Diabetes mellitus is the tenth top-most prevalent disease in the world today, with at least 17 million persons with diabetes in 2006. Its prevalence continues to grow, and estimates show that the number of persons with diabetes will double by 2030. Concentration of diabetic patients can be found in the more developed countries due to the trend of lifestyle changes in these countries especially in the nature and composition of the "Western" diet.

Food Plays An Important Role

This is the more compelling factor in explaining the increase of the incidence of diabetes in recent years. The food we eat plays an important role in controlling glucose in the blood. Since diabetes is basically a disorder with the ability of the pancreas to produce insulin, a healthy balanced diet, fitted out to the nutritional needs of the patients, will help a person with diabetes to establish a regular routine for eating meals at fixed times every day and to choose the right amounts of the healthiest types of food during each meal. Knowing how each food can affect one's case of diabetes is at the backbone of every free diabetic diet plan.

In most cases of persons with diabetes, a proper diet is often the most effective way to keep levels of glucose within the right range. Carbohydrates are digested into glucose in the body. This explains the need to keep intake of carbohydrates within moderate levels in order to control blood sugar.

Regular Meal Schedule

Diabetic patients must never skip meals or snacks and must eat at the same fixed schedule every day. Using an exchange list can be helpful in maintaining variety in food intake while ensuring the appropriate mix of carbohydrates, proteins, calories, and other food nutrients. In this way, dieting does not turn into a struggle. By using an exchange list, persons with diabetes will find it easier to make wise choices with their food intake.

There is no standard or fixed diabetic diet plan. All eating plans should be flexible and should consider the lifestyle and the specific health needs of each patient. Aside from keeping glucose levels within moderate range, a diabetic diet is also meant to reduce the risk for the complications that may result from diabetes such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension or renal failure. A good diet can lessen the other risk factors that may further aggravate the diabetic condition such as obesity, hypertension, and bad cholesterol.

Less Fat, More Fruits and Vegetables

Seeking the professional help of a registered dietitian can also be helpful. A dietitian can help a diabetes patient develop a meal plan that would tell what kind of food can be best eaten during meals and the amounts needed to keep body glucose within normal levels. In most diabetic patients, a healthy meal plan consists of 20% to 60% of calories from carbohydrates, 20% for protein, and 30% or preferably less from fat.

Generally, at every meal, a diabetic person may have two to five choices of carbohydrates or up to 60 grams, 1 choice of protein, and a small amount of fat. Carbohydrates are best when derived from fruits, vegetables, dairy, and starchy foods. Diabetic patients should also avoid preserved food. Fresh fruits and vegetables are especially good for diabetics.

Poultry and Fish for Protein

On the other hand, protein can be taken from meat, poultry or fish. Poultry and fish should be preferred than red meat like pork or beef. Extra fat and poultry skin should be avoided. Finally, fat can be found in products such as butter, margarine, lard, and oil. It can also be derived from dairy and meat. Diabetics, as much as possible, should avoid fried foods, egg yolks, bacon, and other high-fat products.

Caution should also be observed in consuming processed food products. Before eating any of processed food products, a diabetic patient should look at the "nutrition facts" label on the packaging. In this way, one is able to determine what kind of processed food products are healthy and what are to be avoided.

If a diabetic patient closely follows one's diet plan - eating the right kind of food, ensuring the right serving sizes, and sticking to the fixed meal schedule - one will be assured of consuming a consistent amount of carbohydrates, calories, proteins, and fats every day. Without a diet plan, it becomes difficult for a diabetic patient to control glucose levels in the blood. Uncontrolled high glucose levels can increase risks of further diabetic complications.

Being creative within the rules of a diabetic diet plan can also help maintain variety in food preferences makes eating as healthy and normal as other people. With good food and a good free diabetic diet plan, even persons with diabetes can look forward to a good and healthy life ahead.

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By Flor Serquina

Diabetes affects the manner in which the body handles digested carbohydrates. If neglected, diabetes can cause serious health complications, ranging from blindness to kidney failure.

Approximately 8% of the population in the United States has diabetes. The American Diabetes Association estimates that diabetes accounts for 178,000 deaths, 54,000 amputees, and 12,000-24,000 cases of blindness annually. Blindness is 25 times more common among diabetic patients compared to nondiabetics. It is proposed that by the year 2010, diabetes will exceed both heart disease and cancer as the leading cause of death through its many complications.

Diabetics have a high level of blood glucose. The blood sugar level is regulated by insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, which releases it in response to food consumption. Insulin causes the cells of the body to take in glucose from the blood. Diagnostic standards for diabetes have been fasting plasma glucose levels greater than 140 mg/dL on two occasions and plasma glucose greater than 200 mg/dL following a 75-gram glucose load. More recently, the American Diabetes Association lowered the criteria for a diabetes diagnosis to fasting plasma glucose levels equal to or greater than 126 mg/dL. Fasting plasma levels outside the normal limit require additional tests, usually by repeating the fasting plasma glucose test and (if indicated) giving the patient an oral glucose tolerance test.

The symptoms of diabetes include excessive urination, excessive thirst and hunger, sudden weight loss, blurred vision, delay in healing of wounds, dry and itchy skin, repeated infections, fatigue and headache. There are two different types of diabetes.

Type I Diabetes (juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes): The cause of type I diabetes is caused by pancreatic inability to produce insulin. It is responsible for 5-10% of cases of diabetes. The pancreatic Islet of Langerhans cells, which secrete the hormone, are destroyed by the body's own immune system, probably because it mistakes them for a virus. Viral infections are thought to be the trigger that sets off this auto-immune disease. If untreated, death occurs within a few months of the onset of juvenile diabetes, as the cells of the body starve because they no longer receive the hormonal prompt to take in glucose. While most Type I diabetics are young (hence the term Juvenile Diabetes), the condition can develop at any age. Autoimmune diabetes can be definitely diagnosed by a blood test which shows the presence of anti-insulin/anti-islet-cell antibodies.

Type II Diabetes (non insulin dependent diabetes or adult onset diabetes): This diabetes is a result of body tissues becoming resistant to insulin. It accounts for 90-95% of cases. Eventually the pancreas may exhaust its over-active secretion of the hormone, and insulin levels fall to below normal.

A tendency towards Type II diabetes is hereditary, but it is unlikely to develop in normal-weight individuals eating a low- or moderate-carbohydrate diet. Obese, sedentary individuals who eat poor-quality diets based on refined starch, which constantly activates pancreatic insulin secretion, are prone to develop insulin resistance. Native peoples such as North American Indians whose traditional diets did not include refined starch until its recent introduction by Europeans have extremely high rates of diabetes, up to 5 times the rate of caucasians. Blacks and hispanics are also at higher risk. Though Type II diabetes is not fatal within a matter of months, it can lead to health complications over several years and cause severe disability and premature death. If neglected, diabetes can lead to life-threatening complications such as kidney damage (nephropathy), heart disease, nerve damage (neuropathy), retinal damage and blindness(retinopathy), and hypoglycemia (drastic reduction in glucose levels). Diabetes damages blood vessels, especially smaller end-arteries, leading to severe and premature atherosclerosis. Diabetics are prone to foot problems because neuropathy, which affects approximately 10% of patients, causes their feet to lose sensation. Foot injuries, common in day-to-day living, go unnoticed, and these injuries do not heal because of poor circulation through the small arteries in the foot. Gangrene and subsequent amputation of toes or feet is the consequence for many elderly patients with poorly-controlled diabetes. Usually these sequelae appear earlier in Type I than Type II diabetes, because Type II patients have some of their own insulin production left to buffer changes in blood sugar levels.

Type I diabetes is a serious disease and there is no permanent cure for it. However, the symptoms can be controlled by strict dietary monitering and insulin injections. Implanted pumps which release insulin immediately in response to changes in blood glucose are in the testing stages.

In theory, since it caused by diet, Type II diabetes should be preventable and manageable by dietary changes alone, but in practice many diabetics (and many obese people without diabetes) find it personally impossible to lose weight or adhere to a healthy diet. Therefore they are frequently treated with drugs which restore the body's response to insulin, and in some cases injections of insulin.

If you suspect you have diabetes or are in a high risk group, please see your doctor.