Gestational Diabetes – Snack Ideas

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has days when you’re just so hungry! There have been times when I can eat what feels like a three course meal and thenfind myself absolutely ravenous two hours later. A question that alot of women diagnosed with GD ask is whether or not they can include snacks between meals, and the answer is yes, you can! Which is good, because if I couldn’t snack I might fade away to a small block of flats.

As with your main meals, you need to choose your snacks wisely. Snacks should be low in fat (particularly saturated fats) and high in fibre (Fibre helps ease a certain side effect that you can experience if you’re taking iron supplements. I’m sure you know what one I’m talking about!). Its also important to note that many low fat foods can have a significant kilojoule conent, so try to snack in moderation.

Anyhow, here is a list of sweet and savoury snack ideas as well as a short list on what is safe to drink. These ideas are taken from the “Healthy Snacks” fact sheet written by DiabetesWA:

Sweet Snacks

• Slice of Raisin toast
• Snack Right Fruit Slice or Spicy Fruit Roll biscuits
• Frozen fruit cut into pieces
• Small handful of dried fruit such as apricots, sultanas, apple or prunes mixed with nuts
• Low fat/diet fruit yoghurt or Fruche Light
• Light Cadbury or Nestle Mousse
• Pikelets or Wholemeal Crumpets (Wholemeal crumpets tend to send my sugars through the roof, but its on the DiabetesWA Snack list, so I may just be special. Wholemeal bread has the same effect)
• Fruit or Wholemeal scones with fruit spread
• Fruit or Bran Muffin
• Mother Earth Wholemeal fruit bars
• Low fat fruit cake

Savoury Snacks

• Pretzels, low fat corn chips or rice chips
• Low fat noodles
• Rice crackers
• English Muffin topped with tomato slices and low fat cheese (English muffins destroy my sugar levels as well, but once again, its on the DiabetesWA list)
• Low fat Cup a Soup varieties
• Low fat crackers or vegetable sticks
• Light microwave popcorn
• Vita-Weats with 9 grains topped with your favourite topping (These things are great! I live off them some days)
• Savoury muffins
• Celery boats

Drinks

• Any type of coffee, as long as its made with skim milk*
• So Natural Soy Banana smoothie
• Fruit Smoothies
• Diet Cool Drinks*
• Water
• Light Fruit Juices

^{* Its important to note that these things may contain artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, which you may be trying to avoid during your pregnancy.}

These are of course, just some ideas of what you can eat and may not work for you specifically. Like I mentioned next to some of the ideas, I’ve found that some of the snack foods can be terrible for my BSL’s. It really is trial and error to see what does and doesn’t work for you. So far the only two things that I’ve found that have randomly upset the balance of my diet are wholemeal breads and Hi Lo milk. For other people, it could be the Cuppa Soups or sultanas. Its all about finding out what works best for you.

Gestational Diabetes – Low GI Foods

I was only 23 weeks pregnant when my doctor first began to suspect that my body was struggling to break down sugar. The first sign that something was wrong was when the dip stick test came back positive for sugar in the urine. So, out came the portable Blood Sugar Level (BSL) monitor. It turns out that the two pieces of white toast smothered in delicious strawberry jam that I had devoured for breakfast had sent my BSL over 9. The look on the doctors face was priceless! Apparently a healthy persons sugar levels will vary between 4 and 7. So, I was sent off to fast for 12 hours and then endure a two hour Blood Glucose test.

As expected, the results came back positive for Gestational Diabetes and I was referred onto a Diabetes Educator. I left her office feeling confident and reassured that out of all the complications this pregnancy has seen so far, the Diabetes was the one variable I controlled. The diet guidelines she gave me were surprisingly good. I get to eat all the time, and most importantly, the meals themselves are healthy and very satisfying.

Five to Eight percent of women will develop Gestational Diabetes, so I thought I’d start sharing my experiences with the Low GI diet in segments. If I typed it out all at once, I’d be here forever!

The Glycemic Index
^{Taken from “The Glycemic Index” Fact Sheet, written by DiabetesWA}

What is the glycemic index?

The Glycemic Index (GI) is a measure of the effect that a carbohydrate containing food has on blood glucose levels compared to the effect of the same amount of pure glucose, on blood glucose levels.

What does the GI tell us?

The GI gives us a ranking of carbohydrate containing foods based on the effect that food will have on a person’s blood glucose level. This not determined only by its sugar content. In fact, many foods that are high in complex carbohydrates (starches) affect blood glucose levels more rapidly than foods that are high in sugar.

How can the GI benefit me?

Research has shown that by eating a diet with a lower GI, people with diabetes can reduce their average blood glucose levels. This is important in reducing the risk of developing diabetes-related complications.

A healthy eating plan that incorporates low GI foods combined with physical activity can help reduce the risk of heart disease. This is achieved by improving the body’s ability to use glucose for energy and helping to lower blood fats (triglycerides) and raise HDL (“good”) cholesterol. Low GI foods may also help improve satiety (feelings of fullness), which may help with weight management.

Some Low GI Foods are:

• Multigrain Breads
• Cereals such as All Bran, Guardian, Porridge, Special K, etc.
• All types of Pasta
• All types of Beans – with broad beans being the exception
• Starchy veges such as sweet potato, corn and peas
• Fruits such as cherries, grapefruit, peach, dried apricots, apples, pears, plums, oranges, grapes, kiwifruit, mango, banana, etc
• Milk, low fat yoghurt, custard, low fat icecream

High GI foods that should be avoided:

• White bread, bagels, blackbread, Wonderwhite, gluten-free bread, Lebanese , Turkish, Naan, etc.
• Sultana Bran, Cornflakes, Coco Pops, Rice Bubbles, Fruit Loops, puffed wheat, etc.
• Brown rice, calrose rice, jasmine rice, broken rice, glutinous rice
• Potatoes, french fries, parsnip
• Dates, watermelon
• McDonalds, HJ’s, KFC, Red Rooster, Chicken Treat, Wendys, etc

Should you find yourself unable to avoid eating something on the bad list, ensure that you follow up with exercise, or try to include some low GI foods in with it to lower the overall impact the high GI food has. Next time I’ll share with you all how I altered my usual diet to include the healthy stuff I usually wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole (Kidney beans, anyone?!).