Starch, sugar, fiber and diabetes

Currently, the number of people with diabetes in the community is constantly increasing. Diabetes treatment is aimed at controlling blood sugar. In addition to taking medicine, it is necessary to have a diabetic diet to meet the nutritional needs of the body. Therefore, many people with diabetes need to know the role of substance groups and limit some food groups in their daily diet.

People with diabetes need to pay special attention to the amount of starch or carbohydrate (referred to as carb) in their diet, because this substance affects blood sugar levels faster than protein and fat groups.
Starch is found in sweet foods, fruit, milk, yogurt, bread, cereals, rice, pasta, potatoes, and some other vegetables.
You can calculate the amount of carbs from the food you eat or drink, dividing them evenly for each meal to correspond to the amount of insulin secreted in your body or from the medicine. If you take in more insulin than you can metabolize, your blood sugar will rise. If you eat too few carbs, your blood sugar can be very low.
Calculating starch or carbohydrates is important for people who use insulin multiple times a day or wear an insulin pump, or want to make their food choices more flexible, varied and appropriate. The amount and type of insulin you are being prescribed can affect the flexibility of your meals.

Fiber helps control blood sugar. They also have a role in helping to lower bad cholesterol in the body (LDL-cholesterol). Fiber plays an extremely important role for people with diabetes because it does not increase blood sugar because it cannot be digested, helping to reverse the effects of carbohydrates in food. more energy increases blood sugar of the patient. When you eat fiber, it takes longer for the intestines to digest the food and slows down the rise of glucose in the blood.

The standard amount of fiber in a meal to provide the body that the ADA recommends is 20-50g per day. The problem that needs attention to achieve the goals is that the meal must have a scientific coordination. People with diabetes need to eat more foods like oats, buckwheat, taro and fresh vegetables.
Remember that not all types of fiber have the same effect on your health. Basically, fiber has the ability to control and improve blood sugar very well. But soluble fiber found in foods such as oatmeal, nuts, oat bran, lentils, apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries... is very soluble in water, can reduce cholesterol by when excreted from the body it carries the excess cholesterol.

Currently, there are still many people with the opinion that eating too much sugar or sweet food will cause diabetes. This is not entirely true. This is because our bodies need sugar for energy. The functioning of the brain depends entirely on the glucose provided by food.

However, when you eat too much sugar, drink a lot of soft drinks, eat a lot of candy, cakes, sugar is absorbed into the blood very quickly, blood sugar rises suddenly, causing the pancreas to work a lot (the pancreas releases insulin) to regulate the body's blood sugar). If this happens continuously, for a long time, especially in the elderly, the pancreas is overworked, leading to diabetes.
If the test shows high blood sugar (main symptom) and the urinalysis can show little or a lot of sugar (normal urine has no sugar); so where urinating, there may be flies and ants sitting there. In addition, people with diabetes may be obese or thin, sores prone to persistent infections, difficult to treat. Even more dangerous is possible coma, convulsions due to hypoglycaemia and acidosis.

Keep the schedule of meals of the day on time, eat only meat up to (within the allowable limit) in 2 meals, the remaining meals only eat vegetables and grain products; Eliminate foods high in fat; Supplement in meals with lots of low-calorie foods such as vegetables, dried mushrooms, cucumbers...; Do not skip meals, even if you do not want to eat; Take every measure to induce appetite when eating; Do not eat too much, always remind yourself that you are enjoying the food; Processing boiled food, cooking is the main, limiting frying, roasting with fat;

When dieting and quantity restriction is required, food should be gradually reduced over time. Once the required level has been reached, it should be maintained patiently, never increased; Must respect the principles of diet for people with diabetes are: Diverse food, many ingredients; eat enough to maintain a moderate body weight; limit eating foods rich in fat, especially animal fat; have a moderate amount of fiber; limit salty foods and avoid alcoholic beverages; Have a snack before going to bed at night.

Diet for diabetics needs to have a good balance of the three main nutrients, starch, protein, and lipids, in addition, it also needs to provide enough vitamins and minerals. The purpose of the diabetes diet is to change past eating habits and translate into a healthy diet.
Starch group: Whole grains, beans, rice with bran on, vegetables... are processed by steaming, boiling, baking, minimizing frying, stir-frying... Root vegetables such as tubers Sweet potatoes, potatoes or cassava also provide a lot of starch, so if people with diabetes eat these types, they need to reduce or cut rice. Meat and fish group: Diet for diabetics should include fish, lean meat, poultry without skin, fat-removed meat, legumes... that are processed simply like steaming, boiling, pan-frying to remove fat. Group of fats and sugars: Foods with unsaturated fats are preferred in the diabetic diet such as soybean oil, sesame, fish oil, fish fat, olive...

Vegetable group: People with diabetes should eat more fiber in their menu through simple processing methods such as eating raw, steaming, boiling, mixed vegetables but should not use too many fatty sauces. . Fruits: Diet for diabetics should increase eating fresh fruit, should not be processed further by adding cream, milk, limit eating sweet and ripe fruits such as ripe bananas, durians, ripe persimmons, etc. Ripe mango... Also according to the National Institute of Nutrition, the ratio between the energy-producing components in the daily meals of diabetics is determined which will be essential in stabilizing and treating the disease:

Protein: Protein intake should reach 1-1.2 g/kg/day for adults, ie this ratio should be equivalent to 15-20% of dietary energy. Lipids: The recommended fat percentage should be 25% of total calories, not more than 30%. Limit saturated fatty acids. This helps stabilize blood sugar, prevent atherosclerosis. Gluxit: The percentage of energy provided by starch should reach 50-60% of the total energy intake of people with diabetes. Should choose foods with low glycemic index such as: brown rice, rye bread, oats, whole-grain beans... Customers can directly go to Vinmec Health system nationwide for medical examination. or contact the hotline here for support.
Reference article source: diabetes.org