The Individualized Diabetic Diet Plan

The complexity of the diabetic diet plan can be overwhelming for just about anybody. Doctors and dieticians can no longer depend on preprinted diet sheets or formulated meal patterns to provide the proper nutrition to people with diabetes. There is no such thing as the "ADA diet" or one specific diet for diabetes.

In fact the ADA recommends that the term "ADA diet" not be used because they no longer believe in any one single meal plan or a specific amount of nutrients needed each day. The old way of doing a diabetic diet plan in which a doctor determined levels of caloric intake based on percentages of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats is no longer used.

People with diabetes require an assessment by a registered dietician to determine an appropriate nutrition prescription and plan for self management education. Diet orders such as that restrict or completely exclude sugar are not considered suitable because they do not reflect diabetes nutrition recommendations and pointlessly restrict sucrose. Such meal feed the false notion that simply restricting sucrose sweetened foods will improve blood glucose control.

A diabetic diet plan should be individualized, taking into consideration a person's usual eating habits and other lifestyle factors. Consistency within an eating pattern will result in lower glycosylated hemoglobin levels rather than following an arbitrary eating style. Nutrition recommendations for total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, fiber, vitamins, and minerals are the same for individuals with diabetes as for the general population.

Recommendations are modified for protein, carbohydrates, sucrose, and alcohol because of the nature of diabetes in relation to carbohydrate metabolism or the effects of diabetic complications. Protein intake can range for 15% to 20% of daily calories from animal and vegetable protein sources. If the diabetic has nephropathy, lower intakes of protein may be warranted. Protein restrictions and other modifications needed for renal disease should be done by a registered dietician who is familiar with creating diabetic diet plans.

Carbohydrate recommendations are individualized based on the person's eating habits and blood glucose and lipid goals. Blood glucose control is not impaired by the use of sucrose in the meal plan, but sucrose containing foods are substituted for other carbohydrates and foods and are not eaten in addition to the diet plan. Blood glucose levels are not affected by moderate alcohol use if the diabetes is well controlled. Any alcohol calories should be considered an addition to regular food or meals, and no food should be omitted.

Other related nutrient issues include the use of fructose and other nutritive and non-nutritive sweeteners. Although fructose creates a smaller rise in plasma glucose than sucrose and other carbohydrates, large amounts of fructose provide no advantage as a sweetener based on its negative effects on serum cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels.

Other nutritive sweeteners such as corn sweeteners, fruit juice or juice concentrate, honey, molasses, dextrose, and maltose affect glycemic response and caloric content in a manner similar to that of sucrose.

The sugar alcohols (sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol) result in lower glycemic responses than other simple and complex carbohydrates, and ingesting large amounts may have a laxative effect.

Nonnutritive sweeteners approved for use by the food and drug administration, such as saccharin, aspartame, and Acesulfame K, are considered safe for consumption by people with diabetes. All these products have undergone rigorous testing and scrutiny before approval. All were shown to be safe when consumed by the general public, including people with diabetes, and during pregnancy.

For the diabetic following a set of dietary guidelines is a good starting point. But each diet needs to be customized to meet the each diabetic's nutritional needs. The one size fits all way planning a diabetes diet is no longer the best way to manage the affects of this disease.

Home Remedies For Heartburn - Get Relief From Acidity

Heartburn is related with the problem of burning sensation and also pain in chest and stomach. Some of the important symptoms of heartburn are gas, nausea, shortness of breath, sour taste in the throat and mouth, bloating etc usually the problem of heartburn is caused when hydrochloric acid which is used for the purpose of digestion of food is release up the esophagus.

Usually the heartburn is a symptom which is related with GERD. The symptom of heartburn increases with the intake of following things like alcohol, caffeine, aspirin, some other anti-inflammatory medicines like ibuprofen, carbonated beverages, chocolate, acidic foods, acidic juices etc. the symptoms of heartburn also increases with the consumption of high-fat content foods and also with the smoking. Some other causes of heartburn are obesity, pregnancy etc.

The problem of heartburn can be easily treated with the help of home remedies for heartburn. Some of the important home remedies for heartburn are:

1. Papaya is very effective in reducing the problem of heartburn. Even you can buy papaya chewable tablets which are easily available in stores. They are very much effective in reducing the problem of heartburn.

2. One of the effective home remedies for heart burn is to drink aloe Vera juice. It is very effective in reducing the problem of heartburn.

3. You can also prepare and take juice of raw potatoes which is very effective home remedy for heart burn. For preparing the juice of raw potatoes, first wash the potato very well but don't peel it off. Place it in the juicer and mix it with another juice as per your taste and drink it immediately.

4. If the symptom of heartburn is not too strong then you should prefer to drink more and more water as it will reduce the burning sensation.

5. You can also prefer to drink Chamomile tea especially after meals to reduce the problem of heartburn.

6. You can also prefer to drink organic apple cider vinegar. It is an effective home remedy for heartburn. You should drink a teaspoon of organic apple cider vinegar immediately as soon as you feel the problem of heartburn. You can also take regular apple cider vinegar in place of organic apple cider vinegar.

7. Take a half glass of cold water and put two table spoons of baking soda and squeeze a lemon juice in it. drink this solution as soon as you feel the problem.

Diabetic Diet Therapy

Managing diabetes is a process of balancing the intake of nutrients, energy expended and the dose and timing of insulin injections or oral anti-diabetic agents. A diabetic has basically the same nutritional needs as a normal person with the exception that their diet must be more structured in order to prevent hyperglycemia. Dietary management for adult diabetics are based on guidelines established by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in 2002.  These include:

• Maintain as near normal blood glucose levels as possible by balancing food intake with insulin or oral glucose.

• Achieve optimal serum lipid levels.

• Provide adequate calories to maintain or attain reasonable weights, and to recover from catabolic illness.

• Prevent and treat the acute complications of insulin treated diabetes, short term illnesses, and exercise related problems; or the long term complications of diabetes.

• Improve overall health through optimal nutrition, using dietary guidelines for Americans and the food guide pyramid.

Carbohydrates:

According to the ADA carbohydrates need to be individualized to each diabetic's specific needs. The amount of carbohydrate and monosaturated fat should make up 60 to 70 percent of the daily diet. Carbohydrates contain 4 kilocalories per gram ingested.

Diabetics can get their carbohydrates primarily from plant sources such as grains, fruits, and vegetables, milk, and some other dairy products. Carbohydrates are divided into simple sugars and complex carbohydrates. Research has shown that sugars do not actually digest faster then complex carbohydrates which in the past was believed to increase the chances of hyperglycemia. It has been found that fruits and milk have a lower glycemic response than most starches, and the glycemic response of sucrose (sugar) is similar to that of bread, rice and potatoes.
 
Using sugar as part of the diabetic diet does not impair blood glucose control in people with diabetes as long as the sugar and sugar containing foods are substituted gram for gram for other forms of carbohydrates. Fructose from fruits and vegetables actually produce a smaller rise in plasma glucose than sugar and most starches, making it a good choice as a sweetening agent if used in moderation because of its potential to adversely affect serum cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.

Protein:

The recommended daily protein intake is 15 to 20 percent of total daily kilocalorie intake. Protein has 4 kcal per gram. Sources of protein eaten should be low in fat, low in saturated fat, and low in cholesterol. The amount of protein recommended is less then most people normally consume during the day, the reason for such a low amount is to help prevent or delay possible renal (kidney) complications. It may be hard for the newly diagnosed diabetic to adhere to these protein restrictions immediately so the best course of action is to gradually decrease protein intake over a longer period of time.

Fats:

Dietary fats should be low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Saturated fats should not be higher than 10 percent of the total calories eaten per day and dietary cholesterol should be no more 300 mg per day. Fat contain 9 kilocalories per gram eaten. There are many sources for the different types of at that include:

• Saturated fat. These come from animal meats (meat and butter, fats, lard, bacon), cocoa butter, coconut oil, palm oil, and hydrogenated oils.

• Polyunsaturated fat. Sources are oils of corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean, sesame seed, and cottonseed.

• Monosaturated fat. We can get these from peanut oil, olive oil, and canola oil.

Another reason for the diabetic to limit fat and cholesterol consumption is to help prevent atherosclerosis, a disease that diabetics are more susceptible to.

Fiber:

Dietary fiber is helpful in treating and preventing gastrointestinal disorders such as constipation and colon cancer. It also creates a feeling of fullness and large amounts have been shown to be beneficial for serum lipids. Soluble fiber is found in beans, oats, barley and some vegetables and fruits including peas, corn, zucchini, cauliflower, prunes, pears, apples, bananas, and oranges. Insoluble fiber found in many of the same foods also helps to increase intestinal motility and helps give a feeling of fullness.

The optimum amount of fiber eaten per day should be in the 20 to 35 gram range. Any increase in fiber consumption should be done gradually as it can lead to nausea, diarrhea or constipation, and increased gas and flatulence. This is particularly true if fluids are not also increased at the same time.

Sodium:

The amount of sodium most people consume each day exceeds by far the amount the body actually needs. 1000 mg of sodium per 1000 calories per day is the recommended daily intake and it should not exceed 3000mg per day. For the diabetic increased sodium consumption can increase the risk of hypertension, a condition that can be a problem with those with diabetes. It is recommended that all diabetics avoid table salt and processed foods that are high in sodium.

Sweeteners:

Any diabetic diet plan will restrict the amount of refined sugars that are eaten. Because of this restriction many diabetics turn to artificial sweeteners in their foods and drinks. All the non-nutritive artificial sweeteners used in the United States have been approved for use by the FDA. This category of sweeteners includes the following:

• Saccharin – Sweet & Low

• Aspartame – NutraSweet, Equal

• Acesulfame potassium – Sunnette.

These artificial sweeteners have little to no calories and produce little change in blood glucose levels when eaten.

Diabetics also use nutritive sweeteners, including fructose, sorbitol, and xylitol. The caloric content of these sweeteners is much the same as table sugar but they do not cause as great a rise in blood glucose levels.

Alcohol:

For the diabetic it is recommended that if they do choose to drink alcohol that they do it in moderation. Consumption of alcohol can increase the hypoglycemic affects of insulin and oral medications. For men the ADA recommends that they consume no more than two drinks per day. For women the recommendation is one drink per day. The following is a list of guidelines for alcohol as recommended by the ADA.

• The signs of intoxication and hypoglycemia are similar; thus, the person with type 1 diabetes is at an increased risk for an insulin reaction.

• The two oral hypoglycemic agent's chlorpropamide and tolbutamide can interact with alcohol and lead to headache, flushing, and nausea.

• Liqueurs, sweet wines, wine coolers, and sweet mixes contain large amounts of simple carbohydrates.

• Light beer is the recommended alcoholic drink.

• Alcohol should be consumed with meals and added to the daily food intake. In most instances, the alcohol is substituted for fat in calculating the diet. A drink with 1.5 ounces of alcohol is the equivalent of two fat exchanges.

Following these ADA guidelines is an important part of managing diabetes. Failure to do so can lead to a host of complications that in some cases can be life threatening.