Monday, October 17, 2011

Gestational Diabetes Questions?

396545384 Would these be good meals to eat while having G.D.

Breakfast: scrambled eggs & a slice of wheat toast with little butter on it

Lunch: chicken caesar salad (low fat dressing)

Dinner: broccoli; zucchini; or green beans with meat (chicken breast or stake)

Also I really craved chocolate during this pregnancy. Do I have to cut it out all together? Or can I still have a small amount of it?

And if you have any other ideas on meals let me know.. (I don't eat peanut butter or drink milk)

3 comments:

  1. RN851 - Proposed diet looks good..make certain you continue taking your vitamins and add some yogurt or skim milk. A little chocolate should not be a problem...though once you start it may be difficult to stop.

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  2. Tabea - In general for any sort of diabetes, low carb is a good bet.

    Fat is not the issue. Fats do not raise blood sugar. Please, feel free to use butter, regular dressing, and eat chicken skin if you want to. I repeat, fats do not raise blood sugar! it is carbs that raise blood sugar.

    Mornings are when most of us are the most insulin resistant. So I would have the lowest carb meal in the morning. If you want to eat bread, have it with lunch or dinner when you are less insulin resistant.

    All foods are fine in moderation. That includes chocolate. In fact, the higher the cocoa mass, the lower the carb content of chocolate. I keep 74% cocoa mass chocolate in the fridge and one or two squares doesn't raise my blood sugar.

    Finally, it would be a good idea to get a blood glucose meter and test your blood sugar to make sure you are not spiking after meals. The target is to be under 7.8 mm/ol or 140 mg/dl, one hour after eating.

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  3. Lisa - Hi RoseyRed. Although I agree with some of what Tabea suggested, in general if you have gestational diabetes fat does matter. It's true that although it doesn't directly raise blood glucose it does the following:
    1. make it harder for your insulin to work so indirectly can result in higher blood glucose levels.
    2. contribute to excessive weight gain making it harder for your diabetes to be managed
    3. may increase your cholesterol which in combination with GDM can further the accelerated (over)growth of your baby
    4. is not good for your heart
    While you don't need to be fanatical about following a strict low fat diet, you still need to watch fat and it's better to fill up on lean proteins and 'free' vegetables (not containing carbs) as well as low GI carbs rather than fill up on non-nutritious extra fat.
    As for carbs. Your baby is reliant on you eating enough carbs each day - with or without GDM, so low carb is not the answer though with GDM it's generally a lower carb diet than what you'd normally eat. I hope that's helpful. I had GDM in 2009 and my experience with trying to eat the right things etc. inspired me to launch Australia's 1st GDM recipe blog GestationalDiabetesRecipes.com
    You might also be interested in the latest article that's on the homepage, it's called 'Snacking right with GDM'. Heaps of great product ideas.
    All the best! Lisa

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