Dietary recommendations for people with diabetes should prioritise individualised plans that are flexible, consider personal and cultural preferences, aiming to sustain enjoyment of eating without unnecessary restrictions. As Physiotherapists we should be promoting daily moderate physical activity, like walking to help cardiovascular health and glycaemic control for people with diabetes.
Main Nutritional Goals for People With Diabetes
Specific Macro Recommendations
Main Nutritional Goals for People With Diabetes
Healthy eating patterns, opting for a variety of nutrient-dense foods in appropriate portion sizes
Improve overall health
Achieve and maintain body weight goals.
Attain individualized glycemic, blood pressure, and lipid goals.
Delay or prevent the complications of diabetes
Meal Planning Approaches
Flexible approaches like the Mediterranean diet and DASH eating plan are recommended and can be adapted based on personal preferences. Structured methods like the “plate method” can help manage portion control. Find more information on these approaches in our infographic section.
Specific Macro Recommendations
Carbs
Base meals and snacks around high fiber foods e.g. whole grains (whole wheat, whole oats, brown rice, barley, and quinoa), vegetables, whole fruit, and legumes.
Common whole grains include whole wheat, whole oats, brown rice, barley, and quinoa.
Choose whole fruit over dried, juiced, or further processed fruit.
Replace ground meat in meals such as casserole with lentils or legumes to increase fibre and protein in meals.
opt for a variety of vegetables in meals each day, avoiding deep fried and heavily salted options.
Protein
Plant protein sources include legumes, lentils, tofu, tempeh and nuts
Examples of Nuts are almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, filberts, Brazil nuts, macadamias, peanuts, pecans, walnuts, or sunflower, pumpkin seed or linseed.
Include lean animal protein e.g. skinless poultry, lower fat cuts of beef or pork, fish or egg, and reduced fat dairy products
Protein sources should be a addition to vegetables, fruits and whole grains for most meals, and not the entire meal.
Fats
Include good sources of mono and polyunsaturated fats e.g. nuts and seeds, avocados, fish, and oils such as olive, canola, soybean, sunflower, and corn.
Reduce intake of saturated fats by cutting back on processed and fast foods, red meat, and full-fat dairy foods. Experiment with replacing red meat with beans, nuts, skinless poultry, and fish
Opt for lower fat versions of milk and dairy products
Replace butter or margarine with liquid vegetable oils
Limit trans-fat intakes
Reynolds, A., & Mitri, J. (2024, April 28). Dietary Advice For Individuals with Diabetes. Nih.gov; MDText.com, Inc. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279012/
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