Diabetic people have a hard time figuring out the right meal for them. However, not everyone is aware of the fact that not only is it important to eat the right food but also eating at the right time.
Numerous studies have stated that timing your meals correctly is the key to controlling diabetes and weight management.
Every human body has different mechanisms and there is no blanket diet plan that can encompass every diabetic patient in the world. One common element in all is that eating consistently helps the body to achieve and maintain glycemic control. A well-maintained glycemic level is equal to controlled blood sugar. This is why a well-managed eating schedule is essential to avoid diabetic complications and improve your overall health.
Let’s delve into the details of appropriately timed meals for diabetes patients.
What Are the Optimum Meal Timings?
Your optimal meal timing depends a lot on your current meal habits, body, disease severity, etc. This is one of the reasons why you need to do your share of trial and error to find out what suits you the best.
With that being said, there are some generic meal practices that are sure to help you in the long-run. Let’s find out!
Breakfast
Everybody knows breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This holds true for diabetes patients too. Breakfast is the fuel to your body that helps it kickstart for the day. If you only gulp down a beverage in the morning, go about your chores, and eat later, your body will generate its own fuel by releasing blood sugar levels in the body.
Prevent this with a healthy and filling breakfast in the morning with 2 hours of waking up. It should include two food groups at least. You can reduce the portion size if needed but eat well.
Three Meals Vs. Frequent Meals
The two most popular meal plans are three full-fledged meals in a day and multiple meals in smaller quantities. To determine which works better for you, it is best to consult your doctor or dietician.
Smaller, frequent meals increase the probability of munching on unhealthy snacks and maybe even overeating if you skip on a habituated meal portion. On the other hand, three meals may again get you hogging on food and increasing the time difference between two meals.
The key here is to not take gaps of more than 5 hours between meals and consume a healthy portion.
Dinner
Dinner times your body to heal itself and reset for the next day. Untimed dinner can lead to disturbed sleep cycle, which in turn will lead to midnight hunger-pangs, unhealthy snacking throughout the day, and fluctuating blood sugar levels.
You can prevent all this by having your dinner a few hours before bed, taking medicines, and keeping a healthy snack handy in case you feel hungry later at night.
Diabetes is on a rapid rise across the globe. The only cure to it is prevention and precaution. Keep your meals healthy and timely, and buy health insurance to cover for all the medical expenses that incur.
