There are different types of diabetic diets. The diabetic patient should meet with a dietician to determine which type of diabetic diet will be best suited for the individual.
Counting carbohydrates, often called counting carbs, is one form of diabetic diets. The dietician will instruct the diabetic patient on how to count carbs for diabetes and how the carbohydrates should be spread over the daily food consumption.
Another type of diabetic diet consists of a list of the daily meals and snacks and the servings for each food group for the meals and snacks.
The diabetic diet is constructed to meet the needs of the individual with diabetes. If weight loss is necessary, the dietician may make suggestions and make the diabetic diet suitable for weight loss.
One meat, one vegetable, and one bread can be a diabetic diet sample meal. The meals can vary as long as they contain the right servings of the right food groups for that meal.
Chicken, carrots, and mashed potatoes is one way to meet the guidelines of that diabetic diet sample meal, but there are many possibilities. The person could also choose to eat a salad with tuna and crackers or another combination of those food group servings.
The diabetic patient has a multitude of options for a diabetic diet meal. Diabetic patients sometimes use food exchange lists to help them choose foods from the food groups as needed.
The dietician may recommend the use of a food exchange list. The food exchange list contains examples of food servings for each of the food groups. When the person with diabetes needs to select a bread serving, the person can check the food exchange list and choose from the examples giving for the bread food group.
Using diabetic recipes can add variety to the diabetic patients diet. Several diabetic diet recipes can meet the same food guidelines for a meal.