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Food Exchange Diet

i am a diabetic and the doctor has advised me to go through a food exchange diet in order to lose weight? What is a food exchange diet and how can it help me in my condition?
(June 26, 2008)

Weight Maintenance with Exchange Diet 

As a diabetic, enrolling in a food exchange diet program can greatly help you to select the right quantities of foods that you must eat each day, without compromising on a balanced diet. This is critically important for the blood sugar to stay in the normal limits and within the healthy range.  The food exchange diet or menu system categorizes foods into six different groups: these are starches, meats and types of meat substitutes, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, dairy products and fats. Foods in each particular category are supposed to be exchanged for another food in that same particular category. It is important to distribute the food exchanges over the course of the day, and you must be highly pursuant in following this particular pattern. By enduring to the food exchange diet pattern, you will be able to spread out and the quantity of carbohydrates that you consume which in turn will help you to balance the blood sugar in your body.




Remember to choose carbohydrates that are very high in fiber, as high in fiber food products have a greater effect on the level of sugar in your blood. While choosing meats always remember to select lean meats over those meats that have either medium in fat or high in fats. It is also important to control the quantity of saturated fat in your meals as this bad fat is likely to raise the level of LDL cholesterol in your body. Food exchange diet menus help to provide a flexible structure in the types of food that you can choose. More importantly boredom is not likely to set in, because of the choices in food, and thus it is likely that you will stick to the food exchange diet. All food exchange diets are based on solid nutritional principles and can be followed for long-time in order to maintain the weight, as the foods that you eat in the food exchange diet will also provide you with the right amounts of nutrients.

Submitted by C N on June 26, 2008 at 06:17

 

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