Diabetes – Eat Whatever You Want | Diabetes Diet Chart

Are You a Diabetic and can make a diabetes diet chart? Can you eat whatever you want to eat?  No? Believe me you can make your diabetes diet chart on your own? A diabetic needs a balanced diet and an optimum carbohydrates portion in every serving to maintain blood glucose levels. If you know the nutritional value and the glycemic load of a food item. You can make your diabetic diet chart easily and can eat whatever you want to eat.

How To Make A Diabetes Diet Chart?

You need to know the Glycemic Load of food, vegetable, or food item to make a balanced diabetes diet chart which can help you in a reversal of blood sugar. Following are the pre-requisites to prepare the diabetic diet chart.

1. Glycemic Index of the food
2. Net Carbohydrate in the food

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load of food play a very important role to decide what can you eat and making a diabetic diet chart.

Glycemic Index

All food items including fruits, vegetables, or any foodstuff have been given a rank from 0 to 100 on a scale which is called the Glycemic Index of food. The glycemic index of a food is defined on the basis of the absorption rate of the carbohydrate available in food and how fast the glucose is absorbed into the blood after eating it.

Higher the Glycemic Index of a food item, the faster the rate of glucose absorption into your blood. In other words, food products having high glycemic index increase blood glucose levels faster compared to foods with a medium or low glycemic index.

Net Carbohydrate

Net carbohydrate is the total amount of digestible carbohydrate in a food product. To find out the net carbohydrate of a food product, you need to subtract the amount of fiber from the total carbohydrate available in a portion of food.  

Net Carbohydrate = Total Carbohydrate available in food – Total amount of Fiber in Food

For Example, A medium size of Banana has ~30 grams of total carbohydrate and around 3 grams of fiber. The net carbohydrate of a banana can be calculated as:

Net Carbohydrate of Banana = 30 – 3 = 27

It means a banana has ~ 27 grams of digestible carbohydrate.  

 If you know the glycemic index of the food and the net carbohydrates available in one serving of the food. You can calculate the Glycemic Load of the serving of that food easily. 

How To Calculate Glycemic Load 

The Glycemic Load of a food item is the key factor in making a diabetes diet chart. It gives you a hint of how many portions of a food item you can eat in one serving and how can you decide the food to eat. It also helps you to understand how much a food will raise your blood sugar after eating the food. One unit of glycemic load gives the same effect as eating one gram of glucose. 

Multiply the glycemic index of a food with the net carbohydrate available in one serving or portion of the food then divide it by 100. Following is the formula for calculating the glycemic load:

Glycemic load = Glycemic Index X Net Carbohydrate / 100

Let’s take an example of a Banana to calculate its Glycemic Load. The glycemic index of a banana is 52 and the net carbohydrate available in the medium size of a banana is 27. 

The glycemic load of Banana = 52 X 27 / 100

= 1404 / 100

= 14.04

It means that one banana gives you around 14 grams of glucose which will be absorbed into your blood after eating it. 

Let’s take another example of Apple. The glycemic index of an apple is 38 and the net carbohydrate available in the 125 gm of an apple is ~ 15 gm. 

Glycemic Load of Apple = 15 X 38 / 100

= 570/100

= 5.7

Understand Your Diet and Reverse Your Diabetes?

The golden rule for a diabetic patient’s diet is to balance the glycemic load in each serving according to your calorie need and blood sugar level.

The glycemic load of one serving should not be more than 20 units of glycemic load, and the total glycemic load for a day should be less than 100 units.

Just you need to distribute the total glycemic load and the calories into 5 servings per day. Each serving should have a balance between carbohydrates, Protein, and Fat. Do not forget to add minerals and vitamins to your meals. 

Keep in your mind, one unit of glycemic load is equal to one gram of glucose which gives 4 calories and can raise blood glucose levels from 6 to 10 mg/dl.

Similarly, you can calculate the glycemic load of each serving of your food to decide the quantity of food and fruits in one serving as per the requirement.

How Define Your Goal To Make A Diabetic Diet Chart?

Calculate your daily requirement of the calories

You can make a diabetic diet chart or diabetes diet chart as per your daily requirement of glucose and calories. The daily requirement for glucose and energy can vary from one person to other. A diabetic patient should take 1200 to 1800 calories per day. On other hand, for a non-diabetic healthy adult, the calorie intake should be 2000 for women and 2500 for men.

How to calculate your daily calories needs and total intake per day?

The below calculation is for a non-diabetic person. For a diabetic patient, we need to calculate the calories requirement a bit differently.

• Find your weight in kilograms (If your weight is in pounds then you need to divide it by 2.2 to get the kilograms)
• Multiply your weight in kilograms by 1 if you are a male or 0.9 if you are female.
• Multiply it by 24
• You will get the answer to how many calories you needed in a day.

For Example, if your body weight is 60 kg, multiply your body weight by 1 if you are male or by 0.9 if you are female, then multiply it by 24. You will get your daily requirement of calories. 

60 X 1 X 24 = 1440 Calories in a day

Distribute calories among Carbohydrates, Protein, and Fat portions

You should distribute your total calories among types of foods and prepare your meal accordingly. 

• Around 50% (Ranges from 45% to 60%) should come from carbohydrates
• From Protein 15% to 20%
• And 30% to 35% of Fat

If you are a male and your weight is 60 kg, your calories requirement would be 1440 calories per day. Your per day calories distribution would be as:

• Carbohydrate (50%) = 720 calories
• Fat (30%) = 432 calories
• Protein (20%) = 288 calories

Now time to distribute your daily calories into multiple servings, prefer to distribute your total calories need into 5 servings. Keep a balance in each serving between carbohydrates, Protein, and Fat. 

Breakfast: 20% – 25% of daily calories

Morning Snacks: 5% – 10 % of daily calories

Lunch: 35% – 40% of daily calories

Afternoon Snack: 5-10% of daily calories

Dinner: 15-20% of daily calories

Watch this video – Decide what can a Sugar patient eat

Choose the food whatever you want to eat

Now choose the food you want to eat but you need to know the Glycemic Load of each serving of the food. Once you calculated the glycemic load of one serving you can find out the calories of each serving. On this basis, you can increase or decrease the serving size to balance the calories intake. 

As you know, 1 gram of glucose gives ~ 4 calories. and to get 720 calories you require 180 grams of glucose in a day. Your total food should have a maximum of 180 grams of net carbohydrate which should not cross the 100 Glycemic Load in a day.

Distribute the Glycemic Load in multiple servings 

A diabetic patient should take a maximum of 100 units of glycemic load in a day. Distribute a total of 100 Glycemic Load into 5 servings as per the following criteria. 

• Breakfast: 25 Glycemic Load 
• Morning Snacks:  10 Glycemic Load
• Lunch:  35 Glycemic Load
• Afternoon Snack: Glycemic Load 10 
• Dinner:  20 Glycemic Load

Calculate the Glycemic Load of each serving 

Choose low Glycemic Load foods with a high fiber diet so that you can quench your hunger without taking many calories or carbohydrates.

For example, if you have to keep your breakfast under 25 glycemic index then you can choose foods likewise.

1. Skimmed Milk 100 ml (Glycemic Index 33, Net Carbohydrate 13) – Glycemic Load 4
2. One Egg (Glycemic Index 0, Net Carbohydrate 0) – Glycemic Load 0
3. An Apple (Glycemic Index 38, Net Carbohydrate 15) – Glycemic Load 6
4. One Banana ( (Glycemic Index 52, Net Carbohydrate 27) – Glycemic Load 14

This example says that you consumed a total of 55 grams of net carbohydrate which gives you a 24 Glycemic load. In a similar way, you can calculate the glycemic load of each serving as per your choice and can make your diet plan as per your test and requirements. You have to adjust your total diet with carbohydrates, Protein, and Fat components respectively.