Eat a Healthy, Balanced Diet

People with type 1 diabetes have to pay a little more attention to their meals and snacks than people who don't have diabetes. They need to eat a balanced, healthy diet and pay closer attention to what they eat and when they eat it.
In addition to eating nutritious foods, people with diabetes also have to balance the food they eat with the amount of insulin they take and their activity level. That's because eating some foods will cause blood sugar levels to go up more than others, whereas insulin and exercise will make blood sugar go down. How much the blood sugar level goes up after eating depends on the type of nutrients the food contains.
The three main types of nutrients found in foods are carbohydrates (pronounced: kar-bo-hi-drates and also sometimes called carbs), proteins, and fats, which all provide energy in the form of calories. Foods containing carbohydrates cause blood sugar levels to go up the most. Foods that contain mostly protein and/or fat don't affect blood sugar levels as much. Our bodies need all of these nutrients — in different amounts — to function normally.
As part of your diabetes treatment, you and the diabetes health care team will create a written diabetes meal plan. This meal plan will include foods with all of the essential nutrients. Meal plans typically consist of breakfast, lunch, and dinner with scheduled between-meal snacks. The diabetes meal plan won't tell you specific foods to eat, but it will guide you in selecting choices from the basic food groups and help you eat nutritious, balanced meals. Each meal and snack in the plan contains a certain amount of carbohydrates, which works with the types and amount of insulin you take.
Your meal plan is made just for you, based on your age, activity level, schedule, and food likes and dislikes. It should also be flexible so you know how to handle diabetes in special situations like at parties and on holidays. Following your meal plan should make it easier to keep your blood sugar levels within a healthy range.
In addition to giving you some ideas about what to eat, your diabetes meal plan may also recommend limiting foods that contain lots of fat or calories, and that don't contain vitamins and minerals. Everyone who eats a healthy diet should limit these foods anyway, because eating too much of them can lead to too much weight gain or long-term health problems like heart disease.