A patient suffering from diabetes is often confused and worried about his diet. Diet plays a very important role in diabetes because you can manage your disease without any medications by just following a healthy diet and lifestyle. They are called Pathya and Apathya in Ayurveda.
Pathya - Pathya means all that is good for a person suffering from a disease and that which helps him in managing the disease. The following are the Pathya for a diabetic patient.
- Barley and its preparations.
- Rice which is not recently harvested but old one. Along with this soup of green gram or bitter vegetables like bitter gourd.
- Flax oil, mustard oil, almond oil etc can be used for cooking vegetables and rice or can be used for seasoning.
- Shashtika shali- Rice which is grown in 60 days is ideal food for a diabetic.
- Also finger millet( ragi), pearl millet ( bajra ) and foxtail millet( kangni) can be included exclusively in your diet.
But among these, consuming barley, preparing different recepes out of it and having it with honey is very beneficial for a diabetic patient. It is said in ayurveda that one who uses green gram and gooseberry on a daily basis will never suffer from diabetes. Diabetic patients usually tend to think that they cannot consume fruits at all.But the following fruits can be enjoyed even by a diabetic because they do not increase the blood sugar level.
- Apples
- Oranges
- Black berries - especially powdered seeds
- Sweet lime or Mozambique
- Muskmelon
Although these fruits are safe in diabetes one has to be careful to consume them in moderate quantity.
Apathya- Now let us see which are the food items that should be strictly avoided in a diabetic patient.
- White rice
- Sweets- especially sugar and desserts prepared out of sugar.
- Chocolates
- All junk and bakery food items
- Fried food
- Alcohol
Fruits to be avoided:
- Grapes
- Bananas
- Mangoes
- Raisins
- Apricots
- Fruit drinks and fruit juices
- Jams, jellies etc.
A diabetic patient should see that he does not eat only one kind of food but consumes a variety of food in his diet which includes carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, vitamins and fibre in appropriate quantity which will make a balanced diet. Following the above said diet and exercising daily or going for a 30 minutes brisk walk everyday can definitely keep your blood sugar levels under control. Also very importantly, there are yogasanas, pranayama and mudras which are particularly beneficial in curing the disease. They should be carefully learnt from a yoga therapist so that one does not end up with some other problem by practising it in a wrong way.