How could the keto diet help you deal with diabetes?
Diabetes affects the cells of the body resulting in them failing to process and transport carbohydrates. There are three types of diabetes, but keto diet can be useful to people with type 2 diabetes. In type 2 diabetes, cells fail to respond to insulin, a hormone that regulates carbohydrate metabolism. Carbohydrates have sugars and starches, which are the source of energy for the bodies. If the carbs are not controlled, sugar levels rise while starch becomes stored fat. This is dangerous to the body as it makes it gain weight.
Keto diet becomes handy as it involves taking meals that are low in carbohydrates, high fat, and adequate proteins. When you decrease carbohydrates intake; you make the body to survive on fat and proteins. This also means that the body is in a ketosis state. Ketosis is the burning of fat to produce energy for the body. Keto diet promotes food that is rich in proteins. Such food keeps you full with the metabolism rate healthy. Therefore this type of diet helps the body to stay healthy against metabolic diseases like diabetes. In the market, there are numerous wellness programs exist to enhance lifestyle living to eliminate the early occurrence of diseases like diabetes. The programs, like the program Custom Keto Diet, brings significant improvement in the diabetic person’s life.
What is a keto diet?
Keto diet involves the intake of low carbohydrates, high fat, and adequate-proteins. Taking a few carbohydrates starves the body of the sugars and starches that are critical and important in producing the required fuel for the body. This makes the body turn into free fat and proteins to create energy for the body. This is called ketosis state, where the body will be in a metabolic state and burning fat for energy. When the body burns fat, it can shed off body kilograms. This can help overweight people suffering from diabetes to lose weight.
Losing weight can be useful in fighting diabetes as it helps the body to react normally to insulin. Weight loss decreases insulin resistance. A Ketogenic diet can result in a reduction in blood sugar levels and insulin levels. There are four types of the Ketogenic diet, but the standard Ketogenic diet is recommended for people with diabetes. This involves low carb, adequate proteins, and a high-fat diet, as explained above. The ratio can be 5% carbs, 20% protein, and 75% fat.
Bad lifestyle – diabetes
Keto diet can be useful to type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes often links to genetic and adverse lifestyle factors, such as being inactive and overweight. Overweight and being inactive are related. When people over-eat the wrong food and avoid exercising, they gain more weight and become obese. Obesity can cause several risks such as high blood pressure, heart diseases, high blood sugar levels stroke, and more. Obesity can be avoided through a Keto diet. A Keto diet involves eating healthy food. Wrong food to be avoided includes processed meats, refined grains, and carbs. These types of food have high levels of sodium and nitrate that increase diabetic risk. To maintain a healthy life and proper metabolism rate, people should be conscious of their diet.
How a Keto diet can help diabetics
Type 2 diabetes is noticed by high blood sugar and impaired insulin function. High blood sugar can be triggered by eating the wrong food. Inactivity is another factor that can cause diabetes. A Keto diet can help lower the intake of improper meals. Below is a list of food to be avoided to help diabetic people.
- Maintain glucose levels
Keto diet limits the absorption of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates contain sugar and starch, and if they are consumed in large quantities can spike blood sugar levels. Therefore the low intake of carbs can benefit people with type 2 diabetes to maintain their glucose levels.
- Weight loss
Being in a Ketogenic diet means that the body is being fuelled by fat, as the carbs won’t be significant. The body will be getting energy from the available fat. The fat gets burnt, make it easy for the body to lose weight significantly. Type 2 diabetes can affect people who are overweight and obese. Loss of weight also makes it easy for the body to respond to the available insulin.
- Controls carbs
Overeating food with carbohydrates risks the body to catch metabolic diseases like diabetes. Ketogenic diet makes it easy to control carbs intake as it recommends the consumption of more fat and proteins. The available carbs are absorbed in the body adequately without spiking sugar levels.
- Maintain healthy metabolism
Diabetes is a metabolic disease caused by the failure of the pancreas to regulate sugar levels in the blood. Metabolism is converting carbs into energy. Diabetic bodies fail to distribute sugars equitably in the body. Therefore, the Keto diet reduces the intake of sugars and carbs that spikes blood glucose.
- Suppresses appetite
Having an appetite can be problematic for people who cannot control it. It can lead to overweight which attracts diabetes. Keto diet becomes handy to such people as it promotes the intake of proteins. Proteins make you full of small quantities. The small amounts also keep you full for a more extended period. This makes it easy for the body to shed off weight, which may result in obesity and diabetes.
- Increase energy levels
Keto diet is healthy, and it can make it easy to maintain lean muscles. This is because fat gets burnt and does not get a chance to accumulate in the body. Too much-unused fat in the body keeps you tired and less active. Diabetic people become weak when their blood sugar levels rise. By being in a Keto diet makes it easy to stay energetic due to the intake of fat and proteins.
- Maintains health diet
Those who follow a Keto diet that is low carb, high fat, and moderate proteins, are healthy. This type of diet is commended for people with diabetes. It makes it easy to maintain the quantities and quality of food that they eat. They are exposed to food that keeps them full of low blood sugar levels.
How to practice the Keto diet for diabetes
Diabetic people should avoid food that increases their blood levels. Keto diet gives them a balanced diet, which does not affect their diabetes condition but makes it easy to control blood glucose levels (1). It can also make them forget about taking insulin jabs. Keto diet can be practiced by eating healthy, low carbs, high fat, and reasonable proteins. This diet can be maintained in all the food that you eat from breakfast, lunch, supper, and snacks.
Diabetic people should be conscious of what they eat to avoid spiking blood sugar levels and weight gain. However, if it’s challenging to maintain Keto on your own, there is Program Custom Keto Diet. This program guides people to create their Keto diet plan based on different types of food that can be eaten daily for two months. It provides recipes, meal plans, nutrient information based on weight target goals, food preferences, and more.
Keto diet food for diabetic people
Diabetic people should avoid sugary and starchy food to maintain good blood sugar levels for their condition. Below is a list of good food and bad food
Good food
- Vegetables – non-starchy vegetables are good. These include; peas, broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, cabbage, avocado
- Nuts and seeds – are useful for providing natural fat and other fatty acids. They also give proteins, and people can snack on them. These include almonds, peanuts, walnuts, coconut, flaxseeds, and pumpkin seeds.
- Dairy products – diabetic people, can consume full-fat dairy products to get natural fat. These can be; cheese, sour cream, Greek yogurt
- Proteins – Food that is rich in proteins is commended for diabetic people. beef, chicken, pork, oysters, crabs, fish eggs, tofu
- Beverages – water, tea, dry wine
Bad food
- Alcohol – contain high carb. During the digestion process, alcohol is burnt first, leaving other food to become stored fat in the body.
- Sugar foods – sugar must not be taken in any form. These include fruit juice, ice cream, smoothies, cakes, sweets, sugar
- Avoid starchy foods – they contain more carbs and low fiber, which is useful in slowing down the absorption abilities of sugar into the bloodstream. Starchy food includes; white bread, rice, pasta, wheat-based products, and more.
- Transfats – are insulin resistance, and they have higher chances of causing type 2 diabetes. Food that contains Transfats includes; peanut butter, coffee creamer, cookies, pies, baked foods, and more.
- Others – beans, lentils, corn, fruit juices, sweet potatoes, cereal
Conclusion
A Keto diet can be helpful to people who have type 2 diabetes. It can help them to maintain a low carb diet while taking adequate proteins and high-fat foods. Keto diet benefits them by lowering blood sugar levels with a healthy balanced diet. It can be useful in fighting weight gain. Those who follow the Keto diet adequately can fight diabetes risks successfully.