Do you remember playing the game “telephone?” It’s when someone whispers a message to the person next to him, that person whispers the same message to the person next to him, and the chain continues until reaching the last person in line, who repeats the message out loud. Everyone laughs because, without the fail, the original message has drastically changed.
Unfortunately, the telephone game is a fairly accurate representation of how nutrition messages mysteriously change, or lose important context, when they reach the person at the end of the line. Misconstrued nutrition messages, however, won’t likely end with a group laugh. Accurate nutrition information can be essential, especially for those managing chronic conditions like diabetes, and the details are often the most important part of the message.
Fat is a perfect example. If I whisper my best nutrition message to my diabetes clients — “Replace saturated fat in your diet with healthier unsaturated fats whenever practical, but manage portion sizes because all dietary fat packs a lot of calories” — they often hear something else, even though I don’t really, by the way, whisper.
One friend with diabetes, for example, recently informed me that she found a way to get more healthy fat into her diet: She now adds an avocado to her usual fruit, almond milk and kale smoothie. During the same week, another friend with diabetes dredged his bread into a plate of olive oil at an Italian restaurant, arguing that adding the healthy oil to bread was better for his diabetes. In both these cases I say, “Kudos for choosing healthy fats, but, what happened to the ‘replace’ and ‘watch portion sizes’ parts of the message?”
[See: 10 Myths About Diabetes.]
The healthy avocado added 320 calories (250 calories from fat) to the breakfast smoothie, which had already been healthy when it was avocado-free. And every added tablespoon of olive oil adds 120 calories to an 80-calorie slice of bread, which would only be a good choice for diabetes if my friend otherwise would have slathered on a pat of butter.
The lesson: Adding fat to your daily diet, even healthy fat (like olive and canola oils, nuts, avocado, olives and fatty fish), can add calories to your diet and inches to your waistline if you miss the details of the message. Added body weight, no matter the source, can make blood glucose levels hard to manage.
What’s more, for some people with diabetes, higher amounts of fat (even healthy fat) may trigger blood glucose levels hours after the meal, probably due to how it impairs insulin sensitivity and interferes with hormone signaling, according to new research out of the Joslin Diabetes Center. This result has led researchers to consider recommendations to increase insulin doses proportionally to the grams of fat eaten in order to compensate. Ultimately, too much fat — any fat — can make achieving diabetes management goals like weight loss, blood glucose control and avoidance of complications more elusive.
[See: 7 Things to Know If You’ve Received a Diabetes Diagnosis.]
So what’s someone with diabetes to do about fat? Most importantly, understand exactly how much of the “good” fat you should be eating. The American Diabetes Association goes with the National Academy of Medicine’s guideline that 20 to 35 percent of total calories should come from fat. If you are eating 1,800 calories per day, that may look like this:
— Breakfast: 1/4 cup of cottage cheese, six almonds and 1 1/2 cups of cooked oatmeal
— Lunch: 3 ounces of grilled chicken salad, 1/2 cup garbanzo beans, 2 tablespoons of avocado, 1 tablespoon regular Italian salad dressing, 12 round crackers and an apple
— Snack: 1 tablespoon of natural peanut butter with six graham cracker squares
— Dinner: 3 ounces baked cod, grilled vegetables with olive oil and 1 1/2 cups of quinoa salad with dried apricots and pistachios
— Snack: Greek yogurt
This day’s menu has 63 grams of total fat — 30 percent of total calories from fat — mixing 58 grams of unsaturated fat with 5 grams of saturated fat from some of the protein foods, salad dressing and crackers.
[See: 4 Foods Besides Brown Rice That Help Prevent or Manage Type 2 Diabetes.]
And don’t forget: Adding healthy fats to your diet is healthier if you eat them in place of less-healthy fats. Otherwise, that single avocado in your smoothie can increase your daily calories by 15 percent. That’s something you may not hear if you’re playing “telephone.”
More from U.S. News
Got Diabetes? Why You Must Protect Your Feet
6 Tips to Keep Diabetics Out of the Hospital
7 Steps Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetics Should Take
How Much Fat Should People With Diabetes Eat? originally appeared on usnews.com
