According to the American Diabetes Association, approximately 23.6 million people in the United States alone have diabetes. This is a massive amount of people struggling every day to keep their blood sugar levels in check, follow a healthy diet, and learn how to live with diabetes.
As you might know, diabetes a medical condition that causes your blood glucose, which is the amount of sugar in your blood, to be too high. Type 2 diabetes is the more common variety, which is the type of diabetes being discussed in this report.
There are many natural remedies that are mentioned for diabetes, including the following:
- Try herbs and supplements
- Get better sleep
- Improve your nutrition
- Get regular exercise
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Try essential oils and acupuncture
- … and many more
Changing your diet is likely to be the first thing your doctor tells you to do, aside from managing your blood glucose levels. While there are a wide range of diets for people with diabetes, many people are switching to a keto diet.
Here is more information about following the keto diet in order to help manage your type 2 diabetes:
Why the Keto Diet?
The first question you might be asking yourself is why exactly you should try the keto diet for helping to manage diabetes. The primary reason is because the ketogenic diet is not a typical low-carb diet.
Keto does provide all the same benefits of a regular low-carb diet, but it has a unique advantage of converting fat into energy. This, in turn, helps with weight loss and can help those with diabetes as well.
This process is not the only thing that can help someone with type 2 diabetes manage their condition and symptoms. Here are some other reasons to try the keto diet for diabetes:
- You will consume a small amount of sugar naturally
- It can help with your sugar cravings
- You eat a very small number of carbs, as recommended by diabetes specialists
- It teaches you how to follow this new eating lifestyle
- You will lose weight, which helps manage diabetes
Basics of the Keto Diet
So what is the keto diet? The ketogenic (keto) diet is a type of high-fat, low-carb diet. Like many low-carb diets, you will be replacing your bread, pasta, and rice with lower carb food items like non-starchy veggies, berries, some nuts and seeds, meat, and cheese.
It is not like a regular low-carb diet in that you need to get into a state called ketosis. This is when you start using your stored fat for energy, which helps to burn fat and lose weight. The trick here is to eat around 20 net carbs a day, while low-carb diets typically range from 50-100 or more carbs a day.
The next section will go into detail about what you can and can’t eat, but one thing is for certain: it is worth trying this diet in order to eat healthy, lose weight, and hopefully help to manage your diabetes.
Understanding the High-Fat, Low-Carb Diet
Now it’s time to learn more details about what this diet can do. As you know, the goal is to reach ketosis so that your body will burn more fat by converting fat into energy, instead of sugar. This can help you lose weight since more fat is being burned, but it is also effective at helping keep your blood glucose low. Here is more information about this diet, how it works, and what is involved.
Finding Your Net Carbs
The main rule of the ketogenic diet is that you want to stick to 20 or less net carbs a day. What is a net carb? This is the total carbs minus the fiber. So if you are having an avocado that is 13 total carbs, but 10 grams of fiber, it is only 3 grams of net carbs.
The Macros
There are specific macros you need to follow if you are going to do the ketogenic diet. Macros, or micronutrients, describe how many calories, protein, fat, and carbs you should be consuming while on any specific diet. Here is a rundown of the macros you want to have on the keto diet:
- You should have 70-75 percent of your calories from fat.
- Aim for 20-30% of your calories from protein.
- Try to get 5-10% of your calories from carbohydrates.
As you can see, keto is a high fat, moderate protein, and low carb diet. You will need to use some type of tracking system, like MyFitnessPal, or an app on your phone. When viewing macros, you should be able to see percentages for each of these macronutrients in order to ensure you are getting them right.
What a Typical Meal Looks Like
Are you wondering what a meal with these macros might look like? An easy way to put it together is to first know what types of foods you can have. Typically, you want to have primarily meat and veggies. That really is the easiest way to put a meal together.
If you don’t have meat, you can use eggs in its place. By having veggies with most of your meals and snacks, you reduce your protein, don’t raise your carbs too much, and remain full for longer.
Here are some meal ideas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner:
Breakfast
- 2 eggs fried in butter, 2 sausage links, 1 whole avocado
Lunch
- Salad with spinach, grilled chicken, bacon pieces, shredded cheese, hardboiled eggs, and more chopped veggies like bell peppers and onions
Dinner
- Pan-seared salmon (in butter or oil), asparagus with butter, cauliflower rice
As you can see, these meals have moderate protein, plenty of fats, and some vegetables as well.
Examples of Low-Carb Vegetables
When it comes to adding vegetables, you need to be careful, since some of them tend to be a little higher in carbs. Here are some low-carb veggies that are safe to enjoy on the keto diet:
- Avocados
- Bell peppers
- Tomatoes
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Asparagus
- Green beans
With other veggies, just make sure you check the carb count before choosing them. Before too long, you will remember the amount of carbs in everything you eat, making it a lot easier to put low-carb meals together.
Tips for Starting the Keto Diet
It can be overwhelming starting a new way of eating, especially something with some strict rules like the keto diet. But the fact is, it is only difficult in the beginning, and only until you get used to tracking and measuring your food, and knowing what macros to aim for.
Remember that it doesn’t have to be 100 percent perfect on day one. It is definitely fine to work into it gradually.
Here are some tips to help get you started on the keto diet:
Make Small Changes First
If switching from your current diet to having just 20 net carbs a day seems a little too extreme, try transitioning into the new diet slowly. You can take your time, just reducing carbs one by one, until you feel like you can handle the lower carb amounts.
You can just cut back on bread and pasta at first, then cut out the beans, rice, and other grains. Eventually you will be to the point where you get used to it and can easily stick to the 20 net carbs each day.
Keep it Simple
One of the biggest mistakes people make on the keto diet is trying to make everything too complicated. Starting a new diet is not the time to make 3 elaborate meals every day using ingredients you are not accustomed to eating.
Keep it simple, focus on just a few ingredients per meal, and try to have as many foods as you would normally eat anyway. This can really take a lot of the burden off starting keto for the first time.
Track Everything
The only way to know you are hitting your macros and are staying under 20 net carbs a day is to track what you’re eating. You need to track every single meal, snack, and beverage. Also track seasonings, sauces, dips, and dressings as many of them have sugar and carbs as well.
Get a digital food scale, as it is much easier to use than the other variety. You may eventually be able to eye ball things, but at first you should be measuring everything you eat.
Focus on the Fats
One thing you will notice when you start the keto diet is that it is actually hard to eat enough fat. You would think it would be easy, but you actually need quite a bit of fat, while also keeping your carbs in check.
It is also important because fats not only fill you up, but they can help battle the ‘keto flu’, which does affect some people who are switching over to a low carb diet.
Here are some easy ways to get more fats in your diet:
- Cook everything in butter or oil
- Eat avocadoes for the fat and fiber content
- Add butter to your veggies
- Include bacon pieces on your salads
- Top meats and fish with ground nuts
Keto Diet Mistakes to Avoid
Before reaching the end of this report, let’s go over some common mistakes people tend to make on keto, so you can be sure to avoid them. This will make it an effective transition when going from your normal way of eating to a low-carb, ketogenic diet, plus you will learn even more tips for starting and maintaining this way of eating.
Not Eating Enough Carbs
Yes, you can eat too little carbs on a low-carb diet! Even with keto, where you can have 20 net carbs a day or more in some cases, you don’t want to lower the carbs too much.
Some people try to go extreme to lose more weight, eating only 5-10 net carbs a day, but your body isn’t used to this, and it can lead to keto flu or just feeling miserable overall. When you are first starting out, try to hit that 20 net carb amount as closely as you can.
Skipping Your Veggies
You also want to make sure the carbs you do eat are the healthy kind. In terms of the net carbs you eat, they should mostly be coming from vegetables and some fruit. Don’t try to just stick to meat and cheese all day, or you won’t get enough fiber, and you won’t feel great.
You still need to have nutrients from vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Balance is key to any healthy diet.
Failing to Get Enough Fat
Make sure you are getting a sufficient amount of fat each day, really aiming for 70-75% of your daily calories in fat. This will help you feel better, keep you full, and also increase the fat burning potential.
This is not a low fat or low calorie diet like you’re used to. Ignore the calories and just focus on the macros that are important for this diet.
Ignoring Your Electrolytes
Another thing that is important to remember when you are on the keto diet is that you need enough electrolytes. This means getting plenty of sodium from your salt intake, along with potassium and magnesium. Some people will take a magnesium supplement since it is a little more difficult to get through food sources.
Regular table salt and Himalayan pink salt should provide the sodium you need. If you feel faint or ill, try drinking some bone broth or pickle juice for more sodium. With potassium, you can get it from lite salt or foods like avocados and spinach.
Precautions and Side Effects
Before you jump into the keto diet for your diabetes, make sure you don’t have kidney disease. This is not safe to follow if you have any kidney problems. Always consult your doctor before trying this or any other diet with diabetes.
