What kind of food can a type 2 diabetic eat?What kind of food should they eat more of on a daily basis? What kind of food and drinks cant they eat? I heard that they should walk everyday. Is that correct and if so how much should they walk and for how long? For a type 2 diabetic that is 52 years old what kind of medicine are they most likely going to take? Insulin shots or pills? Thank you so much I really need this Information thank you again.10 points best answerThursday, January 12, 2012
The Diet Of A Type 2 Diabetic And The Type Of Medicine They Need?
What kind of food can a type 2 diabetic eat?What kind of food should they eat more of on a daily basis? What kind of food and drinks cant they eat? I heard that they should walk everyday. Is that correct and if so how much should they walk and for how long? For a type 2 diabetic that is 52 years old what kind of medicine are they most likely going to take? Insulin shots or pills? Thank you so much I really need this Information thank you again.10 points best answer
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Inferno - Depends on which type they have. If it's type one they have to take shots, if its type 2, they have to take pills.
ReplyDeleteDiabetes type 1 ( juvenile diabetes): The body does not produce any insulin; therefore shots are needed to convert food into energy.
Diabetes type 2: (Insulin resistance): The body produces insulin, just not as much as compared to a regular person; therefore pills are needed to fix that problem. (For your condition, you should be taking Metformin)
Types of food diabetics should eat: Vegetables; such as carrots, broccoli. celery, beats. Since diabetes affects the eyes, carrots are great because they contain lots of vitamin C, thus it helps with improving night vision and strengthening of the cornia. Broccoli help with blood pressure and blood sugar, therefore balancing both of them out, especially blood sugar. Beats are great for the liver because they strengthen the liver by removing toxins and regulating blood sugar.
Noccie - There is no one answer to this. What to eat is too complex of a question to answer here because it has to do with carbohydrates and the glycemic index. The best place to get these answers are with your doctor. A few appointments with a dietician will be especially helpful.
ReplyDeleteSome people with type 2 diabetes take oral medication, some take insulin, some take both. Some don't take any medication at all and can control their blood sugar with diet and exercise. There are many kinds of pills.
Do a little research on the American Diabetes Assoc web site - lots of good information there, but then you still have to consult with your doctor.
John W - There are no restrictions on a type 2 diabetic's food other than to not consume too many carbohydrates, however eating lower glycemic index foods can benefit a type 2 diabetic as it spreads out the glucose release more. So does eating smaller and more frequent meals. A type 2 diabetic is still making their own insulin, though they may not be making enough or the insulin is somehow less effective then it should be so spreading out the glucose load helps a lot and some type 2 diabetics can use diet and exercise to avoid medication and insulin.
ReplyDeleteThey are most likely going to give you Metformin ( Glucophage ), this controls the liver's release of glucose which is what sustains you when you're not eating. They may also give you something like Amaryl to stimulate the pancreas into more insulin production. The Amaryl drove down my glucose levels too much that I would regularly have hypoglycemia a couple of hours afterwards, nothing a candy wouldn't solve but dropping the amaryl and going with a basal dose of Lantus insulin solved the hypoglycemia problem for me. If you do go on insulin, it would most likely be a once a day basal insulin like Lantus or Levelin.
Some insurance policies won't cover Lantus or Levelin and some people have to buy their own insulin, in which case you use two shots of NPH insulin instead at 12 hour intervals, a night time shot and a morning shot. The NPH insulin without insurance can cost you about $30 for a month and a half while Lantus can easily be over $200 for the same timeframe, the difference is that you have to wake up in time for the morning shot on weekends and holidays. I've since changed to NPH for financial reasons.
In some cases of type 2 where the production of insulin has really degraded, they may put you on the full basal/bolus insulin program like a type 1 diabetic would be on. Being on a basal/bolus program could change your dietary requirements if you're on syringes or insulin pens because the meals should match the bolus shot or the insulin mix must be changed or the number of shots increased hence a low glycemic index diet would be a mixed blessing. Being on a full basal/bolus program has the advantage of qualifying for an insulin pump and a continuos glucose monitor but not all insurance programs will cover it as it's mostly a convenience especially for a type 2. Currently, the pumps and glucose sensor still requires the patient to authorize the bolus insulin injection but technically it can be automated and essentially be the same as a non-diabetic except with the fact that the injection site of the pump must be changed every three days and the glucose monitor must be changed every six days. Most type 2's will never see the full pump and continuous glucose monitor.
Kai - Whoa, lots of questions you should be asking your doctor and/or diabetes trainer. A type 2 can eat anything. However, certain foods will cause a glucose rise in his/her blood so most of us avoid or only eat certain foods infrequently. Starchy veggies are these: potatoes, hard shelled winter gourds, carrots, sweet green peas. Grains and anything made from grains (bread, cereal, pastries, etc.) are pure carbohydates which will raise blood glucose so you eat them knowingly and discretely--I try to avoid them so I won't have to deal with the aftereffects. Most other veggies, although some have some carbos, are so low in carbos you can probably eat a lot of them without a significant glucose rise--leafy greens (cooked or raw), celery, cabbage, etc. Meat protein is carb free so you can eat a lot of that plus it will make you feel full since it takes so long to digest. You can eat a small fruit every day, whole fruit, not fruit juice but avoid grapes since they are just sugar water in a skin. And exercise. Many of us do walk because it's free, doesn't take a lot of equipment, you can do it alone or with friends, you can walk any time and it's easy and it's low impact. How long you walk is up to you. I try to walk, a good heated walk, for at leas and hour a day and sometimes it gets longer. After eating more carbs then usual, I leashed up my sister's dog (we were at her house) and went for a very long walk to burn off some of the glucose I'd ingested. Exercise, aside from it just being good for you, keeps your circulation going so the glucose moves to your working muscles where it can be burned up. Exercise also does something to insulin resistant cells and makes them behave better. But your exercise doesn't have to be walking. You can choose some activity that you like better and will stick with, or at least will get you up and moving. And not all Type 2s need to take insulin. I take an oral medication (Metformin) once a day and am very careful what I eat, get out and walk around every day and don't inject insulin. But other diabetics take other meds, sometimes several of them. My brother is on some oral med plus he gives himself a long-lasting insulin injection once a day--but he's also grossly overweight and is very sedentary. I think if he had people to walk with he'd get up and out more but he doesn't, he prefers to sit (or lie) and read a lot.
ReplyDeleteBen Trolled - Metformin is the first line of defense. Never , ever take Actos, Avandia, januvia or onglazia..
ReplyDeleteFor diet , this is great for the whole family..http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm
This table includes the glycemic index and glycemic load of more than 2,480 individual food items. Not all of them, however, are available in the United States. They represent a true international effort of testing around the world.
The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers–the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike. A list of carbohydrates with their glycemic values is shown below. A GI is 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 inclusive is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.
The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn't tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food's effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn't a lot of it, so watermelon's glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.
Foods that have a low GL almost always have a low GI. Foods with an intermediate or high GL range from very low to very high GI.
Both GI and GL are listed here. The GI is of foods based on the glucose index–where glucose is set to equal 100. The other is the glycemic load, which is the glycemic index divided by 100 multiplied by its available carbohydrate content (i.e. carbohydrates minus fiber) in grams. (The "Serve size (g)" column is the serving size in grams for calculating the glycemic load; for simplicity of presentation I have left out an intermediate column that shows the available carbohydrates in the stated serving sizes.) Take, watermelon as an example of calculating glycemic load. Its glycemic index is pretty high, about 72. According to the calculations by the people at the University of Sydney's Human Nutrition Unit, in a serving of 120 grams it has 6 grams of available carbohydrate per serving, so its glycemic load is pretty low, 72/100*6=4.32, rounded to 4.
And daily exercise is as important as diet and meds.
Take care
Ben Trolled
Li - Here's the general rule of thumb I follow: Keep the carbs and sugars to a minimum. Eat lots of vegetables. Limit the meats to fish and chicken. Avoid beef and dairy. On the carbs you do eat, make sure they're made with whole grains.
ReplyDeleteA. Thorne - It's all about portions and the timing of the exercise. Below is an easy way to manage your food intake and get you trained on visualizing how much of each food group to have each day. I do some sort 10-15 minute exercise (walk, bike ride, aerobics) about 90 minutes after I begin eating a meal. As far as the medication goes it depends on how far advanced the disease is so there is no "best" answer I can give not knowing your history. The most common medications are forms of Metformin and Avandia (Actos) which both help overcome insulin resistance. Some type 2 diabetics do need insulin eventually.
ReplyDeleteRoy - Hi Farah,
ReplyDeletethe most effective way to cure type 2 diabetes is with a high fibre, high carbohydrate, low protein, low fat raw food diet.
Before making any decisions watch the trailer to 'Simply Raw - Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days' on youtube.
Good luck!
TheOrange Evil - You already have a lot of good answers, but I'll throw my hat in anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of food can a type 2 diabetic eat?
Technically, anything that doesn't raise blood sugar levels too high, but generally foods that spike blood sugar are high in carbohydrates. Diabetics will probably experience better blood sugar results eating meat, cheese, eggs, nuts, seeds, and non-starchy vegetables than bread, rice, corn or potatoes.
What kind of food should they eat more of on a daily basis?
On a low-carbohydrate diet, it's important to get lots of non-starchy vegetables, as well as ample supplies of protein and fat. Yes, fat. Fat helps you absorb the nutrients you're eating.
What kind of food and drinks cant they eat?
Again, it's all about blood sugar - whatever food/portion that doesn't raise blood sugar too high is fine. Carbohydrates, like bread, rice, corn, potatoes, and sugar, are usually the foods to do that.
I heard that they should walk everyday. Is that correct and if so how much should they walk and for how long?
Any type of exercise is beneficial to a Type 2 because exercise improves insulin sensitivity. Often Type 2 is a disease of insulin resistance. IR is when the cells don't respond properly to insulin, so blood glucose floats around unable to be taken up into the cells efficiently. Through exercise, the cells can use the insulin better, and that helps lower blood sugar and insulin levels. By lowering insulin levels, a Type 2 can more easily lose weight, if necessary. Insulin promotes fat storage. There's no set amount of exercise. A lot depends on the overall healthy and activity level of the person involved, but 3-4 times a week (any amount) is a good place to start. After a while, the diabetic will be able to exercise more. I've gone from short half-hour walks to walking straight for 2 or 3 hours without needing any kind of break.
For a type 2 diabetic that is 52 years old what kind of medicine are they most likely going to take? Insulin shots or pills?
There's no way to know, but most diabetics start on oral medication (pills). A lot depends on how high blood sugar was at diagnosis, as well as the effectiveness of the oral medication. The most commonly prescribed oral med for Type 2 diabetes is Metformin. Metformin has very few side effects and a low incidence of hypoglycemia and works best with a low-carbohydrate diet. Some diabetics never need to go on insulin.