The Exchange Meal Plan
You have seen there are several different types of meal plans for diabetes.
You may have tried out some. A meal plan is used to stabilize the amounts
of calories from carbohydrates, protein and fat and this will help stabilize
your blood sugar. There is no one single "diabetic diet." One useful
meal plan is the exchange meal plan.
What is an exchange meal plan?
In an exchange meal plan, different foods with about the same amount of
carbohydrate, fat and protein are put in groups. There are six different
exchange groups as well as a 'free' group. The six groups are
- starch
- meat
- vegetable
- fruit
- milk
- fat
Each food has a serving size. The servings can be listed in cups,
tablespoons, ounces or number of pieces. As an example, in the meat group
there is
- 1 oz beef
- 1/4 cup tuna
- 1 egg.
All of these have about equal calories and protein. Each is 1 serving
from the meat group.
Even though the serving sizes are different, all the foods in a group are
equal in value. Each serving in a group will have about the same effect on
your blood sugar. So a serving of one food in a group can be exchanged
for a serving of a different food in the same group.
For example, for a fruit serving you could have 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/3 cup
grape juice or 1/2 a grapefruit. Each is a fruit exchange and has about
the same effect on your blood sugar.
Here are some tips to help use an exchange meal plan:
- Eat all of the food planned for each day. This will help stabilize
your intake.
- Carbohydrates have the greatest effect on blood sugar. It will be
easier to keep your blood sugar stable if you spread out the carbohydrate
intake throughout the day.
- You can not exchange servings from one group and another. Don't
try to exchange a fat serving for a meat serving, they will have different
effect on blood sugar.
- Measure and weigh your food to be sure of the actual serving size.
- Measure foods after cooking.
- Count foods that you add when cooking. If you add a teaspoon of
margarine to cook a scrambled egg that counts as one fat serving in addition
to the one meat serving (the egg).
How many servings or exchanges do I need?
This will need to be worked out with your doctor or nutritionist. It
will be based on the foods you like, your medications and calorie need.
What are the benefits of an exchange meal plan?
The exchange meal plan offers choices of food to eat. You choose
different food each day and still keep the same balance of carbohydrates and
calories. It can be easier to plan meals with an exchange list. You
do not have to count calories or carbohydrates.