Diabetic Diet Teaching Info

[CardioHCNurse]

I am fairly new to Homecare and need to gather more info on diabetic diets for myself and my patients. Are there any good websites, books to read that can help me learn more about diabetic diets and how to better teach my patients??

Thanks!

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

www.diabetes.org is the ADA website. Technically, there is no "diabetic" diet. It is the same as the food pyramid. Our dieticians make recommendations on total carb intake per day based on calorie intake per MD order. For instance, you know that each gram of carb is 4 calories. The patient needs less than 30-33% of total calories per day to be carbs. So determine what is the total caloric need, determine what is 1/3 of that and divide the calories by 4. You will then know how many grams per day is preferred. Then divide by the number of meals/snacks they will eat. Fun, huh?

[rn/writer, RN]

Check out Dr. Rob Thompson's books on Amazon (where you can take a peek at what's inside). He's a diabetic cardiologist who recommends eating, not low-carb, but low starch. If people are willing to eliminate white potatoes, rice, pasta and sweet beverages (soda, juice, milkshakes, etc.) from their diets, they can eat lots of veggies, most fruits, meats, dairy, low-carb bread, and even have a small amount of sugar. You do have to plan ahead a bit, but you don't ever have to be hungry.

I do not recommend the USDA food pyramid. It was the invention of the department of agriculture and weighted heavily in the direction of grains and potatoes because there were surpluses of these items (50 years ago) and they wanted to get people to eat more of them. The emphasis on carbs is soooo not not a good idea for diabetics.

I know someone who followed Thompson's recommendations and saw their Ha1c drop from 7.9 to 6.1 in about four months.