Making informed food choices is key to living well and managing prediabetes or diabetes. Choosing foods and building your plate with purpose can help you stay on track with your health goals. The Diabetes Plate is a tool that can easily help you create healthy meals and support your blood glucose (blood sugar).
Our team of registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) created five-day meal plans each based on one of the recommended eating patterns shown to help people living with diabetes reach their nutrition and health goals.
Create or sign in to your Diabetes Food Hub account to use these plans. You can choose a meal plan based the following eating patterns:
- Mediterranean style
- Low carb
- Very low carb
- Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)
- Low fat
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
We have also created a gluten-free meal plan for those with celiac disease.
Mediterranean Style
This pattern helps you:
- Lower your risk of diabetes
- Lower your A1C
- Lower your triglycerides
- Lower the chance, seriousness, or number of major heart problems like heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, or heart disease
DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension)
This pattern helps you:
- Lower your risk of diabetes
- Lose weight
- Lower your blood pressure
Low Carb
This pattern helps you:
- Lower your A1C
- Lose weight
- Lower your blood pressure
- Lower your triglycerides
- Increase your HDL cholesterol (also called “good” cholesterol)
Very Low Carb
This pattern helps you:
- Lower your A1C
- Lose weight
- Lower your blood pressure
- Lower your triglycerides
- Increase your HDL cholesterol (also called “good” cholesterol)
Vegetarian
This pattern helps you:
- Lower your risk of diabetes
- Lower your A1C
- Lose weight
- Lower your LDL (also called “bad” cholesterol) and non-HDL cholesterol, which is the total amount of cholesterol that can clog your arteries, minus the good kind (HDL)
Vegan
This pattern helps you:
- Lower your risk of diabetes
- Lower your A1C
- Lose weight
- Lower your LDL (also called “bad” cholesterol) and non-HDL cholesterol, which is the total amount of cholesterol that can clog your arteries, minus the good kind (HDL)
Low Fat
This pattern helps you:
- Lower your risk of diabetes
- Lose weight
Gluten Free
This eating pattern helps:
- Manage celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, or gluten intolerance
The eating plan you select should be the one that works best for you based on your needs and goals. Some things to think about for your eating plan are your food preferences, culture, health conditions, and how much physical activity you get.
Key Features
Meal plans from Diabetes Food Hub can help you choose meals and snacks that fit your eating plan. They show examples of how to build meals based on the approach you prefer.
- These menus are based on 2,000 daily calories. An RDN can help you adjust them so they fit your personal needs.
- Swapping foods can change the nutrition of a meal. If you switch ingredients, the nutrition values may be different.
- Check your blood glucose when trying new foods or swaps, since they may affect you in ways you don’t expect.
- Consider other health needs you may have. Your RDN can help you choose foods and swaps that support all your health goals.
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