• Diabetes

Happy Holidays with Diabetes

A big part of the holidays is planning for the fun that’s ahead. You’re probably thinking about gifts, decorations and special events. To have a wonderful and healthy holiday season, make planning your diabetes management a priority, too.

“Stay away from alcohol or at least to limit it as much as you can.”

Daily Living

• Eat smart every day, even when you’re busy.
• Take your medication close to the usual times, no matter how crazy your day is.
• Stay active! Start a game of touch football. Take a walk with a loved one right after eating.
• Check your blood sugar more often and adjust your medication if needed.
• Get enough sleep. Sleep loss can make it harder to control your blood sugar.
• Avoid the sweet items people bring in to the workplace this time of year. Keep a couple of healthy items at your desk to treat yourself.

Party Time

If you’re the host:

• Include healthy dishes on your menu.
• Bake and broil meat items instead of frying.
• While cooking, sample as little as possible.
• Send leftover desserts and other temptations home with party guests.

If you’re a guest:

• Anticipate the event and think ahead about how to control your eating.
• Don't skip meals to save up for party binging. That makes it harder to keep your blood sugar in control and you’re more likely to overeat.
• At the party, don’t hang out where the food is! Focus on socializing.
• Choose calorie-free drinks such as water, tea, seltzer or diet sodas.
• “Stay away from alcohol or at least to limit it as much as you can,” says Irina Gendler, MD, of Troy Primary Care Physicians. “Alcohol interferes with the sugar digestion.” If you do have an alcoholic drink, have it with food.
• Bring a smart snack or dish to share.
• Don't sample everything on the table. Take a reasonable portion of your favorites and pass on the rest.
• Avoid dishes loaded with butter, mayonnaise or sour cream.
• Focus on super foods: beans, nuts, whole grains, citrus fruit, berries, sweet potatoes. Dr. Gendler talks about foods, super foods and holiday eating.


Click play to watch the video or read video transcript.

What foods or super foods should people with diabetes focus on during the holidays?

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We live in a real life and we know the holiday season is around the corner and we need to avoid the temptation to avoid some foods and even the traditional foods and we know how we like it. But we have to be little more careful and here are some recommendations. If you can switch potato for sweet potato it would definitely be beneficial. We can definitely do that. Or you can eat any vegetables or salads as much as you can. It’s definitely going to be helpful. It will reduce some of the fat absorbed into your body as well as carbohydrates. Instead of baked products I would go with fruits and fruit salad. Some fruits are going to be very healthy and we’re talking about strawberries, peaches, blueberries (any kind of berries would be beneficial). I would warn you to not take too many grapes because they are loaded with simple sugar, glucose which is just sugar. Watermelon is definitely recommended. Watermelon is very rich in iron as well and that has a mild diuretic effect which works as a water pill but not as a chemical medication and at the same time you can even bring down your blood pressure down a little because very often diabetes goes together with high blood pressure so fruit is definitely recommended. Another recommendation is some citrus. Grapefruit is definitely one of them.

Definitely you all know it is difficult to follow the advice that we have to limit any dessert like candies, cakes, cookies. We all love it and definitely soda, that’s another thing that we must avoid that. It is recommended that if you like iced tea you get unsweetened iced tea. If you like juices, it’s not a good thing as well unless it’s natural without any sugar added. Sometimes you can find the products when you can see ‘no sugar added’ and it might not be a very good thing because no regular simple sugar added but corn syrup which is a more offending product. Try to avoid those too. Alcohol is another very offending factor. I would ask you to stay away from alcohol or at least to limit it as much as you can because alcohol definitely has a pathway to interfere with the sugar digestion and definitely will not work out for you as well. I would ask you to stick to my recommendations and I want your holiday season to be wonderful. We can always find how to enjoy food and holiday season without harming our body.



• If you want a treat, take a small portion of something you love and don’t get often, like Grandma’s bourbon fruit cake. Don’t blow your good eating habits on store-bought cookies.
• If you slip up, jump right back into healthy eating with your next meal.

Source: Centers for Disease Control; American Diabetes Association; DiabetesEducator.org; Irina Gendler, MD, Troy Primary Care Physicians

Irina A. Gendler, MD

Upper Valley Family Medicine

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