The American Diabetes Association has laid out the following goals of eating for health:
- Attain and maintain:
- Optimal blood glucose levels
- Blood-fat levels that lower risk of heart disease
- Blood pressure levels that lower risk of heart and kidney disease
- Prevent and treat diabetes complications.
- Fulfill personal nutritional needs.
- Limiting foods only when indicated by scientific evidence (or personal experience).
Each person with type 1 diabetes should work with a provider—ideally a registered dietitian who has expertise in type 1 diabetes—to establish an appropriate eating plan. This will include a strategy for synchronizing food, insulin doses, and physical activity. The overall strategy may change over time. Overweight and obesity can also be addressed in an eating plan.
Four Key Behaviors
- Find the right timing of meals and snacks that works in the person’s life and adjusting that when life changes.
- Adjusting insulin dose to match the meal size.
- Treating high blood glucose levels promptly with insulin.
- Avoiding the treatment of blood glucose lows with more carbohydrate than necessary.