Ask your doctor if it’s safe for you to consume alcohol. If you choose to drink, limit yourself to no no more than one or two drinks per day. If you’re taking insulin or diabetes medications that increase the amount of insulin your body makes, alcohol can cause your blood glucose level to drop dangerously low. Be sure there is food in your stomach before you consume alcohol to prevent this effect from being even stronger.
When to Eat
Dr. Thomas Campbell, physician at St. Joseph Health Primary Care University Drive, says, “Many people with diabetes find eating at the same times each day helps them manage their blood sugar level.” Depending on the care plan you’ve developed with your doctor, you may need to eat the same amount of carbohydrates at the same time each day. However, if you take “mealtime” insulin, your eating schedule can be more flexible.
Using insulin or certain diabetes medicines and then skipping a meal can cause your blood glucose level to drop too low. Talk with your doctor for more details about what’s right for you.
How Much to Eat
Eating the recommended amount of food is another way to help manage your blood glucose level, as well as your weight. Your healthcare team can recommend how much food and how many calories you should eat per day and meal. Use a fitness tracker to find out how many calories are in what you eat, or check the USDA’s Food-A-Pedia.
Planning Meals
One way to plan your meals is to use the plate method. This method shows you how to portion your food groups based on how much of a 9-inch plate each food takes up. For example, you can fill half of your plate with non-starchy vegetables, a quarter of your plate with protein, and a quarter with a starch. This method eliminates the need to count calories and still lets you eat the recommended portions of each food group. To learn more about the plate method, use the interactive Create Your Plate tool from the American Diabetes Association.
Another method of meal planning involves carbohydrate counting. Carbohydrates turn into glucose in your body, so they affect your blood glucose level more strongly than other types of foods. If you take insulin, counting carbs can also indicate how much insulin you need. Your healthcare team can recommend how many grams you should eat per day. To get started, you can:
Learn which foods have carbohydrates.
Read nutrition labels, and learn to estimate how many grams of carbs are in the food you eat.
Add the grams of carbohydrates from each food to get a total for each meal and day.