What is diabetes?
Blood sugar
Blood sugar (glucose) is the sugar in your blood and is controlled by several hormones including insulin. Insulin moves the sugar from your blood into your cells for energy.
Type 2 diabetes & Pre-diabetes
Diabetes is a condition where the sugar in your blood is too high. This is beacuse the insulin produced by your pancreas doesn’t work as well or the cells in your body don’t respond to insulin. You may have diabetes if your blood tests show HbA1c above 50 mmol/mol, fasting blood glucose above 7 mmol/L or a random blood glucose above 11.1 mmol/L.
Pre-diabetes is when the amount of sugar in your blood is high but not yet diabetes. You may have pre-diabetes if your blood tests show HbA1c between 41 – 49 mmol/mol or fasting blood glucose between 6.1 – 6.9 mmol/L.
What's normal?
The normal level of sugar in the blood is between 4 and 8 mmol/L. When levels are higher, your body uses glucose as fuel and stores the extra glucose for use later. When levels are lower than this, your body will release glucose from your liver so it can be used as fuel. Long term, high blood glucose levels cause damage to your eyes, kidneys, blood vessels, heart and feet.
Managing diabetes with lifestyle
1. Increase your fibre intake
Fibre is found in whole foods like vegetables and fruit (skins on), legumes, nuts, seeds and whole grain foods. Fibre helps with the management of blood sugar levels, try and consume over 30g a day.
2. Carbohydrate control
Carbohydrates break down into sugar in the body and are found in fruit, starchy vegetables, bread, cereals, rice, pasta, milk, sugar, and dairy products. Many people will benefit from controlling their carbohydrate portions (around 1/4 plate), spreading carbohydrates across the day and eating more whole grain and high-quality carbs (brown rice, quinoa, bulgur wheat, legumes) and less refined carbs (white bread, white rice, pasta, bakery foods and sugary drinks).
3. Managing weight
Your health professional may recommend reducing your body weight if they believe this will improve your health. For most people with diabetes, a sustained weight reduction of around 5% has a significant improvement in blood sugar control, blood pressure and cholesterol.
4. Physical activity
Building in regular movement and exercise is a great way to manage blood sugar levels – and makes you feel good too.
What’s the best diet for diabetes?
There's a lot of debate about the 'best' diet for Type 2 Diabetes. Many diets may be used to treat diabetes including:
- Mediterranean diet
- Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet
- Low carb and ketogenic diets
- Vegan and vegetarian diets
- Calorie restricted diets.
- General healthy eating with conscious carbs (whole grains, legumes, dairy foods etc)
A very low calorie diet followed short term (10-12 weeks) has been shown to put Type 2 Diabetes into remission however must be overseen by a health professional and should be supported by a weight maintenance programme. The latest science shows that there's no single best approach. What’s most important is that you find an approach that works for you, where you can successfully manage your blood sugars over the long-term while still including the foods you enjoy.
How My Food Bag Diabetes Plan can help
Diabetes Friendly recipes
Nutritionist-approved recipes to choose from every week, designed to suit the whole family.
Diabetes Friendly recipes
Nutritionist-approved recipes to choose from every week, designed to suit the whole family.
High quality carbs
Low Glycaemic Index carbs like bulgur wheat and quinoa featuring along with veggie carbs to support blood sugar control.
High quality carbs
Low Glycaemic Index carbs like bulgur wheat and quinoa featuring along with veggie carbs to support blood sugar control.
Focus on whole foods
Fibre containing foods including vegetables (2-3+ serves per plate), legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds.
Focus on whole foods
Fibre containing foods including vegetables (2-3+ serves per plate), legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds.
Our Favourite Swaps
Here are a few of our favourite swaps to help you manage your blood sugar levels.
- Choose wholegrain foods instead of refined white carbs i.e. oats, brown rice, whole grains breads, whole grains crackers, wholemeal pasta/couscous.
- Add an extra vegetable to your meals and snacks to increase your fibre intake.
- Keep skins on your fruits and vegetables for extra fibre.
- Compare products like breakfast cereals and muesli bars and swap to a similar product that has a lowest sugar content and highest fibre content per 100g.
- Snack on high fibre foods like veggie sticks and hummus, wholegrain crackers with cheese instead of highly processed snacks.
- Choose water instead of fruit juice, soft drinks, sport drinks or other sugar sweetened drinks.
Frequently asked questions
Can Type 2 Diabetes be reversed?
Yes, but it depends on the individual. Typically, around 10-15% weight reduction is required to put type 2 diabetes into remission and this is more successful if you are newly diagnosed.
Should I avoid all carbohydrates?
No. However, the key is to focus on controlling portions (1/4 plate) and eating more wholegrain high-fibre carbohydrates (eg. brown bread, brown rice) and other low glycaemic carbohydrate foods like legumes in place of refined carbohydrates (eg. white rice, white bread, baked goods, desserts, sugary drinks).
Can I have sugar free beverages?
‘Sugar free’ or ‘diet’ drinks are a preferred alternative to sugar sweetened beverages if you are trying to reduce your overall sugar intake. However, they should still only be consumed in moderation. Water is always the best drink of choice.
What increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes?
High blood pressure, high cholesterol, excess body weight, family history, level of activity, ethnicity (i.e. higher risk if you are Māori, Pasifika or South Asian), whether you have pre-diabetes – all can increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
(1) New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes (NZSSD). Type 2 Diabetes Management Guidance. (2023). (2) The Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group (DNSG) of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). Evidence-based European recommendations for the dietary management of diabetes. Diabetologia 66, 965–985 (2023). (3) Diabetes New Zealand. Pre-diabetes. www.diabetes.org.nz/pre-diabetes (4) Dietitians NZ (2023). Standard of Care for the Nutritional Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Adults.