Eating to Control Your Blood Sugar

Eating to control your blood sugar isn’t just for people with diabetes; it is an important way to reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes and it promotes satiety, increased energy and weight loss. I’m a big fan of prevention, so I’m on board with the idea that we should all eat as though we have diabetes. Controlling blood sugar is a great tool for people who want to lose weight and for those with excess belly fat.

If you have excess belly fat, type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, high triglycerides and sweet cravings then you should consider eating to control your blood sugar levels.

Simple ways to control blood sugar:

• Leave added sugars behind. Sugar in all forms-from natural to processed to artificial sugar substitutes are directly related to belly fat storage.

• Choose minimally processed foods. Intact whole grains, such as oats, barley, quinoa and brown rice.

• Watch your portion size. A standard serving size is very different from a helping. Carbohydrate servings are not large: 1 slice of bread, 1⁄2 cup of rice, pasta, oatmeal, cereal and quinoa.

• Eat carbohydrates with protein. Hardboiled egg with a slice of whole wheat toast. Greek yogurt with berries, nut butter on brown rice cake, chicken or wild salmon over brown rice, soy milk with steel cut oats.

• Avoid alcoholic beverages. Alcohol stimulates your appetite and contributes to over eating. For those of you who are beer drinkers, beer goes right to work and contributes to fatty liver and belly fat.

• Plan ahead. Make time to pack snacks and healthy meals before leaving the house that way you won’t find yourself buying pastries and a latte at your local coffee house. This strategy goes a long way toward blood sugar control.