Snacks for diabetics are something that is as essential as the balanced diet and diabetic foods. In fact for the diabetic the keyword is never “don’t eat between meals”; rather it is “take a snack or two in between the meals”. However snacks for diabetics have to be selected carefully and they should be healthy and nutritious without having adverse affects on the diabetic.
Prevention is better than cure
Few other diseases could be so appropriate for the historical proverb “prevention is better than cure” as it is for diabetes. A disease for which no full fledged treatment has yet been discovered; its growth can only be prevented. Prevention does not only mean that you will lower down your blood sugar level with diets, medication, and workouts, but also means that you do not allow it to go dangerously low. That brings up the issues of food, and of course snacks for diabetics in between the meals.
Dangers of Extensive Gaps
A diabetic can never afford to keep his or her stomach empty for more than 3-4 hours at a stretch and normally you do not take meals at those intervals. Usual practice is to take meals giving a gap of at least 7-8 hours and that could often prove dangerous for a diabetic on diet and medication as the blood sugar level could go too low. True, diabetes is all about controlling the blood sugar level but it is also concerned with maintaining an even level of blood sugar in the anatomy.
Take the Right Approach
It does not mean however that you will accept as snacks whatever comes your way. In contrast you have to maintain the right approach and select the right type of snacks for diabetics that would keep you filled, not lower blood sugar level too much, and not give rise to indigestion and gastronomic syndromes. Snacks like the diets have to be balanced as well. And above all they must be healthy as well.
Tips for Selecting Snacks for diabetics
Keeping in mind a few very relevant aspects could help one select the appropriate snacks for diabetics.
- Ensure that the overall calorie value of the snacks one consumes is 150 calories or less. Else they may tend to become extra meals and harmful.
- Take snacks only when you are really hungry.
- Dispense with the habit of eating more snacks because they are low calorie and low fat. Maintaining a balanced quantum would be good.
- Eat less than the amount your desire. Eating small snacks at intervals of a couple of hour is a better habit in comparison to eating large amount of snacks at greater time spans.
- Few nuts coupled with few whole-grant crackers and raw green vegetables could comprise very useful and healthy snacks for diabetics.
- Black bean salsa on eggplant slices with small cup of non starchy vegetable soups like spinach, onion, green beans, squash, and celery makes excellent snacks that any diabetic can take between foods.
And if you are fond of fruits, make apple with skin and combine it with grapes and peeled banana after freezing both of them. This makes real healthy snacks for diabetics.
