Your meal plan is your roadmap to healthful eating. Your Registered Dietitian or Certified Diabetes Educator will help develop the best meal plan for you. Some popular meal plans for diabetes are listed below:

• The Exchange System tells you the number of food group servings per meal and snack.
• Carbohydrate Counting factors the allowed amount of carbohydrate per meal and snack.
• Calorie Counting informs you the number of calories to eat.
• The Plate Method is a tool that can be used to help visualize what each meal should look like. One half of the plate should be filled with non-starchy vegetables, such as carrots or broccoli, one quarter of the plate should be filled with grains or starchy veggies, such as rice or potatoes and the remaining quarter of the plate should be for lean meats or meat alternatives.

We’ve developed an online meal & fitness planner to help you meet your nutrition, weight, diabetes management goals.

Whatever your plan, you can use some easy steps to fill in its framework with healthful food choices. Here’s how:

Supermarket Strategies

• Be prepared. Healthful and delicious meals start with having the right foods and ingredients on hand. Before you shop, plan your meals for the week and make a list of the foods you need.
• Build on the basics. Choose whole grains, fresh, frozen and canned fruits and veggies (pick fruits packed in water or juice and veggies without added sauces or salt), lean meats, skinless poultry, and fat free or lowfat milk, plain or artificially sweetened yogurt and reduced or low fat cheese.
• Enlist labels. Read the Nutrition Facts Panel on packages to choose foods that best fit your meal plan. Learn more about label reading.
• Trade fat or sugar, not good taste. Look for light or fat free salad dressing, mayonnaise and sour cream, and sugar free sweets such as cookies, pudding and gelatin. Remember to read labels as fat free and sugar free foods still contain calories. See more on Diabetic Sweets.
• Stock up on staples. Keep ingredients for a few favorite quick-to-fix meals on hand when time is tight or you’re feeling a bit tired. Try this Quick & Easy Steak Salad recipe.

In the Kitchen

• Lighten up. Reduce fat by trimming meats and removing poultry skin. Bake, broil and grill foods. Reduce sugar in baked goods such as muffins, cakes and cookies or replace sugar with a low-calorie sweetener that’s suitable for baking.
• Learn recipe tricks. For example, lighten up mashed potatoes by adding fat free milk and a bit of “light” margarine instead of whole milk and butter. Or, substitute mashed cauliflower for mashed potatoes for a carb-trimmed treat.
• Boost flavor. Instead of adding salt, prepare foods with herbs, spices and zesty ingredients like mustard and horseradish.

On Special Occasions

• Figure your budget. Before the big event, decide how many carbohydrates or calories you’ll “spend” on your food choices—and stick to it.
• Take the edge off your appetite. About an hour before the event, eat a small snack such as an apple and a slice of reduced or low fat cheese or a serving of whole-grain crackers with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, so you’ll feel in control. Be sure to count the snack in your meal plan, as it is not “free.”
• Mind your portions. Follow the amounts in your meal plan as closely as possible. Savor small portions and pass up second helpings.
• Bring your own. Bring a dish to share that you can enjoy such as a platter of colorful cut-up veggies with a low fat dip such as our Veggies & Dip recipe or a special dessert such as our Creamy Vanilla-Raspberry Pavlova recipe. This can help keep you on track and in control.

Learn more about navigating the grocery store
Learn more about managing your diabetes when special situations arise