If you have diabetes you should not drink sugar-rich beverages. But only drinking water if you have type 2 diabetes is very boring.
What are good and healthy drinks for someone with diabetes?
In this article you will get my top 7 favorite drinks and an overview of which drinks you should definitely avoid.
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What can and can't you drink when having diabetes?
I have good news and I have... good news.
Do you have type 2 diabetes and are you tired of just drinking water? Would you like a refreshment that is not harmful to your body?
Then you are very lucky. Because in this article I will discuss a number of drinks that are, not only healthy, but also very tasty.
If you have diabetes, you have to be careful. Because most drinks that people in western countries drink are so full of sugars that they are extremely unhealthy.
Purpose of this article
I will explain why this is. First I will give you my favorite drinks for people with type 2 diabetes. Then I will explain to you which drinks you absolutely should not drink when having type 2 diabetes
Beverages you are allowed to drink
I use a number of rules for this:
Here is my top 7:
#1: Coffee and tea
Think of:
Let me start with an important component of these drinks, especially in coffee and black tea: caffeine.
Caffeine is a compound that occurs in these drinks. What it does in your brain is that it prevents you from feeling tired. Caffeine is fully worn off after approximately ten hours. But after about 15 tot 30 minutes after ingestion, you usually don't notice the effects anymore as a person.
Why is this relevant for people with diabetes?
Benefits of caffeine for type 2 diabetes
Caffeine wakes you up in the morning and can suppress your hunger
Believe it or not:
A cup of coffee with a dash of milk for breakfast is not as unhealthy as you might think.
Coffee has the most caffeine, followed by black tea. White and green tea contain much less caffeine.
In addition, green tea has so many positive qualities that it is my favorite tea to drink.
Why is green tea the best thing you can drink when having type 2 diabetes?
There are more healthy compounds in green tea, other than a low dose of caffeine. For example, there is a substance that increases your fat-burning and improves your blood sugar level.
Both white and green tea have qualities that may help fight cancer. A cup of white or green tea could be protective and help eliminate microscopic cancers.
In addition, green tea is the least processed type of tea. It is purely a natural drink that you can drink hot or cold.
#2: Herbal tea
There are too many different herbal teas to mention:
Go to a tea shop and get informed. You can often taste many flavors at the spot. The shopkeeper can often tell you what medicinal effect these herbs have.
As a diabetic, 'that one magic herbal tea that will make your life better' doesn't exist. There are health effects to these kinds of drinks but you don't have to drink it when having type 2 diabetes.
No, it's about finding a drink that you like and that you can drink every day when having diabetes without getting bored of it.
With the different types of herbal teas it is fairly easy to find them.
Personally, I really like ginger tea. It is tasty and very easy to make. You put a few slices of peeled ginger in hot water. That's it.
#3: Aloe vera drink
Aloe vera is a plant that grows in the tropics and to which various health benefits are attributed. For example, it is made into an ointment that is often prescribed when people get burned. And people who live in the tropics use it for various medical applications.
As a diabetic, this is an interesting plant. Drinking the juice can lead to better blood sugar levels. It is not a miracle cure but all the little bits help. If you have to drink something when having diabetes, then it is better to drink something that is good for your diabetes. Right ?
Make the drink as following:
#4: Fruitwater
Do you know why it is very healthy to drink water with a slice of lemon during a meal if you have diabetes?
Because a lemon slows down the speed at which sugars are processed in your body. This causes your blood sugar level to rise less quickly. Therefore, the same amount of sugars have less impact on your blood sugar level.
But water with a slice of lemon is not the only drink that is suitable if you have diabetes. You can also use other types of fruit to make special fruit water. This is how it works:
An infuser makes water a lot tastier
Buy a special bottle where you can add fruit (so-called infusers). Or take a jug, put sliced fruit in it and pour water over it. Put this in the fridge for a few hours.
The water absorbs the taste of the fruit. As a result, you will get a delicious taste that is not overly sweet and that does not contain many sugars (as long as you do not eat the fruit itself).
This is a great replacement for fruit juices if you miss them. Keep reading to discover why fruit juices are out of the question.
#5: Coconut water
This drink is not very well known in western countries. That is because coconuts do not grow naturally on the trees there. But in other countries, especially in the tropics, there are plenty of palm trees with coconuts on them.
In recent years, certain coconut products have become increasingly popular. Think of coconut oil, coconut milk and coconut cream.
This is mainly due to the taste and, in the case of coconut oil, the practical use during cooking. But if you, as a diabetic, want a healthy drink that doesn't raise your blood sugar level, then coconut water is extremely suitable
It is full of minerals such as potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and copper. These contain positive qualities for your health.
In addition, coconut water does not contain much sugar and has a slightly sweet taste.
It is important that you drink fresh coconut water.
You can do this by removing it directly from the coconut or by buying it from a pack that has nothing else added to it.
Look carefully at the packaging because it happens regularly that manufacturers add whole lumps of sugar.
#6: Unsweetened soy and almond milk
Normal milk contains a lot of sugar. About five grams per 100 mL. If you drink two glasses, this is already 20 grams. It does not come close to soft drinks or fruit juices, but it is not good either.
Tip!
Fortunately, you can always buy unsweetened soy or almond milk. These hardly contain any sugar and still give you that milky taste. Especially if you drink it ice cold.
#7: A glass of wine
This is a crazy one on the list. Because you know you have to be careful with alcohol if you have diabetes.
In combination with food intake it mutes the sugar peak that you get after a big meal.
Beer is not a good choice as a drink if having diabetes.
Keep it at one glass per day. If you drink more, there is no positive effect and your blood sugar level may rise.
In addition, you should only drink this 'glass of wine a day' during your dinners. Popping a bottle of Merlot when having your breakfast is certainly not advisable.
The drinks you have to stay far away from
First I want to refresh your memory:
What was the story again?
If you eat or drink something, it ends up in your body. The sugars in this food are absorbed by your body. The more sugars and the faster they are absorbed, the worse it is. Because too many sugars in your blood is harmful for your entire body.
Your body has a natural brake to make sugars that enter you body harmless. That is the hormone insulin.
This hormone ensures that sugars are removed from your blood. But if someone has diabetes there is too little of this substance or your body isn't sensitive to it anymore. The sugars do not disappear from your blood (or at least much slower), with all its consequences.
The complications of type 2 diabetes are serious. You can become blind, lose your toes and die sooner. Taking action is therefore wise.
It is therefore important to:
Not all drinks that we drink are healthy
Many popular drinks from the western world contain an enormous amount of sugars. And can make you seriously ill if you have diabetes.
The most popular drinks in the western world are coffee and tea. They make up for around 33% of our fluid intake. That is more than half a liter per day.
As you have seen, coffee and tea are healthy drinks in themselves. But most people put sugar in them. And that is of course very unhealthy. Especially if you have diabetes.
15% of everything that people in western countries drink are soft drinks. This is almost a can a day. And of course there are a lot of people who drink several cans a day and a few who don't drink soft drinks at all. I will explain why you want to belong to the latter category by using the label of a can of coke:
As you can see, there is no less than 10.6 grams of sugar per 100 mL in Coca-Cola.
Drinking this translate to you putting an IV drip with diabetes complications directly in your arm and hope you will be fine.
If you are paying attention to how much sugar you take in, coke (and other soft drinks) is a clearly unhealthy choice. Therefore, avoid soft drinks as much as you can. And that also applies to light soft drinks.
Light soft drinks: why you should avoid them
Diet sodas don't contain sugars. That's right. But that's the only positive thing about it.
Light soft drinks change how your body handles sweets. The most important thing to know is that you will get more cravings for sweets. Your body gets used to the sweet taste and you will only want more and more. Therefore, be very careful because drinking light soda goes from bad to worse.
In addition, the additives to light soft drinks are not exactly healthy. There is even evidence that the most commonly used sweetener called aspartame destroys the gut flora. And you can't have that as a diabetic.
Why you should avoid fruit juices
This is the back of a bottle of organic apple juice. As you can see it contains 10.3 grams of sugar per 100 mL. That's almost the same as coke!
Lesson: that something is made from fruit does not mean that it is healthy. Moreover:
Nothing made from fruit is healthy.
The only thing that can be called healthy is fruit itself. Do you want to know what the healthiest types of fruit are if you have diabetes? Then look here.
The Diabetes-free Secret
Drinking sugar-free alternatives is just the beginning. To fully cure type 2 diabetes you need to do more than that. Luckily I can help you with that.
Recently it has been discovered that it is possible to reverse type 2 diabetes. Everything you need to do this can be found in your local grocery store.
You can reverse type 2 with one powerful principle. It's something I call the"The Diabetes-Free Secret". I have written a number of pages about this secret that will change your life forever. You will learn:
Enter your e-mail address below and I will send you the E-book for free.
Greetings,
Ben Kuiper
P.s: What do you drink with type 2 diabetes to get and keep yourself healthy? Leave a comment below