Type 2 diabetes: A guide to snacking
Information for patients
Introduction
Your nurse or dietitian has hopefully explained ‘what is diabetes?’ As a recap, your body produces and uses insulin to help use certain foods (nutrients) in the diet called carbohydrates to provide energy. When you have diabetes the insulin your body produces is either not enough or is not working as efficiently as it should be. This is causing your blood glucose levels to rise above the normal range.
Controlling your intake of carbohydrates can help to reduce your blood glucose levels and help to keep them steady. To achieve this you could have similar portions of carbohydrates
from meal to meal. One area you may want to focus on is reducing your snacks to less than 15g of carbohydrate.
Note: You should aim to include no more than one snack between each meal. Including more than this may increase your calorie intake excessively and lead to weight gain.
This guide will help you to identify where carbohydrates are found in your snacks and give you suggestions for suitable lower carbohydrate snacks.
Savoury food
Containing 15g or less carbohydrate:
| Amount of carbohydrates (gram) | |
|---|---|
| Quorn: 1 burger, 1 sausage, 100g Quorn pieces | 5 |
| Tofu 80g (medium handful) | 2 |
| Cottage cheese 100g (6 tablespoons) | 3 |
| 6 seafood sticks | 12 |
| 1 multipack size bag of crisps (18g) | 15 or less |
| 1 tablespoon marmite | 4 |
| 2 small vegetable or meat spring rolls | 8 |
| 3 meat or vegetable gyoza (dumpling) | 15 |
| 2 chicken satay sticks (2 sticks contains over 150 calories so try not to exceed this) |
2 |
| Tzatziki (natural yoghurt with cucumber and garlic), 4 tablespoons with cucumber spears to dip | 10 |
| Bombay mix (small handful) | 10 |
| 25g (2 tablespoon) twiglets or small handful plain or salted pretzels | 14 |
| 3 breadsticks, water biscuits, 2 crispbreads, oatcakes, rice cakes, cream crackers |
15 |
| 1 medium slice of any bread | 15 |
Sweet food
Containing 15g or less carbohydrate:
| Amount of carbohydrates (grams) | |
|---|---|
| 1 bourbon, chocolate digestive, custard cream, ginger biscuit, Oreo | 8 to 9 |
| 3 party rings, malted milk, nice, rich tea | 15 |
| 1 plain digestive | 10 |
| 1 mini muffin | 14 |
| 1 medium handful of any fresh fruit | 15 |
| 20g popcorn (2 handfuls) sweet or salted | 13 |
| 1 tablespoon peanut butter | 4 |
| Small yoghurt 100kcals or less | 15 or less |
| 74g of blueberries or strawberries (one medium handful) plus 4 tablespoons crème fraiche | 11 |
| 2 rings of tinned pineapple (juice drained) | 8 |
| Light hot chocolate made with water | 5 |
| Small ice lolly (80ml) | 15 |
Carbohydrate
Carbohydrates all break down into glucose and will affect our blood glucose levels. Foods containing carbohydrates are:
- Starchy foods:
- Chips
- Potatoes
- Granary bread
- Crisps
- Takeaway food
- Pasta
- Rice
- Milk and yoghurt
- Fruit
- Food with added sugar
Further information on carbohydrate
- Starchy carbohydrates are your body’s main source of energy so we recommend you include a source of these with every meal.
- Having regular carbohydrates can help to reduce your risk of hypoglycaemia (blood glucose levels below 4mmol/l).
- Ideally you should be aiming for meals to contain a similar amount of carbohydrate day to day as this will help to keep your blood glucose levels steady.
- Initially you could aim for meals to provide between 30 to 50g per meal and your snacks to provide less than 15g.
- Your dietitian may recommend a more specific amount if you are trying to achieve a particular goal.
- Nuts (plain or roasted), one small handful.
- Cheese (a matchbox sized portion of hard cheese).
- Lettuce wraps, you could try filling these with meat fish or salad and a small amount of low calorie or vinaigrette dressing.
- Eggs: 2 eggs a day is a reasonable portion.
- Avocado : You could try stuffing these in a similar way to the lettuce wraps or turning them into guacamole. 1/2 an avocado is one
portion. - Vegetable sticks with 2 to 3 tablespoons of hummus, guacamole, salsa.
- Edamame beans with a light coating of your choice of spice or herbs.
- Any plain meat or fish for example chicken breast, ham, prawns, tinned tuna.
- Olives or gherkins.
- Omelette (made with very little milk). You could add any vegetables or meat to this.
Tip: Any of these snacks can be mixed together to make up 15g of carbohydrate. But remember that including too many snacks may lead to weight gain if your calorie intake is increased too high. Speak with your dietitian if you are unsure of how many snacks you could include for your needs.
