If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus but have a sweet tooth, you’ll be happy to know there are sweets and carbs that health professionals recommend for diabetics. Here are three healthy foods that help you control your blood sugar levels.
Diabetes mellitus is a trying condition to live with because you have to watch your blood sugar levels throughout the day. If you eat something that’s too high in carbs and sugar, it could dangerously spike your blood sugar levels and make you sick. That means that liking sugary treats can be dangerous. But like everyone else, your body still needs your daily carbs for energy and to make vital proteins – so you’re allowed some leeway to sate your sugar cravings.
But did you know there are sweets and carbs that are almost a must for people suffering with diabetes mellitus? Here are a few expert-recommended healthy foods that help you keep your blood sugar levels safe:
1. Blueberries
Blueberries are sweet and melt in your mouth. They’re great with salads or just about any meal. But blueberries are also a superfood because they’re rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Their antioxidant content can help protect and lessen any damage arising from diabetes mellitus complications.
But despite their sweet flavor, blueberries have been found to help prevent and treat diabetes mellitus type 2 by lowering insulin resistance. They gave obese and insulin-resistant adults blueberry smoothies or blueberry and bilberry extracts for six weeks and found that the participants experienced greater insulin sensitivity.
They also fed blueberries to rats that were also on an unhealthy high-fat diet for 1 to 3 months and found that they had better glucose tolerance.
Blueberries are also fiber-rich, which allows you better blood sugar level control because it steadies the amount of sugar absorbed from your gut. The fiber slows sugar from being absorbed by getting between it and your intestines’ villi. Instead of all the sugar from your meal being absorbed rapidly, blueberries’ fiber slows its absorption such that all of it enters your bloodstream steadily over a longer period of time, which helps keep your blood sugar levels normal and keeps you feeling sated for longer.
Blueberries seem to help boost your insulin sensitivity independent of your diet, and their fiber content helps keep your blood sugar levels from spiking after eating. They’re definitely one food you need to include in your diet if you’re suffering from diabetes mellitus.
2. Tree Nuts
Most tree nuts, like Brazil nuts, almonds, walnuts, and cashews, are superfoods because they’re rich in vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, protein and other nutrients that are important for your brain, heart, and many other vital organs.
Eating tree nuts has also been found to help treat diabetes mellitus. Participants suffering from diabetes mellitus were instructed to eat two servings of tree nuts everyday for two weeks. The researchers found that the participants didn’t gain weight and had improved fasting blood sugar levels. They stated that eating tree nuts can best prevent and treat diabetes mellitus type 2 if they’re eaten in substitution of simple sugar foods, like white rice.
Tree nuts are also fiber-rich, which allows them to help you maintain normal blood sugar levels.
Include tree nuts in your diet and you most likely will see an improvement in your blood sugar levels – you’ll also be enriching your body with vital nutrients.
3. Purple Yams
Purple yams, like most yams, are sweet and scrumptious. They’re also known as the Okinawan Sweet Potato because they’re a main part of the Okinawan diet, which is famous among health enthusiasts as the diet that lets you live until 100 years old with the ability to run fast even in your 80s.
Purple yams are superfoods rich in vitamins A, C, and B6. They’re also loaded with antioxidants and contain the vital trace elements copper and manganese.
Researchers found that purple yams’ flavonoids, which are a type of antioxidants, lowered diabetic rats’ fasting blood sugar levels and their cholesterol levels. Another study found that these purple yams’ flavonoids also protect your cardiovascular system from artherosclerosis caused by diabetes mellitus.
And you guessed it – purple yams are rich in fiber, which lets them help you keep your blood sugar levels stabilized.
Since purple yams can lower your blood sugar levels and help protect you from diabetes mellitus complications, you should switch out your bread for this diabetes mellitus-protective carb.
You can indulge your sweet tooth daily with these healing sweets and carbs that help treat and protect you from diabetes mellitus. It’s best if you switch out your regular carb foods, like white bread and white rice, for these three superfoods if you want the maximum healing benefits they can offer you.
