Food Lists – with essential supplementary information

This site provides a link to the Food Lists on our companion blog-site, Diabetic Menu Guide, where  the various categories of food items such as Vegetables, Meats, Fats, Fruits, Fish, Cereals, Dairy, Breads, Jams and spreads, and Drinks are shown together with nutrition details.
To access that information, click:  The Food Lists,

The importance of carbohydrates
Foods are comprised mainly of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and fiber, and of course, water. One of the most important factors of our diabetic foods is the amount of carbohydrates in our meals. Carbohydrates are a primary source of the glucose that enters our bloodstream and every newly diagnose diabetic should become familiar with the effects of the carbohydrate portion of their meals.

The speed at which carbohydrates are broken down by the body into glucose varies with the individual food item, in some foods it is fast in others not so fast, and the slower it is the better it is for the diabetic.

The Glycemic Index
A widely accepted tool in diabetic food planning is the Glycemic Index, GI for short. The GI is a numerical ranking of how fast individual food items are reduced to glucose and enter the bloodstream compared to a reference standard such as sugar or white bread. The GI is another reference source for diabetics to learn about. In a companion post on this site we provide an explanation of the Glycemic Index and the Glycemic Load.

The Practical Value of the Food Lists Provided on this Site

Since there are few foods that are “off-limits” to the diabetic, it is the accompanying information regarding the nutritional content of the individual servings of the specific food items that is important.

From these values, the total nutritional content can be determined for selected food items that comprise a meal and it can then be seen whether they meet the objectives of the menu plan regarding calories, and the preferred ratios of carbohydrates to proteins to fats.

Although most food items are acceptable to the diabetic, some may require modest proportions and certainly some items are less desirable compared to others, for instance, whole wheat breads are a better choice that white breads.

The diabetic food list includes many food entries and a lot of supplementary information. Why it is necessary to know the nutrient and calorie content of foods is explained below.

If You Are Newly Diagnosed as Diabetic:
The following might be of interest: click on for details
About Diabetes, from my own experience
About Diabetes, a simple explanation

More is needed than just a list of foods
To feed yourself properly, you will need to include the right combination of Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Fats, the primary nutrients needed by the body to sustain life, the building blocks, so to speak, to maintain good health.

So as well as the basic food lists, we include the amounts of Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Fats in those foods, and will be adding the Glycemic Index values and the Glycemic Load values shortly.

And more is needed than just a list of foods and their nutrient content
Why? Because you need to know how much of those foods to include in your diabetic menu to provide the energy needed to carry out your daily activities in the workplace and to support your personal life style activities. Food energy is measured in Calories  so the calorie content of the individual foods is also listed in our lists of diabetic foods.

Calorie content based on individual needs and a target weight
As well as calorie content, even more information is needed to plan and prepare foods for your daily meals. The total daily calories required for individuals varies and should be known at the beginning when first establishing a diabetic meal plan and that can be based on the weight you wish to maintain, or the weight you may wish to gain or lose.

Do not follow a quick weight loss diet plan if you wish to lose weight,  we suggest that weight reduction can best take place in small increments over an extended time in that way the weight lost  is likely to stay “off” – whereas it has been shown that weight loss through quick weight-loss diets almost always is regained. Visit our post on the role of weight-loss in diabetes.

Now in Preparation:
More details on specific food items such as Seeds, Nuts, Fats and Oils, Grains, Vegetarian and Vegan dietary approaches, Regional dietary habits: Mediterranean, Okinawan, etc. High and Low carbohydrate approaches to diabetic menu planning. Etc etc.

Return to Introduction Page and Articles List

An explanation

Although the main focus of this blog-site is, by definition, on diabetic foods and diabetic food lists, there is much general information regarding diabetes that is worth dealing with here. Information that may be of interest especially to anyone recently diagnosed as having diabetes. And that includes simple explanations of diabetic topics that I myself wanted to find out about when I first became a “diabetic”.

Diabetes is a serious non-infectious chronic and progressive disease affecting about 25 million persons in North America. By chronic and progressive we mean that it is of long duration and tends to grow worse over time. There are three main types of diabetes, known as type-1, type-2, and gestational diabetes, but we will concentrate here on type-2 diabetes the version that occurs in more than 90 percent of all diabetes cases. A brief description of type-1 and gestational forms of diabetes is given elsewhere on this site.

Diabetes is the condition in which too much glucose is circulating in the bloodstream.
This occurs because of an impaired mechanism that normally operates in the body in a series of steps prompted by signals from other organs that react when food enters the stomach after eating.

The procedure involves an organ called the pancreas that produces insulin, a hormone that has the ability to join with glucose in the blood as it travels to the organs and cells of the body. Glucose is a simple sugar, a carbohydrate, and is the major source of energy needed by all the cells of the body in the performance of their metabolic functions. Some cells, such as brain cells and red blood cells, depend solely on the delivery of glucose from the blood stream.

If we think about that for just a moment, we can understand why our diabetic condition, with its impaired ability to deliver glucose to our brain and other cells, is so serious and that we must take appropriate actions to minimize the negative effects.

When we eat food it passes into our stomachs where digestion takes place and the mechanical and chemical actions of digestion process the food and produces the many nutrients, including glucose that is mainly obtained from the carbohydrate content of the foods we have eaten. The nutrients are absorbed through the walls of the intestines and pass into the bloodstream that will then distribute them to all the organs and cells of the body.

The body can keep a constant supply of glucose for the cells by maintaining a constant level of glucose in the blood. When needed it is there for the cells and when, after eating, an excess builds up and an over-supply occurs, the body, through its marvelous mechanisms, stores the excess glucose in the liver and muscles by converting the glucose into glycogen, which is a long chain of glucose molecules. If glucose levels become low, the stored glycogen is available for conversion back to glucose and at the same time the body stimulates the brain to urge you to eat more food.

But the glucose cannot get into the cells without assistance, assistance that is provided by a hormone called insulin that is mainly produced by another organ, the pancreas. The pancreas also produces a hormone called glucagon (not to be confused with the previously mentioned glycogen, and it is confusing I know) but glucagon plays an opposite role to insulin, It comes into play when the glucose levels begin to get too low and then assists in the conversion back to glucose of the previously mentioned stored glycogen in the liver and muscles.

The actions of both of those hormones, insulin and glucagon, work constantly to keep glucose concentrations in the blood to within an acceptable ranges for good health. In the case of the diabetic that balance is impaired and the glucose levels are not maintained within the appropriate ranges.

Insulin performs several important functions, one of which is to carry glucose molecules and conduct them to receptors that are on the outer membrane of cells where the unique structure of the insulin molecule complements the unique structure of the receptors, allowing them to “dock”, that is, to join together, and thereby the glucose is released and enters into the cell, another almost miraculous process of life.

In diabetics, this system does not work properly if at all
For several possible reasons, in persons suffering from diabetes the system does not operate in the way described above. Sometimes the pancreas does not produce enough insulin and sometimes the receptors of the cells become desensitized and do not react properly to the presence of insulin, not permitting the absorption of glucose into the cells and sometime it is a combination of both of those conditions.

Because of this the glucose stays in the bloodstream, and insulin too, both of which are unhealthy conditions. And too high a level of glucose in the blood, by definition, is diabetes.

So it is worthwhile to learn about certain foods and whether they are appropriate, as a diabetic,  to eat as an everyday item. A single favorite treat,  such as a muffin eaten at snack time each day by many people, is probably too much of a burden for the diabetic. That and a few others may have to be left off the diabetic food list, perhaps to be included only occasionally when in good control of blood sugar levels.

Also, a dietary adjustment, as recommended by dietitians and health care professionals may alleviate the diabetic conditions to some extent.  But even the adoption of a new dietary regimen may not be sufficiently effective and medications may need to be prescribed. For many, including myself, that becomes a path to increased medications and potential problems – but we will deal with that elsewhere together with other aspects of diabetes.

Meanwhile, for information on a variety of other topics dealing with diabetes, in addition to this site, you can check out my companion sites at Normal Blood Sugar Levels and Diabetes and Diabetic Menu Guide.

Return to Introduction Page and Articles List

This blog is called Diabetic Food List + Plus

Our objective is to provide information regarding a wide range of foods and how they can fit into a diabetic meal plan and a diabetic lifestyle. And the Plus in the title indicates that our intention is to cover not only foods that apply to an appropriate diabetic food list but to also discuss other topics that are  relevant to us and our life-styles as diabetics. Those topics will include, weight-loss, exercise, symptoms and types of diabetes and the complications that can occur in some cases if and when the disease advances, especially if not properly controlled and managed.

Articles on this site, click to access:

Posted to date, 2011

Chocolate! Is This Good News forf the Diabetic or What?

A Sort of  Salsa Recipe, Now On My Diabetic Menu

Salsa, An Addition to the Diabetic Food List to treat the Pain of Neuropathy

Tumeric, An Age-Old Food to Add to the Diabetic Food List

Vinegar — An Addition for the Diabetic Food List?

Pecans — More Nuts for the Diabetic Food List with Reference to Fats and Vitamin E

Brazil Nuts and Selenium, Additions to the Diabetic Food List, and a Note On Cancer

Soy Milk for the Diabetic Food List

Oatmeal and the diabetic menu

Additions to the Diabetic Food List – Part 1 of 4, Alpha-lipoic Acid

Additions to the Diabetic Food List – Part 2 of 4, Gymnema Sylvestre

Posted October and November, 2010:

Dietary Fiber for the Diabetic Food List

Episodes of Low Blood Sugars

Previous articles:

How to Manage the Diabetic Condition For the Newly Diagnosed Diabetic  – Read this First

About Foods and Diabetic Food Lists

Establishing Food Plans – Considerations

Diabetes, the Diagnosis and After

About Diabetes, A Simple Explanation

The Glycemic Index and the Glycemic Load

Low Carb Foods

Diabetes Juicer Recipes for Managing Blood Sugars

My Diabetic Food Plan – Part 1

My Diabetic Food Plan – Part 2

My Diabetic Food Plan – Part 3

Body Mass Index (BMI) Chart

Men . . . Listen Up,  and Take Warning

Some Non-regular Items for Your Diabetic Food List

ALMONDS in the control of Diabetes and High Cholesterol

Other supplementary food items to consider

Cinnamon – Does It Help Combat Diabetes?

Flaxseed Chia Hempseed Fenugreek Flavinoids

Omega-3′s Onions-and-Garlic Vinegars Mulberry-Leaf

Discussing more than just food We are not limiting ourselves to the discussion of diabetic foods and diabetic food lists as was originally intended. We also want to provide more general information on the entire subject of diabetes, including links to our other diabetes sites where more than food is discussed. We do this because it can be useful, especially to the newly diagnosed diabetic who may have questions about the disease and uncertainties regarding what they will now be facing. And that will certainly include matters relating to food, exercise, perhaps weight loss and perhaps medications, topics that we have written about and are linked to this site. I am a type-2  diabetic myself, for more than 20 years now, so I can anticipate many of the questions and topics that are of interest.

Caution: If you are a diabetic you must be under the care of a physician. Your doctor and health care team will monitor the progress of your diabetes and advise you on what must be done to control and manage the condition. But the day-to-day management is in your own hands and the actions you take may affect the outcome, beneficially or otherwise.

For those newly diagnosed, here is an introduction to being Diabetic. And for a description of how it works, see About Diabetes.

Before discussing Diabetic Foods and Diabetic Food Lists, a general comment: There are several factors we might consider, including selection of food items and their preparation for consumption that meet the individual’s personal tastes and preferences, most of us have grown up with family meals reflecting regional, and perhaps cultural influences, foods that are commonly available in one area may not be so elsewhere, those who live in towns near the sea are likely to favor fish more so perhaps than those growing up in farm country. Otherwise, in the matter of foods for diabetics, the general approach is to select foods with  properties that as much as possible do not add to the problems of high blood sugars that are always with us. There are abundant nutritious and varied food items that meet that requirement, no foods are “off-limits” but portion size and frequency may need to be restricted for good blood sugar control.

Go to our post for a Food List with nutritional and other information. In an accompanying post on this site, there is reference to dietary approaches recommended by: The ADA (American Diabetes Association)  – a high carbohydrate version. The anti-ADA approach  – a low carbohydrate version. and brief references to the Vegetarian and Vegan versions. Check out the  Vegetarian Approach to a Diabetic Menu for more details.

Other articles and topics to consider: Special requirements concerning the need to lose weight that will require dealing with total calories and some reference to weight loss strategies and exercise – and let’s add cholesterol and cardio-vascular references too. On this site we will also make reference to  Supplements, Vitamins and Minerals and to food items that have properties that are said, by some, to be beneficial to diabetics, we will refer to and describe those items, and give some reference sources, with links if possible, for such things as: Flaxseed, Cinnamon, Mulberry leaf, Fenugreek, Bilberry, Onions and Garlic, Apple Cider Vinegar, Flavinoids + others and to Minerals such as Chromium, Co-Q10, Magnesium, + others.