Diabetes, as it is known, is a metabolic disorder closely related to nutrition. When it comes to foods with high sugar content, chocolate, sweets, bread and other sugary foods may come to mind. However, beverages can raise blood sugar at least as much as solid foods. So diabetic foods shoulbe selected specially.
Therefore, it is important for diabetics to know not only the effects of solids but also drinks on blood sugar, and to turn to options that increase blood sugar slowly. We have listed the drinks that diabetes patients can consume and should stay away from. First, let’s examine the drinks that are suitable for diabetics;
Suitable Drinks For Diabetics
1) Water
When it comes to increasing fluid intake, water consumption is always the best option. Water does not raise blood sugar, but also helps to quench the thirst that can occur as a result of high blood sugar.
Drinking enough water can help the body excrete excess glucose through the urine. Medical Institute ( The Institute of Medicine ), men’s daily average of 3 liters , while women’s 2-liter recommends drinking the water. If you have trouble drinking plain water and cannot complete the recommended consumption, you can try sweetening your water with small touches at this point. Adding a few slices of lemon, orange and strawberry to your water bottle will enhance the taste and smell of the water. However, spices such as mint, basil, cinnamon stick, and cloves will also alter the smell of water, making it easier to drink.
2) Tea
If sugar is not added to tea, it can be easily drunk by diabetics. 1-2 cups of herbal tea that you will consume daily will increase your fluid intake and warm you up without raising your blood sugar in winter days. It will be beneficial to consume caffeine-containing teas such as black and green tea in limited quantities in order not to exceed the daily caffeine intake.
3) Coffee
When consuming coffee, it will be beneficial to choose sugar-free and cream-free options, just like tea. In order not to exceed the daily caffeine intake, we recommend you to take a look at our article where we evaluate the caffeine content of different coffees.
4) Vegetable Juice
Vegetable juice is a much better alternative to fruit juice for diabetics. Especially vegetable juices prepared with green vegetables such as parsley, celery and cucumber will contribute to the increase in vitamin and mineral intake without raising blood sugar.
5) Semi-Skimmed Milk / Buttermilk
Milk and dairy products are part of a healthy diet. Therefore, it is helpful to add sugar-free and low-fat dairy drinks to your daily diet. Dairy drinks such as semi-skimmed milk and buttermilk have a slow blood sugar increase. For this reason, diabetic patients can easily consume dairy drinks during snacks or alongside the main meal. People who do not like to drink milk of animal origin can benefit from unsweetened vegetable milk sources such as almond, coconut or soy milk.
Drinks That Diabetics Should Avoid
Diabetes patients should pay attention to the foods they drink as much as they eat. Drinks that increase blood sugar rapidly prevent diabetes from being kept under control and cause imbalances in blood sugar. In addition to raising blood sugar, drinks with high sugar content can cause fat in the body and thus invite many diseases.
Let’s examine the drinks that diabetics should avoid;
1)Fizzy Drinks
Fizzy drinks which are not nutritious but also has a very high sugar content, can rapidly increase blood sugar. However, excessive fizzy drink consumption may also invite health problems such as tooth decay and obesity. If you are not a blood pressure patient, you can choose natural mineral water options instead of consuming soda.
2) Energy Drink
Energy drink is not a suitable drink for diabetics due to its high sugar content. In addition to the high sugar content, their caffeine content is also quite high. Therefore, consuming energy drinks can cause the daily caffeine limit to be exceeded. Exceeding the caffeine limit can cause health problems such as nausea, high blood pressure, and insomnia.
3) Fruit Juice
Fruits have an antioxidant effect thanks to their vitamin, mineral and flavonoid content and are considered an important part of a healthy diet. However, when we drink the Fruit juice instead of consuming the fruit itself, we do not consume the fiber in it, we only consume the liquid part with a high natural sugar content. Therefore, it would be a much healthier approach to consume the fruit itself rather than consuming fruit juice.
When you are going to consume fruit juice, it will be useful to consume it by providing portion control. The reason for this is that 3-4 portions of fruit are used for 1 glass of fruit juice. For example; 2-3 oranges are needed for 1 glass of orange juice. Therefore, when diabetic patients consume fruit juice, it will be beneficial to limit the portion to half a glass (100 ml). However, diabetics should avoid consuming packaged fruit juice. In packaged fruit juices, table sugar is added in addition to the natural sugar in freshly pressed fruit juices. This causes packaged fruit juices to raise blood sugar much faster.
4 )Drinks Containing Sweeteners
One of the most common mistakes made by diabetic patients is that they consume too much drinks that contain sweeteners instead of sugar, such as diet coke, because they cannot consume sugar . Of course, sweetened drinks consumed once in a while will not cause serious harm. However, sweetened beverages that are made into a habit every day and consumed without limiting the portion amount will negatively affect both diabetes and general health. Scientific studies show that if the sweetened beverages are consumed excessively, the intestinal bacteria are disrupted, and therefore, it can increase the resistance to the insulin hormone, which is responsible for lowering blood sugar.
5) Alcoholic Beverages
In people who develop high blood pressure or nerve damage due to diabetes, alcohol use can negatively affect this situation. For this reason, we recommend that you consult your doctor whether alcohol consumption is suitable for you. In addition, blood sugar can drop rapidly within a few hours after consuming alcohol. This is particularly dangerous for people on insulin or other diabetes medications. However, some types of alcohol are mixed with drinks with high sugar content.
A study published in the journal ” Diabetic Medicine” in 2012 was conducted to investigate the effect of alcohol consumption on type 2 diabetes and prediabetes . The study was conducted with 5,239 participants. Participants’ alcohol consumption was recorded using self-filled forms. At the end of the 8-10 year observation period;
Result
Diabetes is a disease closely related to diet. In diabetic patients, applying only medication without changing the eating habits will make it difficult to keep the disease under control. For this reason, we recommend that people who have been diagnosed with diabetes should seek help from a nutritionist. Also, having diabetes does not mean that you will avoid all foods that contain carbohydrates and taste sweet. The goal here will be to find out which food raises your blood sugar at what rate and the portion sizes you can tolerate.
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