Diabetes diet facts and ayurveda view

Patients suffering from diabetes have to be well educated about their diet to keep the blood sugar level under control. A well planned diet always helps to keep the diabetic complications at bay. Here are few important facts which have to be carefully noted by diabetic patients, while consuming food.

1.Spread your daily diet over three healthy meals and two healthy snacks.

2.Strictly avoid extra intake of salt. Pickles, fast foods, chips, chats etc are laden with salt. Hence avoid these in your diet.

3.Reduce Fat in your diet. Increased fat doubles the chances of heart diseases especially in diabetics.

4.Reduce quantity of carbohydrates. Foods like rice, wheat, ragi, jowar etc are rich in carbohydrates. Reducing the quantity helps to control diabetes.

5.Strictly say no to sugar , sweets, chocolates, ice creams, soft drinks etc.

6.Include foods which are rich in nutrients like proteins, vitamins and minerals. Pulses, sprouts, green leafy vegetables, fruits, skimmed milk, butter milk etc are good sources of above mentioned nutrients.

7.Avoid foods which have high glycemic index. Potatoes, carrots, breads and banana have high glycemic index and they increase the blood-sugar levels.

8.Avoid red meat and reduce consumption of eggs. Lean fish can be used once in a week. It is always advisable for non vegetarians to slowly shift to vegetarian diet to prevent the complications of diabetes.

9.Ayurveda acharyas strongly suggest not to eat sweets and preparations which are made from sugar and jaggary(gur) as main ingredient.

10.Texts of ayurveda recommend reduced intake of food which are rich in starch.

11.In ayurveda text “yogaratnakara” , it is mentioned that increased intake of cooked rice (anna), full fat milk (ksheera), red meat and other kapha increasing foods leads to diabetes.