What type of diet is best for a diabetic?

A low glycemic index diet. http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

This table includes the glycemic index and glycemic load of more than 2,480 individual food items. Not all of them, however, are available in the United States. They represent a true international effort of testing around the world.

The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers–the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike. A list of carbohydrates with their glycemic values is shown below. A GI is 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 inclusive is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.

The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn't tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food's effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn't a lot of it, so watermelon's glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.

Foods that have a low GL almost always have a low GI. Foods with an intermediate or high GL range from very low to very high GI.

Both GI and GL are listed here. The GI is of foods based on the glucose index–where glucose is set to equal 100. The other is the glycemic load, which is the glycemic index divided by 100 multiplied by its available carbohydrate content (i.e. carbohydrates minus fiber) in grams. (The "Serve size (g)" column is the serving size in grams for calculating the glycemic load; for simplicity of presentation I have left out an intermediate column that shows the available carbohydrates in the stated serving sizes.) Take, watermelon as an example of calculating glycemic load. Its glycemic index is pretty high, about 72. According to the calculations by the people at the University of Sydney's Human Nutrition Unit, in a serving of 120 grams it has 6 grams of available carbohydrate per serving, so its glycemic load is pretty low, 72/100*6=4.32, rounded to 4.

Combine this with EXERCISE and you got the winning combo.

Take care

Tin

1

2

You do NOT want a diet that has "plenty of complex carbohydrates" as suggested by redmug100.

Carbohydrates break down into simple sugars during the digestive process. The only advantage of complex carbs over simple carbs is that it takes longer for your body to break them down, so your blood glucose levels won't spike so early. They WILL, however, still get higher.

What you need is a diet that's in accordance with what your doctor and/or dietitian has recommended. This will be one that's balanced in accordance with the medication(s) that you're taking, your body size, your activity level, the type of work that you do, etc.

Whether you're a type 1 or a type 2, it doesn't mean actually depriving yourself of what you like. You just need to be sensible and take things in moderation.

A normal diet but without sugar or too many simple carbohydrates, but plenty of complex carbohydrates. Not too much saturated fat, No trans/hydrogenated fat. You can use fructose as a sugar substitute but it can have laxative effects if eaten to excess