Calories partition

We all know how important a balanced diet and carb counting are if we want to achieve an almost perfect diabetes management. However, what is not known to the most is the relevance of an equally balanced and precise partition of the calories we ingest throughout the day into our meals. In fact, since our body response to what we ingest isn't the same during the course of the day, applying some simple expedients to our food habits will determine huge improvements in terms of blood glucose. 

Firstly, we have to talk about breakfast. One of the main problems of the Mediterranean diet is the tendency to consume most of the calories later in the day, and this is something which doesn't simplify diabetes management at all. So, the way to go is the exact opposite, ingesting the largest part of our food intake in the first and midst part of the day, and there is no better way to do this than loading our very first meal. For this reason, I personally recommend to ingest 20-25% of your daily requirements at breakfast, paying attention not to exceed with carbs, since we all tend to be a bit insulin resistant early in the morning and a large amount of sugary and starchy components will most likely determine BG spikes. You could try to substitute some of the carbs with an equal amount of proteins: this will substain your muscles after the nocturnal fast, with less evident effects on BG. 

Then, lunch comes. This is probably the easiest meal of the day in terms of diabetes management: our body is way more insulin responsive than just a few hours before, and, furthemore, we still have plenty of time to carefully control our BG. This is the reason why I always try to consume sizeable lunches, which can reach up to 40-45% of the daily calorific intake. Furthemore, for the above-mentioned reasons, this is the meal which I tend to load the most in term of carbs, in order to be able to amount to my daily quantity of this precious macronutrient without going crazy. But what if you find yourself in the situation of preferring to have a mid-morning snack? Well, in this case, all you have to do is to eat around 5-10% of your daily requirements within this meal, subtracting the ingested amount of calories from the ones belonging to the lunch. 

And, finally, it's dinner time. This can be a pretty delicate meal to handle: even though our insuline responsiveness tends to reach its peak in the evening, the night to come stands out, and we all know how difficult it is to combine a serene sleep with messy blood glucose values. Furthemore, being it sometimes difficult to interpose a number of hours which matches with the full digestion time between our last meal and our bedtime, it can be hard to reach this moment with a straight line. For these reasons, I tend to consume a slightly lighter dinner if compared to lunch, settling this meal around 35% of my daily calorific intake, and also paying attention, even in this case, not to exceed with carbs, since they can determine increased early spikes and even dawn phenomenons: also in this case, you can try to substitute their excess with an equal amount of proteins. Again, if you want to consume a mid-afternoon snack, eat around 5-10% of your daily requirements, subtracting the consumed calories from the ones of your dinner. Late night snacks should, from my experience, be avoided. 

To conclude, what I have observed in these soon-to-be 8 years of diabetes history, is that, as a general rule, the earlier in the day you consume your calories, the easier it will be to manage your BG throughout both the daytime and the night to come. This is especially true for your dinnertime: if you try to anticipate it by a bit, you will notice huge improvements in your overnight diabetes management. Thank you for your time, and don't forget to stay tuned on my website for more!