A healthy diet is a way of eating that that reduces risk for complications such as heart disease and stroke. Healthy eating includes eating a wide variety of foods including vegetables, whole grains, fruits, non-fat dairy products, beans, and lean meats, poultry and fish. There is no one perfect food so including a variety of different foods and watching portion sizes is key to a healthy diet. Also, make sure your choices from each food group provide the highest quality nutrients you can find. In other words, pick foods rich in vitamins, minerals and fiber over those that are processed.

Diet plays a significant role in controlling the diabetes. The diabetic diet may be used alone or else in combination with insulin doses or with oral hypoglycemic drugs. Main objective of diabetic diet is to maintain ideal body weight, by providing adequate nutrition along with normal blood sugar levels in blood. The diet plan for a diabetic is based on height, weight, age, sex, physical activity and nature of diabetes. While planning diet, the dietician has to consider complications such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels.

The guidelines for diabetes diet planning include the following:

* Many experts, including the American Diabetes Association, recommend that 50 to 60 percent of daily calories come from carbohydrates, 12 to 20 percent from protein, and no more than 30 percent from fat.

* Spacing meals throughout the day, instead of eating heavy meals once or twice a day, can help a person avoid extremely high or low blood glucose levels.

* With few exceptions, the best way to lose weight is gradually: one or two pounds a week. Strict diets must never be undertaken without the supervision of a doctor.

* People with diabetes have twice the risk of developing heart disease as those without diabetes, and high blood cholesterol levels raise the risk of heart disease.

Diabetic Diet

Patients with Type 1 diabetes should have a diet that has approximately 35 calories per kg of body weight per day (or 16 calories per pound of body weight per day). Patients with Type 2 diabetes generally are put on a 1500-1800 calorie diet per day to promote weight loss and then the maintenance of ideal body weight.. However, this may vary depending on the person's age, sex, activity level, current weight and body style. More obese individuals may need more calories initially until their weight is less. This is because it takes more calories to maintain a larger body and a 1600 calorie diet for them may promote weight loss that is too fast to be healthy.

Diabetic Diet Plan

This should be your program every meal. Below is a sample of a Diabetic Diet Plan to get you started:

Diabetes Diet Breakfast

4 ozs. Juice
1 slice of bread toasted
2 eggs
8 oz. milk
1 tsp. butter or margarine

Diabetes Diet Lunch

½ cup sliced cucumber on lettuce
mushroom and spinach omelet
1 slice bread
1 tsp. butter
½ cup canned vegetables (rinsed and drained well)
coffee or tea

Diabetes Diet Dinner

1 cup homemade bouillon (to control salt)
1 pork chop grilled (fat trimmed)
½ cup cooked beets
½ cup cooked green beans
1 small salad with fat-free dressing
1 slice bread