Diabetes prevents your body from utilizing energy from sugars and starches properly, causing your blood sugar levels to rise. With the various harmful effects of diabetes on the cardiovascular system, managing it is crucial for maintaining your health.
Many doctors include dietary changes as part of overall management plans for diabetes. A proper diet helps you control your blood sugar levels to avoid complications.
Let’s talk about how diet plays a vital role in diabetes treatment and where you can go in Greater Atlanta for effective diabetes treatment.
Glucose As the Energy Provider
During digestion, the digestive tract breaks down food into simpler components, and some of the products are various energy carriers that can provide energy to cells.
Glucose, a sugar found in blood, is one of them and primarily comes from digesting carbohydrates like sugars and starches.
Human cells rely on a hormone called insulin to take glucose and utilize it for metabolism. Insulin comes from special cells in the pancreas and usually increases whenever blood glucose levels rise. Without insulin, your cells cannot use glucose, leaving it in your blood.
Diabetes can occur if there are issues with insulin production or use, preventing cells from using glucose. In these cases, diet plans that prevent rapid blood sugar spikes and promote weight loss are essential for managing diabetes.
How Diabetes Occurs
Diabetes refers to a group of conditions where the body has issues with utilizing glucose. It typically occurs in two forms depending on the mechanism that prevents the body from using glucose to provide energy.
Type I Diabetes
Type I diabetes occurs when the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin. It happens as part of an auto-immune reaction where your immune system confuses the pancreatic cells with foreign invaders.
The attack destroys the insulin-producing cells and results in low insulin production. Type I diabetes patients require regular insulin injections and dietary changes to continue living.
Type II Diabetes
Type II diabetes occurs when the body becomes more resistant to the effects of insulin. The pancreas starts to produce more insulin to compensate. Eventually, its compensatory capacity fails, causing glucose levels to increase.
Unlike Type I diabetes, Type II diabetes results from environmental and lifestyle choices. Hence, dietary changes help in both prevention and treatment.
Obesity and Weight Loss
Obesity is one of the significant links between diet and diabetes. Excessive weight gain usually occurs due to a massive intake of calorie-rich food and inadequate exercise. Unfortunately, both factors promote insulin resistance.
A diet carbohydrate-heavy diet causes glucose levels in the blood to rise, requiring the pancreas to release more insulin. Over time, the body becomes less sensitive to the released insulin, putting you at risk of developing diabetes.
Physical inactivity also promotes insulin resistance since exercise forces your body to expend more energy. That encourages your cells to respond better to insulin.
Whether you want to prevent or manage diabetes, weight loss is ideal if you are overweight. Careful diet planning and exercise are potent tools for sustainable weight loss.
The Diabetic Diet
Glucose primarily comes from the digestion of carbohydrates, so it makes sense to avoid high-carbohydrate foods. You should consume sugars and simple starches in minimal amounts as they can cause your blood sugar levels to spike.
Roughly half of the calories you consume should come from whole grains, vegetables, legumes, and other sources of complex carbohydrates. These items take longer to digest and cause less severe spikes in glucose levels. They also contain more vitamins and minerals to help maintain your overall health.
Aside from diet composition, you should cut your calories if you are overweight. Gradual weight reduction improves insulin sensitivity and reduces the severity of your diabetic condition.
Additionally, you should eat smaller meals more frequently since blood sugar levels spike after each meal. Switching from traditional three-meal diets to smaller meals means your body has to process fewer carbohydrates per session, reducing spikes.
Diabetes Treatment in the Greater Atlanta Area
