Eat well
Diet and diabetes: how can I eat healthily?
BHF Senior Dietitian Dell Stanford explains how to eat healthily if you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, including which foods and drinks you can enjoy and which to avoid.
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If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, you might have questions about what you can and cannot eat to help manage your blood sugar levels.
Do not worry – small changes to your diet can help you stay healthy, while still enjoying mealtimes.
Do you need a special diet if you have diabetes?
There is no special ‘diabetes diet’ that you need to follow if you have type 2 diabetes.
Eating a healthy, balanced diet can help manage blood sugar, as well as lower high blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes complications with your eyes, feet and kidneys.
No foods need to be completely excluded, including sugar. It is more about getting the right balance in your diet.
If you have type 1 diabetes, you do not need a special diet either.
But you do need to adjust your carbohydrate intake according to your insulin dose to keep your blood sugar level stable and avoid hypoglycaemia (known as a hypo), which is when blood sugar levels drop too low. Your GP or diabetes nurse will advise you about how to do this.
What are the best foods to eat?
Rather than focusing on individual foods, think about your diet as a whole and get a variety of foods in the right amounts from each of the main food groups.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are an important part of a healthy diet, but choosing the right type of carbs makes a difference.
Wholegrain options such as wholewheat bread, pasta, couscous, chapatis, oats and brown rice provide slow-release energy, fibre, B vitamins and minerals. They raise blood sugar more slowly than white alternatives.
It has been suggested that sourdough bread is a better choice than standard bread. But the best advice is to choose wholegrain over white for any type of bread.
The amount of carbohydrate needed depends on your diabetes management, activity levels, weight and gender. For good health, half of your daily calories should come from carbohydrates — roughly 250g a day if you eat 2,000 calories per day.
Fruit and vegetables
Fruit and veg (fresh, frozen or canned in water) provide vitamins, minerals, fibre and protective plant chemicals. They also contain carbohydrates and are essential for a healthy diet.
Aim for at least 5-a-day of varying colours, such as beetroot, carrots and peas.
Whole fruits contain natural sugars but do not need to be avoided. The natural sugars are locked within cells and are absorbed more slowly into the bloodstream.
But juicing and blending break the cells open and release free sugars that raise your blood sugar more quickly, so limit juices or smoothies to no more than 150ml a day.
Dried fruits, like dates, are higher in sugar because the water has been removed, concentrating the sugar in a smaller amount. Stick to a portion of one heaped tablespoon.
Other fruits, like grapes and very ripe tropical fruits, such as mango and pineapple, can raise blood sugar more quickly, especially if eaten in large amounts at once.
Enjoy smaller portions and pair them with plain yogurt to add protein, which helps slow blood sugar rise.
Fats
While fat is needed in the diet, too much saturated fat (from butter, ghee, processed meats, pastry, cakes, biscuits), can increase cholesterol levels - a risk factor for CVD.
Healthy fats include olive oil, vegetable oils (like rapeseed or sunflower) and spreads made from them, nuts and seeds, 100% nut butters, avocado and oily fish.
Cooking method such as grilling, steaming and baking (rather than frying) helps cut total fat and calories, which is useful for healthy weight maintenance.
What foods should I avoid if I have diabetes?
It is not necessary to completely avoid any foods. Instead, aim for a balanced diet and a healthy weight.
Carbohydrates
| Eat less of these | Choose instead |
| Sugary or sugar/honey-coated breakfast cereals |
Oats (porridge), wholegrain cereals like wheat biscuits, sugar-free muesli |
| White bread, pasta and rice |
Wholemeal, granary and seeded bread, wholewheat pasta, basmati or wholegrain rice |
| Fried potatoes/chips or processed oven chips |
Boiled new potatoes (skin on), baked potato or sweet potato |
Fats
| Eat less of these | Choose instead |
| Saturated fats like butter, ghee, lard, goose/duck fat |
Unsaturated fats like olive oil, vegetable oils and the spreads made with them |
| Fatty and processed meats such as sausages, bacon, salami, fatty cuts of lamb, beef or pork |
Lean fresh meat, chicken, turkey and fish (including oily fish – mackerel, trout, salmon, sardines, pilchards) |
| Cream and full-fat dairy foods |
Reduced fat dairy foods |
| Crisps and fried savoury snacks |
Unsalted nuts |
| Pastry, pies |
Free sugars
| Eat less of these | Choose instead |
| Table sugar (in tea, coffee, on cereal) |
No sugar or artificial sweeteners |
| Honey, syrup, preserves |
Whole fresh, frozen or canned fruit (in natural juice not syrup) |
| Fruit or vegetable juices or smoothies |
Water, low-fat milk, water infused with fruit or herbs, sugar-free squash, ‘diet’ drinks |
| Breakfast cereals or cereal bars high in added sugar |
No or low sugar cereals such as wheat biscuits, porridge |
| Biscuits, cakes, chocolate, sweets |
Plain digestive, oatcakes, crackers |
| Desserts | Sugar-free jelly, fruit and natural yogurt |
Proteins
| Eat less of these | Choose instead |
| Red, processed and fatty meats |
Lean cuts of fresh meat, chicken, turkey, fish (including oily fish) |
| Breaded chicken |
Pulses (peas, beans and lentils canned in water) |
| Processed vegetarian/vegan products (such as veggie burgers or sausages) |
Plain tofu or tempeh |
| Meat pies, sausage rolls |
What can I drink if I have diabetes?
Choose water (plain or infused with fruit), tea (black, green or herbal),coffee without sugar, sugar-free soft drinks and skimmed or semi-skimmed milk.
If you drink alcohol, follow NHS guidelines – no more than 14 units a week, spread over 3 or more days.
Alcohol and some mixers can be high in calories and contribute to weight gain, making it more difficult to manage blood sugar.
If you are on insulin, drinking alcohol can increase your risk of having a hypo.
If you opt for alcohol-free or low alcohol alternatives, check the label. Some contain more sugar than alcoholic versions but have fewer calories.
Should I buy ‘diabetic foods’?
No - foods labelled ‘suitable for diabetics’ are unnecessary, more expensive and often just as high in fat and calories as standard products.
They may contain artificial sweeteners like sorbitol and maltitol, which can have a laxative effect if you eat too much.
If you fancy a sweet treat occasionally, stick to small portion of a standard food, such as a little jam or a single biscuit.
Do I need to restrict my calories?
If you are living with excess weight or obesity, losing weight is one of the most helpful things you can do to manage diabetes.
Some people with type 2 diabetes choose low carbohydrate diets to help manage their blood sugar levels.
Eating 130g or less of carbohydrate per day can be effective in the short term for weight loss and diabetes control, but it is not suitable for everyone. You should speak to your GP or diabetes nurse before trying it.
There’s also no strong evidence that it works better in the long term than other healthy eating patterns like the Mediterranean Diet.
Do keep an eye on overall portion sizes – this guide can help you serve up appropriate amounts at mealtimes.
Can you prevent or reverse diabetes with diet?
While type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented, type 2 diabetes is triggered by a combination of risk factors unique to you.
Some you can change (such as body weight, diet and activity levels), some you cannot (like age, ethnicity and genetics).
The 3 main things you can do to help prevent diabetes, including if you are told your blood sugar is at prediabetes levels, are lose any extra weight, be physically active and eat a healthy diet. Ask your GP about healthy living courses that may be available to you.
You cannot permanently reverse diabetes, but you might be able to go into diabetes remission, with the help of a weight loss programme, where your blood sugars return to normal without medication.
Remission is not a cure - your blood sugars can rise again - but it will lower your risk of complications like heart attack and stroke and improve quality of life.
See the Diabetes UK website for more information on diabetes remission programmes.
- Read about the ways you could put type 2 diabetes into remission with diet and exercise.
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