Healthy Eating

Eating healthfully is an important piece of good blood sugar control. Here are some simple tips to help you eat better for diabetes:

Eat at least 3 meals per day that are about the same size and amount of food: Avoid just eating 1-2 big meals a day since this can make you over-eat and can overload your body with too much food all at once.

May have snacks as needed to help control hunger: Try to pick a fruit, vegetable, handful of nuts or low-fat cheese as a few examples of healthy snacks.

Try to avoid fried foods when possible, or limit to 1-2 times per week: French Fries, onion rings, chips (unless baked), fried chicken or chicken fingers, chicken nuggets, fried fish

Try to limit sweets (desserts/candy/chocolate) to 2-3 small things per week, or 1 very small piece per day. 
Small = ½ cup ice cream, 1 fun sized candy bar, 2 Oreos, 2" square brownie or cake, 5 Hershey kisses
Very small = 1 mini sized candy bar, 1 Oreo, 1-2 bites of brownie or cake, 2 Hershey kisses

Avoid drinking sugar, unless treating a low blood sugar (less than 70).

• Sugary drinks to avoid: regular soda, juice, sweet coffee drinks, hot cocoa, sports or energy drinks, sweet tea, lemonade
• Sugar-Free drinks to enjoy: diet sodas, crystal lite, diet juice, sugar-free coffee flavors, sugar-free hot cocoa, diet energy drinks or sports drinks, water, iced tea unsweetened or sweetened with sweetener (splenda, sweet n low, stevia, equal)

Increase Activity to stay healthy and help blood sugars.: Try to do at least 30 minutes of activity most days of the week. Can be split up in 3 spurts of 10 minutes each.