“Watch what you eat” that is probably what your doctor would keep on saying if you happen to be a diabetic. Diabetes is a medical condition in which an individual has extremely high blood sugar or glucose levels. This happens when the body fails to produce adequate insulin or in cases when the body cells fail to respond to the insulin that is being produced.
A diabetic has to be very careful about his or her food intake and especially about the sugar intake. However, it is not the sugar intake alone. Excessive consumption of simple carbohydrates may also have an adverse effect on their health as these are broken down into sugars. Fried food and alcoholic beverages are also a strict no-no.
Despite having a sweet tooth, you are forced to skip on desserts when you are a diabetic. You are constantly worried about your blood sugar levels rising high.
When it comes to healthy snacks for diabetics, nuts are a safe bet. These include almonds, cashews, pecans and walnuts. However, snacking on nuts does not mean that you can have as much of these as you want. Nuts should be consumed in moderation as they are high on calories.
The list of healthy snacks also includes fruits and whole grain crackers. When it comes to fruits you have a choice amongst grapefruit, apricots, apple and blueberries. Whole grain crackers, on the other hand, constitute complex carbohydrates which take a long time to get absorbed in the body thus making you feel full for a longer period of time.
But being a diabetic does not mean that you have to snack on fruits and nuts all along. There is a whole range of healthy snacks for diabetics which are nutritious and at the same time delectable. These include whole grain bars, meat preparations, and even a diabetic chocolate cake. Though rich in chocolate, these are devoid of any sugar content. You can have the cake if you are diabetic and even gift it to one who suffers from the same.
For diabetics, the kind of snack that they can have without causing an adverse effect on blood sugar levels is dependant on the kind of medication that has been prescribed. If you are on oral medication, then you should have smaller meals comprising snacks that have high protein content. You need to keep an eye over the calorie content in snacks so that it does not become an additional meal.