10 Foods That Cause Diabetes! Best Alternatives To Look 2024

What we are is what we eat! This statement remains the same even after a millennium. If we eat healthy, we will stay healthy and vice versa! Undoubtedly, food impacts diabetes, and to avoid diabetes, you must avoid foods that cause diabetes. This article will expose 10 foods that cause diabetes and their best alternatives.

10 Foods That Cause Diabetes

Just because the food is tasty doesn’t mean it’s healthy! Here are the ten foods that cause diabetes and worsen it.

1. Processed Snacks

Eating processed snack foods like packaged potato chips, nachos, crackers, and pretzels is unhealthy. They come with unhealthy fats, refined carbohydrates and sodium and are like a long-term poison to your body.

Anything processed and kept eatable using preservatives for a long period is entirely unhealthy. 

Processed snack foods lose vital nutrients and are high in calories and added sugars, leading to weight gain and insulin resistance.

Alternatives

Instead of unhealthy processed snacks, you can have healthy snack alternatives like 

• Dry nuts like almonds, walnuts, cashews, or Pistachios. They come with high protein and omega-3 fatty acids, contributing to healthy heart and blood sugar levels.
• Seeds – Flaxseeds, watermelon seeds, or pumpkin seeds. They have bioactive components and are loaded with fiber, vitamins and minerals.
• Fruits – Apple, Guava, Orange, Strawberries, or grapefruit. Though fruits contain sugar, they are still healthy as they contain plant chemicals, fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
• Veggies – Broccoli, cabbage, spinach, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potatoes ( tasty alternative) or cucumber. They can prevent blood sugar, lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of eye diseases.

So, it would be best to avoid processed snacks. The above are the healthy alternatives.

2. Sugary Desserts

Undoubtedly, desserts are high in added sugar and calories. Cookies, pastries, sugary chocolates, candies, and other desserts contain unhealthy fats and refined grains that harm the body and result in weight gain.

The higher sugar levels of these foods can increase blood pressure, and blood sugar spikes lead to diabetes, inflammation and fatty liver.

So, they are bad for your body in the long term.

Alternatives For Sugary Desserts.

Here are the healthy alternatives for sweets and desserts

• Dark Chocolate is nutritious and healthy. It contains fibers and minerals like iron, magnesium, copper and manganese.
• Fruit salads – Make salads using a mixture of fresh fruits like apples, grapes, bananas, oranges and other healthy fruits. They are super beneficial.
• Preparing homemade desserts using natural ingredients like grain flour and natural sweeteners like jaggery and unsaturated fats. 

So, sugary desserts are the second shortlisted among the 10 foods that cause diabetes.

3. Processed Meat

Meat is a source of protein, but processed meat can increase the risk of diabetes as it consists of saturated fats. 

It is necessary to reduce processed meat consumption to avoid long-term disorders and maintain a healthy life.

Processed meat is hard to digest and can lead to digestive disorders. It also disrupts insulin resistance, a lead factor for type 2 diabetes.

Alternatives for processed meat

Here are the better and healthful alternatives for processed meat.

• Boiled eggs – Eggs are an excellent food of multiple vitamins and protein.
• Fresh and live meat of chicken and fish is also a great alternative. They are lean sources of protein and fatty acids. Tuna and salmon fishes are great choices.
• Plant-based protein sources like lentils, chickpeas, beans and kidney beans.
• Mushrooms are fine alternatives to a vegetarian diet as they contain macronutrients and selenium that are healthy for the immune system.

Using fresh meat instead of processed meat is a healthy decision.

4. White Bread, Rice, Pasta And Other Refined Grains

Eating white bread, rice, noodles, or pasta is like eating any other food with no nutritional value because these refined white grains have undergone processing that filters and removes most of the essential nutrients and fiber.

Also, these foods have a high glycemic index, causing high blood sugar levels and contributing to developing diabetes.

Replacing

As these foods are daily necessities, here are some healthy replacements for these refined grains.

• Replace white bread with whole-grain wheat bread.
• Replace white rice with brown rice. Brown rice is widely known for health benefits such as weight loss, digestion, controlling blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and several other benefits.
• Replace pasta with quinoa as it contains nutrients like zinc, folate, fiber and antioxidants. Moreover, it is gluten-free.

So replace your daily food intake with these alternatives, as refined grains are among the 10 foods that cause diabetes.

Also Read: Is Falling Asleep After Eating A Sign Of Diabetes?

5. Fried Foods

French fries and fried chicken taste so good! However, they are very bad for health. They are unsaturated fats and also high in calories.

Fried foods such as fried chicken and potato deep fries require much oil, and unhealthy oils like refined sunflower oil are often used to cook them. 

Consuming these fried foods on a daily basis leads to inflammation, rapid weight gain and sooner risk of type 2 diabetes.

Note: American Heart Association recommends that our body shall only consume 5 to 6% of total calories from saturated fats.

Alternatives For Fried Foods

You do not have to alter these foods, but you can alter the way of cooking to eat healthily. 

Frying foods is unhealthy, but baking, air frying or grilling them is healthy as baked or grilled foods are low in calories and have fewer fats.

Also, these ways are easy to cook than fried ways. So, try baking, air frying or grilling instead of deep oil frying if you want to stay away from health issues and live healthily.

6. Sugary Drinks

Sugary drinks like energy drinks, soda, and too-sweetened fruit juices contain high-added sugar and calories and provide no nutritional value.  

They are the major reasons for blood sugar levels high and contribute to diabetes.

Regular consumption can also cause weight gain and obesity.

Alternatives 

There are many nutritious options for sugary drinks, but they are not sweeter. You have to limit sugar if you wish to stay away from diabetes.

You can have healthy drinks like 

• Lemon tea is low in sugar and calories. It also provides vitamins and minerals to your body and lowers the risk of cancer, diabetes and other chronic diseases.
• Green tea is a fat burner with antioxidants, reducing the risk of cancer and diabetes.
• Unsweetened coffee or tea are great alternatives for sugary beverages as coffee contains caffeine and tea contains antioxidants, beneficial for health as well as great refreshing beverages.

So these are the healthy alternatives for sugary drinks, one of the 10 foods that cause diabetes and worsen it.

7. High-Fat Dairy Foods

Dairy foods like whole milk, cream, cheese and butter contain high fats. Foods like flavored yogurts, sweetened milkshakes, and sweet dairy desserts contain added sugar.

All of these lead to developing diabetes and rapid weight gain.

Cheese is the most used in many dishes and is a loved dairy product, but it contains high saturated fats and salt. It contains almost 20 to 30 grams of fat per 100 grams of serving. So, avoid cheese as much as possible. 

Alternatives For High-fat dairy foods

We said only to avoid high-fat dairy foods. You can happily consume low-fat dairy foods like semi-creamed milk, unsweetened milkshakes, greek yogurt or cotton cheese. 

Low-fat dairy foods contain less saturated fats and calories. They have many health benefits and act as energy boosters.

You can even consider plant-based alternatives like almond, soy, and coconut milk as they are low in calories and saturated fat and provide additional nutrients such as vitamin D, protein and high calcium.

So, avoid high-fat dairy products and stick to low-fat dairy or plant-based milk products.

8. Sweetened Breakfast Cereals

Sweetened cereals are generally consumed combined with sugar and milk as breakfast. Without any surprise, they are high in added sugar and calories.

Starting the day with a high-sugar breakfast spikes your blood pressure and blood glucose levels. And this harms health by causing obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Therefore, avoiding sweetened cereal breakfast is essential for preventing diabetes. Pregnant women must avoid this as a breakfast as they are exposed to gestational diabetes.

Alternatives For Sweetened Breakfast Cereals

There are plenty of alternatives for sweetened cereals as breakfast.

• Oatmeal – It is nutritionally rich. It contains high protein than any other grain and abundant vitamins and minerals. Oatmeal also contains antioxidants and soluble fiber called beta-glucan, which helps several functioning systems. Oatmeal is not only healthy but also a tasty alternative to sweetened cereals.
• Indian Breakfast foods like Idly and Dosa are tasty nutritional breakfast choices. Their batter is made up of rice and urad dal. Urad dal is a healthy food that contains magnesium, fiber, and numerous minerals that support bone health. You can look for cooking guides on Youtube.
• Wheat Bread is also a healthy breakfast as it boosts energy levels and helps control weight.
• Unsweetened or whole-grain cereals are low in added sugar and calories. You can consider it as your breakfast to start the day.

So, these are some healthy breakfast alternatives for sweetened cereals.

9. Dried Fruits

Dried fruits like raisins, dates, prunes and dried apricots can be found delicious to your mouth and taste buds. Though they contain a good amount of fiber, drying these fruits adds sugar and turns them into a high-sugar food. 

For example, a small quantity of raisins, 43 grams, consists of 25 grams of sugar, and 50 grams of dates also contain 25 grams of sugar.

Regularly consuming these dried fruits builds up blood sugar levels and leads to diabetes.

Dried fruits alternatives

Replacing dried fruits with fresh fruits is the best alternative. Apple, banana or orange are healthy alternatives.

Also, replacing them with veggies like carrots and cucumbers as your snack lets you stay healthy and fills your appetite. 

So, do not eat dried fruits, considering them healthy. You can entirely avoid or limit your dried fruit consumption to avoid diabetes.

10. Alcohol

Last but not least, Alcohol consumption must be stopped, as excessive alcohol consumption leads to developing diabetes.

It directs to weight gain and insulin resistance, which leads to type diabetes – 2. 

Also, many studies are evidence that too much alcohol can rapidly increase blood sugar levels, leading to diabetes over time.

Alternatives For Alcohol

I know it’s quite interesting for you to read the alternatives for alcohol. Sadly, there are no alternatives except to quit it.

You need to understand that alcohol cause cancer, heart disease, lung disorders, failure of the kidneys and many more.

We suggest you quit alcohol rather than limit its consumption.

So, this is all about the 10 foods that cause diabetes.

Before you go, check some faqs.

FAQ

Here are some frequently asked questions.

Q1. Does junk food cause diabetes?

A. Absolutely, yes! Junk foods are of no nutritional value except for high saturated fats and calories. The high saturated fats and calories lead to weight gain and blood sugar fluctuations, resulting in diabetes. Therefore, regular junk food consumption can cause diabetes.

Q2. Does eating excessive sweets cause diabetes?

A. Eating excessive sweets causes diabetes! Sweets contain high-added sugar, which is contributing factor to developing diabetes. Do not consume excessive sweets or sugary foods. Try to lower their consumption as much as possible.

Q3. Can a poor diet cause diabetes?

A. There is a high chance of developing type 2 diabetes as proper nutrition and diabetes are interconnected. A poor diet leads to poor nutrition, and it gradually results in developing diabetes. Research says people with poor nutrition have 2 to 3 times more chances of developing diabetes than those with better or good nutrition.

Note: According to the American Diabetes Association, A healthy diet can help you manage or lose weight. Losing 10 to 15 pounds might help you prevent and manage high blood glucose.

So, these are the frequently asked questions. Here are our final words.

Final words

Diabetes is a never-ending disorder for human begins. So, let’s be cautious about what we eat and prevent it before it hits us. Avoid the above-said 10 foods that cause diabetes; you are more than in a safe place.

Always choose the best and healthy food. Exercise daily. Control your cravings for sugary and delicious foods. And this way, you will become a healthy person.

It’s best to stay without diabetes!

Cheers,

Team Maxhealthily.

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