Saturday, September 22, 2007

Calorie Counter: How to Count Your Daily Calorie

In recent times diabetes has become a common problem for people of all ages. Busy with your day to day work and not able to spare time for your health. If you are suffering from diabetes spending few minutes for your body can control and cure diabetes, before it becomes an acute problem.

The best way to control diabetes is to keep a check on your daily calorie intake. Including high caloric food in your daily diet is really harmful for diabetic patient. So how to count your daily calorie intake. The answer is “Calorie counter”.

Calorie counter is easy to operate and electronic calorie counter that can be easily carried in your pocket or in purse. Some of the advantages of using a calorie counter:-

Calorie and other information for large variety of food items.

You can store yours blood glucose reading, medication, insulin, exercise, and meal information in no time. On average information up to 12 months can be stored.

You can easily keep track of your life style goals. Store your average blood sugar, glucose level in blood, insulin report, and other medical reports. By doing so you can keep track of the whether your diabetes control program is meeting your goals.

In no time you can calculate the nutrition content of a recipe.

Using a calorie counter or portable calorie counter is not the only solution to control diabetes. A lot more attention needed on your diet. You have to plan your everyday food intake. Few measures that you can follow:-

o Consume fruits and vegetables: - Make sure your diet contains vegetable, fruits, and whole grains. This diet is also a healthier diet. Include fruits in your snacks.

o Artificial sweeteners: - Consuming artificial sweeteners in place of sugar is the right way to substitute sugar. Artificial sweeteners are many times sweeter than sugar. So intake of artificial sugar in food reduces the calorie.

o Eat more starch: - Studies suggest food rich in fiber and starch is most suitable for diabetes patient. Bread, brown rice, and bran are rich source of fiber. Some of the sources of insoluble fiber are whole grains, wheat bran, whole grains, seeds, nuts, fruits and vegetables.

o Eat for healthy heart:- Eat low fat and low sodium cheese. Use skim milk as it has low fat content.

o Loss weight and daily exercise: - Every day exercise is a must for diabetes patient. As everyone knows exercise is also good for people not suffering from any diseases.

o Avoid:- Avoid rich carbohydrates food like sugar, sweets, honey, jaggery which will increase your blood glucose level.

o Protein intake:- Intake less cereals, milk and cheese in your daily diet. Emphasize more on vegetable.

o Fats Intake:- Fats should be restricted to around 20-25% of your total calorie intake. If you are consuming meat, cut the fat portion of the meat.

o Carbohydrates Intake:- It should constitute around 60-70% of total calorie intake. Carbohydrates food source are barley, wheat and bran.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Diabetes Diet- Lose weight and keep it off by tracking what you eat

One of the most effective ways to lose weight is to track what you eat. Tracking what you eat is a way to assess your eating patterns. By writing down everything you eat, you learn exactly what you eat and how it affects you. You can detect patterns and eating behaviors and how they impact your weight loss goals. Many people underestimate how much food they actually consume. Many wonder why they start a diet and can’t seem to shed the pounds. One reason is that people underestimate the quantity they eat. What people think of as a single serving can actually be equivalent to three or even four servings. A triple-sized portion can greatly impact your weight loss success. Another reason is hidden calories – what some people think of as a healthy snack is actually loaded with calories that head straight to your thighs. Learning how to track your food and calorie intake is a great way to take charge of your weight loss plan and have it work for you.

Start out by writing down everything you eat. Don’t change your eating habits until you know what your eating habits are. Record every morsel – from the cream cheese on your breakfast bagel to the duck sauce on your stir-fry. Write down portions and amounts of what you eat as well. Check for servings sizes and measure portions you consume. Just as importantly, track your calorie intake. That duck sauce might seem harmless – but in reality be loaded with calories. Understanding how many calories you consume is an important element of weight loss. The amount of calories you consume and the amount of calories you burn determines whether or not you lose weight. So knowing how many calories you consume is crucial to your success. Although it may seem daunting, there are resources that can make your calorie tracking easy and stress-free. Electronic calorie counters can provide you with the calories count of thousands of your favorite foods. Calorie counters can even tell you the calorie count of your favorite fast food items. So whether you are at home or on the go, an electronic calorie counter will help you stick to your weight loss plan.

Once you’ve determined how much you actually eat and the number of calories you consume, you can then look at changes you may need to make. By tracking how much you eat, you can see over a period of time how your food consumption affects your weight loss. You can also congratulate yourself for healthy habits you may not have known you have. Tracking what you eat provides you with the tools to be successful at losing weight and managing your goal weight once you’ve shed the pounds.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Diabetes Diet & Diabetes Carb Counting

Carbohydrates are broken down by insulin into glucose. Type 1 diabetics don’t produce the insulin needed to convert carbs into glucose. Type 2 diabetics produce insulin, but not enough to break all the carbs down into glucose. Carbohydrates are important because they provide the body with the energy needed to function. Diabetics have a very special and challenging relationship with carbohydrates: you need them, but the wrong amounts can wreck havoc on your blood sugar levels and potentially make your diabetes worse.

So, how do diabetics count carbs? By understanding the careful balance of too much and too little carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are important aspects of a diabetic diet and should comprise about half of a diabetic’s daily intake. However, it’s also important to make sure you’re eating the right carbs. Stay away from simple carbs. These tend to be white flours and simple starches like potatoes. Simple carbs are digested so quickly by your body they spike insulin levels and disrupt your blood sugars. Complex carbs, on the other hand, tend to be unrefined and unprocessed whole grains like whole wheat, quinoa, barley, and spelt. Whole grains don’t affect your blood sugar levels like simple carbs because they take longer to digest. Whole grains also provide other dietary benefits like increasing your fiber intake and helping to lower cholesterol levels.

Counting carbs is an essential element of a healthy diabetic diet. Choosing the right carbs helps by not disrupting your blood sugars and by providing energy, nutrients, and other essential health benefits. Using a carb counter can provide you with a safe and accurate way to count carbs in thousands of foods –even when you dine out. With all the changes to your lifestyle that diabetes brings, taking the worry and guesswork out of counting carbs is easy with a carb counter.