Seven-Day Type 2 Diabetes Meal Plan

Eating a diabetes-friendly diet can help keep your blood sugar levels under control. But it can be difficult to stick to a regular meal plan — unless you have a plan in place.
Check out these 21 delicious, diabetes-friendly recipes to use for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Remember to stay within your carbohydrate allowance by noting the carb content and serving size of the recipes. Also, be sure to balance your meals with lean protein and healthy plant fats.
Breakfast: Cream Cheese-Stuffed French Toast
This may sound too decadent for breakfast, but paired with scrambled egg whites, it can fit into a diabetes-friendly meal plan. Whole grain toast will help ensure you get your daily fiber too.
Lunch: Salmon Salad with White Beans
Salmon is one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids, and is also a delicious topper to workday salad.
Dinner: Cuban-Marinated Sirloin Kabobs with Grilled Asparagus
Spice things up with this flavorful skewer. Dried herbs and spices are a great way to pack a punch of flavor without adding unnecessary calories and fat.
Breakfast: Apple Pie Oatmeal with Greek Yogurt
Who wouldn’t like a slice of pie for breakfast? This oatmeal will leave your kitchen smelling like the flavors of fall, and your stomach happy and satisfied. Add some extra plain Greek yogurt on top for more protein.
Lunch: Turkey-Cranberry Wraps
Turkey and cranberry sauce isn’t just for Thanksgiving! This is an easy grab-and-go lunch that even your kids will enjoy.
Note: This recipe may not be appropriate for all people with type 2 diabetes, because it contains 60 grams of carbs p Continue reading

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Gluten-Free Diets Actually Increase Risks of Type 2 Diabetes

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
It’s hard not to notice that the range of gluten-free foods available in supermarkets has increased massively in recent years. This is partly because the rise in the number of people diagnosed with coeliac disease and gluten sensitivity, and partly because celebrities, such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Miley Cyrus and Victoria Beckham, have praised gluten-free diets. What used to be prescription-only food is now a global health fad. But for how much longer? New research from Harvard University has found a link between gluten-free diets and an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Gluten is a protein found in cereals such as wheat, rye and barley. It is particularly useful in food production. For example, it gives elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and keep its shape, and providing a chewy texture. Many types of foods may contain gluten, including less obvious ones such as salad dressing, soup and beer.
The same protein that is so useful in food production is a nightmare for people with coeliac disease. Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disorder in which the body mistakenly reacts to gluten as if it were a threat to the body. The condition is quite common, affecting one in 100 people, but only a quarter of those who have the disease have been diagnosed.
There is evidence that the popularity of gluten-free diets has surged, even though the incidence of coeliac disease has remained stable. This is potentially due to increasing numbers of people with non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. In the Continue reading

Tip: Your Cereal is Full of Lies & Diabetes

Love Handles in a Box
You know that kiddie breakfast cereals are just love handles in a box, but "healthy" adult cereals are often just as bad, and sometimes even worse.
These cereals are lot like women you meet at clubs. The outside package looks fine, but look past the padded push-up bra, the Spanx, and the mental disorder she's temporarily suppressed with vodka, and what's underneath is pretty scary.
Labeling Loopholes
Cereal manufacturers are masters of label loopholes. The FDA sets strict rules about nutrition and ingredient lists, but it's pretty easy to disguise the facts. For example, ingredient lists are supposed to list things in order of quantity: the first thing on the list should be the most prevalent ingredient.
Fit people know to avoid a packaged food if sugar is listed somewhere near the top of the list. But the fact is, most "healthy" cereals on the market should have sugar listed in the first or second spot. They don't.
How do they get away with it? By including several forms of sugar: organic cane syrup, cane crystals, evaporated cane juice, fruit juice concentrates, honey, African whoopie tree extract, unicorn tears, etc. That way they can break it up and list something like rolled oats at the top when it should be listed behind the real main ingredient: sugar.
What about the cereals with added protein? Well, it's usually the cheap stuff: soy. You know, the protein that's so junky that even quality dog food manufacturers now brag about not using it.
1000 Calories for Breakfast
Then there are the calories. One popular brand of granola with several front-o Continue reading

Guidelines on Safe Exercise for People With Type 1 Diabetes

Exercising safely with type 1 diabetes can be quite a challenge. A paper from JDRF funded experts has acknowledged these challenges and published useful exercise guidelines for type 1 diabetes patients and providers.
These JDRF experts are part of an international team of 21 researchers and clinicians led by York University Professor Michael Riddell.
The paper, called “Exercise management in type 1 diabetes: a consensus statement” which has been published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology provides guidelines on how to exercise safely and effectively with type 1 diabetes.
Aaron Kowalski, Ph.D., JDRF Chief Mission Officer and report contributor said in a press release, “Exercise has tremendous benefits for people with T1D, but it can be hard to predict how it will affect their blood glucose and how they feel during and following physical activity,” and that “The lack of reliable information on how to exercise safely has created obstacles for people with T1D who want to maintain a healthy lifestyle. These consensus guidelines, as well as JDRF’s new PEAK program, are breaking down those barriers.”
The T1D PEAK program (Performance in Exercise and Knowledge) is an initiative by JDRF to help educate people with type 1 as well as their caregivers and healthcare providers on how to exercise safely.
Riddell, the lead author speaks to some of these benefits and barriers of exercise, “Regular exercise can help individuals with diabetes to achieve their blood lipid, body composition, fitness and blood sugar goals, but for people living with type 1 diabetes, the fea Continue reading

Nutrition and Insulin Management Guidelines for Exercise in Type 1 Diabetes

Patients with type 1 diabetes and their providers should recognize how the form and intensity of exercise affects glucose control, according to a recent consensus statement published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
"Regular exercise has long been known to be beneficial from a cardiometabolic perspective for people living with type 1 diabetes. It has also been known to make glucose control more difficult," Michael C. Riddell, PhD, professor and graduate program director at the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at the Muscle Health Research Centre at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, told Endocrinology Advisor in an interview.
"This recent consensus document highlights the known beneficial effects of regular exercise in type 1 diabetes and how different forms and intensities of exercise impact immediate glucose homeostasis."
Dr Riddell and colleagues performed a PubMed search of nutrition and glycemic-based terms for studies involving patients with type 1 diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes between January 1990 and July 2016 in which physical activity or exercise was involved. The review of the literature was divided into sections involving management of glycemia, exercise, and nutrition, as well as goals for exercise, contraindications of exercise, and tools for exercise management in patients with type 1 diabetes.
"Acute aerobic exercise [typically causes] increases in glucose disposal that cannot be matched by increased hepatic glucose production in type 1 diabetes because circulating insulin levels do not drop rapidly enough at the time of exe Continue reading