care provider have adjusted your blood glucose-lowering medications to prevent hypoglycemia
• you need to include snacks to eat enough calories or get enough of certain nutrients (pertinent for young children, women who are pregnant, or people who are underweight or recovering from a medical problem or procedure).
Learn by Example
The following one-day sample meals for three different calorie ranges can help you translate the calories and food servings in the previous chart into an eating plan you can put into action. These sample meals include a wide variety of foods, so you can choose from foods you prepare at home, convenience foods, and restaurant foods. The nutrients in each menu are provided in the Nutrition Facts format to make them easy to review.
The sample meal plan for 1,400-1,600 calories is used again in most of the chapters in section 2 to show you how to plan meals with the number of servings of food you need each day. Depending on the day, you will have slightly more or less calories and more or less of some nutrients. This depends entirely on your food choices, but as long as you consistently eat a wide variety of healthy foods and sufficient calories, you should get the right amounts of the nutrients you need over the course of a week.
Vitamins, Minerals, and Dietary Supplements
What You’ll Learn:
• the definitions for vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements
• ADA recommendations on vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements
• how to take a “foods first” approach to eat enough vitamins and minerals
• the intake recommendations (daily value) for vitamins and minerals
• top 10 food sources of key vitamins and minerals
• facts about dietary supplements of interest to people with diabetes
• factors to consider before you buy and try dietary supplements
Vitamins, Minerals, and Dietary Supplements Defined
Vitamins are essential substances contained in foods that help your body use the food you eat for proper functioning. Each vitamin performs unique tasks. Vitamins often partner with enzymes in your body to carry out specific tasks.
Minerals, like vitamins, are essential substances found in foods that help your body use the food you eat to make your body work properly. Each mineral serves a particular role. For example, calcium strengthens your bones, and potassium helps regulate the circulatory system and helps control blood pressure. Minerals often partner with enzymes in your body to accomplish certain tasks.
Dietary supplements include vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals, and other substances that perform, or claim to perform, actions in your body to achieve good health and/or prevent or control health problems. They are not food or drugs, but they contain one or more ingredients that are usually found in foods. They are intended to be used in addition to food, not as a replacement for a healthy eating plan. In the United States, the FDA regulates dietary supplements, but doesn’t regulate the approval or marketing of supplements in the same manner as prescribed medicines. The FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they are allowed on the market, but it can take dietary supplements off the market if problems occur. The FDA now requires all supplement containers to be labeled “dietary supplement” and to have a Supplement Facts label that is similar in look, but not content, to the Nutrition Facts label on foods and beverages.
ADA Recommendations
If you eat a wide variety of nutrient-packed healthy foods, eat at least 1,200 calories a day, and generally keep your blood glucose within target goals, the ADA does not believe that you need to take vitamins, minerals, and/or dietary supplements to achieve optimal nutrient intake.
Many American adults and children don’t get adequate amounts of several key nutrients for two main reasons: 1) inadequate intake of the foods packed with vitamins and minerals: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy foods, and 2) inadequate availability of some nutrients in the common food supply.
QUICK TIP
Current research on vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements (although there have not been many large studies) does not show that people with diabetes have any greater need for various vitamins and minerals than anyone else.
If you think you may not be getting adequate supplies of vitamins and minerals, your first step is to eat a wider variety of foods and to choose more nutrient-packed foods. If you still feel you have some “nutrition gaps,” you may want to take a multivitamin and mineral supplement that offers a good supply of the vitamins and minerals you need; however, it is difficult to get sufficient amounts of some vitamins and minerals from a combination of foods and multivitamin supplements. For these nutrients, such as calcium and Vitamin D, you may need to take an individual supplement. (See the section on daily values below for more information.)
Vitamin and Supplement Needs
The ADA does note that a person with diabetes may need a specific vitamin or mineral supplement if you
• are a strict vegetarian (meaning you eliminate a number of food groups)
• are following a weight-reducing meal plan of 1,200 calories or less per day
• are pregnant or breastfeeding
• are elderly
• have certain additional short- or long-term illnesses
If any of these factors apply to you, consider your current food intake and whether you are meeting your blood glucose goals.
The Missing Vitamins and Minerals
Nutrition intake surveys conducted by the U.S. government on a regular basis point out that while people are eating more calories per day than ever, about 2,150, we’re falling short on certain key vitamins and minerals. A big reason for the shortfall: adults are not eating enough whole grains, fruits, and vegetables and are eating too much added sugars and fats. Adults are not consuming enough of vitamins A, C, D, E, and the minerals: calcium, choline, folate, potassium, and magnesium. Except for vitamins A (as carotenoids) and C, children are lacking in this same list. While it’s not a vitamin or a mineral, one nutrient that’s lacking in most people’s diet is dietary fiber.
To have the best chance of getting the vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber you need, eat a wide variety of nutrient-dense (packed with vitamins and minerals) foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy foods, lean meats, nuts, seeds, beans, and healthy liquid oils. The guidelines also recommend lightening up on foods that are low in nutrients and are contributing excessive calories. These are drinks with added sugars, sweets, candy, fried foods, high-fat meats, and whole-milk dairy foods.
Take a Foods First Approach
Plan your meals and snacks to eat a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods and get the vast majority of your vitamins and minerals from the tfoods you eat. Experts in nutrition believe that foods contain