Prediabetes Diet

Reverse your Prediabetes by Eating Better

We want to help you make lasting changes to help reverse prediabetes for good. Use this page as your one stop shop for all information related to prediabetes. From helping you with the basics of foods to eat and foods to avoid for prediabetes, to creating a plan that's specifically tailored to you and your condition- we have it all! Plus, the Glycemic Index and DASH Diet can be very helpful tools in getting your eating habits under control and finding the best foods to build into your new diet.

If you just learned about prediabetes, you are not alone. Although 1 in 3 Americans have it, only 10% are aware of their condition. Think of prediabetes as a flashing warning sign for Type 2 Diabetes, similar to when the 'Check Engine' light comes on in your car.

Prediabetes is marked by:

• Elevated blood sugar (glucose)... but not quite high enough to be considered diabetic
• Often caused by insulin resistance (more on this later)
• Yet, there is plenty you can do RIGHT NOW(!!) to make things better

To learn more about our approach to helping you manage and reverse
your prediabetes click HERE.

Am I at risk for developing prediabetes?

The difficult characteristic of prediabetes is that many people do not show symptoms until the condition has progressed to Type 2 Diabetes.  The best way to detect prediabetes is by conducting regular blood tests as part of your ongoing physical exams with your doctor. It is especially important to be diligent with screening for prediabetes if you have an increased risk of developing the condition.

Risk factors for prediabetes include:

• Weight and waist size Overweight and high fat tissue increase insulin resistance.  Studies have also shown a connection between insulin resistance and waist size: men with 40+ inch waist / women with 35+ inch waist.
• Dietary patterns. Eating processed foods and drinking artificially sweetened beverages increases your risk of prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes.
• Inactivity. Regular exercise helps you control our weight, uses stored glucose as energy, and helps your body's cells avoid insulin resistance.
• Genetic factors such as family history and race / ethnicity Individuals with a family history of diabetes are more likely to develop prediabetes.  African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans are also more likely to develop prediabetes.
• Other conditions Health conditions such as gestational diabetes (for both the mother and the child), polycystic ovarian syndrome, and obstructive sleep apnea, can increase your risk of pre-diabetes.

There are a few other factors associated with overall health that are correlated with prediabetes.  High blood pressure, high low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (the bad kind), and high triglycerides often occur in people with prediabetes.  Following a supervised prediabetes diet and being more active can help you better manage all of these conditions.

Want to learn more about how to decrease your risk of developing prediabetes? Click HERE.

How to reverse prediabetes

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has done extensive research on reversing prediabetes and found three main lifestyle changes that can reduce the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes by more than 60%. These lifestyle changes are directly related to food choices and movement and have been shown to be even more effective than medication. You and your nutritionist can decide how to best implement these changes into your lifestyle! Learn more about the three main ways to reverse prediabetes below:

Moderate weight loss 5-7%

Research shows that moderate weight loss of 5-7% can drastically reduce the likelihood of developing Type 2 Diabetes. As a reference, this would be a 10-14 pound loss for someone weighing 200 pounds. The Diabetes Prevention Program study identified that changes in food habits and increased movement not only helped people lose the weight, it also helped them keep the weight off. The idea is to maintain a healthy long term weight to avoid your blood sugar re-entering the danger zone. Even if you aren't overweight, developing better habits via a prediabetes diet and incorporating physical activity could be the two missing pieces to the puzzle that will help return your blood sugar back to normal. Let's look into exactly how to go about this...

Regular physical activity

The studies done by the CDC have shown that one of the main contributors to reversing diabetes is incorporating more physical activity. Well you may be wondering how much physical activity is enough? The CDC recommends incorporating a minimum of 150 minutes per week of moderate activity. Moderate activity can be determined by using something called the "talk test". While you're doing your activity, you should be able to talk and carry on a light conversation, but you should not be able to sing a song. Incorporating 150 minutes of movement per week will help with your weight loss goal as well as lowering blood sugar! The type of activity it totally up to you and should be something that you enjoy doing. You may find that you enjoy walking outside with a friend, taking a zumba class, or swimming- the possibilities are endless!

Food choices

Although there can be many contributors to the development of prediabetes, it really boils down to food choices (the elusive prediabetes diet). Your food choices not only directly impact your body's physiological processes, but they can also influence your weight. As you have learned already, weight in itself can be a contributing factor to prediabetes. These components are all connected, and it really comes down to making food choices that will help with weight loss and also help repair the physiological processes in our bodies! But you may be wondering where a prediabetes diet starts. The general principles are to include more high-fiber foods, fresh fruits and vegetables, and lean proteins while limiting highly processed foods and sugary drinks. Let's take a closer look at specific foods that are the building blocks of a prediabetes diet plan. 

Curious what the end result could be if you make significant improvements to your diet and lifestyle?  Read more about what it looks like to reverse your prediabetes.

So what foods will help me lower my blood sugar?

As part of a prediabetes diet, we recommend eating foods that are moderately low in carbohydrates and take longer to digest. This helps prevent your blood sugars from sky-rocketing from a large blast of glucose. We recommend including fiber-rich foods, lean proteins, and foods with a low Glycemic Index. Check out our list of foods to include in a prediabetes diet:

For an even more detailed look, read our full blog on the foods to eat for prediabetes

Lifestyle improvements to help manage your prediabetes

Emphasize Portion Control

Portion control is really important in managing and reversing prediabetes. Spikes in your blood sugar are directly related to the amount of food you eat during one meal, mainly carbohydrate-containing foods. The problem is, the portion sizes we are used to eating at restaurants are often much larger than the recommendation. But why is portion size so important? Well, portion control can assist weight loss, which we know is helpful in reversing prediabetes. In addition to reading food labels, use measuring cups, measuring spoons, and a food scale to ensure you're eating an appropriate portion.  If you couldn't tell, a major part of your prediabetes diet is portion size.

Eat More Fiber

Research shows that a diet high in fiber-rich foods greatly reduces the likelihood of prediabetes progressing to Type 2 Diabetes. Within a prediabetes diet, fiber-rich foods slow down the delivery of glucose into the blood stream, enabling a more gradual rise in blood sugar. Even more, fiber-rich foods tend to keep us satiated for longer periods of time, which helps with weight loss. But don't add a ton of fiber-filled foods at once! Adding too much fiber at one time can upset the GI system, so we recommend starting slow. Gradually add more and more of these foods into your diet to avoid discomfort! Let's take a look at what foods will give you the most fiber.

Opt For Water Over Sugary Drinks

There are a few ways to liven up a glass of water to make it a deliciously refreshing beverage:

• Try using an at-home carbonation device like a soda-stream to add bubbles to your water
• Add fruit- oranges, lemons, limes, to your carbonated water
• Directly infuse water with your favorite fruits and flavors

Eat more lean meats

There is a lean meat for you no matter what type of food you like.  Take a look at the table below for the lean meats we recommend:

• Fish
• Poultry
• Pork

Try to be more active!

Learn to follow the Glycemic Index

The Glycemic Index helps you pick foods that will not cause dramatic changes in blood sugar

The Glycemic Index is a number that tells you how fast or how slow your body converts carbohydrates into blood sugar.  The scale ranges from 1 to 100; for a prediabetes diet, the lower the number, the better:

• 55 or less = Low (good)
• 56 - 69 = Medium
• 70 or higher = High ("bad")

Research suggests that focusing on foods with low-glycemic index carbohydrates and high fiber may protect against diabetes and cardiovascular disease.  Specifically, another study found that increased fiber may improve glucose control within the cardiovascular system.  You can use food labels to estimate the Glycemic Index value of a particular food.  There are also efforts to add a "low GI" symbol to packaged foods.

Glycemic Index labeling is also supported by various scholarly publications.  There are a few things to keep in mind, however.  The Glycemic Index value for a specific food can vary depending on:

• How you cook it
• How old the food is
• Fat and fiber tend to lower glycemic index
• For example, the longer you cook pasta, the lower the glycemic index.
• The glycemic index increases in fruits (such as bananas, peaches, etc.) as they ripen.

As we have mentioned elsewhere, portion size is nearly as important as the specific food you eat.  Within the GI framework, this is called Glycemic Load.  Whereas the index indicates how quickly glucose enters the blood stream, Glycemic Load tells you how much glucose per serving could be introduced into your system.

Glycemic Index vs. Glycemic Load

For example, watermelon has a high Glycemic Index value (80), but a Glycemic Load of only 5 because the food has relatively little carbohydrates.  You can calculate a food's glycemic load by multiplying the per-serving carbohydrate level by the glycemic index and dividing by 100.  Above 20 is high, 11 to 19 is moderate, and 10 and below is considered low.

Ultimately, when building a meal plan to better regulate your blood sugar, it is important to be mindful of all three key metrics:

• The total carbohydrates in your food
• The speed with which a food will increase your blood glucose: glycemic index
• The ultimate level to which your blood glucose could rise: glycemic load

This is just a start for your prediabetes diet.  See our full list of glycemic index foods.