For diabetics, a healthy diabetes diet is the essence to healthy living along with exercise.

Diabetic Diet meal plans

Eating regimented meals that contain wholesome meals thrice a day is very beneficial. The meal plan is based on 60% calories from carbohydrates, 20% from proteins, 10% from fats or oils and 10% portions of fruits and vegetables per day.

Sample Menu

After wake up: A glass of lukewarm water followed by 4 almonds (soak 6-8 hrs.) + 2 walnuts + Methi 1 spoon (soaked 12 hours) + juice (bitter gourd (karela)/ Indian gooseberry (amla) / cucumber / tomato)

Breakfast: Any small quantity of cereal based snacks (Rice flour / Moong dal flour / Ragi flour / Jowar flour / combination of any of these flours) with fresh fat free milk

Mid-morning: fruits in small quantity + soup

Lunch: A large bowl of salad made up of all the raw vegetables in season. The salad may be followed by a whole meal   like Rice/ roti / phulka / chapati (red rice, barley, moong dal, ragi, millet, combination of any of these) + lightly cooked vegetables + a glass of butter-milk

Mid-afternoon: A glass of fresh fruit or vegetable juice

Dinner: A large bowl of salad made up of all the raw or steamed form vegetables in season. The salad may be followed by a whole meal like roti / phulka / chapati (red rice, barley, moong dal, ragi, millet, combination of any of these) + lightly cooked vegetables sabzi

Bedtime Snack: A glass of fresh milk

Diabetic Friendly Recipes

Triphala Rice 

Ingredients

• Red rice -75 gm
• Water-150 ml
• Triphala churna- 1 spoon

Soak red rice overnight. Add 1 tsf. of Triphala churna to 150 ml water add rice. Cook rice next day. Serve hot

Methi Roti

Ingredients

• Multigrains flour/ millets flour
• Methi leaves, chopped-2 Nos.
• 1 bitter gourd, grated
• Chopped coriander leaves-2 tbsp
• cumin seeds -1 tsp
• salt-as required
• Ghee

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and make stiff dough by adding just enough water. Sieve the flour with the salt, knead the dough and make small balls. Roll out each ball of about 150 mm diameter with the help of flour. Cook on a hot tawa on both sides using a little ghee until pink spots come on top. Serve hot.

 Barley Dosa

Ingredients:

• 2 cups – Barley
• 1 cup – idly rava
• 2 tbsp – Whole black gram without skin
• 1/4 tsp – Fenugreek seeds
• Salt as needed

Wash and soak barley and whole black gram along with fenugreek seeds each separately for 6 hours or overnight. Soak idly rava for half an hour. Grind barley along with whole black gram and fenugreek seeds in a mixture grinder to a smooth batter. Finally add soaked idly rava and once again grind them to a dosa batter consistency. Add enough salt and mix well. Heat a tawa, take a ladle full of batter and spread it like normal dosa, cook both sides till golden brown. Serve hot

Millet Upma Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup Millet
• 1 Onion
• 1/4 cup carrot, beans chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 5-6 curry leaves, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ginger, grated
• 2 green chilies, finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon cooking oil
• 2 tablespoons coriander leaves, chopped
• Salt to taste

Heat oil in a medium size saucepan on medium heat; add millet and roast till it changes its colour, and keep aside. Same pan add oil in a medium size saucepan on medium heat; add mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Add the chopped onions and curry leaves and sauté until the onions are tender and the color changes to light brown. Add turmeric powder, green chilies, ginger, millet and salt. Stir for about a minute on medium heat until you get a roasted aroma of the roasted millet and add all chopped vegetables and fry for a minute. Add 2 cups of boiling water to the above mixture and cover the pan with a lid. Turn the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes until all the water has been absorbed by the millet. Once done turn off the heat and allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes. Add coriander leaves and mix well. Serve hot.

Sattu Drink

Ingredients:

Sattu (ground gram)

Wash the sattu and dry under sun, roast the gram (chana) in a pan, allow it to cool, and then finely grind the roasted chana with the help of a grinder. Add 1 spoon of sattu powder to 100 ml of boiled butter milk

Boiled Butter Milk

Ingredients

• Curd- 100ml
• Water- 600ml
• 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
• 1/2 inch ginger
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• Methi seeds
• Cumin seeds
• Curry leaves
• 1Salt as required
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 2 tbsp oil

Mix curd and water and extract thick butter. Heat oil in the pan.  Crackle the mustard seeds first. Add curry leaves, hing, ginger, cumin, methi and fry it. Then add water and boil.  After boiling allow it to cool, once it is cooled add thick butter, filter and serve.

Some Tips

• One teaspoon of methi seeds soaked overnight in 100 ml of water is very effective in controlling diabetes.
• Drink tomato juice with salt and pepper ever morning on an empty stomach.
• Intake of 6 almonds (soaked overnight) is also helpful in keeping a check on diabetes.
• Follow healthy lifestyle and seasonal diet
• Use complete(wholesome) meal
• Do not eat too slow or too fast
• Always take fresh foods
• Every day go for exercise, walking, and sun exposure.
• Avoid day sleep, sedentary life, controlling the urges, sitting in water for long time.

Avoid the following

• Avoid products of besan, maida like bread, biscuits, cake etc.
• Avoid spicy and fried food.
• Avoid products that have mixture of milk and fruits like fruit salad, milkshake, ice-cream, etc.
• Avoid fruits like pineapple, grapes, mango, chickoo (sapota), grapes, sweet potato, and potato.
• Avoid sweet, sour, and salty foods like tamarind, ripened banana, cold drinks, potatoes, sweet potatoes, colocasia (taro), yams, fresh grains and pulses (legumes), whole yogurt (high in fat), and heavy, oily and spicy foods.
• Avoid artificial sweeteners, jams, jellies and syrups, sugar-free candies, gelatins.
• Avoid dairy products.

Can Diabetes be reversed with diet control or is medication required?

A low-calorie diet can reverse type 2 diabetes. The disease can be reversed by restricted diet, dietary modifications, weight loss and following healthy life style.

Remember, a balanced and planned diet can build and improve personal health. A controlled diabetes diet may seem like a drag and bore, but a good cook can add life to a diet. Time to experiment with diabetes diets!!

The post Diet for Diabetes first appeared on FOUNDATION FOR REVITALISATION OF LOCAL HEALTH.

Are you suffering from Diabetes?
Are you worried that you might end up swallowing pills for the rest of your life?
Are you thinking of healing it with natural, Ayurvedic treatments?

Kudos, you are thinking right! Ayurveda has answers for Diabetes!

Diabetes: Global phenomena, insufficiently understood!

Diabetes is projected to become one of the world’s main disablers and killer within the next twenty-five years. The WHO estimate for the number of people with diabetes worldwide in 2000 was 177 million and is projected to increase to at least 300 million by the year 2025.

As we all know, diabetes is classified into two broad types: the type I caused by genetic disorders and the type II, which occurs due to unhealthy lifestyle.   

Diabetes is a metabolic disease resulting in high blood sugar level. Some initial symptoms of diabetes include increased thirst, frequent urination and loss of weight and appetite. If not treated properly, diabetes could have serious complications and may result in failure of vital body organs.

Till date, we understand the biology of diabetes only partially. Biomedicine describes diabetes as a chronic disorder of carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism characterized by increased fasting and post-prandial blood sugar levels.  It occurs either when the pancreas do not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces (insulin resistance). Hyperglycemia, or raised blood sugar, is a common effect of uncontrolled diabetes, and over time leads to serious damage to many of the body’s systems, especially the nerves and blood vessels.

However, diabetes is known to have multifactorial etiopathology (the cause of a disease or abnormal condition) which is not fully understood and modulation of blood sugar levels is merely a symptomatic treatment. Today diabetes management is pharma led and not scientist and physician driven.  The major limitation of Oral Anti-diabetic Drugs (OADs) generally given when lifestyle modifications fail to achieve euglycemia (a normal level of sugar in the blood), is that OADs have various side-effects like hypoglycemia (low blood sugar level), gastrointestinal discomfort and inevitability of moving the patient to taking progressively higher doses of medicine.

Ayurveda appears to have a better comprehension of diabetes judging from the results of its clinical management. It uses multi-dimensional strategies for treating diabetes, which include diet modification, detoxification (Panchakarma), well designed herbal and herbo-mineral formulations and yoga. The holistic principles of Ayurveda not only focus on restoring euglycemia, but attempt to restore the overall metabolic and energy homeostasis of the body. The treatment design has a multi-targeted mode of action which is appropriate for addressing the multifactorial etiopathology of diabetes.

From the patient’s perspective, in cases of border-line diabetes one can experience normalization of blood sugar levels and improvement in quality of life within 3-6 months period of time only by diet and lifestyle changes.

In respect of cases which have HbA1c (a term commonly used in relation to diabetes referring to glycated hemoglobin) in the range 7–7.5, the Ayurvedic intervention includes Udwarthana, Abhyanga, Nadi sweda, Patra Pinda sweda, ShiroDhara, Mrudu Virechana etc. to be taken for certain period depending on the clinical and other risk factors. The outcomes are enhancement in the quality of life, decrease in the symptoms like thirst, burning sensation, increased urinations, etc.

In groups where there are diabetic complications such as cardiovascular, neuropathy, nephropathy, the interventions include Abhyanga, SarvangaDhara, Basti, etc. These Panchakarma treatments need to be taken for few months depending on the severity of the problem and patient condition followed by oral medications. The clinical outcomes in majority of the cases are decrease in the symptoms, normalizing the functions of the organs and systems and improving quality of life, but these treatments need to be taken under expert medical supervision.

However the limitation of Ayurvedic management is its inability to deal with acute conditions of hyperglycemia. In acute conditions, short duration use of modern drugs is advisable without giving up on long term Ayurveda management.

Plants like Gymnema sylvestre (Madhunashini), Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi), Withania somnifera (Indian ginseng/Ashwagandha), Ocimum sanctum (Tulsi/holy basil), Eugenia jambolana (Indian gooseberry/ jambu/ jamun), Momordica charantia (Bitter melon) etc. are widely used in the management of diabetes for their benefits in harmonizing the discordant physiology. These plants have also been shown to reduce craving for sugar, enhance glucose metabolism, increase insulin secretion and also aid regeneration of pancreatic cells.

In border line cases, only dietary and lifestyle changes are sufficient to restore health.  With respect to food, Ayurveda recommends avoiding excess sweets, carbohydrates, red meat, seafood and dairy products which are slow to digest and are known to aggravate the kapha. Recommended  diet includes: barley, corn, rice, oats, fresh vegetables such as asparagus, peppers, onions, garlic, brinjal, spinach, fenugreek, cabbage, cauliflower, and herbs like ginger, gudmar, triphala, musta, cardamom, fenugreek, or coriander and curry leaves. Dry cooking such as baking, broiling, and grilling are preferable for balancing the heavy, cool and wet nature of kapha. Honey is recommended instead of sugar, albeit in a limited quantity.   Regular physical activity, yoga and meditation are recommended to strengthen and facilitate optimal metabolism.

Here, it is important to remember that diabetes cannot be managed by quick-fix solutions and no cure for diabetes currently exists, but the disease can go into remission!

The post Let’s Beat Diabetes first appeared on FOUNDATION FOR REVITALISATION OF LOCAL HEALTH.