What we eat for dinner every day is important. But it is more important for people with diabetes. We should not eat everything that we want, even taking diabetes medicine, and blood sugar is under control in good levels. As we get older, the pancreas ages. The old pancreas loses the power to pump insulin, and our body’s insulin sensitivity is lowered as time goes on. The responsiveness of our cells to insulin decreases.
Usually, people sleep 6-8 hours. When you sleep after meals, your body does not have much time to waste sugar in the blood. High blood sugar due to bad diet habits exposes your body to stressful conditions for 1/3 period of your whole lifespan while sleeping in bed.

Appetite
A menu for appetite is probably the most essential thing to check. Stay away from the delicious main dish. Do not jump into the main dish even if you are starving. Appetite is a key barrier to blocking rapid sugar absorption and preventing insulin spikes from being too high. Your body needs just a little time to be ready and maintain all the functions well. Then, try these pre-meal foods about 10 minutes before starting to eat. These will set your gut condition to take the sugar slowly and give you the time to pump out insulin at smooth levels.

Greek yogurt
Unlike other yogurts, when making Greek yogurt, it is fermented by concentrating crude oil after removing water. The sugar content is less than half of regular yogurt and twice as high in protein and calcium. Such nutrients affect appetite control and glycemia. There is casein protein in milk, which is a protein that is very slow to digest and absorb, so it slowly raises blood sugar when eating food.
Several clinical evidence suggest that yogurt is involved in controlling body weight and energy homeostasis and may play a role in reducing the risk for type 2 diabetes (1). This yogurt with low sugar affects the gut microbiota and the food matrix increases body fat loss and decreases glycemic and insulin response. However, whole-milk Greek yogurt may have more than double times the fat of regulars. Choose fat-free or low yogurt. Greek yogurt with a sprinkle of nuts, seeds, and a few berries will enrich your dinner.

Eggs
This is a high-protein food that many people love. Eggs are rich in essential fatty acids and blocks for building muscles. Eating eggs before the meal helps your blood sugar level rise slowly. However, it is better to give them 10 minutes rather than starting their meal right away. It is not only a slow rise in blood sugar but also a high-quality ingredient that produces actual muscles. Since muscles lower blood sugar from glucose absorption in the blood, diabetics should eat eggs properly. High-protein foods such as eggs, legumes, and dairy can help blood sugar levels stabilize and make you feel full.
Be careful; too many eggs in every meal may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and even worsen type 2 diabetes. In conclusion, up to seven eggs per week can safely be consumed. However, in patients with established CVD or T2D only with healthy lifestyles (2).

Beans
Like eggs, beans have plenty of lean proteins. Soft tofu, made of soybean. You should try it before getting a real meal. Easy to digest. Tofu is composed of lots of protein and prevents blood sugar levels from suddenly rising. If you like to, try Natto. Natto is nowadays you can easily find in the grocery. It is fermented beans, and its silky thread-like stretching component is rich in nattokinase, effectively removing blood clots and cleaning blood vessels. In a study, patients group with Natto dietary showed more than 30% weight loss, a 20% decrease in HbA1c level, 50% lower fasting insulin levels, and 28% lower fasting glucose levels than placebo (3). This indicates that Natto could have potential as an adjunct to diabetes care.

Mushrooms
Mushrooms, always useful for medical uses, are great vegetables for diabetes. Mushrooms have a low glycemic burden, lots of fiber, and pharmaceutical functioning components. It has been proven that the potential glycemic response of foods was significantly lowered by including mushrooms (4). For dinner, try mushrooms such as chestnut mushroom and oyster mushrooms.
As medicinal plants, mushrooms have not only fibers, but they are rich in polysaccharides, phenolics, and alkaloids for providing antidiabetic, antioxidant, and antihyperlipidemic effects (5). Mushroom polysaccharides act as prebiotics and help regulate microflora in the gut. This helps reduce insulin resistance. Also, in edible mushrooms, beta-glucan shows the great effect on diabetes and obesity by modulating either cellular function or biochemical pathways (6). Beta-glucan inhibits insulin secretion by delaying sugar absorption in the body. it is also effective in preventing cardiovascular disease, one of the commonly expected complications of diabetes. It also prevents blood vessels from narrowing or blocking.

Quinoa
Quinoa is a wide-ranging growing plant that is easy to get and also contains useful components for diabetes. As a member of the Chenopodiaceae family, it is a pseudo-grain rich in proteins, lipids, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. An extraordinary balance of essential amino acids. Quinoa may offer the dietary management of obesity and diabetes. Quinoa contains saponins, phytosterols, and phytoecdysteroids. 20-hydroxyecdysone (20HE), a phytoecdysteroid in Quinoa, lowered fasting blood glucose and helped to treat and prevent obesity and diabetes. Blocking carbohydrate digestion with enhanced incretin signaling, increased insulin sensitivity, and weight loss (7).

Spinach
Who loves spinach? It’s me! Low GI index and calories. Spinach phytochemicals are useful to eliminate reactive oxygen and protect blood vessels. Modulating genes in metabolism, these biological actions contribute to anti-obesity and diabetes. Spinach reduces insulin and controls glucose levels due to alpha lipoic acid, an antioxidant. It has strong antioxidant action inside and outside of the cell. In addition, alpha lipoic acid lowers insulin resistance, reducing fasting blood sugar levels in the morning. Alpha lipoic acid is also helpful in diabetic nerve damage and diabetic retinopathy. It is effective in improving various diabetes complications, such as cardiovascular disease. The leafy green spinach is also rich in minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus.

Paprika
Because paprika is rich in fiber, eating only half is very helpful in suppressing the rise of blood sugar. It has a very low glycemic index of 15. Various antioxidants contained remove free oxygen radicals. It is especially rich in vitamin C and vitamin B6. Please put it in your salad, and try some with other fresh vegetables, like sliced cucumber and tomatoes.

The most important thing to be careful when eating is to prevent blood sugar spiking in a short time. Carbohydrates break down into glucose in the body and raise blood sugar. Allowing time to rise and fall as slowly as possible is highly recommended in the evening. The pancreas need times to warm up and secrete insulin slowly. A diabetes-friendly diet before a meal should focus on balancing carbohydrates, proteins, and fats to help manage blood sugar levels. And tody, I will introduce foods that stabilize blood sugar levels for the dinner.

References
1) Shirin Panahi , PhD &Angelo Tremblay , PhD. The Potential Role of Yogurt in Weight Management and Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes. Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Volume 35, 2016 – Issue 8 Pages 717-731.
2) N R W Geiker, M Lytken Larsen, J Dyerberg, S Stender & A Astrup. Egg consumption, cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 72, pages44–56 (2018).
3) Leopoldo M Cobos, MD, Yanira Sanchez-De La Torre, MD, Karen L Herbst, MD, PhD, Karen Beltran, MD. SAT-618 Nattokinase to Improve Insulin Sensitivity and Weight Loss in Women with Obesity +/- Diabetes. Journal of the Endocrine Society, Volume 4, Issue Supplement_1, April-May 2020, SAT-618.
4) Margaret A. Brennan†, Emma Derbyshire†, Brijesh K. Tiwari†, and Charles S. Brennan*†§ Enrichment of Extruded Snack Products with Coproducts from Chestnut Mushroom (Agrocybe aegerita) Production: Interactions between Dietary Fiber, Physicochemical Characteristics, and Glycemic Load. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2012, 60, 17, 4396–4401
5) Rubiya Khursheed, Sachin Kumar Singh, Sheetu Wadhwa, Monica Gulati, Ankit Awasthi. Therapeutic potential of mushrooms in diabetes mellitus: Role of polysaccharides. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. Volume 164, 1 December 2020, Pages 1194-1205
6) Sushil K. Dubey, Vivek K. Chaturvedi, Divya Mishra, Anand Bajpeyee, Aprajita Tiwari & M. P. Singh . Role of edible mushroom as a potent therapeutics for the diabetes and obesity. 3 Biotech. 2019, 9, 450
7) Alexander Little, Kevin Murphy and Patrick Solverson. Quinoa’s Potential to Enhance Dietary Management of Obesity and Type-2 Diabetes: A Review of the Current Evidence. Diabetology 2021, 2, 77–94

Abstract

Foods for diabetics

Appetite is probably the most essential thing to check. Stay away from the delicious main dish. Do not jump into the main dish even if you are starving. Appetite is a key barrier to blocking rapid sugar absorption and preventing insulin spikes from being too high. 

Greek yogurt is involved in controlling body weight and energy homeostasis and may play a role in reducing the risk for type 2 diabetes.

Eggs is a high-protein food that many people love. Eggs are rich in essential fatty acids and blocks for building muscles. Since muscles lower blood sugar from glucose absorption in the blood, diabetics should eat eggs properly.

Beans have plenty of lean proteins. Soft tofu is composed of lots of protein and prevents blood sugar levels from suddenly rising.

Mushrooms have a low glycemic burden, lots of fiber, and pharmaceutical functioning components. Mushroom polysaccharides act as prebiotics and help regulate microflora in the gut. This helps reduce insulin resistance. 

Quinoa. An extraordinary balance of essential amino acids. Quinoa may offer the dietary management of obesity and diabetes. Quinoa’s phytoecdysteroid lowers fasting blood glucose.

Spinach reduces insulin and controls glucose levels due to alpha lipoic acid, an antioxidant. Alpha lipoic acid lowers insulin resistance, reducing fasting blood sugar levels in the morning.

Paprika has a very low glycemic index of 15. Various antioxidants contained remove free oxygen radicals. It is especially rich in vitamin C and vitamin B6. 

And here are…