Food Exchanges for Diabetic Diets

Food exchanges are food equivalents designed to facilitate easy variation in your diabetic diets. By learning the use of these food exchanges you can make your diabetic diets flexible and exciting to match your taste and needs. Food can be divided into major groups which are called food exchanges.

They are:

- Vegetables
- Meat and Fish
- Pulses (Legumes and Dals)
- Milk and milk products
- Oils, fats and nut
- Fruits
- Cereals

Vegetables
Vegetables are important for their mineral, vitamins and fiber content. They also add variety to the diabetic diets. Vegetables may be broadly classified into groups.

1. Roots and Tubers
Roots and Tubers are good sources of starch and contain some vitamins and minerals. Potato, onion, yam, carrot, beetroot, radish, turnip etc. are some of the common roots and tubers.

2. Green Leafy Vegetables
Green Leafy Vegetables like spinach, lettuce, cabbage, fenugreek etc. They are a good source of vitamin C, carotene, folic acid, and minerals like calcium and iron etc.

Meat and Fish
Rich source of proteins for your diabetic diets. White meat (fish & poultry) is considered better than red meat. Lean meats are better than fat meats. Grilled or baked meat is preferable to meat cooked in rich gravy.

Pulses (Legumes and Dals)
Pulses are an important source of protein for vegetarians. Grams, Peas, Beans whole and /or, dehusked and split dais and Gram flour (Besan) can all be grouped under this group. Though pulses and cereals are more or less equivalent in their caloric content, pulses contain double the quantity of protein compared to cereals. Both cereal and pulses, lack one each essential amino acid. Thus, if both cereals and pulses are eaten together like khicheri, lice and dal, roti and dal, the combination has all the essential amino acids and is considered to be rich in good quality protein.

Milk and milk products
Milk is a universal food product for all age groups. Milk contains good quality protein for your diabetic diets. Buffalo milk is richer in fat as compared to Cow's milk. Milk is also consumed in the form of yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, milk powder etc.

Oils, fats and nuts
Oil, fats and nuts are an essential part of the food and are a rich source of energy. Persons with diabetes must use these rather sparingly.

A single unit of exchange within the group has the same caloric value and therefore can be interchanged, e.g., in a cereal exchange, one medium chappati is equivalent to one small katori cooked rice or one iddli (medium size) or one large slice of bread or half cup cooked dalia (porridge).

So, if during lunch, you are permitted two chappaties, you can instead have six tablespoonfuls cooked rice or two iddlies or two slices of bread. Similarly, foods in the other exchange groups can be substituted for one another (see appendix for common Indian food exchanges). Remember the exchanges can only be done within the same group.

Fruits
Fruits are a rich source of vitamins, minerals and fibre. Persons with diabetes are allowed fruits. However, some fruits are very calorie dense and must be avoided.

Cereals
Cereals are the staple diet in most cultures. They are rich in carbohydrate and a source of minerals and B group vitamins. Commonly used cereals are wheat flour, rice, maize, bajra, jowar, ragi etc. Some processed cereal based food items are also included in the database like roti, paratha, puri, biscuit, bread, dinner roil, macaroni, noodles etc.

Food exchanges require weighing and measuring food each time. Is it necessary?

When describing the food exchanges for your diabetic diets, your dietitian, besides giving weights and volumes, would give you the approximate household measure for each food within the different food exchanges (see Appendix). It would be a good idea to weigh and measure cooked food a few times initially. Once you are familiar with the household measures, you would become adept at accurately judging the permitted amount of food visually.

Hope this article helps you in your diabetic diets plans. Success for your diabetic diets.