What to eat and not to eat if you have diabetes?

When someone is diagnosed with diabetes their doctor usually discusses their dietetic needs with them. For many diabetics the only requirement is to eat regular meals, switch to whole grains, avoid sweets, and to not eat large amounts of carbohydrates at any one meal. For cases where these guidelines do not control blood sugar the patient is usually referred to a dietitian and put on the Diabetic Exchange Diet. This diet regulates the amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrate, and calories based on your doctor’s recommendation. With this diet different foods are categorized into types of foods with similar nutritional values and servings are normalized into exchanges that all have about the same calories.. The number of each kind of exchange allowed in each meal is calculated so you will eat the percentage of protein, fat, and carbohydrate and the number of calories your doctor prescribes. There really aren’t any foods that are strictly off limits on this diet; you just have to count the exchanges. The Diabetic Exchange Diet was the inspiration for the original Weight Watcher’s diet where WW points were used like exchanges. The current WW diet has diverged a great deal from the diabetic exchange diet though.