Snacking throughout the day can help keep your blood sugar steady, but loading up on high-carb snacks will have the opposite effect.
There’s another reason you should be wary of eating too many carbs: They won’t help your waistline. According to a study published in September 2014 in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, cutting back on carbs was a better weight loss method than going on a low-fat diet. That’s important for people with diabetes because maintaining a healthy weight can help you gain control of the disease.
This will help reduce your risk of diabetes-related complications, such as diabetic neuropathy, or nerve damage; diabetic retinopathy, or vision loss; and heart disease or stroke, according to the American Diabetes Association. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes losing just 5 to 7 percent of your body weight — equal to 10 to 14 pounds (lbs) for a person who weighs 200 lbs — can help someone with prediabetes avoid diabetes altogether.
All of this is not to say you have to completely cut out carbs if you have diabetes, but it is important to pay attention to how much and what kind you’re taking in. So how many carbs can a person with diabetes have? You ideally want to have no more than 15 grams (g) of carbs in each snack, Malkoff-Cohen says. Be sure to read nutrition labels, noting the carb and sugar counts rather than putting too much faith in what the package says, Malkoff-Cohen advises. Oftentimes, foods are marketed as healthy or high in protein, when in reality they could qualify as junk food.
But we get it: Sometimes it can be just too tempting to grab a bag of chips from the vending machine when you’re hungry for a snack. That’s why it’s important to be prepared and always have healthy snacks for diabetes on hand. Poulson recommends planning snacks into your meal plan for that reason. “Otherwise it is all too easy to grab for those less-than-healthy options,” she says.
Now you may be wondering, what are the best low-carb snacks for diabetes? It’s pretty simple: Snacks that are primarily made up of protein and a small amount of healthy fat can be more effective at keeping your blood sugar steady than carb-based foods, Malkoff-Cohen says. Pairing healthy carbs, such as those from fruit, whole grains, or legumes, with protein and a bit of healthy fat makes for a satisfying and healthy snack. Poulson recommends veggies with hummus, an ounce of nuts and a piece of string cheese, or an apple with a tablespoon of nut butter.
As for what to stay away from, here are seven of the worst carb-heavy snacks for people with diabetes.
“I think the worst snacks are the ones that you tend to overeat, that come in multiples, like chips,” Malkoff-Cohen says. An apple, for instance, has the serving size set for you. But once you start snacking right from a bag of chips, it can be hard to stop.
Even baked chips, which are designed to be a lighter option, are a problem, says Donna Webb, RD, CDE, a diabetes coach with Fit4D who is based in Springfield, Missouri. “Things that are [marketed] to be healthier usually are more processed, usually have less natural nutrition, and have more sugar in them,” she says.
Sugar-and-carb-packed cookies and cakes are up there on the try-not-to-eat list. Oftentimes, they’re high in refined carbohydrates, such as white flour and sugar, low in protein and fiber, and high in unhealthy saturated or trans fats, Poulson says. “This can cause blood glucose levels to spike and also adds unwanted calories, which can lead to weight gain,” she adds.
Fact: Peanut butter is a great source of protein. But here’s the problem with packaged peanut butter crackers: There’s a lot of extra unhealthy ingredients besides peanut butter in them, Webb says. “They’re just junk,” she says. Same goes for cheese-filled options. “They're going to be processed with wheat [and corn syrup], which is going to skyrocket blood sugar,” Webb says. They also contain plenty of added salt, which is not good for blood pressure or overall health.
On paper, a parfait seems like a virtuous snack. After all, each ingredient — yogurt, granola, and fresh fruit — is nutritious on its own, right? Not always. Flavored yogurt and granola can be packed with sneaky-high amounts of sugar, and people with diabetes are also supposed to monitor their fresh fruit intake. All it takes is ½ cup of blueberries to get close to that 15 g carb allowance. And that’s before the yogurt and granola even get added to the mix.
Sugar-packed options, such as Frosted Flakes and Lucky Charms, are bad for obvious reasons, but even cereals high in fiber may be harmful for people with diabetes. “All fiber does is slow down the effect of carbs, but they’re still there,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “You can have high-fiber cereal, but it’s still going to raise [your blood sugar].” As anyone who’s poured themselves a second or third bowl of cereal knows, it can be easy to go overboard. A test published in December 2014 in Consumer Reports found 92 percent of people ate more than the recommended serving size of cereal — sometimes as much as 282 percent more!
“Sugar-free does not mean carb-free,” Malkoff-Cohen says. A sugar-free muffin is still made with flour, and will still raise your blood sugar. Same goes for other sugar-free items, like cookies and candy. In each of these, the sugar is likely replaced with an artificial sweetener, which, according to a review published in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, is linked to weight gain, likely because the sweet taste makes people hungrier.