It is very important for diabetics to have a meal plan. This is a scheme that tells them what kind of food they are allowed to eat and how much of it. This should fit your eating habits and daily routine. If it is followed, your blood sugar and pressure will improve, as will your cholesterol numbers. A good meal plan can help you loose weight or keep your existing one.

People with diabetes have to be careful about their sugar intake. Other complications of the disease can be heart attack or a stroke, so food that might contribute to these situations should also be measured. Diabetics have to take extra care to balance their diets with insulin shots and/ or oral medication.

It seams like a hard thing to do, but after the first effort, a meal plan becomes part of your routine. So ask your doctor and dietitian to help you make a meal plan that is right for you! Combine it with exercise and your health will improve and you will be able to better function despite your diabetes.

The key to a healthy diet is eating a variety of foods and keeping the portions at bay.

This principle should be the main guideline to creating a meal plan. Try to get the most nutritional values out of your foods. This means eat fresh products and choose foods with many vitamins and minerals over processed foods.

Try to get your family to support your meal plan and to participate in it with you. This way the entire family will eat healthier foods and you will be able to combine your favorite foods into a scheme that will enable you to watch your glucose and blood pressure.

There are many systems you can use to plan your meals: The Food Guide Pyramid, Rating your Plate, Exchanges Lists, and Carbohydrate Counting. Find out which one is the right one for you.

The food Pyramid:

This system divided your food into six groups. The group at the bottom is the one you should consume most of, and the one at the top should be cut back as much as possible. The higher the group, the less of this kind of food you should consume.

The bottom largest group is grain and starches: this includes grains, beans, starchy vegetables and their products.

The next group is non-starchy vegetables and fruit. The next proteins - this includes meat and dairy products, eggs and other vegetarian sources of protein. At the top are fats and alcohol.

Since a meal/course or beverage can include more than one group, you need to try and know what you are being served and to minimize the bad contents as much as possible. It is always easier to cook your own meals, but it is not impossible to eat out and still follow these guidelines, just be watchful of what you eat and ask questions at restaurants.

The diet following the pyramid provides a range of servings one is allowed to eat of each type of food. If you consume the minimal number you will eat about 1600 calories a day. This is a good number of calories for a steady loss of weight and keeping your current weight for women, so eating the lowest amount is recommended. The highest amount permitted reaches 2800 calories and is suitable for sporty men only. The exact amount of calories and servings you want to eat is dependant on your goals and exact diabetic situation.

A diabetic also needs to count carbohydrates and not only calories. So this makes a few changes in the order of the pyramid. Also the values and sizes of the servings are different in the diabetic diet scheme. The idea is to make the amount of carbs in each serving alike, so it is easier to monitor.

Rating your plate:

This is a fun way to checking what you eat in each meal.

This tool also helps you control your portions and is especially useful if you are also trying to loose weight. Divide your plate into four equal parts and remember the following rule as a general guideline to a balanced meal:

1/4 of your plate should be grains and starches.

1/4 of your plate should be protein - meat/fish/egg or tofu

1/2 of your plate needs to be non-starchy vegetables.

You should also drink a glass of skim milk and eat a piece of fruit for a fully balanced meal. For a diabetic a count of carbs is important to watch out for their insulin level.

The American diabetes association offers software to do so on the web. Check out:

http://www.diabetes.org/all-about-diabetes/chan_eng/i3/i3p4.htm

The exchange lists:

The system of these lists is based on the idea of making exchanges while keeping the basic values required at the same level. Thus reaching a more varied menu.

The lists today have been updated to suit the interest in low fat foods and also provide carbohydrate counts for each food - so that the exchanges may now also allow a diabetic to keep their carb count in check as well.

The major groups in the lists system are:

Carbohydrates: Including Starch, Fruit, Milk, Other Carbohydrates (like pastry and desserts), and Vegetable lists.

Meat and its substitutes: Including mats at all fat levels (very lean, lean, medium and fat meat) and also a great variety of substitutes.

The fat group includes Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated, and Saturated Fats lists. Some of the other carbohydrates will also be included in this group. Planning fat consume has never been easier.

The lists are available to purchase from the American diabetes association. For more information call 1-800-232-3472 and select option 3