Intuitive Eating for Diabetes: Part 1
A diagnosis of diabetes and intuitive eating may feel like they conflict, especially with all the rigid advice out there. In reality, intuitive eating for diabetes is possible. In this post, learn about why intuitive eating is a natural fit for diabetes management.
This post was brought to you by my lovely part time RD Kate Bennett! She is currently accepting new virtual clients on weeknights and evenings.
Did you know November is National Diabetes Awareness Month? Today I am talking about diabetes, but maybe in a way that not as familiar to you.
There is so much information available that targets people living with diabetes. Much of the information is what I’d consider fear-mongering or intended to prey on your fears related to diabetes. It may be a novel idea to you that you don’t have to be at war with food or your body just because you have a diabetes diagnosis. In fact, making peace with food is far more advantageous for your health than fighting with it.
Often times when someone finds out they have a diagnosis of diabetes they immediately think of all the foods that are restricted to them. And this is not without good reason since health practitioners, including doctors, nurses, and unfortunately many dietitians, will immediately list off all the foods you should no longer eat.
It doesn’t stop at health practitioners either. Living with diabetes also seems to invite everyone and their mother to feel they have the right to give you advice! If you have diabetes, I have a TON of compassion for you because I know it feels like everyone wants to enforce their food rules and on you. I know you’ve been asked a million times whether you’re “allowed” to have candy or “are you sure you can eat that?” when you’re just trying to enjoy lunch!
Intuitive Eating for Diabetes
I work with a lot of people with diabetes and they often feel like intuitive eating is out of reach for them. After hearing so many mixed messages related to food and what they supposedly can and can’t eat, freedom around food probably seems impossible. If you’ve stumbled upon intuitive eating in the past you may feel like it’s not available to you because of your diagnosis of diabetes. A diabetes diagnosis certainly can create it’s own challenges and barriers when it comes to intuitive eating, and definitely there is a learning curve, but having diabetes does not mean there is no hope that you can be an intuitive eater. You too can learn to lean into your internal wisdom to guide you to make decisions about food and eating. Intuitive eating is for everyone.
Let’s dive more into diabetes and how you can use the principles of intuitive eating. I urge you to read and learn about the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating. Don’t fear that you cannot practice intuitive eating and take care of your diabetes at the same. Because you can! Remember, intuitive eating is a health promoting practice, one that puts your mental health right up there with your physical health AND cares a lot more about sustainable changes that improve the quality of your diet, not quick “fixes.”
What is Diabetes?
Let’s do a very simplified review of what diabetes is! Diabetes is a chronic condition that affects your body’s ability to metabolize glucose. There are two main types of diabetes:
Type 1 Diabetes: A condition in which your body stops producing insulin, a hormone that ushers glucose out of the bloodstream and into cells where it is used for energy. Someone with type 1 diabetes requires insulin injections that aims to mimic the body’s natural insulin production, which typically “matches” insulin to glucose consumption to keep blood glucose within a “normal” range.
Type 2 Diabetes: A condition in which the body becomes resistant to insulin, affecting the ability of glucose to get out of the bloodstream and into cells.
I often hear the types of diabetes talked about as if type 2 diabetes is caused by being at a higher weight or eating too much sugar, and type 1 diabetes is caused by genetics. BOTH types of diabetes are strongly influenced by genetics. While certainly being at a higher weight is associated with type 2 diabetes, saying it is caused by weight is a vast oversimplification, especially since weight gain seems to be an early side effect of diabetes, and is also associated with other risk factors for diabetes, including ones that have nothing to do with diet and physical activity, like certain medications and stress levels. Also, while certain dietary patterns are associated with a higher or lower risk of type 2 diabetes, that does NOT mean anything you did or didn’t eat caused your diagnosis!
Diabetes and Diet
Diabetes is a undoubtably a complex disease. Living with diabetes can mean everyday can be full of surprises. People living with diabetes can tell you that eating “the right food” doesn’t guarantee “perfect” blood sugars. Doing the same thing every day sometimes produces different results. There are many, many factors that can impact your blood sugar that go beyond just food. With that, it’s so important to give yourself grace and avoid placing blame on yourself when your blood sugars aren’t just where you want them.
Second, healthy eating diabetes can look different for different people. Just because someone else with diabetes is following a seemingly helpful pattern of eating, it may not be in your best interests to try and copy it. Studies have shown individuals blood glucose levels respond very differently to different foods.
Which leads me to say, there is no “diabetic diet!” While there are definitely generalities with eating and lifestyle that can be helpful, that does not mean that having diabetes makes any foods off-limits to you, or that what “works” for one person will be helpful for you. This makes intuitive eating a natural fit, because it allows you to figure out what feels good for you!
Getting Curious, not Judgmental with Intuitive Eating for Diabetes
With diabetes, there are extra steps you may need to take at meal time. Checking your blood sugar, counting carbohydrates to bolus insulin if that’s part of your treatment plan, and thinking about what foods may help stabilize your numbers later on are all helpful steps in taking care of yourself. These are numbers and ranges you have to consider that someone else may not, but those numbers don’t have to go through a filter of judgement.
What do I mean? I am talking about practicing objectivity and curiosity here.
Intuitive eating encourages paying attention to how a particular meal or snack impacts you. This impact can be evaluated without judgement. How a food or meal effects your blood sugar can be evaluated objectively. Blood sugar is a data point. It gives you a glimpse into particular moment in time. Rather than feeling mad at yourself for what you ate or perhaps the carbohydrates you miscalculated, it can be a moment of “mmm, that’s interesting, this food may have a greater impact on blood sugar than I initially thought.” This can help you make future decisions. Not in a way that makes certain foods off limits, but in a way that you learn certain foods may be better suited to be eaten with fiber, fat or protein to help steady your blood sugar. Basically, get curious, not judgmental when it comes to blood sugars!
For example: You eat a salad with grilled chicken around 12 pm. At 2 pm, you feel yourself getting a little light headed and not able to focus. You check your blood sugar and find your blood sugar is 65. Thinking about what you had for lunch, you notice it was low in carbohydrates. Next time, you have crackers and fruit to accompany your lunch. No judgement, just observations. Or maybe you wake-up and your blood sugar is higher than usual. Thinking about what you had the night before, maybe you realize you ate a carb heavy meal close to bedtime after skipping lunch and getting overly hungry. It’s a reminder that eating lunch is important for you. No judgement, just observation.
Removing judgement also goes for carbohydrate counting. If you need to know carbohydrates in a food in order to calculate how much insulin to give, try challenging the idea that carbohydrates are innately bad because they affect your blood sugar. There’s a reason insulin injections exist - so you can eat a variable amount of carbohydrate and cover it with your injections! Just like for someone without diabetes, carbohydrates are an important source of energy and should be consumed on a regular basis.
Remember, restriction does not work for anyone. Restricting a particular food or food group can lead to obsessing over that food until you may feel as if you have lost control. When you do eat the food, you eat past a comfortable fullness fearing you won’t have it again. This can lead to a greater blood sugar spike than having that same food regularly because you may not have felt the need to eat past fullness. As mentioned above, there are no forbidden foods. In fact, often the foods that are “forbidden” (juice, candy, soda) are literally lifesaving in the case of a low blood sugar.
I will wrap this post up by encouraging you to not feel like intuitive eating is not an option for you. The stress that comes with a diabetes diagnosis is a lot on its own, you don’t need the extra stress of striving for the elusive perfect eating style on top of it. Stress will increase your blood sugar, thanks to cortisol. Stressing over doing everything “just right” may actually have a negative impact on glucose levels! Be on the lookout of Part Two of this post to get more into the specifics of nutrition therapy and diabetes.
Because diabetes can be complicated and intuitive eating is a foreign concept in our diet-obsessed world, it may be helpful for you to work with a HAES and intuitive eating dietitian. We work with clients throughout the US and out of our Columbia, SC office, and would be happy to help you eat with confidence while managing diabetes. Learn more about our practice philosophy and reach out if interested in working together.
