Diabetes is a chronic disease that is becoming more common in the world today. Regardless of age, quality of life or part of the world, everybody can get it.
What Is Type 2 Diabetes?
Type 2 diabetes is a condition that causes insulin resistance. Insulin’s role in your body is to regulate the movement of sugar between your cells. When your body has a resistance to insulin, that means its sensitivity to insulin is lower, so you’ll need more insulin to properly move and process glucose/sugar, perhaps so much that your body can’t produce enough insulin.
The result is constantly high blood sugar levels, especially fasting blood sugar level (normal people also have high blood sugar levels after eating a lot of carbs, but their fasting blood sugar levels would be in the normal range). This can lead to other conditions such as nerve damage, kidney failure, and heart problems.
Fortunately, you can regulate blood sugar levels to an extent. With everyday exercise, change of habits and keeping up with rigid nutrition. It is important to keep a steady diet and know what not to eat. This article goes over the worst foods for type 2 diabetes and why you should avoid them.
What Are Worst Foods For Type 2 Diabetes?
If you don’t stick to a diabetic diet, the consequences could be severe. Consider that when deciding what to eat. There are plenty of foods that you should always avoid.
Drinks That Contain Sugar
Drinking sugary drinks is the first thing you should avoid. It is sometimes difficult to resist a glass of soda. But, you should know that a can of regular soda packs the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar hitting your blood. Other sugary drinks include sweetened iced tea, energy and sports drinks, juices, milkshakes, etc.
All contain lots of sugars that trigger insulin release in your blood. If you have type 2 diabetes, you have high insulin resistance so insulin doesn’t work as well in your system. When you do the math – you realize just how bad it is.
White Bread And Refined Flour Products
It is okay to eat bread, but not any kind. White bread is processed and full of simple carbs. You should also avoid pasta, white rice, bagels and other refined flour food products. These products are high on the glycemic scale, which means that sugars get released quickly in your body. And being diabetic, you have problems processing all that sugar so quickly.
Look for complex carbs alternatives like wholegrain bread and pasta and brown rice. These have much lower glycemic indexes and release sugars slow enough that your body has a better chance of coping.
Trans fats
Experts say that consuming trans fats will lead to:
- insulin resistance
- increase in body fat
- inflammations
- decline in good cholesterol levels
- clogged arteries
These problems combined with the effects of diabetes may lead to more severe conditions. You can find trans fats in peanut butter, spreads and sauces, some vegetable oils (hydrogenated sunflower, soybeans, palm), and more. Sometimes they are added to cookies and crackers so be careful and read the labels.
Fruit-Flavored Products
Fruit-flavored yogurt, fruit snacks, fruit smoothies, and dried fruits should all be on your list of forbidden foods.
All these products have tons of carbs and sugars. Some frozen yogurts contain more sugars than ice cream. Dried fruits are mostly carbs and devoid of their original nutrients. Fruit snacks are nothing more than tiny sugar bombs.
Grilled Meat And Cheese
Grilled cheese, while an all-time favorite, is nothing more than refined white bread and processed cheeses and lots of grease. Char-grilled meats are juicy but charred food may cause advanced glycation. If you consume it in high amounts, your blood sugar may spike instantly.
Sugar Alternatives
Contrary to popular belief, honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, agave nectar, and artificial sweeteners may not be good for diabetics. Even though they are not as highly processed, they sometimes have even more carbs than white sugar. For example, one tablespoon of honey contains more carbs than one tablespoon of granulated sugar.
Artificial sweeteners cause other problems. Since the sweetener can be even 20 thousand times sweeter than sugar, it may mess up your senses. Your taste receptors will get weaker which may make some sweet alternatives more bitter. This can cause you to crave for sweeter, more harmful things.
Cereals
You may think you are having a satisfying start to the day when you serve cereals, but you would be wrong. Most boxed cereals are high in carbs and low in the necessary proteins. Proteins are one of the most important nutrients for regulating blood sugar. For this reason, you should consider other breakfast meals.
Fast Food and Processed Meat
It is common knowledge that fast food is never good. If you have type 2 diabetes, you should avoid it like the plague. Fast food and takeouts like pizza, hamburger, and Chinese food are full of calories in the form of carbs and fat.
Processed meat products, including fancy deli meats, are full of sodium. Just two slices of salami contain more sodium than a bag of pretzels!
French fries, like all deep-fried foods, elevate your blood sugar quickly. Restaurants fry them in processed vegetable oil. When used over and over again, the oil may release various toxic substances that have been connected to heart disease and even cancer.
In the End, What Should You Eat?
You do not have to worry. Just because you found out the worst foods for type 2 diabetes, it doesn’t mean that there are no alternatives. Home cooked meals replace fast food. Whole grain flour will come in place of processed grains. Fresh meat is the healthy alternative to processed, and so on.
If you want to leave a healthy life and cut the risks of developing type 2 diabetes, or manage it if you’re diabetic, you have to be persistent. There are plenty of foods that you can mix in your daily diet that can only do you good. Once you avoid the harmful products for some time, the craving should disappear too. Take care of your body!
References:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-2-diabetes/symptoms-causes/syc-20351193
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/type-2/
https://uichildrens.org/health-library/foods-avoid-type-2-diabetes
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23505182
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26338891
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