Is a non-carb, low-carb, or moderate carb diet the best choice for diabetics?
This is a question I asked almost every day. Today I will try to answer it by sharing my experiences with all three diet types.
What is the best diabetic diet?
Before diving into different meals, make sure you get out of the way with obvious answers. It depends.
The best diet for you is always determined by your health goals, activity level, weight and other factors. The meals that work for you may not work for me, and vice versa.
For example, if you are trying to build strength and muscle, you should not follow the same diet, whether you are trying to lose weight or not.
Similarly, people who run daily have different dietary requirements than people who don’t exercise while sitting in the office all day.
Your healthcare provider or registered dietitian (RD) will help you decide the best nutritional approach for you and your diabetes management.
Get into the various meal details to avoid getting in the way!
“No carbohydrates” (ketone production)
A ketogenic diet (“keto”) is usually defined as containing less than 50 grams of carbohydrates per day and focuses on high-fat and medium-sized protein foods.
The theory behind this feeding approach is that by consuming very few carbohydrates (contributes to about 5-10% of the total calories), the body begins to convert fat into fatty acids and ketones.
Ketones can replace glucose as the main source of energy in your body. In other words, your body is primarily dependent on fat for energy. In theory, this makes losing excess body fat very easy when you simultaneously limit your calorie intake.
Since you eat very little carbohydrate, in theory you don’t need very little insulin, which makes it easier to control your glucose. (Carbohydrates are the main nutrients that affect blood sugar levels.)
Recommended foods for the keto diet
Some recommended sample foods for this diet include:
- meat (For example, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, game meat.
- Fat fish (Example: salmon, mackerel, sardines, trout, and other fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids)
- egg (preferably free-range or omega-3 concentrated eggs)
- High Fat Dairy Products (Example, butter, cream, specific cheese)
- Nuts and seeds (Examples: almonds, walnuts, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds)
- Healthy oils (Mainly extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil)
- avocado (whole avocado or freshly made guacamole)
- Low carb vegetables (Examples: green vegetables, tomatoes, onions, chili peppers)
- seasoning (Examples: vinegar, mustard, hot sauce, garlic, herbs, spices)
- drink (For example, water, unsweetened coffee and tea)
A registered dietitian will help you decide the best balance of foods you eat, taking into account your lifestyle and overall health goals.
My experience with dieting
So, what was my experience with the keto diet? Unfortunately, it didn’t work at all for me! I only had 20 grams of carbohydrates a day and my insulin sensitivity was odd.
Fats are released more slowly into the bloodstream than complex or refined carbohydrates, so we didn’t see any crazy blood sugar fluctuations, but insulin should increase dramatically compared to eating low-carb and medium-carb diets.
Needless to say, my experience with the ketogenic diet was that I gained weight quickly. It’s not really what I was aiming for.
My blood sugar levels were great and stable, but often higher. However, gaining fat is not part of my goal, so I can honestly say that I will probably never try a ketogenic diet again.
My experience may not be typical, as some people know that they follow a ketonogenic diet successfully for diabetes management, but at this point I cannot recommend a ketonogenic diet. You don’t need it for good blood glucose control, and the drawbacks can be serious.
(In addition to the problems I have experienced, the risks of this diet include insulin, lack of nutrients, kidney stones, accelerated kidney damage in kidney disease, accelerated kidney damage, and hypoglycemia (hypoglycemia) of drugs that promote the release of kidneys and penetration.)
Low carb diet
Currently, there is no standard and universally accepted definition of a low-carb diet, but most resources define it as less than 26% of total calories each day or less than 130 grams of carbohydrates daily.
Recommended foods for low-carb diets
Some recommended sample foods for this diet include:
- Non-flexible vegetables (For example, leafy greenery, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, asparagus)
- Lean protein (For example, chicken, turkey, lean cuts of beef and pork, fish (especially fatty fish like salmon), other seafood)
- egg (A great source of protein and nutrients)
- Dairy products (For example, unsweetened Greek yogurt, cheese (especially hard cheese), cottage cheese)
- Nuts and seeds (Examples: almonds, walnuts, flaxseeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds)
- Healthy fat (Examples: olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, butter, ghee)
- avocado (Highly healthy fats and very low carbohydrates)
- Moderately berry (Examples: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)
- Fruits moderately (e.g. watermelon, melon, peach, plum, citrus fruit, preferably whole or minimal untreated fruit)
- Whole grains, moderately (Examples: wheat, quinoa, barley, oats)
- Legumes, moderately (Examples: lentils, black beans, chickpeas)
- drink (For example, water, unsweetened tea, coffee)
A registered dietitian will help you decide the best balance of foods you eat, taking into account your lifestyle and overall health goals.
My experience with dieting
The low-carb diet has proven to be a sweet spot for most women with type 1 diabetes (including myself) when dieting for weight management and fat loss. I lower my daily carbs when I want to be slim, like when I want to lose my last few pounds for a photo shoot or a fitness competition.
The added benefit of a low-carb diet is that it facilitates blood glucose control. I divide my daily carbohydrates into several meals, combined with lean protein and good fats, so I rarely see any fluctuations in my blood sugar levels after meals.
That being said, I know this is controversial for many people in the diabetic community – in general, I don’t recommend a low-carb diet as an optimal daily maintenance diet. It may support weight loss and blood glucose control, but it can also reduce energy levels.
If you live an active lifestyle (especially if you are doing resistance training), a medium carbohydrate diet provides the energy you need to promote training while allowing for excellent blood sugar management.
Medium Carb Diet
A medium-carb diet usually contains 26-44% of the daily calories caused by carbohydrates. Eating 2,000 calories a day brings 130-220 grams of carbohydrates per day.
For some people with diabetes, this may be too much carbohydrate, but most studies suggest that a moderate carbohydrate diet is suitable for this population. Personally, I consume this carb range upper limit when I’m exercising a lot and trying to gain muscle mass.
Recommended foods for medium carbohydrate diets
Some recommended sample foods for this diet include:
- Whole Grains (Examples: brown rice, whole wheat pasta, quinoa, barley, whole wheat bread)
- fruit (e.g. apples, oranges, pears, berry, peach, preferably whole or minimally treated)
- Non-flexible vegetables (Examples: leafy greenery, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, and other colorful vegetables)
- Lean protein source (For example, chicken, turkey, lean beef, fish, tofu, legumes)
- Low-fat dairy products (Examples: low-fat or fat-free milk, yogurt, cheese)
- Legumes (Examples, beans, lentils, chickpeas)
- Nuts and seeds (Examples: almonds, walnuts, chia seeds, flaxseed)
- Starchy vegetables, moderately (For example, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn)
- Healthy fat (Examples: olive oil, avocado, nuts)
- drink (For example, water, unsweetened herbal tea and coffee)
A registered dietitian will help you decide the best balance of foods you eat, taking into account your lifestyle and overall health goals.
My experience with dieting
During the final muscle building stage, I averaged about 200-250 grams of carbohydrates a day, but I was lifting my weight five to six days a week. As long as I’m stuck with hypoglycemic carbohydrates (except immediately after training), I can eat many of those carbohydrates and still have very good glycemic control.
The great thing about the medium carb diet (except eating lots of delicious carbs) was that I managed to “leave” and slightly reduce my body fat percentage while adding good muscle mass.
Those with weight loss goals have been shown to support weight loss in people with type 2 and type 1 diabetes, in combination with a medium-carb healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, particularly regular exercise (it doesn’t have to be at a competitive level).
You can see exactly what my typical diet looks like in this post.
Foods to avoid
Regardless of the number of carbohydrates targeted in your diet plan, certain foods are most restricted or avoided in both blood sugar and general health. These include:
- Processed foods (packaged meals, baked goods, candies, potato chips, etc.)
- Sugar-rich foods (soda, juice, pastries, etc.)
- Refined starch (white bread, white rice, white pasta, etc.)
- High-sodium foods (fast food, canned food, frozen convenience meals, processed meat, etc.)
- Alcoholic beverages
What the American Diabetes Association recommends
As mentioned above, there is no universal approach to diet suitable for all people with diabetes. This is reflected in the American Diabetes Association (ADA) nutrition guidelines.
Based on the current research, Diabetes Care Standards – 2024 It suggests that a variety of dietary patterns are appropriate, including Mediterranean diets, dietary approaches to stop a hypertensive (dash) diet, low-carb vegetarian, and plant-based diet.
The ADA also recommends adding processed meat, animal fats, refined grains and sugar to focus on the entire plant-based food.
Final thoughts
As mentioned at the beginning, the best diabetic diet for you depends on your goals. Personally, I find a low-carb diet that is best for weight loss and a medium-carb diet that is best for maintaining and building muscle mass.
(As a final note, some diabetics follow all carbohydrate diets that eat as many as 600 grams a day and get great results. This clearly shows that many different diets work well for diabetes management, which I never try.)
All you need to do is work with your healthcare team, experiment, take notes, learn from your mistakes, and find a meal that works for you and your body!
I recommend the following post: How to lose weight when living with diabetes.
