Packaged Foods and Diabetes

Reputed brands of processed and packaged foods are a blessing for people with diabetes, though you must never shop or prepare a meal without a handy magnifying lens!

The attractive packaging and modern convenience apart, branded foods make it easy to keep tabs on your diabetes diet.

Here are 3 easy-to-follow rules to follow when buying and preparing ready-to-eat meals, food items, and beverages:

1. Ask your doctor for the following daily limits:

a. How many calories you can consume a day.

b. How much of carbohydrates, total fats, saturated fats, and trans-fats you are allowed a day.

2. Look for how much of these ingredients each brand and package contains. Stay away from products which do not have these details on labels. Prefer brands which use up as little as possible of the daily limits your doctor sets. Remember that limiting carbohydrate, total fat, saturated fat, and trans-fat daily intakes, is as important as staying away from sugar.

3. Reflect on the serving size before you help yourself to a snack or a meal, because the label may mention the details you seek in terms of serving sizes smaller than the ones you are tempted to have.

Stick a form on your refrigerator or wherever, which makes it easy to keep tabs on your diet for the day. Let me know if you would like a table with rows and columns, which you can print and copy.

Oh, and the magnifying lens is for reading the fine print on the label.

Enjoy!