By: Bahara Noorzai and Igor Klibanov

You’re a diabetic. You’re concerned about your blood sugar. And you both know logically, and from talking to people (both other diabetics, and medical practitioners) that diet is a key to controlling type 2 diabetes. That’s exactly what we’ll talk about in this article – the perfect diet for type 2 diabetes. 

Diet for type 2 diabetes
Original source: here.

There is so much misinformation about how to lower your blood sugar, so in this article, we’ll be busting some of the biggest diet myths for type 2 diabetics, and setting you on the right path. What we won’t cover, however, are supplements. I cover those in my other articles, like whey protein for diabetics, pre-workout for diabetics, my review of Curalin supplements, and others.

But first off…Who am I? 

Hi 🙂 

My name is Igor. 

I am the author of the Amazon bestseller, Type 2 Diabetes Reversal Secrets. Additionally, I am a personal trainer who specializes in helping diabetics reduce their blood sugar. 

Before we dive in, let’s do a… 

Disclaimer On Medications 

As your diet improves, you may find that your blood sugar may start dipping into the hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) range. So talk to your doctor about adjusting medication dosage as your blood sugar levels improve. 

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get to it. 

Exercise For Diabetes 

While I go into way more detail on exercise for diabetes in my article, we’ll make it super simple in this article.

If you’re not currently exercising at all, some exercise is better than no exercise. So I’ll make it easier on you. Pick either one:

1. Go for a 5-minute walk, 3 times per week. Just increase your walk by 2 minutes the following week. And 2 more minutes, the week after that, and so on, until you’re going for walks for 30-60 minutes. 

2. Do 10 squats and 10 wall push-aways (just put your hands on the wall, and push your body away from it). Repeat 3 times per week. Just increase the squats and wall push-aways by 2 repetitions the following week. And 2 more the week after that, and so on. Once you can do 20 repetitions increase the difficulty. 

A lot of articles that you’ve read previously, talk a lot about carbs, carbs, and carbs. So what I want to talk about in this article is…

Why the Conversation About Carbohydrates is Missing the Point

I’ve talked about the 4 most important nutritional factors for blood sugar control and carbohydrates are only the 3rd most important factor. 

The single most important factor for diabetes is total calories. 

The second most important factor is total fiber. 

And finally, the 3rd most important factor is carbohydrates. 

Just so you are aware, this is not my opinion. There is a good amount of research to back this up. 

In lots of studies, people on a high carbohydrate diet still lower their blood sugar. 

Why, you may ask? Because they had a high carbohydrate and high fiber diet. A lot of the discussion on carbohydrates doesn’t distinguish between high-fiber carbs and low-fiber carbohydrates. Which we will talk about in a second. 

The 4 most important nutritional factors for blood sugar control are:

1. Total number of calories 

2. Total amount of fiber 

3. Total number of carbohydrates 

4. Glycemic load 

There are many myths about high-carb vs. low-carb diets. Let’s bust some of those. 

When research talks about high carb vs. low carb, it’s comparing the amount of carbohydrates to total calories. Not the absolute amount of carbohydrates. What do I mean by that? 

Here’s an example: 

Let’s say you’re eating 2000 calories per day. In this case, a high-carb diet might be 70% of daily calories. So 1400 calories would come from carbs. 

But let’s say you’re eating 4000 calories per day, but you’re on a low carb diet of “only” 40% carbs. But 40% of 4000 is 1600. So the relative number of carbs is lower, but the absolute is higher.

Good Foods Vs. Bad Foods

In general, there is no such thing as “bad foods.” As long as you hit the quota of the minimum amount for good food. 

In my diabetes book, I bust a lot of the myths around diabetes like sugar causing high blood sugar which is logical, but not correct. 

Here is a study where people were fed a high-sugar and low-calorie diet and their blood sugar was still good. So added sugar does not cause high blood sugar. The only truly bad foods for you are the ones that you have an anaphylactic reaction to. But you probably don’t want to eat those foods anyways. Once again, there are no such things as bad foods, as long as you are meeting your minimum quota of good food. 

And what is your quota? 

Total Calories: 

Multiply your desired body weight (in pounds) by 15. 

If you want to lose weight and the desired body weight is more than 10 pounds below the current body weight, multiply the current body weight, minus 10 pounds, times 15. 

Example: If you weigh 200 pounds but you want to lose weight, and be at 170 pounds. You will subtract 10 from 200 which is 190. And then multiply 190 by 15 and your daily total calories should be 2850 

Fiber: 

Diabetics require more fiber than non-diabetics. Their quota is 35-50 grams/day.

What is fiber? Fiber is a class of carbohydrates, which means that every gram of fiber has 4 calories. 

Example: if you are getting 35-50 grams of fiber a day, that’s between 140-200 calories of fiber. 

Protein

Lastly, there is the indirect effect of protein on blood sugar. Protein is filling, so it makes you want to eat less. 

How much protein should you get? The range is really wide, from as low as 1.2 grams/kg/day, to almost 3 grams/kg/day.

If you want a more accurate answer, check out Examine.com’s article that answers that question.

Once you’ve calculated your “caloric budget”, and eaten your quota of fiber and protein, you can have whatever you want. 

Pizza? Cake? Go crazy… within your caloric budget.

Foods To Minimize 

We want to minimize low-fiber carbs.

Examples: 

● White pasta

● Potatoes (including sweet potatoes) 

● Rice (including brown rice) 

● White bread 

● Whole wheat bread (not to be mistaken for whole grain bread – which is high in fiber).

There is a common misconception that sweet potatoes and brown rice have a lot more fiber than regular potatoes and regular rice. They don’t. Just a tiny bit more.

What is considered high fiber? High fiber is anything over 5 grams of fiber per serving. So when we talk about sweet potatoes and brown rice, they have less than 5 grams per serving. 

Just so we are clear, I said minimize. Not eliminate. If you enjoy these foods and know that they are not contributing to either protein or fiber, put them in “the rest” section of your diet. 

Foods To Emphasize (high fiber content) 

When I mentioned all the things you must minimize, you were probably wondering “so what do I need to eat?” Well, here is a much longer list of high-fiber options:

● Buckwheat 

● Quinoa 

● Amaranth 

● Beans 

● Peas 

● Lentils 

● Steel-cut oats 

● Whole grain bread (not to be confused with whole wheat) 

● Whole grain pasta 

● Blackberries 

● Blueberries 

● Raspberries 

● Chia seeds 

● Hemp seeds 

● Flax seeds 

● Apples 

● Dried fruits 

Dried fruits must’ve confused you a bit as there is a common myth that dried fruits are not good for diabetics because they are a high source of sugar. But ignoramuses who make those claims show an incomplete understanding of sugar.

There are 3 types of sugar

● Glucose

● Fructose 

● Lactose 

Glucose in food raises blood glucose faster and to a greater extent than fructose. The primary sugar in dried fruits is fructose, not glucose. Due to this, they don’t raise blood glucose levels with the same speed, or to the same extent as low-fiber carbs.

Dried fruits are also a very rich source of fiber (dates, prunes, etc).

There is a concept called “net carbohydrates.” This means you subtract the fiber grams from the carbohydrate grams to get the net effect on the body. 

For example, if you have 20 grams of carbohydrate but it also has 4 grams of fibre then the effect on the body is as if you had 16 grams of carbohydrates. 

Case in point – in one study where people were fed raisins 3 times a day for 3 months, their blood sugar was unaffected. Another group was fed the exact same diet (same calories, carbs, fats and protein) without raisins and their blood glucose levels went up a bit. 

High-Protein Foods to Emphasize 

The only foods that are truly rich in protein are: 

● Meat 

● Fish 

● Seafood 

● Egg whites 

All other food, I would call either grade B or grade C protein. 

Grade A protein contains 30 grams of protein per serving or more. Grade B protein is what vegetarians and vegans say is high protein but it is not high protein. 

Things such as beans, lentils, eggs, cheese, and nuts – are what I call grade B or Grade C proteins. 

Grade B protein would be between 10-25 grams of protein per serving. 

Grade C protein would be anything less than 10 grams of protein per serving. Example:

The reason why an egg is not a great protein source is that one egg has 6 grams of protein, which is not a lot. 

A slice of cheese is also grade C protein, because it only has 5 grams per slice. Eat 2 slices, and now you have a grade B protein.

Beans and lentils are about 12-14 grams of protein per cup.

Peas have about 5-6 grams of protein per cup. 

I elaborate on all of this in much greater detail in my article on the best protein sources.

Why The Foods To Emphasize Are Beneficial 

There are 2 big reasons: fiber and protein.

Fiber has a direct effect on blood sugar. Part of the effect is on carbs. In other words, it makes some carbs unabsorbable by the body. 

But also, fiber lowers blood sugar beyond just its effects on carbohydrates. So there is something to fiber that is not yet understood very well. It lowers it more than just a lower carbohydrate diet. There is something to fibre that is not just about subtracting carbohydrates. 

Protein lowers blood sugar indirectly. In and of itself, it doesn’t really have a major effect on blood sugar, but what it does is it keeps you full for longer, so you eat less food. 

Meal Planning 

Planning is super super super simple. It does not need to get more complicated than what I am about to list. 

1. Wake up in the morning.

2. Look what you have in the fridge.

3. Take 30 seconds to write down what you’ll have for breakfast, lunch and dinner, keeping in mind the high fiber and high protein foods.

When you go out for a grocery run, prepare a grocery list. Again, organize your groceries around high-fiber, high-protein foods.

If you feel like going out and dining, one thing you can do is look at the menu ahead of time before you get to the restaurant. 

The reason that this works so well is because if you wait until you’re already at the restaurant to figure out what you’ll eat, you’ll be hungry. So you’ll choose the tastiest thing on the menu. And unfortunately, the tastiest thing is rarely the healthiest thing.

I wrote an entire article on how to eat healthy in tough situations. Check it out.

Recipes 

If you’re looking for different recipes, check these out: 

Meal Prep 

1. Stick to a consistent schedule 

2. Pick the right combination of recipes 

3. Organize your prep and cook times 

4. Make a shopping list 

Fiber and protein should be the basis of each meal. 

Meal prep is super simple. You can go back to the high-fiber and protein content list of foods above to help with your eating patterns.

Example: 

● Chicken and beans 

● Tuna and lentils 

No need for it to be complicated or time-consuming. 

If you are like me and don’t like cooking, there are always other paths like meal delivery services, pre-made meals at different grocery stores, and others.

Busting The Myth About Sugar Causing Diabetes 

Earlier in this article, we busted the myth that sugar causes diabetes. 

In and of itself, sugar doesn’t raise blood sugar beyond its caloric content. So if you eat 100 grams of sugar, it’s going to raise your blood sugar by 100 grams of sugar. It’s not going to raise it by (let’s say) 200 grams of sugar.

Disclaimer: Just because it doesn’t raise your blood sugar beyond the grams you consume, it still does not contain any health benefits. It has many other negative effects that we should take into consideration. It increases inflammation, it makes you eat food beyond the point of hunger, and others.

We eat for many reasons. One is actual hunger which is a good reason to eat but we also eat for pleasure. If the food tastes too good, we’ll eat it even if we are not hungry. In my case, it’s chocolate. I can’t resist chocolate. I might not be hungry, but if there’s chocolate at home, I’ll consume it with great delight… and great speed. And that’s why I don’t keep it at home. 

So in itself, sugar does not raise blood sugar beyond its caloric content. But if sugar is a trigger food for you (like it is for a lot of people). then the problem is the meal’s ability to make you desire more food than you actually need.