Determining How Going Low- Glycemic Can Work for You
▶ Reflecting on the amount of weight you want to lose
▶ Reviewing your dieting history to see how to make your new lifestyle choices stick
▶ Determining whether you have insulin resistance
▶ Discovering the benefits of a low-glycemic diet for people in different stages of life
Whatever your dietary goals may be, the low-glycemic diet is showing positive results not only with weight loss but also with disease prevention/ management and healthier lifestyles. Plus, it’s an easy diet. After you have the basic concepts down, it becomes a moderate dietary plan that you can follow for the long haul. That means no more yo-yo dieting or continuously going “on” and “off” a ridiculously restrictive diet. Those short-term fixes aren’t the real answer to weight loss or a healthy lifestyle. A low-glycemic diet is. That’s why this chapter is all about how to incorporate a healthy low- glycemic diet into your life.
Considering Your Weight-Loss Goals
Before you dive into living a low-glycemic lifestyle, you really need to consider your weight-loss goals. Do you want and/or need to lose 5 to 10 pounds or more than 30 pounds? Following a low-glycemic diet can work well in either case. However, it’s important to note that no matter how much weight you want or need to lose, the low-glycemic diet is more of a lifestyle change than a strict diet regimen. It’s about making the best carbohydrate-containing food choices. With this information in mind, you may need to adjust your expectations regarding weight loss. The following sections can help you do that by getting you familiar with the idea of truly healthy weight loss and by comparing two different weight-loss approaches.
Defining healthy weight loss
Healthy weight loss is slow weight loss, plain and simple. Losing weight gradually (not rapidly like you might on a strict, very-low-calorie diet) helps ensure you can maintain that weight loss for the long term. Think about the rate at which you gain weight. You usually don’t gain 30 pounds in six weeks. Instead, you gain weight gradually over time. The process for losing that weight works exactly the same way.
Good expectations for healthy weight loss include the following:
✓ You may not lose any weight for the first two weeks. During this time, you’re really just figuring out your desired dietary changes; implementation of them may not happen overnight. I know you want to lose weight fast. That’s a given. However, fast weight loss often goes hand in hand with a diet regimen that you can’t stick to long term. Remember the old fable of the tortoise and the hare? Slow but steady wins the weight-loss race too.
✓ After the first two weeks, you’ll start to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week.
This is a moderate rate of weight loss that indicates you’re losing body fat and not muscle. It takes into consideration that with exercise you’ll actually be increasing your muscle mass. So if you lose a pound of fat, you may also gain a pound of muscle, which means the scale won’t tip drastically. Gaining muscle is a good thing because it helps increase your metabolism and gives your body a nice shape.
✓ You may lose a lot of fluid weight right away. The human body is made up mainly of water, and your water weight can fluctuate quite a bit based on your hydration, sodium intake, medicines, and other factors. You may celebrate if you lose 5 to 6 pounds in your first week on a low- glycemic diet, but keep in mind that some of that lost weight may have been fluid weight, not just body fat. However, that’s still good because you don’t need that extra fluid on you. Just don’t get discouraged if your weight loss slows down in the following weeks.
✓ You may not lose weight every week. Don’t fret if the scale shows the same weight for a few weeks in a row. The reason may simply be that you haven’t created enough of a calorie deficit with the dietary and exercise changes you’re making. Review your food journal (see Chapter 6 for how to create one if you haven’t already) to evaluate how you’re doing with your changes and see whether you can make adjustments in some areas.
I bet this isn’t exactly the news you were hoping for. After all, when you want to lose weight, you want immediate results. Following a low-glycemic diet will help you lose weight, especially if you have insulin resistance (see the later “Do You Have Insulin Resistance?” section for more on this condition). However, slower weight loss simply makes sense when you look at the big picture.
Here are the facts: It takes 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound of body fat, and consuming low-glycemic foods helps ensure you don’t store more calories as fat than necessary. So in order to lose 2 pounds a week, you have to make a 1,000-calorie deficit every single day. For most folks, creating a 1,000-calorie deficit requires immediate and drastic changes to their diet and exercise every day. (Note that it takes about six weeks of consistent exercise before you begin to see changes in your body shape.) They may decide to turn to one of the many very-low-calorie diet programs out there in order to achieve that 1,000-calorie deficit. However, consuming too few calories on a regular basis may decrease your metabolism (check out Chapter 8 to discover other factors affecting metabolism). Plus, that’s just tough to live with long term.
The majority of people gradually enter into a diet program and aren’t always consistent in the beginning. That’s a normal part of making changes and is perfectly okay, but it also means that expecting to see major results in the first few weeks of any diet isn’t very realistic.
Just because you don’t see immediate results doesn’t mean your weight-loss efforts aren’t working. You’re just creating a smaller calorie deficit each day; that deficit will still lead to weight loss but over a longer period of time.
Reviewing the pros and cons of different approaches to weight loss
The following sections break down the pros and cons of taking a fast, aggressive approach to weight loss versus a slow and steady one. There’s no right or wrong answer here; the goal is simply to become aware of how these two weight-loss approaches work. If you want a better long-term success rate, then allow yourself some time to make lifestyle changes that will stick. If you want to see quicker results, you absolutely can. Just be prepared to work a little harder and commit to long-term changes.
If you have medical issues and your doctor has specifically requested you lose weight at a quicker rate, I strongly encourage you to consult with a registered dietitian who can monitor you closely.
1,000-calorie deficit with a low-glycemic diet
Pros:
✓ You’ll see quicker results (an average of a 2-pound weight loss per week), which is very desirable.
✓ Motivation is strong because you can see quick results.
Cons:
✓ You must work harder and make significant changes right away. (To give you an example, a 30-minute brisk walk burns around 175 calories. To hit a 1,000-calorie deficit just by exercising this way, you’d still have a long way to go.)
✓ Being on a strict diet regimen requires an increased amount of focus that can be tough to maintain for long.
✓ Long-term compliance is significantly decreased. Research has proven that when people make more than a 400-calorie deficit each day, they’re less likely to stick with the changes long term; ultimately they regain their weight.
✓ Taking the fast approach to weight loss doesn’t give you time to change your habits. It takes 30 days (or even up to three months!) to change one habit. When you try to jump into new eating and exercise habits all at once, you have a higher probability of quitting altogether because the changes are too overwhelming.
✓ You may become overly focused or obsessed about food, calorie counting, and the numbers on the scale.
100- to 400-calorie deficit with a low-glycemic diet
Pros:
✓ Taking the slow-but-steady approach to weight loss gives you time and space to change your habits and get used to a low-glycemic diet, which leads to better long-term compliance.
✓ You’ll be more likely to stick with the changes and therefore see significantly better long-term results.
✓ Focus is still necessary, but you can focus on a few things at a time instead of trying to adapt to 10 to 15 different lifestyle changes at once. This narrower focus allows you to tackle bigger obstacles that continue to get in the way of weight loss, such as life-long conditioning, food cravings, and emotional or stress-based eating.
✓ You’re less obsessive about food and calorie counting than someone trying to lose weight quickly. In other words, you don’t let weight loss consume your whole life.
Cons:
✓ Results happen over months, not weeks. (Note: This varies; some people may lose 1⁄2 to 1 pound per week. In general, though, the overall process is slower.)
✓ Failing to see immediate results when you’re making positive changes can be frustrating, requiring you to find other ways to self-motivate than looking at the scale.
Taking a Close Look at Your Dieting History
Reviewing your dieting history can give you a glimpse into whether a low- glycemic diet will work for you long term. It can also give you some strategies for approaching a low-glycemic diet differently than past diets you may have tried.
Looking back at past dieting attempts to see what worked and what didn’t is always a good idea. By truly evaluating your past dieting history you can pre- pare yourself to try a new approach instead of sticking to the same old style that never worked for you in the first place.
In the next sections, I explore a few factors to think about regarding your past dieting experience. When you know the dieting style that works for you and you’re able to recognize bad dieting behaviors such as restrictive dieting and yo-yo dieting, you’ll have a better shot at making your low-glycemic diet a true lifestyle change.
Evaluating types of diets you’ve tried
As you determine how best to adopt a low-glycemic lifestyle, take some time to evaluate the types of diets you’ve tried in the past. Were they strict? Did they call for you to eliminate certain foods or follow menus? Did you have to buy specific food? Not all diets work the same for all people, which is why the goal of this exercise is to help you find your personal dieting style. (Note: At times you may need to use a mix of styles to get yourself on track. That’s fine so long as you find those styles that work for you long term.)
So many people try to fit into a dieting style that just doesn’t work for them, making it difficult for them to stick with it for the long haul. For example, if you aren’t much into counting calories, like me, depending on calorie counting as the main focus of your diet is difficult. Allow yourself to let go of this model and instead focus on your choices so you don’t get stuck in a behavior that isn’t getting you results.
Anyone can lose weight, but only a small percentage of people can keep it off. Part of that process is discovering what type of dieting really works for you.
One of the reasons I love the low-glycemic diet is that you can really make it fit your dieting personality, thereby molding it into the perfect diet for you. For example,
✓ If you’re a numbers person and really like counting and tracking calories, you may enjoy taking the approach of counting your glycemic load for the day.
✓ If you like structure, planning, and lists, then making a low-glycemic meal plan and shopping list each week will work well for you.
✓ If you like simple rules, you may benefit from setting up how many low-glycemic foods you want to use in a meal or making sure you have a fruit or vegetable each meal.
✓ If you respond better when you pay attention to your body’s cues, then you’ll be pleased to know that the moderate approach of a low-glycemic diet allows you the flexibility to make educated choices based on your needs at that time. (So if you’re at a party and craving potato chips, you can feel comfortable balancing a small portion of that high-glycemic craving with lower-glycemic foods.)
Rethinking restrictive dieting
Restricting your food choices too much almost always backfires. If you’ve been on enough diets in the past, you’ve probably experienced this firsthand. I know I’ve seen it in clients I’ve worked with. I always find that people feel they need to follow a very strict diet to stay on track, assuming they’ll blow it if they’re given any leeway. Yet when I ask them whether they were able to follow the strict diet long term, the answer is always no. So clearly the strict approach doesn’t work. But don’t just take my word for it; there’s a significant body of research around to back up this observation. This research shows that when you restrict yourself from certain foods, that action causes you to be more focused on the food and end up overeating when you do have it.
Makes sense, doesn’t it? Imagine for a minute if I tell you that you can’t eat a cookie. You then see a homemade chocolate chip cookie that looks delicious, yet you tell yourself, “No, I can’t have it.” Then you start thinking more and more about how good that cookie must taste. When you finally break down and eat it, you explode and say, “Well, I already ate one. I’ll eat more and go back on my diet tomorrow.” Such a scenario is common for many people.
Don’t forget to pay attention to your dieting history too. If you’ve never been able to follow restrictive food rules long term, trying to be utterly strict with a low-glycemic diet will be a never-ending battle. Try not to look at high- glycemic foods as all the foods you have to restrict yourself from; if you do, you may become overly focused on them! Instead, adopt the mindset that all foods are okay as long as you balance them appropriately.
A low-glycemic diet can work very well as long as you don’t approach it as restricting certain foods altogether, especially if this approach has backfired on you before.
If you feel you’re having difficulties abandoning a restrictive mindset, reach out and get some help from a counselor trained to handle eating issues.
Your thinking style can affect your weight-loss results
Inga Treitler, a cultural anthropologist and researcher at The National Weight Control Registry, followed ten individuals who lost 30 or more pounds and kept it off for a year or more. She had them take the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) questionnaire that assesses thinking styles and helps people define how to solve problems. What Treitler found is that people typically fall into one of four quadrants:
✓ “A” quadrant: People in this group are numbers people. They’re drawn to mathematical and analytical solutions, and they often overanalyze situations so much that they have difficulty taking action. A-quadrant folks do better with a combination of number tracking (such as calories and/or the number of steps they take each day) and regular coaching or nutrition counseling to help them take action.
✓ “B” quadrant: These individuals love structure and routines. They always have a plan and are the type to keep a planner with all of their appointments scheduled. Guess what? This group is the most successful with a traditional diet approach of following menu plans and tracking progress, which makes sense because B-quadrant folks are comfortable following plans. B-quadrant individuals do well with menu-planning ser- vices, tracking calories, counting glycemic load, and setting goals because they feel comfortable with a specific, structured plan.
✓ “C” quadrant: These folks are spiritual and emotional and are very connected to the human experience. This group benefits from a nondiet approach to weight loss rather than a strict diet regimen. Why? Because these folks are more comfortable learning about their internal relationship with food, being mindful, and getting to know their food triggers. They benefit from personal guidance from a coach or nutritionist who practices a nondiet approach.
✓ “D” quadrant: This group is very visual, enjoys taking risks and trying new things, and gets bored easily. D-quadrant individuals benefit from a nondiet approach that uses visual examples of meal preparation as opposed to a rigid dietary plan because they’d get tired of following a meal plan or eating in a strict way.
Another interesting thing that Treitler found in her observations is that all successful long- term losers had found a coach, mentor, or guide while they were losing their weight. During this time, they all underwent some sort of major life transformation. They stepped away from their old lifestyle and into a new one, letting go of all of their old hang-ups around food. They also incorporated some sort of meditative practice into their lives, such as walking or yoga. This self time seems to be an important link to help people let go of some of the behaviors that aren’t serving them anymore.
Putting a stop to yo-yo dieting
Yo-yo dieting — when you try a diet, lose weight, go back to your old habits, and gain the weight back — is what I consider the plague of weight loss. It’s a vicious cycle that’s all too easy to fall into every time a new diet comes out.
Yo-yo dieting can affect your metabolism in a negative way, making it much easier to gain weight later on. Plus you have the added frustration of always struggling with weight loss. Add to all that the fact that, according to research, yo-yo dieting may even affect your immune system in a negative way, and you realize how important it is to avoid this behavior.
If you’re a person who frequently gets stuck in the cycle of yo-yo dieting, I suggest you do your best to let go of the diet mentality and look at the low- glycemic diet as a new lifestyle that requires you to be committed to a new way of living.
If you’re looking at a low-glycemic diet as a temporary way to get your weight down, you’ll likely end up in this yo-yo trap yet again. The trick to ending yo-yo dieting is to embrace a new, realistic diet regimen and be willing to let go of your old behaviors. Like any new thought process, reorienting how you think about food and eating will take some time, but that’s perfectly fine (and normal!).
Asking yourself the right questions
People often dive right into new diet regimens only to find that those regimens don’t work for them or that now just isn’t the right time in their lives to make changes. If you’re still trying to decide whether a low-glycemic diet is appropri- ate for you, take a few minutes to ask yourself the following questions:
✓ Can I see myself following a low-glycemic diet for a lifetime?
✓ Am I ready to make lifestyle changes?
✓ Am I willing to look at this as a process rather than a quick fix?
✓ Do I enjoy low-glycemic foods?
✓ Do I enjoy trying new foods and recipes?
✓ Will I have good support from my family?
✓ Do the low-glycemic guidelines seem like something that will work in my current lifestyle? If not, am I willing to make some changes to my life-style (such as cooking at home more and/or buying new foods)?
✓ What do I really want — to lose weight fast or to lose a little weight more slowly so I can give myself the time and space to adopt new habits?
If losing weight was just a matter of following a plan and exercising, then it’d be easy. However, losing weight successfully and for the long haul requires changing your habits and, in some cases, a lifetime of conditioning. That makes the road a bit harder, but it’s not impossible to travel if you take the time to point yourself on the right path. Evaluating your dieting history and addressing the preceding questions fully will set you up for long-term weight- loss success on a low-glycemic diet.
Do You Have Insulin Resistance?
Insulin resistance is a condition in which your muscle, fat, and liver cells don’t respond properly to insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas that trans- ports blood glucose (blood sugar) from the food you eat into your cells. As a result, your body needs more insulin to help blood glucose enter your cells. The pancreas tries to keep up with this increased demand for insulin by producing more. Eventually, the pancreas fails to keep up with the body’s need for insulin, and excess blood glucose builds up.
Many people with insulin resistance have high levels of both blood glucose and insulin circulating in their blood at the same time. Among other health complications, this excess blood glucose and insulin can cause your body to store more calories as fat and can increase food cravings and feelings of hunger. People who are overweight and inactive have a higher risk of developing some sort of insulin resistance. The thing is, you can have insulin resistance without even realizing it. The only way to know for sure is to undergo a blood test.
Perhaps you’ve been tested for and diagnosed with insulin resistance. If so, then good for you because you can take measures to deal with it. One such measure is to follow a low-glycemic lifestyle. A low-glycemic approach to eating is helpful in improving insulin function and preventing insulin resistance from turning into an even bigger health concern. When you consume enough low-glycemic foods on a regular basis, you cut down the amount of excess blood glucose floating around in your blood, allowing your pancreas to produce less insulin, so you wind up using blood glucose as energy instead of storing it as fat.
The following sections give you the scoop on health conditions and symptoms associated with insulin resistance, as well as advice on how to begin managing this condition by following a low-glycemic lifestyle.
Health conditions related to insulin resistance
In some cases, insulin resistance is a byproduct of obesity, but it can also be a byproduct of numerous health issues. Following are several known health issues associated with insulin resistance (you can find more information on most of these health conditions in Chapter 22):
✓ Prediabetes
✓ Type 2 diabetes
✓ Gestational diabetes
✓ Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)
✓ Metabolic syndrome (otherwise known as insulin resistance syndrome or Syndrome X)
Many people feel all they can do is take their medication and live with these health problems, but the reality is that none of these diagnoses needs to be a death sentence. There’s great potential to improve and/or reverse each of these conditions with diet and exercise. Following a low-glycemic diet can even help alleviate some of the symptoms of these conditions (such as moodiness, hunger, and fatigue) by giving you better control of your blood sugar.
If you have one of these conditions (or if you’re currently overweight and have a family member with one of these conditions, putting you at greater risk for developing the same condition), then you can benefit greatly from eating a low- glycemic diet, which helps you manage your blood sugar while losing weight.
Simply losing 5 to 7 percent of your body weight may be enough to reverse or prevent these health conditions from occurring. A low-glycemic diet can help you lose that weight by regulating your blood sugar and insulin levels.
Characteristics of insulin resistance
Wondering whether insulin resistance is behind your inability to lose weight? The only way to know for sure is to get tested. However, you can check your body and medical history for the common characteristics of insulin resistance, which include the following:
✓ Dark patches of skin on the back of your neck, elbows, knees, knuckles, or armpits
✓ Skin tags, small raised areas that appear on the skin that may be the color of your skin or darker, like a mole
✓ Being overweight
✓ A family history of diabetes, prediabetes, or metabolic syndrome
✓ Difficulty losing weight on a low-calorie diet with regular exercise
✓ High cholesterol or high triglycerides
✓ Fertility problems
If you have any of these symptoms, your first plan of action is to go to a doctor to get tested. Adopting a low-glycemic diet is the next step to help get your blood sugar under control.
If you have some symptoms of insulin resistance but come up negative for it when tested, you may still benefit from following a low-glycemic diet. Perhaps you simply experience food cravings and hunger. Getting your blood sugar under control and eating the right balance of foods at the appropriate times can help you control those cravings. There’s also good support that a low- glycemic diet helps with hunger throughout the day (see Chapter 3 to find out what I mean). That’s all good news for you, my friend!
How a low-glycemic lifestyle can help
If you have insulin resistance, don’t fret. Help is here! Simply start choosing low-glycemic foods. They have a smaller impact on your blood sugar levels, which means your body has to produce less insulin to process them. Aside from lower blood sugar levels and decreased insulin requirements, opting for low-glycemic foods can help you feel fuller after eating, reduce your food cravings, and lose weight. Put all that together, and it adds up to improved overall health.
Here are a few basic pointers for using a low-glycemic diet to counteract insulin resistance:
✓ Select only low-glycemic foods. These foods require much less insulin to process the sugar in the blood, allowing your pancreas (the organ that makes insulin) to catch its breath, so to speak.
✓ Watch portion sizes. Just because a food is low-glycemic doesn’t mean you can eat it in large amounts. Doing that can lead to a high glycemic load, meaning that large amounts of insulin would be required to combat the rising blood sugars (not to mention the additional calories).
✓ Balance your meals. Lean protein sources and healthy fats help round out a meal and can slow your body’s rate of digestion and absorption of food. (Chapter 9 has specific tips on creating balance.)
Many people battling insulin resistance are also dealing with other health conditions. It may be wise to seek out a local health professional for more personal advice based on your specific health profile.
Considering a Low-Glycemic Diet if You Have Kids or Are Pregnant
You may want to begin a low-glycemic lifestyle, but is that lifestyle appropriate for other members of your family? The answer is a resounding yes. A low- glycemic lifestyle benefits everyone, including children and pregnant women, as you discover in the following sections.
Helping kids have a healthy relationship with food
Childhood obesity is on the rise, and with that comes a risk of diabetes and heart disease at an incredibly young age. Children are more sedentary these days, and food choices and portion sizes have changed to big and bigger over the years, ultimately leading to weight gain. Diet programs for children are tricky, though, because you don’t want them to be part of the statistics of those who lose and gain over and over again. You also have to consider kids’ ages and their ability to deal with self-esteem issues regarding body image.
A low-glycemic diet can be a good solution for parents looking to help their children with weight loss. Here’s why:
✓ It promotes a healthy long-term relationship with food.
✓ It doesn’t restrict kids’ calorie levels too much or limit their carbohydrate levels while they’re growing and active.
✓ Low-glycemic foods can be used in moderation so children can feel like they’re living a normal life and not like they’re being put on a “diet.”
✓ There’s no need for kids to eat “diet” foods that may make them feel uncomfortable around others their age.
✓ It can lower children’s risk for diabetes and heart disease.
✓ It can easily be incorporated into kids’ lifestyles without drastic changes.
Research is showing some positive outcomes for adolescents using a low- glycemic diet for weight loss. One study showed that adolescents who followed a low-glycemic diet for a year lost 11 pounds more than those on a traditional lowfat diet. In this study, the adolescents also preferred the low- glycemic diet over a traditional diet because they didn’t have to count calo- ries or be overly focused on food — both of which are keys to developing a child’s healthy relationship with food as he grows older.
The results for children are mixed. However, even with the inconsistencies, positive outcomes still exist. One small study showed that children who used a low-glycemic diet didn’t change their body weight but did lower their percentage of body fat, their waist-to-hip ratio, and their hunger level. The interesting factor in this study is that the children replaced at least 50 percent of their carbohydrate choices with low-glycemic carbohydrates, showing again that moderation works well with this particular diet approach — another great plus for kids.
Using a low-glycemic diet alone or combining it with a moderate decrease in calories can be a winning combination for children who need to lose weight. Following are some good tips for starting your child on a low-glycemic diet:
✓ Be moderate with your approach. Putting a child on a strict diet will make him miserable and can cause him to fixate on food in an unhealthy way. You get better results with moderation, and you set your child up to have a healthy relationship with food.
✓ Make it a family plan. Incorporate the low-glycemic diet for everyone so your child doesn’t feel singled out. Making a child eat pearl barley while everyone else gets pasta is hard on him emotionally and can impact his self-esteem.
✓ Encourage fun activities. Strict exercise regimens can make your child end up hating exercise later on in life. Instead of going the strict route, encourage fun activities such as bike riding, swimming, or just getting some old-fashioned play time outside.
✓ Avoid dieting language. You can influence your child’s weight without putting too much attention on the scale. This approach helps kids naturally develop new habits instead of feeling bad about their bodies or that something’s wrong with them.
Managing weight and blood sugar while pregnant
Ah pregnancy, a time to eat whatever you want, right? Well, not exactly.
Gaining too much weight during pregnancy leaves you at risk of high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, and varicose veins. It also poses a problem to your baby if it ends up being too big. Of course, you don’t want to lose weight during pregnancy either, even if you’re overweight. The goal is to manage your weight gain by gaining the appropriate amount.
Following are some good ranges to keep in mind for healthy weight gain during pregnancy:
✓ 28–40 pounds if you were underweight before pregnancy
✓ 25–37 pounds if you were a healthy weight before pregnancy
✓ 15–25 pounds if you were overweight before pregnancy
A low-glycemic diet is such a great choice for pregnant women because you don’t have to restrict calories, you get better control of your blood sugar, and you take in lots of high-nutrient foods that are important for your baby. It also allows you to not be too restrictive during your pregnancy, which no pregnant woman ever wants to have to do.
One issue that many women face during pregnancy is gestational diabetes. This is a type of diabetes that appears during pregnancy and most often goes away after the pregnancy is over. A small study published in 2009 showed that women with gestational diabetes who followed a low-glycemic diet reduced their need for insulin compared to those who ate a high-glycemic diet. More research is needed in this area, but one fact is clear: Controlling blood sugar is always the first step of a diabetic diet.
If you have gestational diabetes, make sure to let your doctor know about any diet changes because they can affect any medications you may be taking for blood sugar control and should be monitored. Also, note that with gestational diabetes, just like any other type of diabetes, you may need to follow a bit stricter protocol with a low-glycemic diet. Don’t hesitate to get help from a registered dietitian or a certified diabetes educator when you need it.
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