The Goals of Good Eating

The American Diabetes Association has laid out the following goals of eating for health:

  1. 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
  2. Prevent and treat diabetes complications.
  3. Fulfill personal nutritional needs.
  4. 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

  1. Find the right timing of meals and snacks that works in the person’s life and adjusting that when life changes.
  2. Adjusting insulin dose to match the meal size.
  3. Treating high blood glucose levels promptly with insulin.
  4. Avoiding the treatment of blood glucose lows with more carbohydrate than necessary.