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D-thoughts on snacking

January 26, 2015 by Sally Leave a Comment

Happy Australia Day! And what good timing for a blog on snacking! It must be the ‘most asked’ question I get as a dietitian: “What are the best snacks for people with diabetes?”

It’s not really a black and white question as the answer depends on your personal diabetes requirements, your personal tastes, your ability to be mindful in your choices and your knowledge of healthy eating in general. So this blog aims to help you to be mindful in making snacking decisions.

We encourage you to choose foods that are higher in nutrients to add to your overall wellbeing, rather than ‘discretionary choices’ which everybody, diabetic or not, is encouraged to limit. It’s especially the case for us with diabetes… but it doesn’t mean missing out on delicious flavours!

Priority One

Your first priority needs to be your overall diabetes goals. Are you getting all the nutrients from your diet that you need for wellbeing? Are you needing to watch your weight? Is matching your food intake to your body’s ability to process carbs an issue for you?

A perfect segue to our Australian Dietary Guidelines… Are you actually meeting the quantities recommended in the 5 main food groups across your day?

In an ideal world we would choose snacks that are included in the foods that we are recommended to enjoy each day. In these examples I’m referring to the ‘Healthy Eating for Adults’ brochure, but there’s also a Healthy Eating for Children brochure for those thinking about their children with diabetes. In both cases, the actual food group listings are on page 2.

Each of the food groups has snacking potential, so there’s always plenty to choose from.

In the ‘Vegetables and legumes/beans’ group you can always find a low-carb snack if that’s what you’re after. Whether it’s raw veg to nibble on, celery with nut butter, blanched asparagus spears when they’re in season, tasty tiny tomatoes that burst with flavour in your mouth, hummous dip with veggie sticks, or even leftover cold roasted non-starchies or ratatouille (recipe in the files section of the closed ‘Diabetes and Food – let’s celebrate it!’ Facebook group). There are always options in this group of foods if one of them will meet what you’re looking for…

Next group down and a great one for those wanting something to satisfy a sweetness craving is the ‘Fruit’ group. With diabetes we are recommended to aim for about 2 serves per day, eaten at different times. However, some fruits are really low in carbohydrate, so we can have more of these without upsetting our glycemic control. Some of those include berries, passionfruit and kiwifruit. But still watch your quantities. If you want to know how much fruit will contain 15g of carbohydrate, take a look at www.calorieking.com.au , search for the fruit you are looking at, and adjust quantities to get to the 1 carb serve number.

In the ‘Grain (cereal) foods’ group, it’s easy to calculate whether you’re going to meet your daily recommended amount. Often for people with diabetes this is a group that people actually tend to be low in. Instead of choosing a ‘discretionary item’, swapping in a low-GI high fibre grain snack such a piece of heavily grained toast with a topping to suit your taste can be a great option to satisfy your hunger and keep your BGLs stable. Or even a small bowl of your high-fibre cereal. Of course these options all contain carbs, but they are all much more nutritious than a cracker or sweet biscuit.

In the ‘Protein’ group, snacking options are easy to find, but it’s important to remember to try not to exceed the guidelines in terms of serve sizes and number of serves recommendations. This is because protein contains energy (or calories/kilojoules) that will cause weight gain if you have too much, although they shouldn’t upset your glycemic control. I recommend having a read of this blog on Protein : written earlier, if you’d like more info. The perfect snack from within this group for us with diabetes is really a handful of nuts, as the evidence behind inclusion of nuts in our diet is quite outstanding. Read more about nuts in this blog.

And last, but not least, is the ‘Dairy and/or alternatives’ group. I wrote a couple of blogs about dairy and diabetes as it’s such an important food group for us with diabetes. Here’s a link to the first one and the second one that contain more great ideas for snacking. My favourite snacking recommendations to help meet the nutritional guidelines are a low-fat yogurt (low sugar too if you’re watching your carb intake closely) or plain low-fat greek yogurt with berries mixed in. Or a low-fat milk based smoothie made on frozen berries, with a couple of teaspoons of chia seeds added for extra fibre. Even a cup of milk based coffee can do the trick… These should work well to satisfy hunger and provide you with the nutrients this group is known for.

Priority Two

Your second priority, also a very important one, is to ask yourself what do you actually feel like eating and why? Sometimes snacking can become a habit. People say “I have a sweet tooth and NEED a biscuit or cake”. (or whatever) This is important too, because if you deprive yourself of what you really want (or feel you need) all the time, then your craving will only grow bigger and you’ll end up overdoing it and regretting it later. Not a good thing, but happens all too often. If you can enjoy a small amount of what you feel you “need”, being mindful of enjoying every mouthful, savouring the textures and flavours that you’ve wanted so badly, then you’re in a better place to return to your ‘healthier’ options on a regular basis.

Do I really need to snack?

If you’re medicated for your diabetes, and are putting yourself at risk of a hypo if you don’t snack, then you should snack as you’ve been advised by your medical diabetes team. If in this case you’d rather not be snacking as you’re just not hungry, then you should talk to your d-team and arrange to have the medication adjusted so that you don’t need to snack.

For those of you where snacking has just become a habit, it’s worth thinking twice to see if you really are hungry before you just head for a snack. Is it out of habit or because you’re bored? Sometimes a drink of water will satisfy that ‘hunger’ feeling, which may actually be your body telling you that you’re dehydrated. If you’re bored, take the opportunity to go for a walk, call a friend, do something off your household chores list, read a book, or engage in your hobby.

If you are constantly actually hungry, it may be worth your while to visit an Accredited Practising Dietitian to see how your meal plan can be adjusted to help avoid that happening. Being hungry is not good or necessary for you to manage your diabetes and weight well.

More ideas?

In the Diabetes Counselling Online closed Facebook groups ‘Diabetes and Food – let’s celebrate it!’ and ‘Diabetes Weight Matters’ we’ve asked the members what their favourite snacks are and have created a document up in the files section of the groups. I think I still need to finalise the weight matters file, but it’ll be there soon. These are member ideas, not necessarily dietitian approved, so please use this blog as a thought process in helping to make your snacking decisions right for you.

Also in the current issue (February 2015) of the Australian Healthy Food Guide they’re running a feature relevant to this blog that you may find helpful. It’s entitled “Your Treat Foods Toolkit” and explains “why those ‘naughty’ treat foods are discretionary, and how they can fit into a healthy diet.” It’s written by an Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Brooke Longfield and can be found on page 34. Although not related specifically to diabetes, you’ll find it helpful for portion sizes and understanding more about ‘discretionary’ foods.

Happy snacking! Sally

Sally is the Social Media Dietitian with Diabetes Counselling Online, owner of her private practice (Marchini Nutrition), has had type 1 diabetes for close to 40 years and coeliac disease for many years too. You can access a linked list of all Sally’s Diabetes Counselling Online blogs here.

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Breakfast with diabetes

November 17, 2014 by Sally 13 Comments

Many people have been asking me about their breakfast choices lately, so hopefully this blog will help to answer some of your own breakfast questions. They usually want to know how to choose a good breakfast cereal, how much of it to have to keep them feeling satisfied til morning tea without disrupting their blood glucose results too much, what they can have instead of cereal that is quick and easy and still healthy and how to enjoy a breakfast out without tipping the scales too much.

Before starting though I’d like to remind you to not make any changes to your current diabetes routine without first checking with your own health care professionals. These are meant as general guidelines only.

Why do we need it?

As people with diabetes, breakfast is important to us for several reasons:

It helps to get our blood glucose levels of to nice level start, especially when we include a moderate amount of low-GI carbs
It helps us to manage our appetite better as the day progresses, especially so we don’t end up very hungry and tempted to make poor choices
It fuels our brain so we can mentally function better and cope better with the curve-balls that diabetes can throw at us
It helps to reduce insulin resistance by providing us with the low-GI energy that our bodies need to function better

What should be in it?

A good starting place is a reminder that with each meal we should include low-GI carb sources, preferably 2 carbohydrate serves as a minimum, and a protein serve to ensure we have the slow release of glucose to keep our brain fuelled for peak performance and our tummies happy so we don’t crave poor food choices by morning tea. Extra fibre also doesn’t go astray.

How to choose a good breakfast cereal?

If you recall our earlier blog on label reading, when reading cereal packet labels we should be looking for whole grains, nuts and fruit with little or no added sugar or oil in the ingredients listing if possible. Ideally we’d like the fibre to be at around the 10-15g/100g level, but if it isn’t then extra can be added in the form of bran, psyllium or chia seeds to boost it.

Remember too that if you have nuts included in your cereal it may fall outside of the total fat value of 10g/100g, saturated fat 2g/100g targets that we aim for, but as long as there are no other fats listed then all the fat is from the nuts so it’s okay.

So if you’ve got the whole grains and the nuts and the dried fruit and the low-fat milk or plain yogurt for added protein and low-GI carb, you should find all the reasons listed above satisfied for the importance of your breakfast.

How much of it should I have?

Certainly an important consideration as too much could upset your glycemic control, rather than helping it, and could also contribute to unwanted weight gain.

Everyone is different and the answer will depend on your activity levels, on your hunger and of course on your diabetes management objectives.

This is where it’s important to check with your own d-team, preferably an Accredited Practising Dietitian, about how much is right for you.

What can I have instead of cereal?

So many clients I see tell me they don’t like cereal, and that’s fine. We all have different tastes. There are many other breakfast options that are suitable for people with diabetes.

Multigrain toast and muffins with an egg or baked beans for added protein and extra veggies to help you meet your 5 veggie serves are awesome. Avocado and fresh tomato on toast (no need for a spread) is also a great way to get started. And peanut butter works on toast to give you the extra protein serve to keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Fruit smoothies also work well for those of you who struggle to eat in the mornings.

Cooked breakfasts are also wonderful when you have a little more time, and including veggies in there is a great idea.

I actually really like the ideas included in this blog by one of our Diabetes Counselling Online Facebook group members, Dr Lyndal Parker Newlyn: The Beauty of Breakfast that also talks about why it’s so important to get into this healthy habit.

What about eating out for breakfast?

Eating out can work well if you remember the diabetes basics about low-fat, low sodium and whole grains.

Choose meals like a bircher museli with fresh fruit and plain yogurt, or spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes on multigrain toast, or served with baked beans for that low GI carb with protein included.

And enjoy a coffee made on low-fat milk for the good low-GI carb and protein hit.

Traditional breakfast ideas that should be reviewed for better diabetes management

The first thing that springs to mind is fruit juice. Traditionally many Australians enjoy a glass of juice with their breakfast. With diabetes it’s not an ideal option when you consider that we’re aiming for two pieces of fruit per day and a glass of juice provides the carb energy of closer to 4 pieces of fruit without the fibre.
Avoid crumpets – yes, even the wholemeal ones. Not only do they have a high glycemic index but they’re also high in sodium (sodium bicarbonate is used to make the holes) and most people like to have butter or margarine on them which adds unneeded extra fats.
Doubling up – Some of my clients tell me they have both cereal and toast, and unless you’re having a half serve of each, you probably don’t need to have both. This is where many of my clients see a rise in their BGL readings 2 hours after breakfast, when basically they’ve just had too much for their system to manage.

What do you eat for your diabetes breakfast?

Please share below what your favourite breakfast ideas are, in case they spark someone’s tastebuds into action. We have different tastes, so the more ideas we can share the better!

Sally is the Social Media Dietitian with Diabetes Counselling Online, owner of her private practice (Marchini Nutrition), and has had type 1 diabetes for close to 40 years and coeliac disease for many years too. You can access a linked list of all Sally’s Diabetes Counselling Online blogs here.

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Juggling Wellness and Diabetes

September 15, 2014 by Sally Leave a Comment

I’m writing this personal kind of blog on a Saturday. I love Saturdays. They encompass lots of things I love to do which all contribute to my wellbeing. This morning I was out on my run and because it’s Saturday and lovely Spring weather lots of my neighbours were also out and about. Nearly everyone I ‘ran’ into made the comment about how well I looked. I had at least 3 such comments this morning and they inspired me to share with you what I believe to be the key to being well with diabetes, or what works for me anyway.

This is important to me because I have diabetes and I’m turning 50 next year, so I know that if I don’t focus on being well myself I’m in a higher risk group to lose my wellness that is so important to me. I want to do all I can to hold onto it for as long as I can, so I can enjoy more of this wonderful life. I’m also passionate about helping others to be well too to the best of their ability, so here goes!

Sleep

Every Saturday I get to sleep in. Yay! To catch up on a few hours I may have missed through the busy-ness of my week. Time to give my body a chance to repair and relax. I usually get to sleep in until around 8am, which is a big improvement on my 6-6.30am starts on other days of the week. The only thing that stops me from doing this is waking early with a hypo, but this morning my BGLs behaved themselves. This week I found an awesome article in The Conversation on the importance of sleep which I encourage you to read. It’s just so important for our wellbeing, and especially so for us with diabetes.

Eating Well

As a dietitian you would know that I am particularly passionate on this topic! This is the only topic in today’s blog that I’m qualified to talk about as a health professional, and it’s such an important one! The Australian Dietary Guidelines that we follow actually makes the comment, “Diet is arguably the single most important behavioural risk factor that can be improved to have a significant impact on health.” It is something that I think about, read up on and focus on every day.

Today I started with my fibre rich, low-GI and high nutrient breakfast, a combination of two cereals that enjoy eating together topped with skim milk. I had a banana for morning tea and a delicious bowl of vegetable and low-GI carb rich Minestrone soup. This afternoon I’ll probably have a snack of a handful of nuts and another piece of fruit. We have a delicious lean meat and vegetable rich stir-fry planned which we’ll serve with plain Basmati rice, and I’ve marked out my favourite Black Cherry yogurt for dessert.

I know that I’m getting the nutrients I need to be well each day, and I’m sure it must also reflect in my outward appearance when I’m out on my run, makeup free in my daggy running shorts too lol

Regular Exercise

Nice segway to the exercise! Also lots of evidence here to support wellbeing, reducing inflammation, improving mental health and keeping our BGLs more stable. You may know that I’m a golfer. I try to play 18 holes in a comp twice a week, and 9 holes if I have time as a break in my day on a Friday. On the days I’m not golfing I do my best to get in at least the minimum recommended 30 minutes of moderate physical activity. Usually I try for 45 minutes. Since I’ve been doing this I have noticed a big improvement in the stability of my glycemic control as my fitness has improved. It’s so worth the effort even when you don’t really feel like it!

Family Time/Love

I’m incredibly fortunate to have so much love and support from my family, but I guess it works both ways in that I also love and support them! I believe that love and giving love is an important part of wellbeing. We hug each other a lot in our household, and in the wider family too. Have you hugged someone today and told them you love them?

Being sociable

Although I was out on my run, I enjoy stopping along the way on a Saturday as I have more time available to me to chat with my lovely neighbours in the suburb I live in. I chat with the children, and the parents, and the older people, and the neighbours who are my friends. To me this is important as I feel loved within my community too, and I know that I’m helping some of these people to feel loved too <3

Hard Work

I enjoy working. It keeps my brain active. It gives me a purpose and keeps me inspired each day to stay well and make the most of my life. The lovely Helen Wilde called me a workaholic this week, which made me think. You know I probably am a workaholic, but that’s because I love what I do and it makes me happy to help other people to be well. But I honestly try very hard to keep a balance with the other important factors in my life.

For those of you who are lucky to be retired or not have to ‘work’ as such I would encourage some kind of volunteer role as it can really be so rewarding and contribute to your wellness. We have some awesome volunteers who help us out at Diabetes Counselling Online. You can read more about our team and some of our ambassadors here. They’re so important in making our charitable organisation what it is.

Keeping the Balance

Of course, being Saturday, I also have household chores to do, preparation cooking for the week ahead, and I might even fit in a quiet hour of reading a book. It’s always a good day, and means I really relax and enjoy myself on my day of rest (and golf) Sunday.

If you try to imagine all these aspects (including any others you may have yourself) as a number of balls that you’re juggling, I believe that remaining well is all about keeping a balance amongst them. Sometimes you need to drop one ball to keep the others going smoothly, but don’t forget it and go back to collect it as soon as you can. I don’t see diabetes as one of those balls – it’s just part of me and often influences how I manage some of those balls/aspects.

Hopefully some of this will inspire you to focus on keeping your balls in the juggle, and know where you can make some positive changes to improve your own wellness. Diabetes Counselling Online actually has a whole section on the website on Diabetes & Wellbeing. Check it out!

You know we’re here to help. With love, Sally.

Sally is the Social Media Dietitian with Diabetes Counselling Online, owner of her private practice (Marchini Nutrition), and has had type 1 diabetes for close to 40 years and coeliac disease for many years too. You can access a list of all Sally’s Diabetes Counselling Online blogs here.

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A fibre reminder – do you make the minimum?

September 1, 2014 by Sally Leave a Comment

Just recently the importance of fibre has been featuring in the news, mostly along the lines of improving our gut bacteria to help keep us well. So following on from that I thought it worthwhile to review a previous Diabetes Counselling Online blog on fibre and build on it by providing some examples of how you can build the fibre in your own diet to ensure you meet at least the minimum advised for people who live with chronic health conditions (in adults, 28g for women and 38g for men).

As a precursor to this encouragement to you to increase the amount of fibre in your diet, even aiming as much as 10g above the minimum, you need to do it gradually while drinking plenty of fluids (preferably water) and being physically active to get the greatest benefits.

More evidence is emerging relating to control of insulin resistance and protection of our immune systems being associated with increased fibre intakes. Additionally the Australian Dietary Guidelines discusses the evidence about fibre reducing fat absorption and risk of cardiovascular disease and bowel cancers. And then there’s the ‘traditional’ view about improved regularity in our bowel movements. It seems there’s no end to the potential benefits for increasing our fibre intakes, but so many of the people I see find it a challenge to do that.

When thinking about increasing our fibre intake, it’s also important to understand that there are three main types of fibre: soluble, insoluble and resistant starch. We need a healthy balance of all three as they all play particular roles. Read more about them here.

If you aim to include fibre-rich foods such as wholegrains, legumes, nuts, vegetables and fruit in each of your main meals, and follow the Australian Dietary Guidelines, especially in those 3 food groups, you should easily reach your target. Leaving the edible skins on your fruit and vegetables is also an awesome idea.

I thought if we make a table for four examples of each meal of the day and indicate how you can add fibre along the way, it might help you to find some ways to improve your own daily intake (data taken from Calorie King).

Example Breakfasts	Serving Size	Amount of fibre (grams)
Weetbix	2 biscuits	3.6
Traditional oats porridge	¾ cup cooked (170g)	2.9
Multigrain toast	2 slices (56g)	2.8
Baked beans	½ cup (140g)	6.7

Example Fibre Toppers	Serving Size	Amount of fibre (grams)
Wheatgerm	1 tablespoon (12g)	2.2
Psyllium Husk	1 tablespoon (6g)	4.9
LSA (nut) mix	1 tablespoon (20g)	4.6
Rice bran	1 tablespoon (12g)	3.1

Example Snacks	Serving size	Amount of fibre (grams)
Apple	1 medium w skin&core (138g)	3.3
Banana	1 medium (170g w skin)	3
Mixed nuts, dry roasted, no salt	A handful (30g)	2.7
Classic Fruit & Nut muesli bar	1 bar (45g)	3.0

Example Lunches	Serving size	Amount of fibre (grams)
Multigrain sandwich w tomato	2 slices plus 1 small tomato (100g)	4g
Salad with chickpeas	½ cup (100g) chickpeascarrot ½ cup gratedcelery ½ cup chopped capsicum ½ cup chopped 1 small tomato (100g)	4.72.10.8 1.1 1.2 (TOTAL 9.1)
Barleymax wrap	1 wrap	10
Campbells vegetable soup	½ tin	6.5

Example Dinner carbs	Serving size	Amount of fibre (grams)
Wholemeal pasta	1 cup cooked (150g)	8.3
Sweet corn	1 large cob (200g)	11.2
Basmati rice	1 cup cooked (125g)	1.4
Lentils	1 cup cooked (198g)	7.3

So if your meal choices through the day looked kind of like this day plan in the table below, you’d be getting at least 41g of fibre per day of all three sorts.

	Meal	Fibre (g)
Breakfast	½ cup baked beans on one slice of multigrain toast	8.1
Morning Tea	1 medium apple (skin on)	3.3
Lunch	1 Barleymax wrap with filling	10.1
Afternoon Tea	1 handful nuts (skin on)	3.0
Dinner	Wholemeal spag Bolognese and 2 cups salad	15
	TOTAL	41g

This is very basic and just designed to give you an idea of how you ensure you get the fibre you’re looking for each day. You’ll notice I haven’t made it a ‘balanced’ diet as my focus was just about fibre. You can read more here about that, but I have aimed for reasonable amounts of carbohydrate in each meal.

And using the toppers, you can easily add extra fibre to your breakfast cereal or your salads if you feel you need topping up. If you look in the health food isle in the supermarket there are lots of fibre topper products. Just remember to bear in mind the carbs for your diabetes, and watch the amounts of fat too if you’re watching your weight.

Make one yourself!

You can make up your own similar tables using the fibre per serve off the labels of the products you’re using and referring to www.calorieking.com.au for the ones without packets to guide you.

Hoping you’ve found this blog useful in working out how much fibre you’re getting each day and how to top up with some high fibre ideas that you may not have thought of. Remember that ideally you see your own Accredited Practising Dietitian for a personalised consultation to ensure that your diet reflects your nutritional requirement for your medical conditions.

Let me know if you have any questions and any tips on how you add fibre to your meals. Sally

Sally is the Social Media Dietitian with Diabetes Counselling Online, owner of her private practice (Marchini Nutrition), and has had type 1 diabetes for close to 40 years and coeliac disease for many years too. You can access a list of all Sally’s Diabetes Counselling Online blogs here.

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Discussion on low carb diets

July 28, 2014 by Sally 8 Comments

Australian Guide to healthy eating poster

By popular demand through a thread in our Facebook group Diabetes and Food – let’s celebrate it!, this topic deserves a blog to help explain some of the ‘stuff we hear’ around carbohydrates and type 2 diabetes. I’d also encourage people with type 1 diabetes to read this though, because some of the points made are also relevant for us! Up front I will remind you that everyone has individual requirements and should see an Accredited Practising Dietitian for a personalised consultation, so this is a ‘general guide’ only.

Firstly we need to understand what ‘low’ means in such a context as in my experience as an Accredited Practising Dietitian, people tend to associate ‘low’ with ‘virtually no’ carbohydrate. We’ll also look at some of the evidence that shows that ‘low’ carb diets can help with glucose control in type 2s, and why when drugs (other than metformin or SGLT2-inhibitors) are introduced it’s important to ensure more (quality) carb intakes as advised by your health professionals. And lastly (but certainly not leastly) we’ll review how, based on the Australian Dietary Guidelines, it’s possible to have a nutritionally balanced diet while watching your carb intake.

What does ‘low’ carbohydrate mean?

If you ask some people what they think ‘low carb’ means, you may hear that it’s about cutting carbohydrates out as much as possible. Straight up as a dietitian my alarm bells ring as carbs feature in all five of the food groups that we need for nutrients to ensure our wellbeing: vegetables (starchy vegetables like potato, sweet potato and corn), fruit, dairy, protein (when the likes of legumes are included, and especially in vegetarian diets) and of course, the important grain/cereal foods.

The American Diabetes Association defines a low-carb diet as 130g of carb per day. Does that surprise you?? The ‘trick’ with low carb diets is therefore to know how to choose your carbs wisely so that you’re still meeting your nutrient requirements, and also to know what to replace that carb energy with (remembering that carbs, proteins and fats make up our daily energy intake) so you don’t get too hungry and be encouraged to ‘cheat’.

Remembering that there’s 15g of carbohydrate in an ‘exchange’ or ‘serve’ that gives us close to 9 carb serves across the day.

If you’re on medication that helps your body to produce more insulin, or you’re providing insulin yourself on a fixed dose then this idea is dangerous to your health so please speak to your health professionals before making any changes to your diet.

Some benefits of lower carbohydrate diets

Of course we know that all carbohydrates break down to glucose which is the fuel needed by our bodies, but in modern diets often too much (and poor quality) of this ‘fuel’ is provided which can cause stress to our organs and worsen our diabetes control. So understanding the benefits of a lower carbohydrate diet can help us to stick with it for longer and balance the rest of our diets more easily.

Some of those benefits may include:

Lower incidence of high blood glucose levels (hyperglycemia)
Lower amounts of medications need to control hyperglycemia
130g/day is a sustainable amount, meaning it’s easier to stick to in the longer term
Putting your pancreas under less stress to produce insulin, thereby helping it to keep working for longer
By ensuring your 130g/day is nutritious and low-GI carb you may also improve your blood fat levels (cholesterol/triglycerides) which will lower your risk of cardiovascular disease
It doesn’t necessarily lead to weight loss – that depends on your total energy intake.

How do you manage it best?

Again I will mention how important having a personalised consultation with your Accredited Practising Dietitian is because everyone is different in many ways. Here I will make suggestions that I hope will help to get your head around combining the idea of low carb into your daily routine while still meeting the nutritional requirements as outlined in the Australian Dietary Guidelines foundation diet (see page 2).

In a nutshell, it’s about only choosing your carb sources from the 5 food groups and balancing that out with quality proteins and healthy fats. I encourage you to re-read the previous blogs I’ve written on those topics as highlighted.

Remembering that 130g/day equates to close to 9 carb exchanges/serves, your day might start to look a bit like this:

Breakfast: ¼ cup of raw rolled oats (1 serve carb) served with 125ml light milk (half a serve), a small banana (85g – 1 carb serve) and a tablespoon of LSA mix (for extra fibre/protein) = 2.5 serves total

Morning Tea: A 100g tub of low-fat yogurt = 1 serve total

Lunch: A sandwich made on wholegrain bread (the grainer the better – 2 serves) made with a protein serve and as much non-starchy veg as you can handle, either on the sandwich or as a side, using half an avocado as the spread (for your good fats), and a piece of fruit such as an apple or pear (both good low-GI fruits – 1 serve) = 3 serves total

Afternoon Tea: A 30g handful of mixed unsalted nuts = not worth counting carb-wise

Dinner: Remembering the balanced plate being one quarter carb, one quarter protein and half non-starchy vegetables, this works with so many meals. Aim for your carb serve to = 2 serves total

Supper: You’ve still got half a carb serve up your sleeve. I would encourage something like half a slice of grainy toast with peanut butter on it to give you the energy to get you through the night, but half a serve of low-fat dairy would also work well, or even a couple of squares of dark chocolate if you fancied it = 0.5 serves total

In this example you can see that we’ve incorporated 9 carb serves/exchanges and yet have included quality carbs at every meal.

Some final tips

Remember to include protein and some non-starchy veg with every meal.
Rice and pasta can be problematic a serve size is so small. Something I recommend that works for many people is to include the carb serves in the form of legumes (lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, etc) in the pasta sauce and use low-carb alternatives such as those made from konjac root, or make pasta/rice out of vegetables such as grated zucchini or carrot or cauliflower. I sometimes serve my pasta sauces on mashed cannellini beans and frozen spinach (warmed of course!) and find it’s very satisfying.
Don’t forget to exercise! If the point of minimising your carbs is to control your BGLs, then even as little as ten minutes exercise after meals can make a fantastic difference to your readings. Do some self-experimenting about how much your BGLs drop after say 10, 20 or 30 minutes walking after meals, and then if you want to include more quality carbohydrates in some meals, you’ll know how to manage better.

I hope this has proved useful for you, and that you have a better understanding of how a low-carb (130g/day) might help with your diabetes control. Of course please ask any questions below and I’ll be happy to address them for you.

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