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Why is What I Eat So Important?

For many kids, diabetes changes what and when they eat. If you’re used to eating whatever you want whenever you want, adjusting to a new way of eating can be difficult. But there are good reasons for people with diabetes to stick to a healthy eating plan.

1. Keeping up with the insulin. People with diabetes have to make an educated guess about how much insulin they’ll need in the next few hours in order to process the food they plan to eat. Once the insulin is injected, it goes to work no matter how much (or how little) you eat. That’s why meal plans for people with diabetes include exactly how much you need to eat. Also, insulin doesn’t work at the same strength all the time. It slowly picks up strength, peaks, and then goes back down as it is used up. So it’s important to plan your eating around the time that the insulin is the strongest—the peak.

2. Staying in control. Everyone—with diabetes or without—is healthier when they eat a nutritious, balanced diet. But people with diabetes have an additional reason to eat healthy: staying in control.

3. Growing up. When you’re not eating right, you don’t get the fuel you need to get taller and stronger.

The Food Pyramid

The food pyramid is a way to remember the healthiest way to eat. The stuff you need the most of is at the bottom. Farther up are foods you need a little less of. At the very top is food that’s not all that good for you, so you should only eat it once in a while. Take a closer look at what the food pyramid tells us about healthy eating.

The Big 3

Your body uses three kinds of nutrients—carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Each one has a different job to do.

• Carbohydrates. Eating carbohydrates (or "carbs")  is like putting gas in your car—it’ll give you energy fast. That’s because carbohydrates are the body’s main source of fuel. Your digestive system turns carbs into sugar quickly and easily. That sugar feeds all the cells in your body.

  The two bottom layers of the food pyramid (breads and grains, fruits, and vegetables) consist of foods high in carbs. Sugar is also a carb (as are honey, molasses, syrup, and other sweeteners). Carbohydrate is the food that most influences blood sugar levels. Therefore, tracking the amount of carbs in your meals and snacks is one way to plan meals. Click here to learn more about "Carb Counting".

• Proteins. Proteins act like the tools a car mechanic uses. They repair and build tissue in your body. That helps keep you strong. Proteins can also be used for fuel, but it takes double the time to change proteins to sugar. You get protein in meat, milk, nuts, and some kinds of beans.

• Fats. Fats are reserve fuel, like keeping an extra gallon of gas in the car trunk for emergencies. They also help your body absorb certain vitamins and help the cells send signals to the rest of the body. You don’t need a lot of fat every day. Too much fat can make you…well, fat. That’s because fat is basically just concentrated energy. It has double the calories of carbohydrates or proteins. It can also clog your blood vessels, which is bad for your heart. Fat is found in butter and margarine, oils, most meats, eggs, whole milk, chocolate, and any foods cooked in butter or oil.

  Some kinds of fat are better for you than others. For example, it’s better for your parents to use canola oil rather than butter in cooking. That’s because canola oil is less likely to clog your blood vessels. Talk to your parents and a dietitian to find out more about different kinds of fats.

For people with diabetes, eating on time is just as important to waking up on time. Why? Insulin. As you learned in the last chapter, insulin has peaks—times when it works the hardest. Your meals and snacks are planned around those peaks.

What happens if your insulin peaks and you forget to eat? You could get hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, which can be dangerous if you don’t catch it in time. Click here to learn more about hypoglycemia.

Someone may have told you that people with diabetes can’t eat any sugar. Some people even think that eating too much sugar causes diabetes in the first place! Such ideas make sugar sound like a movie bad guy. But sugar is not a villain. It’s just a type of carbohydrate.

It is true that eating a lot of sugary foods is not a good idea. For one thing, it’s bad for your teeth. For another, many sweets have a lot of sugar and fat and not very many vitamins and minerals. So candy, cake, and other treats should just be occasional treats.

Doctors used to tell people with diabetes to stay away from sugar. They thought that eating sugar would make your blood sugar go up too fast. Now we know that all carbohydrates affect your blood sugar the same way. A potato and a brownie, if they have the same number of carbohydrates, will probably have about the same affect on your blood sugar. Of course, a potato has a lot more vitamins than a brownie does, so it’s a better food choice.

So, if you want to put that brownie (or ice cream, cookies, or whatever) in your meal plan, talk to your parents and your dietitian or doctor about it. You probably can’t eat ice cream after every meal. But maybe you can have it once a week—like after your soccer games on Saturdays.

Remember, there are no forbidden foods—and no bad guys—in a healthy meal plan. The key is to plan ahead so your treats just affect your taste buds—not your blood sugar control.

What is Meal Planning?

Meal planning is a healthy idea for everyone. But people with diabetes need to eat different kinds of foods at certain times throughout the day.  There are several ways you can keep track of when, what, and how much to eat.  

• Carb Counting. Some people with diabetes count carbohydrates to balance their food and insulin. Earlier, we learned that carbohydrates, or "carbs," are what our bodies use for fuel. The more carbs you eat, the higher your blood sugar goes. And the higher your blood sugar, the more insulin you need to move the sugar into your cells. People who use carb counting add up all the carbohydrates in the meal they plan to eat. Then they inject enough rapid- or short-acting insulin to process that amount of carbohydrates.

  To do carb counting, you need to learn how many carbs are in different foods. You and your doctor also have to figure out how much insulin you need for a certain amount of carbohydrates. A good place to start may be 1 unit of insulin for every 15 grams of carbohydrates. But insulin works a little differently for each person. You may need 1 unit of insulin for every 10 grams of carbohydrate, or 1 unit for every 25 grams.

  Carb counting is pretty easy to learn and practice. Keep in mind, though, that counting carbs is not the same as eating healthfully. Sure, you can inject the right amount of insulin to cover a meal of cheeseburgers, French fries, and a hot-fudge sundae. If you take enough insulin, your blood sugar may even stay in your target range. That doesn’t mean the meal was good for you! People who use carb counting still follow a healthy meal plan, like the one in the food pyramid.

• Exchanges. Another way to plan your meals is to use food exchanges. This system divides types of foods into six exchange lists. The lists are very much like the groups used in the food pyramid: starch/bread, meat and substitutes, vegetables, fruit, milk, and fat. You can "exchange" any food on the list for any other food on the same list.

  Say your meal plan allows you two bread choices at breakfast. Using your exchange lists, you can decide if they will be a bowl of Cheerios, a bagel, or an English muffin.

  To make exchanges work, pay attention to how much of a certain food equals one exchange. Look at our breakfast choices above. Two breads equal a cup and a half of Cheerios. What if you’d rather have oatmeal? Two breads equal one cup of oatmeal. And you can eat two pieces of toast but only one whole bagel.

  Like anything new, the exchange system takes some time to learn. But it’s helped many people with diabetes stick to their healthy eating plan. You can learn exchanges and get exchange lists from your doctor or dietitian.

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