food choices to control diabetes

Basics

1. Glucose is essential for body, not evil.
2. Unbalanced high level of glucose is bad, puts pressure on body to create a balance.
3. We can take wholesome diet without compromising our taste for food.

Technical Details

Food items/ingredients can be classified with two numbers based on how soon it will provide glucose to blood and how much net calories it will provide to blood. Ideally we should be having exactly that much glucose in blood at any time, as much as we spend. We spend glucose actively by doing work, and passively (even while sleeping) by the common activities like breathing/heart beating/digesting ingested food etc. Extra high level of glucose (at any time) puts pressure on body to balance it. Extra unused ingested glucose finally becomes fat and adds to obesity/fat and other unhealthy things. The two number are

• glycemic index (GI) How soon glucose is going to be available in blood
  
• glycemic load (GL) How much glucose in total is going to be available to body.

Good links to tables with these two numbers for various food items: 

1. table of glycemic index and glycemic load
2. glycemic index and glycemic load
3. Glycemic Index Food List - Low Glycemic Index Foods
4. Carbs, Glycemic Index & Glycemic Load

Let's pick two low GI food items and see how it can be used in practice.

1. Chana Dal(aka Gram Dal aka Bengal Gram). It should not be confused with yellow split pea. A detailed description and recipes on Chana Dal. This needs cooking, can be consumed daily and is a good source of protein. Like all beans it takes time to cook and one way to cook it quick and healthy is to use a pressure cooker.
2. Pea nut. Doesn't need cooking, easily available as a fast food, the oil in it keeps hunger at bay for long time. These are rich in the healthy types of fats and are a good source of antioxidant vitamins, protein, and fiber. It is a myth that people think pea nut is cheap and tasty and hence not a good food. Rather it is one of the healthiest food in my opinion.

Note:

• It is not just ingredient, but also how we prepare the food that determines how healthy it is. For example less processing preserves the food values. e.g sprouted seeds.
• Also the taste of food depends on how fresh it is, and how fresh the ingredients are.