Food for Diabetes

When you have diabetes, the most effective strategy is to improve your diet to avoid blood sugar spikes and adopt a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise and other good habits. While you don’t have to follow a so-called diabetes diet, you should work with a certified diabetes educator to develop a healthful diet that addresses your nutritional requirements as well as any weight loss needs.

For a convenient snack, mini-meal or nutrition drink that won’t negatively affect blood sugar levels, try specially formulated diabetic foods, like bars, cereal, shakes and other drinks that will leave you feeling full and well nourished.

Paying attention to the carbohydrates in the foods and supplements you eat is important because starchy and high sugar carb-based foods can more easily cause blood sugar spikes—these include carbs found in white bread, other refined flour products and starchy vegetables like potatoes. You want to focus on carbohydrates that break down more slowly and increase blood sugar at a steady pace. Glucerna products, for instance, have a special formulation that includes slowly digestible carbohydrates designed to help minimize blood sugar spikes.

Fructose is part of the carbohydrate blend in Glucerna products to help minimize blood sugar response—the blood sugar response to fructose is less than that of other sugars, like sucrose. The amount of time that it takes one of these products to get into your bloodstream varies—it’s highly individualized—but they’re designed so that you’ll experience a lower peak blood sugar response than you would to a standard snack.

Nestlé Nutrition also offers nutritional products that are specifically designed for people with diabetes, such as Boost Glucose Control, a balanced nutritional drink suitable as a mini meal or nutritious snack. It contains a unique blend of protein, fat and slow-digesting carbohydrates designed to help manage blood sugar levels as part of a balanced diet—each 8-ounce beverage delivers 16 grams of high-quality protein and 3 grams of fiber in addition to the slow-digesting carbs.

Health Note: These diabetes friendly products should not be used to treat hypoglycemia, insulin shock or insulin reaction because they aren’t absorbed quickly enough to restore blood sugar to a normal level. Talk to your healthcare professional about appropriate options for low blood sugar reactions, such as glucose tablets.