Ask Our Experts

A person with pre-diabetes can follow a diabetes meal plan with great success. Most recommendations for diabetes are applicable for pre-diabetes.

Basically, the best foods to eat (in portioned amounts) are:

• Fruits and vegetables of all colors
• High fiber/whole grain carbohydrates
• Lean/low-fat meat and dairy products
• Heart healthy fats (olive/canola oil/nuts/seeds/nut butters)

Basic suggestions:

• Always include fiber and protein with your carbohydrates. This slows down the absorption of carbohydrates and thereby prevents a spike in blood sugar. For example, instead of just light popcorn, add 1 tbsp of parmesan cheese to the popcorn (fiber, protein, carbs), an apple or whole grain cracker with peanut butter (fiber, protein, carbs), turkey meatballs with pasta, etc.
• Aim to get a minimum of 25 grams of fiber/day. Aim to get this from fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains.
• Increase physical activity.  In fact, just 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity, coupled with a 5-10% reduction in body weight, produced a 58% reduction in diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association completed a Diabetes Prevention Program and found that making healthy changes to ones diet and increasing physical activity could prevent pre-diabetes from developing into Type 2 Diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association also has a position statement on the Prevention and Delay of Type 2 Diabetes which provides more in-depth explanations and suggestions. http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/27/suppl_1/s47.full.pdf+html

One way that Market Street can assist you is with our Heart Healthy Diabetes Management (HHDM) Nutrition Tag. Our HHDM identifies products throughout our store that have 3 grams of fat or less, 1 gram of saturated fat or less, 0 grams of trans fat,  480 mg of sodium or less, 20 mg of cholesterol or less and at least 3 grams of fiber for one serving.

• Click here for more info on the HHDM tag:http://www.marketstreetunited.com/healthwellness/taglabeling_hhdm.asp
• Click here for a sample HHDM meal plan: http://www.marketstreetunited.com/PDFs/HHDM_SampleMenu.pdf
• Click here for a list of products that meet our HHDM criteria:http://www.marketstreetunited.com/PDFs/HHDM_List.pdf

Lastly, I'd encourage you, if you haven't already,to meet with a Registered Dietitian (RD) and preferably a RD that specializes in diabetes (Certified Diabetes Educator - CDE). Here is a link to finding a CDE in your area: http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/home_21343_ENU_HTML.htm. An RD can provide you with individual attention on how to manage pre-diabetes and prevent Type 2 Diabetes.