Eating Well with Type I Diabetes

Having a balanced diet is one of the first changes a diabetic patient is faced with and can be one of the most drastic and difficult lifestyle alterations that need to be made. Due to the different ways that are now being used to treat diabetes, managing your diet has now become an easier part of a patient’s life. The variety of food available is still very much the same but more focus is given to particular food types such as Carbohydrates. Balancing your diet can be a very effective way to improve the health of those suffering from Type I diabetes.

The Glycaemic Index

One of the first phrases introduced to those diagnosed with diabetes is GI. This stands for Glycaemic Index and consists of a ranking of all food according to the effect they will have on the blood sugar levels once digested. Those foods that are quickly absorbed by the body have a higher rating than the slower absorbed foods, using white bread as a standard (GI 100) reference. This allows patients to compare foods to one another when discussing similar amounts. Previous thoughts were that the same weight of carbohydrate, no matter which food type it was contained within, would have the same effect on blood glucose levels. However, studies proved this not to be the case and that 30g of carbohydrate in bread doesn’t have the same effect as the same value of carbohydrates in say fruit or pasta.

The relevance of the Glycaemic index is therefore that a slow acting food with a low GI number will therefore encourage long term maintenance of blood sugar levels as it is absorbed gradually over a long period of time. It can therefore help patients to avoid hypoglycaemia and is used more predominantly with patients who inject only twice a day.   

The GI food counting has also proven to be beneficial for Type II diabetics in helping them to lose weight as it reduces hunger as food is absorbed over longer. There has also been a positive correlation with GI food diets and reduced cholesterol levels.  

Below is a table showing some of the foods common in our diets and rating them on the GI scale.   

Visit www.glycemicindex.com for more information about the GI and the ratings for different foods.