A Diabetic's Diet

A Diabetic's Diet

A Diabetic's Diet
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	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 6
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	8.16

Vocabulary

challenging words:

calcium, diabetic, diabetics, dietitian, low-fat, starchy, generally, medication, maintain, diabetes, naturally, therefore, resistance, properly, carbohydrate, insulin

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A Diabetic's Diet
By Jennifer Kenny

¹     All people need to be active and to eat nutritiously. For those with diabetes, though, that's especially important. Eating a balanced diet and exercising are two ways to maintain a healthy weight. Weight affects diabetes. Likewise, diabetes affects weight.

²     When people think of diabetes, they are usually thinking of type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes. With type 1 diabetes, the body stops making insulin. Insulin is needed to use the glucose which comes from food. Glucose is the sugar and major source of energy. Instead of using glucose like the body is supposed to, the body of a type 1 diabetic flushes the glucose out. Therefore, the person is hungry and loses weight unless the diabetes is treated.

³     With type 2 diabetes, the body has insulin resistance. Even though the body is still making insulin, the body isn't using it properly so the pancreas makes more. Worn out, the pancreas may not make enough and blood glucose levels go higher. Typically, a person diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is overweight and not very active. Eating incorrectly and not exercising cause weight gain. More weight makes it even more difficult to control those blood sugar levels. On the flip side, eating nutritiously and exercising can reverse the type 2 diabetes.

⁴     Therefore, maintaining a healthy weight helps to decrease symptoms, control blood sugars, and keep problems like heart disease away. In order to do this, diabetics need to pay attention to what they eat. This doesn't mean extreme dieting. It means healthy dieting, although perhaps slightly different than the general population.

⁵     Diabetics are taught early on about looking at food labels for ingredients and nutritional information. They are often given meal plans. Some are taught to choose a certain amount of carbohydrates at meals so that insulin or medication can be given at exactly the same amount each day. Some count carbohydrates as they go along so that the dose of insulin matches how much they ate at that moment. Most, though, are taught to look at the six food groups and choose servings from there. These groups categorize the food without telling you exactly which particular food you must eat throughout the day.

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