I was diagnosed with gestational diabeties any suggestions as tow hat to eat or snacks?

Question

I a normally perfectly healthy and LOVE my sugar and sweets! my Doctor said not to eat more than 1500 calories a day and no sugar! any ideas as to what kinds of food to eat and snacks?

Answer 1

That's a really strange way to manage diabetes. I had gestational diabetes with my second child and we have a lot of family members who are diabetic and we all count carbs...not calories. Carbs make your sugar go up, not calories. Did they send you to a diabetes nutritionist? If not I would check your local hospitals and get some referrals. You should have to test your blood sugar several times daily and have a restricted diet based on your carbohydrate intake. Meat and veggies are "free foods" so the best snacks are of course things like carrots, cucumbers, celery...that type of thing. As for meals to get the most of a meal make the main portion of it your meat, then fill in the rest of your carbs with fruits and veggies. For breakfast, cereal is really high in carbs so you are better off having an egg and a piece of toast with sugar free jelly. That's all I can think of off the top of my head but if you need any other advise or suggestions feel free to email me :)

OK since people like to scare you a lot about your baby being too big here is how it is:
If you control your sugars REALLY well...like don't go over even twice a week, your baby will be JUST fine. If it gets to where you can't control it with your diet tell your dr. ASAP and he/she will put you on medication that will help! (Not necessarily insulin either) It is SO important that you are honest with your dr about your sugar levels. I had to give mine a log of all of my testing at every appointment and he read it thoroughly. As soon as my levels were getting high the last few weeks of my pregnancy I was put on medication that helped until we did the c-section. My daughter came out a healthy 7lbs even :)

Answer 2

I was gestational diabetic with my twins. Try to talk to a dietician at the hospital. Most will do a mock diet for you staying within your caloric intake. I was gestational diabetic with my twins and was on a 1900 calorie diet. I was told no fruits or juices before noon (when your blood sugar is typically highest), limit the carbs (calories that turn into sugar), and eat high protein foods. Because I was on a low cal diet, it was important to stretch the calories across the day. I ate every 2 hours. Some of the things I snacked on (I called them all snacks since there wasn't a big meal all day): hard boiled or scrambled egg for "breakfast", 10 dry roasted peanuts as a morning snack, a roasted chicken breast or plain hamburger patty (about the size and thickness of my palm as a size reference) with a small salad, ants on a log at 2 p.m., a banana at 4, chicken or hamburger again for dinner with steamed vegetables, yogurt in the evening. I drank water and unsweetened iced tea with a little lemon for the time I had diabetes.

It's hard to do, but it can be done!! Good luck and congratulations.

Answer 3

I had it during my last pregnancy, too. The doc should have given you a meal planner/guide. Try and keep your carbs down to 2-3 per meal. Eat lots of veggies for snacks, fruit is good, but does have alot of natural sugars-so not too many!Try popcorn, but be sure to read the labels, and follow the reccomended portions exactly. I also ate string cheese. The rule of thumb is every 15 carbs counts as 1 in your diet, so if you are eating popcorn that has 33 carbs, that counts as 2. A small apple is 1 carb. Good luck! If you follow the diet plan, this goes away as soon as your pregnancy is over!

Answer 4

Go for whole foods, like brown rice, whole wheat pasta and pastries, lots of veggies, and fruits! You'll find you can eat for veggies for less calories than some pizza! Also the real fiber in whole wheat slows down the rate at which the sugar is released into the bloddstream to help control diabetes of any kind! Stay far away from processed sweets and sugars.

Answer 5

For GD, you have to watch the carbs, not calories. Best double check about that. Next, the most important thing is to make sure to keep your glucose (sugar) level even (no spikes and crashes). This can be done by a glucose monitor (I had one of those when I had GD). Next, you need to find out what foods are high in carbs and which are not (example: corn is a veggie, but has a lot of carbs so you have to watch your servings when eating it). You really have to watch your diet, and talk to a nutritionist. Most likely she will draw a meal plan as to how many carb servings to eat, and when. You have to control it, through diet, exercise or even insulin shots. I remember I had to eat a lot of protein to make sure I had enough calories (peanut butter, eggs etc.) to make up for the resticted carbs. Having a big baby is not the only consequence of GD; many, many years ago babies died from what later turned out to be GD. Good luck!

Answer 6

well im type 2 diabetic and my cousin had gestational, didnt your Dr say no carbs?? becuase that turns right into sugar, anywho, for breakfast I usually eat a hard boiled egg and 2 sausage patties, or you can make some eggs or somthing, Also there are these Blue Bunny yogurts that taste pretty good they have only 5 grams of carbs but 9 grams of protein, Anything with very low carbs but high in protein is good, Peanut butter, peanuts for snacks, Fruit is good, but it does have a lot of sugar. I was starving most of my pregnancy becuase I was very strict with my diet, youc an have a big baby with diabetes, but my baby was only 6 lbs 13 ozs and very healthy becuase I was strict!!

Answer 7

you can do this! don't worry as much with the calories but the carbs/sugars are huge!! here are some things that got me through -milk products turned to sugar so I had to be creative. Breakfast -egg with bacon 1 piece whole wheat toast -decf iced coffee from dunkin donuts with splenda -The flavored ones have no additional sugar! -lunch -salad with meat dinner meat and veggies **Barillo pasta did nothing with my sugar and rocks for taste my whole family eats it today 6 months after my baby snacks-be careful of alot of fruits -watermelon didn't seem to affect too much -snack all south beach bars and replacement products -good luck you'll figure it out -you're doing it for the best reason ever

Answer 8

It's really best to meet with a nutritionalist to learn about portion size and carb counts. You should also be eating 6 small meals each day.

Some snacks that worked for me when I had GD were:
cottage cheese with blueberries or strawberries
nuts
cheese
peanut butter on one slice of light wheat bread
pb on celery
south beach diet granola bars
veggies and hummus

I had to avoid bananas, potatoes, fast food, and anything sugary. I could have one serving of rice (1/2 cup) or pasta (1cup) as long as that was the only carb of the meal, but everyone is effected differently.

Answer 9

Be careful of eating too much fruit, there is a lot of sugar, as will as fruit juices. maybe a poached egg, toast, sliced tomato, OJ , or 1 % milk, for breakfast, snack on arrowroot cookies, crackers, a few slices of cheese, pretzels, rice cakes, carrots, coliflower, broccoli. Apples with ranch dip
et. don't fry foods, broil, grill, remember fat turns to sugar in your system faster than sweets. Use canola, or extra virgin olive oil. Berries, are good for detoxifying the systems, blueberries, raspberies, cherries. Celery with cream cheese,melba toast, aslo can help some , with morning sickness.

Answer 10

I ate alot of salads... but really the main objective is to cut your portions sizes down and not to skip meals... also forget about candies and cakes and all the other delictable delights that we all love. Stick with the healthy stuff in small quantities. Toast for breakfast, salad for lunch (watch that dressing) and chicken, 1/2 baked tater, green beans for supper.... NO SODA or FAST FOODS!!!

I was gestational diabetic with my younger 2 and they weighed in at 13lbs and 11.9lbs! Diabetes contributed to that alot... but we were also big babies (the dad and I) when we were born so it's in part genetics too... just be careful they aren't fun to carry when they are that big!