The Diabetic's Pocket Dietitian is updated continually as new and proven information becomes available.

For those of you that need something you can carry in your pocket: Please notice that The Diabetic's Pocket Dietitian is in loose leaf form so that you can carry the page showing your personal meal plan and the Cards with you.

Diabetic Diet
Exchanges
"Carb Counting"

What does this all mean to the Diabetic?

Are you a newly diagnosed Diabetic or have you been Diabetic for some time?

If you are having trouble trying to decide what you should be using as a guide for your meal management, you are not alone in fact, you are in the majority.

Getting back to basics, everyone (especially the diabetic) needs a well balanced diet to stay healthy, stabilize their weight, lose weight when necessary and, when diabetic, to keep their blood sugar level in the norm. There are only two ways to help accomplish this, one is by exercise and the other by diet (insulin when necessary).

A nutritious, well balanced diet does not include freedom of choice where sugar, sugar & fat and fat are concerned. They abound in many foods and you need to become "street wise" to these foods. At best, they should be occasional selections (2 or 3 times a month) and their portion size should be within reason. In other words, Pizza (2 or 3 times a week), a fast food burger & fries, fried foods, cake, pie, cookies and candy need to be approached with great caution.

Yes, it is hard to give up all these goodies. But remember, I said "occasionally". Aren't you trying to make some lifestyle changes in your eating pattern? When you decide to select the diabetic diet as your lifestyle eating pattern, there is information and guidelines available to you to make this transformation easily and without frustration.

The Diabetic's Pocket Dietitian was written to help you understand what nutritious food selections are, how to select them, prepare them and enjoy them. You will have a meal pattern suited to your individual needs and you will not only be surprised, but pleased at the foods that you can have and still stay on track. It will also dispel many of the misconceptions that you have heard concerning what a diabetic can and cannot have.

If you have chosen "Carb Counting" as your meal management program (assuming that "Carb Counting" works for the Type II diabetic), The Diabetic's Pocket Dietitian will simplify it for you ("Carb Counting" has been done for you as well as the protein and fat counting). Otherwise, "Carb Counting" will take, at the least, several visits to a dietitian. You can add up that cost for yourselves. Depending on the level of expertise you wish to attain: Level 1 -3 consultations with a dietitian. Level 2 - 2 consultations with a dietitian. Level 3 - 2 consultations with a dietitian. That could add up to as many as 7 consultations at $50 an hour, more or less. The trend seems to be for diets to get more permissive and complex when, in fact, Diabetic Diets need to be easier to use in order to get Diabetics to stay on them.

Again, controlling your diabetes can only be accomplished through proper diet, weight loss if needed, exercise and by insulin when necessary.

When you purchase The Diabetic's Pocket Dietitian, you are not just buying a book. Your Registered Dietitian is only an e-mail away.