10 Ways to Keep Your Portions Under Control if You Have Diabetes

It’s important to read food labels carefully when monitoring portion sizes. “The first thing to look at when reading a food label is the serving size,” says Kimberlain. “As food labels are currently written, they are not always just one serving. Therefore, if the serving size is more than one serving, you will need to calculate how much you’re eating. For example, if the serving size is 5 crackers, but you eat 10 crackers, you have to double all the information: 100 calories becomes 200 calories, 250 milligrams [mg] of sodium becomes 500 mg, etc.”

You also want to look at how much saturated fat you’re eating, says Kimberlain, as people with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of getting heart disease. “For saturated fat, I teach people to look at the percentages,” she says. “Giving them the range of 5 percent to 20 percent allows them to know if the food is ‘high saturated fat’ or ‘low saturated fat.’ If an item has 5 percent, it’s a better choice.”

It’s also important to monitor your sodium intake. The American Heart Association recommends consuming no more than 2,300 mg a day and moving toward an ideal limit of no more than 1,500 mg per day for most adults, and this can be even more important for people with diabetes, Kimberlain notes. “Decreasing the amount of sodium in the diet can help many people lower their blood pressure. Lowering blood pressure also means decreasing risk for heart attack or stroke, both of which are common diabetes complications.”

People with diabetes also need to look at “total carbs,” says Kimberlain. “Sugar will be included in this category,” she explains. “Many people with diabetes might look just at the sugar category, but that doesn’t give the whole picture. For example, bread might have 1 g of sugar but 15 g of carbs. If you only looked at the sugar, you might opt to eat more, thinking that you’re not affecting your blood sugar levels when in fact you are.”