Diabetic Food List + Plus

Most of us living in North America eat more food than we really need to keep us in good health.  We eat too many carbohydrates and many of us also include too much protein and fat in our diets with the result that, like most Americans, we gain weight. Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are the primary nutrients, together with water, minerals and vitamins, that keep us alive.

Carbohydrates supply energy
Carbohydrates, also called carbs, are the sugars and starches in breads and grains, potatoes and other vegetables, and in fruits and beans, and those foods are the major contributors of carbs as a source of energy needed by the body’s cells. After eating carbohydrate foods, the digestion process breaks them down and the glucose content is passed through the walls of the intestines into the bloodstream and there circulates to reach the cells that require glucose.

How can we determine which foods can be considered as low carb foods?
Not all carbohydrates are the same in their immediate impact and speed of entry into the bloodstream, and it is the rate at which they are reduced to the sugar in the form of glucose that helps define whether they are considered as low carb foods or otherwise. Carbs can also be classified as refined or unrefined, with white breads, pastas and white flours being especially considered as refined carbs while foods such as whole grained breads, fruits, beans and most vegetables are classified as unrefined.

To indicate the relative rate of entry of carbs into the bloodstream, a scale has been devised called the Glycemic Index, also referred to as the GI for short. The GI ranks individual carbohydrate food items with an index number that compares them to glucose that has the assigned value of 100. The other food sources are ranked in the relation of their speed of conversion to glucose and for convenience are categorized as follows:

• high carb foods have GI values higher than 70
• medium carb foods have a GI value of 56 to 70
• low carb foods have GI values of 55 and lower

As can be seen, the low carb foods provide sugar at a slower rate of entry into the blood stream and this allows the body to more easily maintain a balanced amount of sugars in the blood. The high carb foods on the other hand, tend to cause spikes, blood sugars elevated to higher levels, not a preferred condition and certainly potentially harmful for people with diabetes or prediabetes.

A great deal more can be said on the topic of carbohydrates. We should distinguish between low carb foods and low carb diets. Low carbohydrate diets restrict the proportion of any types of carbohydrates in relation to the proportions of proteins and fats, whereas low carbohydrate foods can best be described as those that have lower Glycemic Index values.

Many well-known diet approaches using low quantities of carbohydrates have been described in such best selling books such as The Atkins Diet and The South Beach Diet. Taking opposite views to those popular books, there are many advocates of a medium dietary intake, represented by about 50 percent carbs, 25 percent proteins, 25% fats with no more than 10 percent of fat being saturated fats.

On my companion website, Diabetes Menu Guide, you might wish to read a related article on low carbs, to do so, just click on this link Low Carbohydrate Approach in Meal Planning. And check out these link for more on the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load.

The amount of carbohydrate in a meal or in a food item will not usually comprise the entire calorie amount of any food. To adjust the measurements for this, the Glycemic Index has been modified to produce a companion set of numerical values called the Glycemic Load. The Glycemic Load takes into account that particular amount of carbohydrate in an entire food item, giving a set of values.

High glycemic index carb foods include:

White and non-whole wheat breads, pastas, many breakfast cereals, potatoes, baked goods.

Low glycemic index carb foods include:

Fruits, many vegetables, whole wheat breads, legumes (beans and peas)

When consumed in reasonable amounts, some low glycemic load carb foods are:

Breads - whole grain pumpernickel bread, Soy and flaxseed bread, other whole grain breads.
Breakfast cereals – cooked oatmeal, All-bran, Bran Buds.
Fruits ans berries – grapefruit, strawberries, cherries, watermelon, apples, pears, peaches, plums, grapes, oranges, blueberries, raspberries, and others
Vegetables – cabbage, spinach, lettuce, kale, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, and most others.
Dairy and soy foods – soy milk, low fat milk, low fat yogurt
Nuts and seeds – flax seed, peanuts, cashews, walnuts, almonds, pecans, brazil nuts, hazel nuts – Nuts should be raw or dry-roasted.

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The Glycemic Index, or GI for short, is a list of carbohydrate containing foods that have been rated for their speed of conversion to glucose, and the release of that glucose into the bloodstream, compared to a standard reference value of 100 assigned to pure glucose. Pure glucose being very speedily released into the bloodstream since it does not require any further chemical breakdown by the digestive-system as would other food items.

The higher the numerical grading of a food the faster it is absorbed into the bloodstream compared to other foods of lower numerical value. Examples of this would be the breakfast cereals:

All-Bran with an established GI of 42,
Shredded Wheat with a GI of 67, and
Corn flakes with a GI of 84,

indicating that the carbohydrates in Corn flakes are converted much more quickly into glucose than the other two cereals with All-Bran taking the longest time. A faster release of glucose causes a faster and higher spike in blood sugar elevation, something to be avoided, or at least minimized if possible, leading to the conclusion that All-Bran is a better cereal choice than the others to include on the diabetic food list.

But not all high GI foods are bad and there are times, such as before, during, and after exercising, when they are beneficial. The body reacts to the higher blood glucose by releasing insulin, a hormone that assists the body in building muscle, although we must always keep in mind that the diabetic person’s body has an impaired ability to deal with insulin and higher blood glucose. These matters would be better discussed and commented on by the diabetic’s doctor or qualified health team members.

Many foods, such as proteins and fats, do not contain significant amounts of carbohydrate and are not listed on the glycemic Index.

The glycemic index is a useful tool to aid in choosing carbohydrate containing food items to include in a diabetic food list, enabling an emphasis on those with lower index values. But the inclusion of low GI foods in a diabetic food plan is only one of several considerations in determining an appropriate dietary regimen to follow over the long term.

GI range of values

Low GI values are 55 or less
Medium GI values are 56 to 69
High GI values are 70 and above.

The Glycemic Load
But what if the carbohydrate food we eat is only part of a larger meal that is otherwise devoid of carbohydrates, perhaps a meal of mostly protein and fat, of meat, vegetables, fruits, that have little or no carbohydrate content? In that case, measuring by weight in terms of grams, the carbohydrates would  be only part of the total grams in the meal and from this an adjusted GI value can be obtained by applying a simple formula..

To cover that situation, there is an extension and enhancement of the glycemic index known as the Glycemic Load. The glycemic load derives a set of values from those of the GI by taking into account the quantity, or quantities, of carbohydrates that are actually in the total meal of food item.

It becomes more practical to consider the GL of a food item when it is only a relatively small portion of the food being consumed, even if it is has a high GI rating,.

For a simplified example: when  knowing that one cup of the 84 GI cornflakes weighs about 30 grams, we can easily calculate the proportion of the cornflakes to the weight of the total meal. When being considered as part of a larger breakfast meal of 120 grams weight, it would be 25 percent of the total and that becomes the glycemic load value. 25 percent of the 84 GI is 21, the GL value of the cornflakes in the breakfast.

GL ranges of values
A GL value of 21 is still rather high, the substitution of a lower GI cereal such as Bran flakes or oatmeal porridge  would achieve a much lower GI rating. A GL value below 10 is considered to be low and above 20 is high in the opinion of most nutritionists.

An important decision regarding carbohydrate consumption
A major decision rests on what percentage of carbohydrates will be included in the overall diabetic food plan, whether to follow the American Diabetes Association’s recommendations of a high ratio of carbohydrates, or the opposite approach of lower carbohydrates, or somewhere in between. This is a controversial subject for many health care practitioners and needs careful consideration and discussion elsewhere. There are strong advocates whose differing views are worth hearing, even though a diabetic patient mainly depends on his or her personal physician to provide guidance, much of the management of the diabetic condition is in the hands of the individual diabetic.

The food lists available from this blog-site do provide the nutrient content and information for many common food items, indicating whether high or low on the GI and some food groups in general are summarized. For a very complete listing of GI values the following resources are suggested – although doing the research can get rather complicated and time consuming:

1.  The University of Sydney, Glycemic Index Web site.

2.  David Mendosa, blogger and medical writer.

3. There is also a very good article and explanation by staff of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. That explanation references the GI to cardiovascular disease, a major complication of diabetes, and to obesity, to cancer, and to gallbladder disease. With its comments on several other topics of interest, it is worth a read and can be reached at Linus Pauling Institute.

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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.

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