What is the best low carb diet for Type 2 Diabetes? If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, specifically Type 2 diabetes, you’ll need to get a serious handle on your blood sugar. Which means you’ll have to monitor (preferably eliminate) your refined sugar intake. But with so many diets out there, Paleo, South Beach, Atkins, how do you know which is the best low carb diet for you?

Before I continue, let me just say that you need to check with your doctor before following any suggestions in my article. I’m not a doctor. But I can speak from my own experience of trying out different low carb plans, and I’ll share with you which one I like best.

What Is Type 2 Diabetes?

Your pancreas produces a hormone called insulin. Insulin allows your body to utilize sugar (or glucose) from the foods you eat for energy or in order to store the glucose to use in the future. The role of insulin enables you to keep your blood sugar levels from getting too high (called hyperglycemia) or too low (called hypoglycemia).

Type 2 Diabetes is a medical condition in which cells cannot metabolize blood sugar (or glucose) efficiently for energy. This happens when the cells become insensitive to insulin and the blood sugar gradually gets too high.

Why is Low Carb Best For Type 2 Diabetes?

Eating low carb is the best diet for Type 2 Diabetes because on a low carb plan, you’re eating lots of fresh vegetables and protein.  Because vegetables are high in fiber, they help regulate and stabilize blood sugar.

What Foods Should You Avoid?

You should avoid anything “white” like sugar, rice, potatoes.  These foods make your blood sugar rise rapidly, then crash.  When you crash you feel shaky and need a boost again.  So you start eating sugar and foods high in refined carbohydrates.  Avoid junk food like: Cake, cookies, candy, white rice, ice cream.

What Foods Should You Eat?

Eat foods that have a low glycemic index. The glycemic index is a tool that’s used to indicate how a particular food affects your blood sugar levels.  Glycemic index can be classified as High GI, Moderate GI and Low GI. Follow the chart below to determine the glycemic levels in certain foods.

• High GI = 70 to 100
• Medium GI = 50 to 70
• Low GI = below 50

Junk food, including sugar, white rice, white potatoes (simple carbohydrates) have the highest glycemic index and should be avoided if you want to control Type 2 Diabetes. Eat complex carbohydrate foods such as beans, legumes, vegetables, oatmeal, bran, wheat germ.

So, What’s The Best Low Carb Diet For Type 2 Diabetes?

If I had to choose a low-carb plan, I would choose Atkins.  Why?  First, Atkins is free.  100% free.  Atkins is also a time-tested low-carb food plan that’s easy to follow.  It gives you the foods you can eat and the foods you should avoid.

Atkins also has a very active forum filled with people who have lost massive amounts of weight.  They even have a “Success Page” where people post their before and after pictures.  The best part about Atkins is that it takes you through the full process of the food plan – from menu planning, grocery shopping and maintenance.

What diet do you use to reverse diabetes? Feel free to leave your comments below.  I love hearing from my readers!

Shalisha