Drinks for Diabetics - Lowering Blood SugarLowering Blood Sugar

Drinks for Diabetics

Living with diaDrinks-for-Diabeticsbetes certainly is not an easy task. Properly managing your diet, exercise, and medicine is a delicate balance.

It takes knowledge, a tremendous amount of work, patience, and even a bit of experimentation in order to get it correct.

That being said, fluid consumption is an often times overlooked aspect that every diabetic should pay careful attention towards.

However, choosing the best drink is not always as easy as it sounds.

Some recent studies have added even more confusion to the already cloudy issue.

For example, is coffee helpful or harmful? Will diet soda lead to weight gain?

In order to clarify these types of questions we have conducted a plethora of research, and interviewed several certified diabetes dieticians and diabetes educators.

The following information will help you to make better decisions regarding the drinks that you put in your body each and every day.

Daily Water Consumption water-diabetes

Water is truly the best thirst quencher known to humankind.

The good news for diabetics is that consuming more water may actually contribute to better overall glucose or blood sugar control.

In a recent study published in the Diabetes Care Journal researchers found that patients who drank less than the eight recommended glasses of water per day were upwards of thirty-percent more likely to suffer from high blood sugar levels.

Daily Milk Consumption

Milk is healthy for the human body. It provides essential vitamins and minerals that your needs such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, and vitamin D.

Research also shows that milk may actually lead to weight loss. In fact as little as twelve-ounces per day may assist people in losing those unwanted pounds.

However, milk does contain carbohydrates, which are broken down as sugar in the body.

Diabetics should consume anywhere from two to three servings of low fat, or no fat milk per day.

Tea Consumption

Tea certainly contains a lot of bang for your caloric buck. It contains zero calories, is flavorful, and is full of valuable antioxidants that help your body.

In fact a recent study conducted in China proved that black tea contains a natural chemical called polysaccharides that actually slow the absorption of sugar into the blood stream.

Tea has also been proven to reduce the risk of both heart disease and stroke, which unfortunately are side effects of diabetes.

However, it is important to avoid adding sugar to your cup of tea, or purchasing sugar sweetened ice tea.

coffee-and-diabetesCoffee Consumption

Coffee is an interesting drink regarding diabetes. Some research shows that it actually slows down the metabolism of sugar in the blood stream, while other researchers believe that it raises blood sugar.

This conflicting advice can certainly be confusing to diabetics or people who are susceptible to the disease.

Your safest bet is to keep coffee consumption down to a maximum of one to two cups per day.

If you find that it is negatively affecting your blood sugar levels than obviously try to minimize consumption or cut it out of your diet altogether.

Diet Soda Consumption

For many diabetics diet soda is a caloric free way to drink something that is fizzy, sweet and tasty.

A recent study suggests that sugar free soda keeps a person’s taste buds primed for sweet treats. In essence by drinking diet soda you may actually end up eating more cakes, candy, cookies, and ice cream to name a few.

However, if you are able to control your diet, it certainly is better for diabetics to drink the sugar free version rather than the sugar version of soda.

Much like anything else, keeping diet soda consumption at reasonable levels is a smart idea.

Sugar Soda, and Sugary Fruit Flavored Drink Consumptiondiabetic-juice

Did you know that there are approximately ten teaspoons of sugar in every twelve-ounce bottle or can of sugar soda and sugary fruit flavored drinks?

Only one serving per day adds forty to fifty grams of carbohydrates to your diet, not to mention upwards of 150 calories.

In essence drinks that contain processes sugar can contribute to heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and weight gain to name a few.

In fact, healthy people that drink sugar sodas and sugary fruit flavored drinks on a regular basis gain up to fifteen pounds per year on average.

Not to mention that all that sugar is absolutely damaging to diabetics.

It is recommended that diabetics only drink these type of drinks in extremely rare occasions, or when suffering from low blood sugar.

Fruit Juice Consumption

Fruit is certainly a healthy alternative to sugary snacks, desserts, and drinks that are full of blood glucose raising carbohydrates.

However, consuming fruit juice can absolutely lead to higher blood sugar levels, and an increased risk for people that are prone to type 2 diabetes.

It is highly advised to keep fruit juice consumption to a minimum, and drink only smaller four-ounce servings.

water-diabetesConclusion

In conclusion, it is of the utmost importance that people with diabetes or that are susceptible to the disease are fully aware of each and every item that they put into their bodies.

The drinks that you drink everyday are just as important as the food that you eat. It is highly advised to drink a minimum of the daily-recommended amount of eight cups of water per day.

If you need a caffeine based drink tea is better for you than coffee.

Drink fruit juice less often and in smaller amounts.

Keep your intake of sugar free soda to a minimum, and try your best to stay away from sugar based soda and sugary fruit flavored drinks.

If you follow this advice chances are your diabetes will be in far better control.

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