Diabetic Diet
The rate of diabetes diagnoses is rising, especially Type 2, the kind that is best controlled with a diabetic diet. If you are diabetic, there are other things you can do to control your diabetes besides avoiding candy and alcohol. A diabetic diet plan can get you back in the drivers seat of your blood sugar levels.

Basics Of A Diabetic Diet
Most diabetic diets recommend limiting the number of carbohydrates, including sugar, bread and starches as well as alcohol. Carbohydrates that are consumed should be from high-fiber grains and vegetables. A good diabetic diet should include between 40% and 70% of calories from carbs.

Another type of sugar limitation plan is called a diabetic exchange diet. This was originally advertised as the American Diabetic Association diet, as put out by the ADA. The exchange limits the number of carbohydrates one should eat in a day, but the freedom of choice as far as which foods those carbs can come from stay with the diabetic. He or she may choose a candy bar or two slices of bread, one cup of vegetables and an apple.

Diabetic Diet Tools
There are plenty of tools available in stores and online that can make a diabetic diet easier to start and stay on. You can head to your local bookstore or the Amazon website and look for books that contain diabetic diet plans. You can also find free diabetic diet plans online, by using your favorite search engine and typing in “free diabetic diet plan”, with the quotes.

As you begin changing your eating habits, you may find you get bored and want to change it up a bit. Use your handy search engine again and look for “diabetic diet sample”, with the quotes again. The pages returned will offer a variety of meals and foods you can eat throughout the day without sending your sugar into a tailspin.

Other tools are available on the ADA website. From their home page, you can click Nutrition & Recipes then Recipes & our Virtual Grocery Store to look up more than a thousand diabetic-friendly recipes. Click the “Add to Shopping List” to compile a diabetic diet list for shopping at the grocery store.

If you use Microsoft Excel, you have access to a free diabetic diet sheet for charting your blood sugar levels. Go to Microsoft’s website, click Downloads then Office Templates. Type “Blood Sugar Chart”, without the quotes in the search field then click Search. Download and open with Excel.

Types Of Diet Plans
Beyond the general ADA exchange diet and simply counting carbs, there are plenty of other diet plans that will help you control your sugar. There’s the 1800 calorie diabetic diet for those that need to loose a few pounds and suffer from diabetes. A 1200 calorie diabetic diet is designed for those with diabetes and more than 50 pounds to loose. Both are put out by the “drugs” website, you can also find plenty of recipes, with their nutrition information, at the Diabetic-Recipes website. The American diabetic diet should contain about 2000 calories per day for weight maintenance.

Do you want to control salt intake as well? A low sodium diabetic diet should contain no more than 2000 mg of sodium per day. That’s less than a teaspoon of table salt per day. Always consult your physician before beginning an elimination or restriction diet.