Low Carb Eating

Because they help keep your blood sugar levels on an even keel. Maintaining moderate blood sugar levels can greatly reduce the risk of diabetes complications.

Research has shown that people with diabetes experience long-term improvements in blood sugar levels while eating a low carb diet.

That’s because people with diabetes are deficient in insulin or resistant to its effects. When they eat carbs, their blood sugar can rise to potentially dangerous levels unless they take medication.

Low carb diets help minimize these harmful effects if you have diabetes.

With type 2 diabetes, the ultimate goal is to keep your blood sugar levels within a moderate range. It’s carbs that influence your blood sugar level, not necessarily calories.

Eat a portion of sugar or refined carbs, even if it doesn’t take you past your daily calorie limit, and your blood sugar might spike.

Portion control is a very big part of carb counting because you may not always have a nutrition label available.

People who count carbohydrates will often memorize certain portions to make their food choices easier. This is sometimes called a consistent or controlled carbohydrate diet (CCHO). For example, a small apple or half a cup of cooked corn each has about 15 grams of carbs.

That said, counting calories can still be useful if your goal is to lose weight because it can help you stay under a daily calorie limit you set for yourself.

Yes! Low carb eating, including ketogenic diets, has health benefits that go way beyond helping manage your blood sugar.

Research shows that eating low carb:

• naturally reduces your appetite
• can lead to rapid weight loss within the first 2 weeks or so
• helps you lose harmful belly fat
• may dramatically lower the levels of fasting triglycerides in your blood, a type of fat that increases your risk of heart disease at higher levels
• helps increase your levels of “good” HDL cholesterol and reduce levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol — helping protect against heart disease
• may reduce your blood pressure
• reduces seizures in people with epilepsy

Aim to eat a number of carbs per day that you can realistically maintain over the long term, and will help you meet your blood sugar goals and feel your best.

Practically speaking, when you have type 2 diabetes, choosing your daily carb limit also involves testing your blood sugar and making adjustments as needed based on your response, including how you feel.

A severely restricted carb intake of less than 10% of your daily calories appears to produce the most dramatic results and may reduce or even eliminate the need for insulin or diabetes medication. That’s a max of 50 grams of carbs per day on a 2,000-calorie diet.

But less severe carb restriction can help, too. Many people experience benefits from keeping their carb consumption under 26% of their daily calories.

On a 2,000-calorie diet, that’s a max of 130 grams per day.

The low carb options are endless (and delicious!). Here are a few swaps:

• plain yogurt with fresh fruit instead of sweetened flavored yogurt
• sparkling water or herbal tea instead of juice or regular soda
• homemade vinaigrette instead of store-bought salad dressing
• a half-cup of fresh berries or cut apples instead of a fruit bar or candy
• spiralized zucchini or other vegetables, or shirataki noodles, instead of white pasta
• Low carb natural sweeteners like monk fruit or stevia instead of sugar, honey, or agave syrup

You don’t necessarily need to avoid certain foods completely to manage your blood sugar. Instead, you can reduce your portion size and combine refined-carb foods with foods that slow digestion, like fiber and protein.

For example, eating a smaller portion of white rice combined with lentil dahl or bean-packed chili will help prevent your blood sugar from spiking as much as it would from eating white rice alone.