Healthy Living With Diabetes
Living a healthy lifestyle can be challenging, especially when you have diabetes. It always requires knowledge and awareness to manage your blood sugar levels and prevent future health complications. Taking care of your diet and being more active throughout the day can be very helpful when you’re living with diabetes.
This article is a guide to patients on how they can live a healthy life with diabetes. From practical guidance to treatments and what to eat, we’ve got you covered in this article.
Dietary Modifications:
One of the cornerstones of healthy living with diabetes is healthy eating. You probably know how the food you eat has an impact on your blood sugar levels when you have diabetes. Here’s what you can do to modify your dietary habits:
1. Make Your Every Meal Well-Balanced:
Planning your every meal as much as possible can help you pay attention to the foods you choose. Plan a healthy and nutritious meal by adding a mix of healthy fats, proteins, vegetables, fruits, and starch. The type of carbohydrates also matters. For example, eating whole grains, vegetables, and fruits is a good way to consume complex carbohydrates for keeping your blood sugar levels more stable.
2. Learn About Portion Size:
Living healthy with diabetes involves watching your portion size and learning carbohydrate counting. Your blood sugar levels are hugely affected by the quantity of carbohydrates in your food.
Learning about portion size helps; using measuring cups or a scale and writing down portions for healthy foods are also helpful.
3. Avoid Sugar-Sweetened Beverages:
Beverages manufactured with refined or processed sugars are high in empty calories and cause your blood sugar levels to rise quickly. Therefore, it is important to avoid sugar-sweetened beverages to prevent the risk of many complications.
Exercise:
Another important part of healthy living with diabetes is physical activity, which helps your body to utilize insulin more efficiently. Here’s what you can do:
1. Keep An Exercise Schedule:
Decide the best time of your day to make an exercise schedule. Make sure to coordinate your exercise schedule with your medication and meal schedules.
2. Consult Your Doctor About The Exercise Plan:
Your doctor may recommend what type and duration of exercise are suitable for you. Typically, it is recommended to perform an exercise for at least 150 minutes a week. You can aim for a moderate aerobic activity for 30 minutes five days a week.
3. Be Prepared:
If your blood glucose levels tend to drop during exercise, keep glucose tablets or a small (but healthy) snack with you.
4. Medication:
Exercise and diet alone are not enough for healthy living with diabetes; you need to take your medications on time too. Talk to your doctor if a certain diabetes medication is causing your blood glucose levels to become too low or high. Store insulin at the required temperature. Consult your doctor before taking medication for high cholesterol or high blood pressure.
The Bottom Line:
Healthy living with diabetes involves taking care of your diet and modifying lifestyle habits. Watching what you eat, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, quitting smoking and alcohol, and taking medications regularly can not only improve your health but also can reverse diabetes.
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The FORA 6 offers clinically-validated accuracy, the capacity to measure multiple parameters that contribute to comprehensive diabetes treatment, and Bluetooth connectivity to iFORA app.