If you’re looking for ways to lower blood sugar and manage your A1c levels, you’re in the right place. As registered dietitians specializing in diabetes and prediabetes nutrition, we understand how overwhelming dietary changes can feel. Should you go low carb, keto, intermittent fasting, paleo—or none of the above? The truth is, when it comes to lowering your A1c, there are evidence-based nutrition strategies that can make a significant difference. But don’t just take our word for it—check out our reviews and case studies. We’ve helped hundreds of clients get their A1c to target levels without resorting to extreme diets. Let’s dive into five evidence-based nutrition strategies that can help you lower your A1c without crash diets or intense workout plans.
5 Dietitian-Approved Food Hacks To Help Lower Blood Sugar
Choose Fiber-Rich Carbohydrates
Think of fiber as your digestive system’s bestie—it helps slow down the absorption of sugar, keeping your blood sugar levels steady and helping you stay fuller for longer! But that’s not all. Fiber also serves as fuel for your gut bacteria, those billions of tiny workers that play a crucial role in absorbing and producing essential vitamins, minerals, and proteins throughout your body. People who eat a higher-fiber diet tend to have more diverse gut bacteria and better blood sugar control!
Pro Tip: Try incorporating high-fiber foods into your meals and snacks. Some great options to help lower blood sugar are include beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. A simple swap could be choosing whole grain bread over white bread or adding a side of beans to your salad. You can also sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of chia seeds into smoothies, yogurt, or even water! Many people love the added crunch and notice that it helps keep their blood sugar more stable.
Focus on Healthy (Unsaturated) Fats
Not all fats are the same, and including the certain types can support your blood sugar management. Healthy fats, which are often liquid at room temperature (like oils), are found in foods such as nuts, seeds, and fruits like avocado. These fats take longer to digest, helping to steady your blood sugar after meals. Think of fats as a guide for your bloodstream, encouraging a gradual release of sugar to prevent sudden spikes. Drizzling healthy fats like avocado oil over roasted veggies not only adds flavor but also helps your body absorb fat-soluble vitamins.Pro Tip: Incorporate unsaturated fats into your meals with foods like avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil. Use olive oil in your cooking, enjoy a small handful of almonds as a snack, or add a slice of avocado to your sandwich. You can also mix flaxseeds into your oatmeal or toss walnuts into your salad. These simple additions can help maintain steady blood sugar levels while enhancing the taste and nutrition of your meals.
Power up on Lean Protein
Protein plays a key role in balancing your blood sugar by slowing down the absorption of carbohydrates. Because protein takes longer to digest, it helps to stabilize your energy levels. For example, pairing a protein-rich food like a glass of milk with a carbohydrate-rich food like a cookie can help prevent blood sugar spikes and crashes, keeping you feeling fuller and more energized for longer. Including a variety of protein sources in your diet, such as lean meats, fish, and plant-based proteins like beans and tofu, not only helps manage your A1c but also supports heart health.
Pro Tip: Aim to include a source of protein in every meal. A standard serving of protein is about 3 ounces, roughly the size of your palm or a deck of cards. Options include lean meats, fish, eggs, dairy, tofu, and legumes/beans. For a quick snack, try Greek yogurt with a sprinkle of nuts for some added crunch. You can also add a hard-boiled egg to your breakfast routine to start your day with a boost of protein!
Be Mindful of Portion Sizes
It’s not just what you eat, but also how much you eat that can impact your blood sugar. Managing portion sizes helps to keep your carbohydrate intake in check, which is key for blood sugar control. Some people may need more or less carbohydrates at meals depending on their goals and activity levels. Cutting out carbs entirely is not a sustainable approach. Instead, try to eat a consistent amount of carbohydrates at meals to keep blood sugar stable. Most people need at least 3 complete meals per day (with 2-3 food groups) along with snacks in between meals. Aim to keep carb portions somewhat consistent for each meal and snack, and make sure you have at least 2 servings of carbohydrates (30 grams) for your heartier meals. Skipping meals or waiting too long to eat can make it harder to manage portions. You can practice intuitive eating by honoring your hunger and fullness cues. Tools like the hunger scale help people be more in tune with their bodies so they can manage portions and improve their relationship with food too!
Pro Tip: Use smaller plates and bowls to help with portion control. Pay attention to your hunger and fullness cues, and try to eat mindfully and consistently. Tools like measuring cups, a food scale, and a food journal/diary can be helpful if you’re unsure about portion sizes and your eating patterns.
Stay Hydrated with Water and Other Low/No Sugar Beverages
Sometimes, we confuse thirst with hunger, leading to more snacking and potential blood sugar spikes. Staying hydrated can help you make clearer choices about your hunger, thus helping you lower blood sugar and improve overall health. Drinking lower-sugar beverages like water and unsweetened tea also helps to dilute our blood, keeping our blood sugar and A1c down too! Many people find that drinking more water in the morning helps to lower fasting blood sugars and reduces cravings for sugary snacks throughout the day. It’s a simple change that made a significant impact!
Pro Tip: Carry a reusable water bottle with you to ensure you’re sipping throughout the day. Infusing your water with a slice of lemon or cucumber can add a refreshing twist and a boost of antioxidants too!
Wrapping It Up
Managing diabetes or prediabetes doesn’t have to be complicated. By incorporating these five nutrition tips—fiber, healthy fats, protein, portion control, and hydration—you can take meaningful steps towards better blood sugar management and a healthier lifestyle. Focus on making gradual, sustainable changes that fit into your life.
5 Nutrition Tips To Lower Blood Sugar – Diabetes Digital Podcast
Transcript
0:00
Welcome to the Diabetes Digital Podcast.
I’m Wendy.
And I’m Jess, and we’re best friends, registered dietitians and diabetes educators.
Through our telehealth platform, Diabetes digital.co, we offer accessible and personalized virtual nutrition counseling for people with diabetes and pre diabetes.
0:17
Visit diabetesdigital.co That’s Co to book your first appointment.
We accept insurance and offer affordable self pay options.
Now let’s get into today’s episode.
Welcome back.
Welcome back.
Thanks for joining us this week for another episode of the Diabetes Digital Podcast.
0:36
Today, we’re going to be covering five ways to lower your blood sugar with food.
And when it comes to just things that you could do related to food that’ll help with your blood sugars, there’s a lot of misinformation out there.
And what I’ve noticed, especially being Dominican, a lot of Latin American people do this.
0:57
It’s like, oh, my grandmother or my auntie or like, you know, there’s just like so much like WhatsApp information floating around.
And although some of it might be helpful, it’s not necessarily harmful.
Some of it is just very questionable.
It either doesn’t have like a lot of evidence behind the meaning research because like, I’m all about just like, trying things as long as they’re not harmful.
1:19
But like some of this stuff is like it’s straight up, can be dangerous like some of the things that I see out there.
So today we want to just like simplify things, give you 5 practical evidence based ways to lower your blood sugar.
1:35
Yes.
And disclaimer before we jump into it, this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for medical advice.
OK.
So today, we’re talking specifically about medical nutrition therapy, also known as M&T&M&T is a personalized approach to improving health through targeted dietary interventions.
1:56
And again, there’s a lot of information online or there’s a lot of people who may claim to be nutritionists or nutrition consultants.
And these people may not be practicing medical nutrition therapy because technically you have to be a dietitian 2 practices.
2:11
And we’ll talk more about the difference between a dietitian and a nutritionist a little bit later in the episode.
But studies suggest that MNT medical nutrition therapy can lower your hemoglobin A1C by up to 2% in three to six months and also reduce hospital admissions by 29%.
2:28
So that’s a huge deal.
Not only is that going to save you money, save you medical bills, but it can also help improve your quality of life.
So the first strategy that I’m going to cover is understanding Whole Foods and their role in blood sugar management.
2:44
So going for minimally processed foods that are rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals, they’re going to provide you with a lot of those essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals and they tend to be higher in fiber as well.
So your fruits, your vegetables, your whole grains, they help to slow down digestion and absorption of glucose, which is very helpful for someone that has diabetes that’ll help to stabilize your blood sugar levels, prevent those spikes that might happen.
3:11
And I mean, with that being said, even though we encourage a high intake of minimally processed foods, there is still a place for foods that might be a little more processed.
And that’s not to say that you can never eat processed foods, because I think when you hear Whole Foods or it can be full of fiber and might be better for your blood sugar, that people tend to hear like, oh, I can never have processed foods.
3:37
And that’s not true.
Processed foods can be easy, they’re convenient and many of them are still nutritious.
For example, bag lettuce, that’s processed food, right?
Because you’re not picking it from the ground.
It’s been washed, it’s been cut, it’s put in a bag.
3:53
So processed foods are not good or bad.
There’s no moral value and processed foods can be included in your diet in a way that is balanced and nutritious.
And if you want more information about this we have a whole episode on our podcast which was formerly called the Food Heaven podcast with the nutrition tea and it’s called in defensive processed foods so we’ll include that in the show notes as well.
4:16
Strategy two is to understand carbohydrates and eat them consistently.
Many people think that when they get a diabetes or pre diabetes diagnosis they have to cut out all carbs and that could not be farther from the truth.
I remember when I was in nutrition school in my first class ever, I sat down and the professor asked why we needed carbohydrates like what was so important about them.
4:43
And I’ll never forget somebody said carbohydrates are the preferred fuel of the brain and central nervous system.
And that is true.
And there’s so many diets that have you cutting out carbs or making all these promises about if you cut out carbs, it’s going to cure all these things.
But they are the preferred fuel of the brain and central nervous system.
5:01
So carbs are a primary source of energy and managing their intake is really important for getting your blood sugar levels at Target.
So it’s really important to understand the difference though between simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates.
5:17
So simple carbohydrates might be things like sugary snacks.
I’m thinking of Twinkies or doughnuts or my favorite, licorice.
Red vines and complex carbohydrates are those carbohydrates found in foods like whole grains and vegetables and legumes.
5:37
And there is a difference.
And often times when you hear you know the term diabetes, we think of carbs and glucose.
And people don’t understand that those complex carbohydrates are so important and we need them.
And even the USDA recommends that 50% of our grains come from whole grains, which are going to include those complex carbohydrates so we can mix and match according to our food preferences.
6:00
Meaning that not everything has to be complex, right?
If you’re somebody who loves white rice, which I don’t blame you, it tastes really good, you can include that into a balanced diet with diabetes, right?
So maybe on your plate you have your white rice and you’re going to get your complex carbohydrates more so from vegetables within that meal.
6:19
So just try to have a balance of different types of carbs whenever.
Possible.
Exactly.
And when you’re eating your carbohydrates, you of course want to add other food groups as well.
So you want to include your proteins and your healthy fats, and that’s going to be strategy #3.
6:38
So including proteins like chicken, fish, tofu, beans, peas, those are going to help stabilize your blood sugar because they provide a slow and steady release of energy and then a healthy fats which you can find them in avocados, nuts, olive oil.
6:56
They can also help to moderate the insulin response.
They’ll help you feel a little more full so that you’re less likely to overeat or snack excessively later on throughout the day.
If you’re skimming on any of these macro nutrients like carbs, protein, fat, the likelihood of you having those strong cravings later in the day is going to increase.
7:17
I was just talking to someone yesterday and she was like, yeah, I just don’t understand, like, why I’m always craving, like, it was all carbs.
Like she was like, I’m craving like sweets, I’m craving potatoes.
I’m craving, you know, like just going down the list of all the carbs on the back of my mind.
7:34
I’m like, I can bet all my money that this person is restricting carbohydrates.
And I was like, well, what are you eating?
And it was really like protein salads all day, every day.
And I’m like the IT makes sense.
This is exactly why.
Because once you start cutting out these essential nutrients, your body is is going to want them even more.
7:54
So you want to try to do your best to incorporate at least two of the food groups, but ideally 3 for every meal.
Now, strategy #4 is mindful meal timing.
You want to try to spread your meals throughout the day, because this way your blood sugar is going to be a little more stable.
8:13
If, let’s say you’re like skipping breakfast and lunch, and then you’re only having dinner, which happens all too often, your blood sugar is going to dip, and then you’re going to have a huge spike because you’re probably going to be eating a larger portion of food later on in the day.
So I recommend eating every three to four hours.
8:31
That will keep your blood sugar a little more steady, and it’ll just help you feel more satisfied throughout the day.
You might have been kind of doing your regular routine for so long.
So let’s say you’re like, yeah, I’ve been skipping breakfast and lunch for years and I feel fine.
8:47
I mean, your body has adjusted, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that this is ideal for blood sugar management.
So initially it might just take some getting used to.
You’re probably not going to be very hungry because you know, your body’s just like used to going hours without food.
9:02
So you might just have to like, slowly start introducing food with the goal of just having some consistency with the scheduling, and like not going that long without food.
Strategy #5 is our favorite strategy for helping people kind of figure out what to eat in a way that feels flexible and not time consuming.
9:25
And not restrictive is the My Plate method.
And the My Plate method is essentially dividing your plate somewhat and it doesn’t really pan out for every single meal right?
Because like if you have a soup this you can still use this in terms of proportions but you don’t divide everything out.
9:40
But let’s say you’re having a plate and you’re having steak and potatoes and a salad.
So with the My Plate method you would make about half of your plate the salad which is non starchy vegetable, about 1/4 the potatoes which is carbohydrate and 1/4 the protein which in this case would be steak.
9:58
And you also want to make sure that you’re getting some fat in there or and or some fruit when you can with your meals just to have that variety.
So that’s essentially the My plate method.
Now some people might find that they do better with having 1/3 of their plate, those non starchy vegetables, and 1/3 carbs and 1/3 protein, and that’s fine too.
10:19
So there’s no right amount of food per SE.
The right amount of food is the amount that leaves you feeling full and satisfied, because as Wendy mentioned, restriction is only going to lead you typically to eating past a comfortable fullness later.
And that is not great for blood sugar management because you kind of want a steady stream of food, a steady stream of macro nutrients throughout the day.
10:43
Wendy talked a little bit about mindful meal timing, and this is more so along the lines of mindful eating, right?
So we can use the My Plate method and listen to ourselves and savor every bite.
Eat without distraction and pay attention to your feelings of hunger and satisfaction.
11:00
Do you want to do a My Plate fire round game?
This is very impromptu by the way.
Oh yes, let’s do it.
OK, so you can go 1st, and what I’ll do is I’ll just kind of throw a meal time at you and then you can create a meal that’s gonna have all of the My Plate components ready.
11:20
Go.
For it.
OK, dinner.
Dinner I would do.
Probably a piece of salmon, some white rice and a cucumber salad, something like that.
11:36
Very simple.
And then for my fat, and this is something that I had like the other day for my fat, I would maybe create some kind of dressing to drizzle on top of it that was flavorful and included some olive oil.
OK, we’ll do one more.
You have to do it a little quicker, though, to fire around.
11:52
OK.
OK.
Breakfast.
Breakfast.
Is very easy because I have the same breakfast most days smoothie where I include for the protein my protein powder.
I don’t have a veggie, but I do do some berries for my fruit.
I do peanut butter for my fat and other things as well, but those are the main components.
12:15
Beautiful.
Love me to one for you.
What about lunch?
OK, OK.
Tuna sandwich with the salad on the side.
Perfect.
Yeah.
So it’s very flexible.
There’s so many things that we can eat and do, and it can be foods from your culture and it doesn’t have to be you throwing out your favorite foods and replacing them with cottage cheese.
12:37
That’s the example I always use because I’m like.
I guess some people do love cottage cheese though, but.
Yeah, it’s funny because I feel like cottage cheese was kind of cancelled for a while, but recently it’s had this, you know, just like come up where people were making cottage cheese everything, so.
I’m having a moment.
12:53
I will say though, I did do a cottage cheese dip that was delicious and I’ve been doing this dip since before cottage cheese was cancelled like in the 2000s.
And it’s literally just cottage cheese blended with some spices.
Like well, I don’t know if garlic powder is a spice, but garlic powder, pepper, salt and onion powder, maybe a little bit of olive oil and it’s the perfect ranch dip to dip your veggies in.
13:19
So try it out.
That’s the only way I eat cottage cheese.
Never ate it.
And I don’t know.
Well, actually I’ve had it in pancakes in Montreal.
There is.
I mean, I’m sure for those of you that have been to Montreal, you know the spot that I’m talking about because they’re known for their cottage cheese pancakes and they’re incredible.
13:38
They’re like the best pancakes I’ve ever had.
And yeah, the main ingredient is cottage cheese, but like cottage cheese on its own, never had it.
I don’t know that I will.
The texture is just.
Yeah, the texture is interesting and I’m a cheese gal, but OK.
So there is one bonus thing you can do to help lower your blood sugar with food, and that is consult with a registered dietitian.
14:02
And we’ll talk a little bit more about the difference between dietitian and nutritionist.
I mentioned it a little bit at the top of the episode, but you can work with a dietitian to help create an individualized meal plan that considers your specific health needs, preferences and lifestyle factors for effective diabetes management and prevention.
14:22
And if you didn’t know this before, we have a company that provides dietitians for people who have diabetes or pre diabetes where you can meet with us one-on-one.
We meet with folks every other week essentially or twice a month.
14:38
And yeah, it’s a great way to have somebody in your corner, a coach who can help you with your diabetes or pre diabetes and you might be wondering, well why would I want to meet?
Actually, no pause.
So if you’re interested in that, you can check out our website diabetesdigital.co and figure out if we are a network with your insurance company and meet with one of our dietitians.
15:02
And you might be wondering, well, why a dietitian I was meeting with a nutritionist that I found from Instagram, like why would I want to meet with a dietitian?
And the reason why you would, when did you want to jump in and talk about that?
Yeah, and the terms nutritionist and dietitian.
They’re often used interchangeably, but it’s important to understand the differences between the two.
15:22
So a nutritionist can refer to anyone who provides advice or guidance on all food related things as it relates to nutrition, healthy eating, whereas with the dietitian it’s a regulated term and and you do have to be a healthcare professional who has met specific educational requirements, professional requirements, there’s continuing education.
15:45
So you know there’s a very big difference.
Even with like let’s say you’re working with the health coach, it doesn’t necessarily translate into dietitian.
There are dietitians who are health coaches, but there are health coaches who are not dietitians.
And in this case, especially for someone who has a chronic condition like diabetes, you absolutely want to make sure that you’re in touch with a dietitian.
16:09
So if you feel like you might be ready to work with one of our registered dietitians, you can visit our website itsdiabetesdigital.co and you’ll see that there is a get started link which has a quiz that’ll get you started.
And we’re here to support you every step of the way.
16:26
So thanks for tuning in.
We hope you found this helpful and we’ll catch you next week.
Bye, Thanks for joining us for today’s episode.
If you’re interested in nutrition counseling with one of our expert dietitians to help improve your pre diabetes or diabetes, visit us at diabetesdigital.co.
16:43
Also, if you found our conversation helpful, do us a favor and rate and review this podcast on iTunes.
Plus share with someone who might find this helpful.
You can also connect with us on Instagram at Diabetes Digital.
Dot Co and TuneIn every Wednesday for practical, inclusive and culturally humble diabetes insights.
17:03
We’ll catch you later.
Bye.
Listen to our podcast episode on lowering blood sugar here. If you need personalized guidance, working with a diabetes dietitian or nutritionist can be incredibly beneficial. We’re here to support you every step of the way!
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