The Best Diabetic Diet - High Fat & High Protein

According to the Mayo Clinic, diabetes is a disease which mandates effective methodologies for personal control of blood sugar, as a diabetic's body has become unable to effectively manage blood sugar on its own. This is most often accomplished through restriction on carbohydrates--both in quantity and quality--to provide the body with only slow-digesting sources of carbs. However, a potentially superior method of dieting for diabetes is a high-fat, high-protein, low-carb diet, removing blood sugar from the equation entirely.

Low Carb Diet

Consume a diet that contains no more than 20 to 30 grams of carbs per day to control your diabetes with a high fat, high protein diet. While carbs are restricted, fat and protein are not--the bulk of your diet should come from these two macronutrients, consumed in roughly equal proportion. When making your calculations, remember that one gram of fat contains twice as many calories as a gram of protein, so you will need to consume two grams of protein for every gram of fat in order to keep things relatively balanced. Regarding carbohydrate intake, all of your carbs should be split across your daily meals to avoid excess carb consumption at any one meal. Furthermore, aim to consume the vast majority (if not all) of your carbs from leafy green and fibrous vegetables, as these provide the most bang for your buck--maximal fiber content and nutritional value with minimal total carbs.

Low-Carb Research

A study published in the online journal Nutrition and Metabolism found that low-carb diets are quite effective at managing the symptoms of diabetes. In the study, individuals on the low-carb diet lost more weight and managed their disease better by following a dietary approach similar to the one listed above. A low carb diet provides a cascading "snowball" effect whereby blood sugar is initially lowered by subtraction of carbs, then is subsequently and continually lowered by the resultant weight loss. While adhering to a prolonged low-carb diet is hardly easy, the results shown thus far are quite encouraging as it seems to be a universal solution to diabetes management.