, including people with diabetes, and awarded the top-rated flakes, O's, and Continue reading

Enjoying the Best Grains for Diabetes – Your Healthy Kitchen

If you have diabetes, should you stop eating bread, rice and pasta? While everyone with diabetes (and pre-diabetes) benefits from eliminating processed grains from their diet (foods like white rice, cold cereals, white bread and snack foods), some individuals benefit from avoiding whole grain products as well. Others can lose weight and normalize blood sugar levels while still enjoying grains. However, if you eat grains, it’s important to be picky about the type and portion size of the grains you choose.
Individuals who have difficulty losing weight and controlling blood sugar levels sometimes benefit from eliminating all grains, including whole grains, from their diets for a while. Whole and processed grains contain an easily digested type of starch that can trigger spikes in blood sugar levels after meals, leading to weight gain and many of the complications of diabetes. Some people find that they can add whole grains back into their diets after they reach their weight and blood sugar goals.
Others with diabetes can maintain good health while still enjoying grains, but find that it is important to eat only whole grains, and in moderate quantities. Serving grains as a side dish, or about ¼ of a meal, is a helpful strategy that lends itself to healthy weight management and blood sugar control.
So what are whole grains and why are they nutritionally superior to processed grains? All true grains, including rice, wheat, barley and corn, are seeds that come from different types of grasses. A whole grain consists of three basic components: an outer layer called the bran, a st Continue reading

Statin Drugs Linked with Parkinson's Disease, Stroke, and Diabetes

"Scientists concluded that statin medications were associated with a higher risk of Parkinson's disease."
Despite their success as multi-billion dollar cholesterol medications, statins have been shown to increase the risk of the neurodegenerative disease Parkinson's. The list of statin drug-induced disorders also includes diabetes, cataracts, liver and kidney failure, memory loss, muscle damage, pneumonia and immune suppression. These are all a heavy price to pay for the drug management of cholesterol. While not everyone experiences these adverse effects, it should pose some serious questions about the ubiquitous use of these meds and the desire to put everyone on them. More important, it hopefully propels you into a direction of self-empowerment with health management.
[Jump to: Nutritional Options]
Statins and Parkinson's Disease
The reports of Parkinson's disease associated with cholesterol lowering statin medications have been making subdued headlines for a few years. Recently, studies have made significant headline news that challenges the dogma that statins help prevent and reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease. The International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society and the June 2017 Movement Disorders journal published a retrospective case-controlled study. After a large database analysis, scientists concluded that statin medications, especially lipophilic statins like Lipitor were associated with higher risk of Parkinson’s disease. The greatest risk of the disease developing occurred within a year, after starting the medication. Those who were on the lipophi Continue reading