Putting it all together: Creating a plan

You may use a few different approaches to create a healthy diet to help you keep your blood sugar level within a typical range. With a dietitian's help, you may find that one or a combination of the following methods works for you:

The plate method

The American Diabetes Association offers a simple method of meal planning. It focuses on eating more vegetables. Follow these steps when preparing your plate:

• Fill half of your plate with nonstarchy vegetables, such as spinach, carrots and tomatoes.
• Fill a quarter of your plate with a lean protein, such as tuna, lean pork or chicken.
• Fill the last quarter with a carbohydrate, such as brown rice or a starchy vegetable, such as green peas.
• Include "good" fats such as nuts or avocados in small amounts.
• Add a piece of fruit or a serving of dairy and a drink of water or unsweetened tea or coffee.

Counting carbohydrates

Because carbohydrates break down into sugar, they have the greatest effect on your blood sugar level. To help control your blood sugar, you may need to learn to figure out the amount of carbohydrates you are eating with the help of a dietitian. You can then adjust the dose of insulin accordingly. It's important to keep track of the amount of carbohydrates in each meal or snack.

A dietitian can teach you how to measure food portions and become an educated reader of food labels. You also can learn how to pay special attention to serving size and carbohydrate content.

Choose your foods

A dietitian may recommend you choose specific foods to help plan meals and snacks. You can choose a number of foods from lists that include categories such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

One serving in a category is called a choice. A food choice has about the same amount of carbohydrates, protein, fat and calories — and the same effect on your blood sugar — as a serving of every other food in that same category. For example, the starch, fruits and milk list includes choices that are all between 12 and 15 grams of carbohydrates.

Glycemic index

Some people who live with diabetes use the glycemic index to select foods, especially carbohydrates. This method ranks carbohydrate-containing foods based on their effect on blood sugar levels. Talk with your dietitian about whether this method might work for you.