Diabetes Awareness – Thanksgiving Focus on What You Eat

While most holidays involve some component of gathering with others for a meal, Thanksgiving, by far, focuses the most on eating.  This holiday typically conjures up images of feeling stuffed, ‘turkey coma’, or post meal naps.  Unfortunately, this type of gorging isn’t healthy for anyone.  Living with diabetes should mean that you focus on what you eat.  Your body’s inability to keep the sugars in your blood at the appropriate levels translates into you changing the when you eat, what you eat, and the level of activity you get.

It may be helpful to think of diet as all the good things you can eat and not the limiting of other not so good things you may be used to eating.  If you have any input into the types of foods you’ll be eating this holiday, visit the American Diabetes Association website.  This is an excellent organization to be a part of if you live with diabetes.  They offer a plethora of resources and ideas for living better while managing your sugars.  For the holiday season, they offer such ideas as mashed sweet potatoes, sage stuffing, and pumpkin pie with maple ginger crust to help you have an enjoyable meal without sacrificing your blood sugars and ultimately your health.  If you have the luxury of letting someone else prepare your meal, you should use a little caution in what and how much you eat.  Standard fair like turkey and yams can actually be ok as long as you don’t stuff yourself.  Sweet rolls are one of the foods you should limit or remove altogether as simple breads are one of those foods that can quickly elevate your blood sugars.  You should take full advantage of the many resources to help guide your choices at meals this Thanksgiving.

While we talked last time about ‘hidden’ exercise, you should consider taking an easy walk after your meal instead of that nap.

Until next time, keep those feet happy and healthy, Austin!