[Diabetes-Talk] Reading labels

[Patricia Maddix]

Terri,
I am glad that you are doing so well. First of all shopping at Walmart is just fine and having things delivered is a great option right now you can get all the foods you need to be healthy at any regular grocery store no need to spend extra money and shop at specialty stores. As a retired dietitian I always used to tell people and still do that shopping the perimeter of a grocery store is generally the most healthy way to shop. For example you generally have produce, meat and dairy and sometimes the bakery in those areas.  so this is where you find food that is not highly processed, does not have a lot of preservatives and additives and also doesn’t have a lot of confusing labels to read. You pretty much know what the food is. The center isles of the store generally contain highly processed foods containing all kinds of things that you don’t understand and are generally less healthy. Of course there are a few exceptions like canned fruits and vegetables, staples such as pasta, rice, condiments, spices,, Beans, frozen fruits and vegetables. If you pick mainly from all of these foods you can be assured of a healthy diet and then all you have to think about is preparation method and portion control.  A few things to think about when looking at labels would be aiming for lower sodium content, lower fat content, and higher fiber con tent.  these things do not pertain to diabetes in particular but are just good general health recommendations for helping prevent and control things like high blood pressure and heart disease.  I believe you have been working with a diabetes educator and or dietitian who is helping you determine what carbohydrate intake works best for you for meals and snacks. General diabetes guidelines recommend limiting carbohydrate at meals to no more than 45 to 60 g and at snacks 15 g. Some people do indeed have to go much lower than that for carbohydrate at meals to control both blood sugars and weight but these recommendations should be individualized to your particular situation. In general the same healthy foods that people with diabetes should be eating are no different than the foods that people without diabetes should be eating.
Sometimes we think that people without diabetes can just eat anything they want and not suffer any consequences but although it may never affect their blood sugar it most likely will lead to many other conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, increased risk of cancers, etc., etc. When I was a child with diabetes we often laughed and said that our family eats a far more healthy diet than the other people that we knew and this was indeed true.
Keep up the good work.
Patricia

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 17, 2021, at 12:38 PM, Terri Stimmel via Diabetes-Talk <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello everyone,
> 
> 
> I hope all of you are doing well. Things are going pretty well with me. I am now off of my meal-time insulin. I am so very happy about this.
> 
> 
> I am eating better. But I am also still struggling some. I find it difficult to not want to order out. I also find it difficult to not want candy. So these are things I am working really hard on. But other than that, things seem much better. So this makes me feel really good.
> 
> 
> I was wondering though, what sorts of things should I be watching for, when reading labels?
> 
> I know I of course need to watch the carbs.
> 
> But what other things should I focus on?
> 
> 
> Any thoughts are appreciated. We shop at Walmart for most things. I would consider shopping other places. But Walmart is affordable for us. Plus, ours is set up so that we can have stuff delivered. This works quite well for us.
> 
> 
> Again, any thoughts are much appreciated.
> 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> 
> Terri
> 
> 
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