Dietary Advice
Healthy Eating and Weight Control
Although the food choices you make and your eating habits are important in helping you manage your diabetes, you should still be able to continue enjoying a wide variety of foods as part of healthy eating. The following information provides an overview of a health diet.
What is a healthy diet?
A healthy diet consists of foods that are low in animal fats, high in fibre and low in sugar with plenty of fruit and vegetables. Cutting down on salt and eating more oily fish is also a healthy option.
What are the advantages of a healthy diet?
Eating healthily reduces the risk of weight gain, coronary heart disease, stroke and some cancers. Other factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels can also be reduced by healthy eating.
Which foods will affect my cholesterol levels?
There are two different types of cholesterol: HDL (high density lipoprotein or 'good cholesterol') and LDL (low density lipoprotein or 'bad cholesterol). You should aim to have a higher HDL and a lower LDL cholesterol. This can be achieved by reducing the amount of saturated fat that you eat. Saturated fat is found in animal products e.g. fat on meat, cheese, butter, lard and dripping.
So how can I cut down on the amount of saturated fat that I eat?
- Try to grill, bake, microwave or casserole rather than fry foods
- Choose the leanest meat and cut off fat before cooking.
- Substitute fish and poultry (without the skin) for fatty red meats and meat products like pies, pasties, sausages and pate
- Choose semi-skimmed or skimmed milk
- Use alternatives to cream such as low fat yogurt or fromage frais
- Cheese is high in fat. Choose lower fat cheeses such as Edam, Mozzarella or half-fat cheese. Cottage cheese is especially low in fat
- Substitute fruit or low fat alternatives for snacks like crisps, nuts, biscuits and chocolate
- Use low fat spreads instead of butter. Choose a monounsaturated oil such as rapeseed or olive oil for cooking instead of lard or dripping
- Choose low fat salad creams, mayonnaise and salad dressing
What does 5-a-day mean?
The current advice is to eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day. One portion is:
- 1 apple, orange, pear, peach, nectarine or banana
- 2 plums, apricots or tangerines
- 1 small handful of dried fruit
- 1 small glass of fruit juice
- Large portion of salad
How is my blood pressure affected by what I eat?
A high salt intake can increase blood pressure in some people. If you are overweight, losing weight can help to reduce your blood pressure.
How can I reduce my salt intake?
You can reduce the amount of salt you eat by avoiding both salt in cooking and salt added at the table. Commonplace foods high in salt are bacon, ham, crisps, salted nuts and cheese and processed foods. Cutting down on these will help reduce your salt intake.
How can I keep my weight within the normal range?
If you eat and drink more energy (calories) than you use, you will gain weight. Weight gain or loss is determined by balancing foods and physical activity. Less food and more physical activity aids weight loss.
So how do I lose weight if I want to?
You can try to reduce the amount of energy-dense foods that you eat. Examples of these foods include those high in fat or sugar. Increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables you eat can help to fill you up.
Advice provided by:
Emma Jenkins, Diabetes Specialist Dietician
Diabetes and Endocrine Centre, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch NHS Foundation Trust Hospital