A diabetic can eat all types of food but… —Dietician

Mrs Gregory (not real name) was on her way home one evening when two young men approached her. They introduced themselves as members of a Pentecostal church four blocks away from her house and invited her to their free medical outreach coming up the next day.

They informed her that medical personnel would be coming to conduct tests ranging from blood pressure, glucose test, eye tests and so on. On hearing that the tests were free, Mrs Gregory decided to go for the medical outreach.

Very early on Saturday, she and her family were amongst the first set of people to arrive the venue of the medical tests; it was soon her turn and she went in for the necessary medical examination. At the end of the examination, it was discovered that she had diabetes and therefore advised to go to a government hospital for further consultation and treatment.

Mrs Gregory who was devastated by the news started wailing and it took the intervention of her husband, medical experts and the pastor of the church to calm her. When she calmed down, the first question she asked was:’’ what will I be eating now?”

Like many diabetic  patients, the first thing that came to Mrs Gregory’s mind  was that she would be deprived of all her favourite  meals  since diabetic patients are usually advised to avoid starchy foods, junks and fatty foods like French fries, doughnuts, cakes  as well as soft drinks and beverages.  For many of them, what to eat therefore becomes a source of worry.

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In a chat with WWW, Osunsanya Olajumoke, a dietician at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), stated that: “A lot of diabetic patients in Nigeria have died due to ignorance; most of them have been told that they cannot eat all starchy foods including rice and this usually leads to frustration, nonchalant attitude of patients and eventual death.

“A diabetic can eat all types of food but in measured quantity. As dieticians, we recommend portion of sizes based on the age, gender and Body Mass Index (BMI) of the patient. So, it is not true that diabetic patients cannot eat starchy foods, it is the portion size; specifically carbohydrate size that matters and like I said earlier the portion depends on the individual. What we do is that we calculate the caloric requirement of the person and recommend a portion size.

“Then, we monitor the fasting blood sugar of the patient based on the portion size of food. We also take into consideration the type of medication that the patient is on.”

According to the dietician, the best thing a patient should do after being diagnosed is to reach out to a dietician for nutritional assessment so as to know the portion size that is required since diets for diabetic patients are usually individualised based on medical history, age, gender, weight and physical activity level.