If you take a browse through the store, you’ll find a variety of vegetarian substitutes for every “meat” dish you can think of. What About Packaged Vegetarian “Products” There are many high-fiber foods that won’t send your blood sugar soaring, so focus on eating those instead of grains that will likely be problematic. Vegetables, nuts and seeds will provide ample dietary fiber!Īs you can see, vegetables and seeds provide ample dietary fiber! However, even whole grain products can be problematic when you’re trying to control blood sugar levels.Įven the American Diabetes Association (ADA) acknowledge in their 2017 Standards of Medical Care report, that “whole grain consumption was not associated with improvements in glycemic control in type 2 diabetes” – or in other words, eating whole grains doesn’t help you manage blood sugar and A1c levels !Īnd, despite commonly held assumptions, you do not need to consume whole grains for fiber. Potatoes (including sweet potatoes) – both are starchy vegetables full of carbs!Īll your “white” items are definitely the worst offenders – white pasta, white flour products and so forth.The body needs a range of fatty acids for optimal health, especially the brain, which is made up of around 60% fat!Īnd, compared to carbohydrates, and to a lesser extent proteins, fats hardly impact blood sugar at all. So if you do choose to include beans and legumes (without sprouting them), you’ll need to monitor your portion sizes to around 1/4 cup maximum per serve. Research shows that low carb diets are a great way to lower blood sugar, A1c, cholesterol, lose weight, and even reduce medications. Sprouting them drastically reduces the amount of carbs they contain.Ĭarbohydrates are the nutrient that influences blood sugar and A1c the most, so eating high carb foods can be problematic and make it difficult to regulate your blood sugar levels. These do contain protein but they are also a high carb food. NOTE: You need to be cautious of beans and legumes. There are plenty of great protein sources to eat as a vegetarian:Įggs, cheese (cheddar, ricotta, feta, cottage etc), nuts and nut butters (peanut butter, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts etc), seeds ( pumpkin seeds, sesame, sunflower, chia etc), whey protein, bee pollen, soy products like tempeh, tofu, natto, textured vegetable protein (TVP), and edamame (young soybeans – 1/2 cup) and finally, sprouted beans and legumes. What are we talking about here exactly? Choose these vegetables in abundance:Īlfalfa, artichoke, arugula (rocket) asparagus, avocado, bean sprouts, beet greens, bell peppers (capsicum), bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chicory, chives, choy sum, collard greens, cucumber, dandelion greens, daikon, eggplant (aubergine), endive, fennel, green beans, green onions, mushrooms, mustard greens, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, okra, pak choi, radish, radicchio, rhubarb, scallions, seaweeds, silverbeet, shallot, spinach, sugar snap peas (snow peas), Swiss chard, tomatoes, turnip greens, watercress, yellow summer squash, zucchini (courgette). Non starchy vegetables are rich in dietary fiber, generally have a low glycemic index, and are the type of veg that won’t send your blood sugar soaring. If that’s you, you’re first step to gaining better blood glucose control is to eat more veg, particularly non starchy vegetables. That might sound like a funny (and obvious) thing to say, but trust me, I’ve met plenty of vegetarians who live on processed garbage and rarely eat vegetables! One of the most important things you can do as a vegetarian is eat more vegetables! There are a few aspects you need to understand to sustain and maintain good diabetes management, so let’s go over those now. All our cells need nutrients, and vegetables and other whole foods provide the perfect ingredients for a healthy body!īut, not all plant foods are great to eat when you have diabetes or prediabetes. Nutrients are the key to keeping the body functioning.
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