Most Americans are touched by diabetes in some way, yet so much confusion still abounds. Diabetes is a disease that results when the body does not produce or properly use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. Diabetes can affect people at all stages of life. One of the known risk factors for diabetes is obesity, and losing or maintaining weight can help to prevent the many complications related to diabetes.
People who are newly diagnosed with diabetes and even those who have been living with diabetes for years can find it a challenge, if not overwhelming, to maintain the lifestyle and dietary changes necessary to manage their condition. The DineWise Diabetic Meals and Meal Plans were created by people living the diabetic lifestyle and know what it's like to be a diabetic. Our Diabetic Meals and Meal Plans will:
• Meet your healthy diabetic lifestyle needs
• Allow you to improve your overall health
• Not require you to sacrifice by losing great tasting foods
• Make it easier to control blood glucose levels
"If there is one positive thing about living with diabetes, it’s the fact that you can reduce your short- and long-term health risks by exercising and eating within the capabilities of what your body can manage. Since I started maintaining my healthy diabetic lifestyle, I've lost a ton of weight (no pun intended), and I haven't felt this healthy in 20 years!"
-Chef Noche, Type II Diabetic
Diabetic Meal Plans Getting started with a healthy diabetic lifestyle couldn’t be easier than a DineWise Diabetic Meal Plan. We have 10 Diabetic Meal Plans to choose from and all the weighing and measuring has been done by our Advisory Board of Food Experts.
Some of these meal plans include breakfast,lunch, and dinner, and some are just lunch and dinner. We have made every effort to provide you with a meal plan that doesn’t repeat any meals so you can sample diabetic meals from a large variety and know just which meals you would like to reorder.
Snacks and Shakes for the Diabetic Lifestyle
DineWise has a solution that allows diabetics to consume a nutritious and delicious menu of preportioned diabetic meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We also have snacks like Extend Bars, created solely to help diabetics prevent blood sugar spikes, and medical-grade Soy Protein Shakes that are low glycemic and #1 doctor recommended.
Or Create Your Own Diabetic Meals
As the demo shows below, only DineWise lets you customize your diabetic meals by allowing you to select your favorite entrée, side, and vegetable. Our Nutritional Mix and Match Meals online tool provides you with the nutritional information you need to create a balanced menu customized to your own personal tastes.
Nutritional Mix and Match Guidelines
When you create your own diabetic meals, we recommend you use these guidelines as your maximum nutritional intake per meal:
• Between 300 and 500 calories for the complete meal
• No more than 16 grams of fat per meal
• Between 30 and 45 grams of carbohydrates per meal
Make DineWise part of your diabetes care team along with your personal physician, diabetes educator or dietitian.
Our Criteria for Diabetic Lifestyles
The DineWise Diabetic Friendly Mix and Match Selections and Diabetic Friendly Meal Plans have been carefully chosen. All selections in this quality line of foods must adhere to these recognized healthy eating principles:
Proper Portion Sizes for Healthy Diabetic Lifestyles
The first step in maintaining a healthy diabetic lifestyle is learning to eat within proper portion sizes! Our Advisory Board of Food Experts has created diabetic meals and meal plans designed to take the guesswork out of eating healthfully and deliciously for every meal and snack you eat during the course of your day. Amy Snider, one of our Advisory Board Members, recently published a DineWise Newsletter on just this subject. You can read more about proper portion sizes by clicking here.
The Right Amount of Calories
Meals in the DineWise Diabetic product line range between 300 to 500 calories. DineWise offers Diabetic Friendly Meal Plans to suit people of different sizes and activity levels.
• 1,500 calories per day for women who want to lose weight
• 1,800 calories per day for women maintaining their weight
• 1,800 calories per day for smaller stature men who want to lose weight • 2,000 calories per day for smaller men maintaining their weight
• 2,200 calories per day recommended for men who want to lose weight
We created this online tool to help you calculate a recommended caloric intake based on your sex, frame size, and activity level. This helpful Caloric Needs Calculator will open in a new window.
DineWise Diabetic Meals average 400 calories each. If you start with a breakfast, lunch, and dinner Diabetic Meal Plan, DineWise is supplying you with about 1,200 calories. Use the information above to determine the extra number of calories to be consumed on your own with home-made beverages, Healthy Soups & Salads and Diabetic Snacks and Shakes. Example: If you are on an 1,800 calorie diet, a Diabetic Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner Meal Plan will supply you with about 1,200 calories. You will have 600 daily calories left for your daily caloric needs.
The Right Amount of Protein
Health experts recommend that 15% to 20% of total daily calorie intake should come from protein. Focus on lean protein sources like in our DineWise Entrées of chicken, pork, fish or seafood.
The Right Amount of Fat
What is low fat to you? How many grams of fat can you consume per day on a 2,000 calorie per day diet? Most people would be surprised to learn that your body actually needs fat and the correct answer is 64 grams a day. The DineWise Advisory Board recommends 16 grams of fat as a maximum guideline per meal. This adds up to a maximum of 48 grams of fat for your breakfast, lunch, and dinner and leaves you an additional 16 grams of fat for snacks and drinks.
Our DineWise Diabetic Meal Plans are designed to benefit heart health as well. Each meal plan follows these dietary recommendations:
• No more than 30% of daily calories coming from total fat
• No more than 10% of daily calories coming from saturated fat
The Right Amount of Carbohydrates
Proper carbohydrate intake may be the most important nutritional guideline to follow because all carbohydrates convert to sugar in the body and this is why diabetics have to monitor their blood sugar levels. Often new diabetics immediately think they need a zero sugar or zero carbohydrate diet to manage their diabetes. Proper diabetic education should be the first step in learning about your new diabetic lifestyle.
The correct way to manage carbohydrates and your diabetes is to fuel your body with the right amount of carbohydrates. Every human body runs on carbohydrates—you can’t delete them and maintain a healthy diabetic lifestyle.
DineWise Diabetic Meals contains no more 45 than grams of carbohydrates per portion. A diabetic healthy range of carbohydrates is considered to be between 30 and 45 grams. Sugar and fiber grams are part of total carbohydrate counts, so you don’t have to monitor those nutritional values. Generally speaking, if your carbohydrate intake is within these levels, so is your blood sugar.
Additional Support with Diabetic Lifestyles
Every diabetic body is different and DineWise offers these guidelines as a broad based solution to living a healthy diabetic lifestyle. Customers with specific nutritional needs can contact our Certified Nutritional Consultants at 1-800-749-1170. We would be happy to answer any additional questions you may have and help you customize the perfect diabetic food plan for you.
