Diabetes is a disease that results from too much sugar (glucose) in the blood, which means that your body does not have sufficient insulin available to convert food into energy. Insulin is a hormone that helps sugar enter the body's cells and maintains the level of sugar in the blood.

The main concern while monitoring diabetes is to watch that the sugar level does not cross the normal range. This means that one requires cutting down on many types of food and consuming regularly those foods, which are fine at regulating diabetes.

People with diabetes should try to manage a healthy weight and consume a diabetic food that is:

1)Low in fat quantity

2)Low in sugar quantity

3)Low in salt quantity

4)High in fruit and vegetables

5)High in starchy carbohydrate foods, such as bread, chapatti, rice.

There is no such diabetic food that diabetes patients should never eat. In addition, there is no requirement to cut out all sugar. But, people with diabetes should aim and eat only small amounts of foods that are high in sugar, fat.

1)People with Diabetes must take lots of fruits and vegetables in which fibre content is very high. Such type of food lessens the need for insulin, the reason being it releases energy into the body cells slowly. A high fibre diet means more chromium, which is very cooperative in the treatment of diabetes.

2)As for vegetables, onion, garlic, ginger, radish, spinach, kale, cucumber, carrot, tomato, cabbage and cucumber are outstanding in the diabetes treatment. Moong, kidney beans which have been sprouted, and unripe banana which is cooked, are also advisable.

3)Fenugreek seeds which have been soaked in water are almost fine for diabetic patients and should be included in diabetic food plan.

4)In fruits diet, you can take guava, Indian blackberry (also called jamun), fig, kiwi fruit, apples, citrus fruits and pomegranate juice. Make these things as a part of your morning breakfast. As, fruit juice is high in fructose (fruit sugar) and can cause blood sugar levels to rise rapidly, it's excellent for diabetics to drink fruit juice with a meal and avoid having more than one small glass a day.

5)Substitute white sugar with palm sugar, dates and honey, if you desire to have something sweet.

6)Fats like olive oil and peanut oil should be included in diabetes food plan.

7)You must drink plenty of water, at least 8 to 10 glasses per day.

8)Condiments such as pepper, chilli, mustard, herbs and spices

9)Raw vegetables need to be taken in large amounts, as cooked food raises the level of blood sugar quickly.

10)Eat non-fat dairy foodstuffs such as skim milk, non-fat yogurt and non-fat cheese, plain yoghurt.

11)Some herbs and vegetables are specially prescribed for diabetes, like Bitter Gourd and bitter melon juice.

1)Processed foods, white sugar, white flour and junk food, must be completely avoided. Avoid sweets, glucose, fruit sugar, cakes, ice cream, chocolates and soft drinks.

2)Anything that contains unsafe preservatives and too much salt should be avoided as far as possible.

3)Avoid smoking and alcohol as far as achievable.

4)Try to give up from sweets, ice-creams and chocolates, including the so-called sugar-free kinds.

5)Foods made from white flour, rye, corn, polished rice, bread, cakes, biscuits, pies.

6)Cottage cheese

7)Avoid commercially package foods such as fast foods, chips, ready-to-eat foods, snack foods and "health foods."

Some useful tips you should remember while eating out -

?You should give preference to water and calorie-free "diet" drinks instead of regular soda, fruit mock tails, sweet tea and sugar-sweetened drinks

?You must avoid creamy toppings like mayonnaise as far as possible.

?Try to eat high-fat topping salads, dressings, cheeses, and croutons.

?Choose a thin-crust pizza with more vegetable toppings but limit yourself to one or two slices. Left the extra cheese, which add calories, fat, and sodium.

?Finish your meal with sugar-free, fat-free frozen simple yogurt or a little cone of fat-free yogurt. It is better go for a platter of fresh fruit salad.