Decide – What Food You Can Eat With Diabetes

When it comes to deciding the food and fruits for diabetic patients, a question always comes to your mind, how to decide what food you can eat with diabetes and what to avoid. If you know about the glycemic index and the glycemic load of foods then you can make your own diabetic diet food list and decide what foods to eat to avoid diabetes.

But, if you are not aware of the nutritional values of food items especially the glycemic index and glycemic load. You do eat everything in absence of the right information and knowledge which leads to high blood sugar in your blood and results in Uncontrolled Diabetes Mellitus and Obesity.

On other hand, you missed eating the food and fruits that can help you in controlling your blood sugar and reversing diabetes if you are over conscious about your diet but do not about the glycemic index and glycemic load of food items in your meal.

How Can You Make Your Own Diabetes Food Chart?

A diabetic food chart is very useful for diabetes type 2 patients and those who are prediabetic. A diabetic food list helps you to understand the nutritional value, glycemic index, and glycemic load of a particular food item. Also, answer your questions about what food you can eat with diabetes and what you should not eat. You can reverse your diabetes naturally if you follow a diabetic diet and good food habits.

Moreover, if your diabetic food chart allows you to eat a particular food, then a second question arises, how much quantity of that food or fruit you can eat?

You need to know only 3 things to define your diabetic diet chart or diabetic diet food list. This will act as a tool for you to decide what foods to avoid with diabetes and how can you control your blood sugar levels.

1. Carbohydrates Digestion in Your Body
2. Glycemic Index of Food Items
3. Glycemic loads of Food Items

Carbohydrate Digestion

Digestion of Corbohydarte In the Mouth

Carbohydrates are the major source of energy in our meals and break down into glucose after the digestion process. The digestion begins in the mouth. When we eat our meal, the saliva starts secreting more from the salivary glands in the mouth, which helps moisten the food.  The Saliva contains a salivary amylase enzyme which begins the process of breaking down the polysaccharides in the carbohydrate food.

In the Stomach

The food mixed with saliva and salivary enzymes is called chyme passes into the stomach. The action of salivary amylase is topped in the stomach because of the presence of acid. No further carbohydrate digestion happens in the stomach.

Digestion of Corbohydarte In the Intestine

The chyme that enters into the first part of the small intestine is called the Duodenum. In response, the Pancreas releases the pancreatic enzyme Amylase which breakdown the polysaccharides further into disaccharides. The small intestine then produces enzymes called maltase, lactase, and sucrase which break down disaccharides further into monosaccharides like glucose, fructose, galactose. Then monosaccharides are absorbed by the small intestine and undigested carbohydrates reach the colon or large intestine.

Undigested carbohydrates excreted from the Colon

The action of The Insulin

Once the level of glucose increases in the blood. The pancreas releases insulin, which helps glucose to enter into the cells and produces energy.

Excess glucose is converted into glycogen and stored in the liver. Glycogen works as a supplement or reserved store of glucose. It gets converted into glucose and released into the blood if the level of glucose is low in the blood or during fasting.

This act of insulin helps you and your body to maintain the blood sugar and gives an indication of diet what food you can eat with diabetes and in what quantity.

Glycemic Index

The Glycemic index (GI) is a scale that gives a ranking to the carbohydrate-containing foods from 0 to 100. The rank (GI) is defined on the basis of how much a particular food raises blood glucose levels after it’s consumed after a period of time. There is a strong relationship between Glycemic Index and diabetes.

Each food has a different amount of carbohydrates in it and the duration of its digestion varies from one product to another.  The rank of glycemic index depends on, how fast the carbohydrates present in the fruits, vegetables, grains, or in other food items are digested and release the glucose into the blood.

The Glycemic index is defined on the basis of speed of the digestion of carbohydrates and increasing the blood sugar level within 120 minutes (2 Hrs) window period.

How to Calculate the Glycemic Index

If the available glucose in a particular food item is absorbed 100% within 2 hours from the time it was eaten. It will be ranked 100 on the scale of the Glycemic Index. For example Glucose Powder, Its Glycemic Index is 100 GI Units.

If the available amount of glucose in fruit is absorbed 38% in 2 hours, it means the glycemic index of that particular fruit is 38.  For Example Apple, its Glycemic Index is 38 GI Units.

In that way, scientists measure the glycemic index of the food items on 0 to 100 scales. On the basis of this,  all the food items are categorized into three depending on their Glycemic Index level.

Low Glycemic Index (Less than 55)

A Glycemic Index of less than 55 is considered the low glycemic index. The glycemic index of the few most popular food items are given here:

• Peanuts -14
• Bean Sprouts – 25
• Grapefruit – 25
• Apples – 38
• Carrots – 47
• Oranges – 47
• Banana – 52
• Potato Chips – 54

Medium Glycemic Index (Between 56 to 69)

Glycemic Index between 56 to 69 is considered medium Glycemic index

• Honey – 55
• Brown Rice – 55
• Oatmeal – 58
• Papaya – 60
• Ice Cream – 61
• Raisins – 64
• White Rice – 64
• Sugar – 68

High Glycemic Index (More than 70)

A Glycemic Index of more than 70 is considered a high glycemic index.

• White Bread – 70
• Watermelon – 72
• Popcorn – 72
• Baked Potato – 85
• Glucose – 100

Low, medium, or moderate glycemic index foods are good for Diabetic and Pre-diabetic patients.  On other hand, high glycemic index food items are good for athletics as they absorb very fast and give faster energy. But, patients who are at risk of high blood sugar should prefer low glycemic index foods with a high fiber content diet.

But, here is a question, what is the relationship between glycemic index and diabetes? and can a diabetic- patient eat any amount of food ranked with a low glycemic index?

The answer is a big No, you need to know first about the Glycemic Load of food items. Low glycemic index food in high quantity can be equally harmful as high glycemic index food. There should be a good combination of Low and Medium foods in your diet to decide what food you can eat with diabetes and what can help you in reversing diabetes naturally.

Glycemic Load

A glycemic load is a number that tells you about the effect of one serving of food that you eat on your blood sugar level. In other words, how much a particular food will raise the blood glucose level after eating it. One glycemic load is considered the same effect as eating one gram of glucose.

We can calculate the Glycemic Load of any size of serving with the help of the following formula. You need to have the details handy:

1. The glycemic index of the food item
2. Amount of carbohydrates present in one serving of the particular food.

      Glycemic Load = Glycemic Index of Food X The amount of carbohydrates in one serving /100 

 We can take the example of Watermelon here to understand the calculation better.

The Glycemic index of watermelon = 72

The amount of carbohydrates in 100 gm serving of watermelon = 5 gm

Glycemic Load of Watermelon = 72 x 5/100

= 360/100 = 3.6

Another example of Glycemic Load we can take an example of Apple.

The Glycemic index of an Apple = 38

The amount of carbohydrates in an Apple = 15 gm

Glycemic Load of Apple  = 38  x 15/100

= 570/100 = 5.7 

Low Glycemic Load

A Glycemic index of less than 10 is considered low.

• Peanuts – Serving size 113 gm, net carbohydrate 15 gm. Glycemic Load = 2
• Bean Sprouts -Serving size 104 gm, net carbohydrate 4 gm. Glycemic Load = 1
• Grapefruit – Serving size 165 gm, net carbohydrate 11 gm. Glycemic Load = 3
• Apples – Serving size 138 gm, net carbohydrate 15 gm. Glycemic Load = 6
• Carrots – Serving size 75 gm, net carbohydrate 5 gm. Glycemic Load = 2
• Oranges – Serving size 130 gm, net carbohydrate 12 gm. Glycemic Load = 6

Medium Glycemic Load

A Glycemic index between 10-19 is considered medium

• Banana – Serving size 136 gm, net carbohydrate 27 gm. Glycemic Load = 14
• Oatmeal – Serving size 234 gm, net carbohydrate 21 gm. Glycemic Load = 12
• Icecream – Serving size 80 gm, net carbohydrate 18 gm. Glycemic Load = 11
• White Bread – Serving size 30 gm, net carbohydrate 14 gm. Glycemic Load = 10

High Glycemic Load

A glycemic load of more than 19 is considered high.

• Potato Chips – Serving size 114 gm, net carbohydrate 55 gm. Glycemic Load = 30
• White Rice – Serving size 186 gm, net carbohydrate 52 gm. Glycemic Load = 33
• Glucose – Serving size 50 gm, net carbohydrate 50 gm. Glycemic Load = 50

What Foods to Avoid With Diabetes?

It depends on the size of one serving of the food as glycemic load increases with the size of the serving. You can understand it better with the following example and choose your food wisely. After having an understanding of the Glycemic index and Glycemic load of any food you can make your own diabetic chart.

A serving of 100 gm watermelon will increase blood glucose level by 22 to 36 mg/dl. However, its glycemic index is high (72). On other hand, an apple (One serving of 140 gm) increases blood glucose level by 35-60 mg/dl whereas, its glycemic index is low (38).

One gram of glucose increases around 6-10 mg/dl glucose level in the blood. On the other hand, one unit of insulin drops down around 50mg/dl glucose in the blood.

Glycemic Load and Glycemic Index of Popular Food Items and Fruits