As most of us with diabetes know, having a healthy, balanced diet is important for staying healthy and managing blood glucose levels. A great way to ensure our diets remain healthy is by following a diabetes food guide. Diabetes food guides offer up nutrition advice for those of us living with diabetes, helping to ensure our diet gives us an optimal balance of macronutrients, vitamins, minerals and other important nuisances. Diabetes food guides are also really useful in terms of setting specific goals to eat healthier; providing a clear, step-by-step plan for achieving them.

One of the biggest benefits of following a diabetes food guide is that it helps us to eat a balanced diet with the right proportions. Following a diabetes food guide ensures that we’ve got the right mix of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, fiber and other elements that make up a healthy diet - all in the right portions. Eating a balanced diet will help us to maintain our blood sugar levels, promote healthy blood pressure, and keep our weight in check.

Another great benefit of following a diabetes food guide is that it will help us to steer clear of empty calorie foods that can cause rapid spikes or drops in our blood sugar. Eating too much of these type of foods can disrupt our blood sugar levels, leading to further complications with our diabetes. Following a diabetes food guide means that we’ll be advised on foods to avoid, and those to promote instead.

Not only will following a diabetes food guide make us healthier and better manage our diabetes, it can be really helpful for those of us who struggle with portion sizes. The guides will usually have helpful measurements and portion size descriptions, as well as tips for controlling hunger between meals. This makes it a lot easier for us to act in a mindful way, knowing exactly how much food we are eating, and making sure that we’re eating the right types of food.

When living with diabetes, it can be daunting to not know what’s right to eat, and how much of it to eat. Diabetes food guides can be incredibly helpful in this regard, offering step by step guidance about how to make sure we’re eating in a way that is both healthy and appropriate for managing our diabetes.