Diet Doctor is one of the best sites for you if you are diabetic or obese, and you are looking for a good diet and meal plan to help manage your diabetes and its symptoms without medication. That is what this Diet Doctor Review will be looking at while answering the main question of this article ‘could Diet Doctor Diet Plans help diabetics?
Let’s start rolling…
The type of diet of food you consume is very important if you are diagnosed with diabetes. This is because your diet plays a major role in managing your blood sugar level and preventing the complications of diabetes.
Diet Doctor site helps to solve the problem of trying to figure out healthy meals to prepare for yourself or a love done who is diabetic. Diet Doctor meal plans are not just healthy but are low in carbohydrates. This meal plan can help you to cut down your carb intake, which on the long run can help to regulate your blood sugar level, lose weight and reverse type 2 diabetes.
Diet Doctor is a low carbohydrate, high-fat diet program design with the aim of help make it easier for people to eat healthier by providing them with an already prepared shopping list, easy to prepare recipes and meal plan options to choose from.
How The Food We Eat Affect Our Blood Sugar Level?
The classes of food that makes up the large portion of our daily meals are – carbohydrates, protein and fat. These macronutrients affect our blood sugar level in different ways.
1. Carbohydrates
This class of food raises blood sugar level the most.
When we eat foods that contain carbohydrates, our digestive system breaks the food down into simple sugar or glucose and release it into our bloodstream. This makes our blood sugar level to rise, prompting the pancreas to produce the hormone Insulin. The insulin produced helps to transport the sugar from the bloodstream to the cells where they are needed for energy or to the liver for storage.
When the blood sugar level becomes too low, the pancreas produces Glucagon which signals the liver to begin to release the stored sugar.
This interplay between Insulin and Glucagon is what helps to regulate the blood sugar level. When we continue eating food rich in carbohydrates without using up the energy produced from the previous meal, the body begins to convert the sugar stored up in the liver into fat and depositing them in fat cells in different parts of our bodies like our belly, arms and thigh.
Diabetes no matter the type is basically a condition whereby the body can no longer process carbs and transport them to the cells as it should, resulting to increase and fluctuation in blood sugar levels.
Sometimes the blood sugar level increases and stays high for a long time after eating. If this condition continues and is not treated, over time, it can result in nerve damage and other diabetes-related complications.
2. Protein
When we eat proteins, it is broken down into Amino Acids during digestion and release into the bloodstream. Protein has no effect on blood sugar level. In diabetic patients, it has only a little impact on the blood sugar level.
3. Fat
Fat also has little or no effect on blood sugar level. But, it can slow down the rate at which carbs are broken down and absorbed.
When our body is low on sugar, it uses fat as a source of energy. It is not advisable, especially if you are diabetic to eat meals that are high in both fat and carbohydrates. That’s because the fat will prolong the time the carbs will be broken down and the time the blood sugar will remain elevated.
What is a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet?
A low-carb diet, and a high-fat diet is a meal plan that restricts carbohydrates and increases the intake of protein, fat and healthy vegetables. Studies have shown that low carb, high fat diet can help you lose weight and improve health conditions such as diabetes and heart diseases.
There are many different types of low-carb diets, depending on the degree to which you reduced your carb intake.
- Moderate carb diets
There are carb content of about 26–44% of total daily calories or 13og to 250g per day on a 2000-calorie diet.
- Low carb diets
These are meal plans with carbs content that are less than 130g daily or 26% of total daily calories on a 2,000-calorie diet
- Very low carb diets
These meals with carb content less than 10% of total daily calories, or 20–50 grams per day on a 2,000-calorie diet
Very low carb diets, also known as ketogenic diets, restrict carb intake to a significant level so as to induce ketosis. Ketosis is a metabolic state in which your body converts the fats in the fat cells into energy molecules called ketones and uses it as fuel instead of using sugar as fuel.
What Should a Diabetic Eat and Not to Eat on Low Carb, High Fat Diet?
1. Protein:
All types of meat – turkey, chicken, pork, beef, steak, ham
Eggs
Plant-based proteins – Tofu, beans, nuts
All types of seafood –fish, shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, scallops, mussels
All types of canned fish – tuna, sardines, salmon
Avoid
Fried meat, fried fish, fried tofu
2. Natural fat:
Natural source of vegetable fat – avocado
Nuts – almonds, peanut, walnuts, hazelnuts, coconuts, pecans, macadamia nuts
Seeds – sunflower seed, chia seeds, hemp seed, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseed
Plant-based oil – olive oil, coconut oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, almond oil
Avoid
Anything that contains trans-fat in it
Large portions of saturated fat
3. Dairy product
Sour cream
Yogurt
Avoid
Ice cream
4. Vegetables
Fresh and frozen vegetables – carrots, onions, pepper, eggplants, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, cucumbers, kale, arugula, lettuce, tomatoes, garlic, shallot, peas, zucchini, celery, okra, radish
Avoid
Veggies cooked with lots of butter, sauce, salt and cheese
5. Fruits
Berries – Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries
Avoid
All fruit juices
6. Drinks and Beverages
Water
Broth
Dry wine
Avoid
Sodas
Sweetened tea
Coffee with cream and sugar
What is The Diet Doctor?
Diet Doctor website is the world’s number one low carb diet site. It was founded in 2011, by Dr Andreas Eenfeldt. The program on this website is aimed to encourage low carb, high fat (LCHF) diet.
The site provides you with different meal plans, up to a thousand delicious recipes that restrict your carb intake by including mainly protein, fats and veggies in your diet. If you are looking for a site for low carb or strict keto recipe – breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, dessert, side dishes and drinks, then this should be the number one place you should be looking at. Plus, this site provides you with the tools – tips and tricks to make your keto lifestyle simple and reverse your type 2 diabetes. Each of the recipe provided on this site indicated the quantity of the carb you will be eating at the end of the meal.
This site doesn’t sell any supplement, food or weight loss products. However, it is funded by people through membership which is optional. You could also access this site without signing up, and they have a 30 days free trial available.
This site provides you with everything you need to lose weight without hunger or cravings and to a lifestyle potentially could cure type 2 diabetes.
What are the Services Offered on DietDoctor Platform?
Most of us are too busy that we have little or no time to plan or prepare a healthy meal, so Diet Doctor has provided a solution to that problem by giving you access to the below.
- A personalized meal plan to choose from. So, you can choose either – quick and easy, budget-friendly, family-friendly or a vegetarian meal plan.
- A shopping list so you don’t have to worry about which food is healthy or not. All you have to do is to stock up what you will need for the week.
- A food time table on what you can eat every day as breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner
- A lot of quick, easy and delicious recipes and you can as well use your own recipe.
- A list of food items or ingredients to avoid or the one you can take only in small quantity.
Diet Doctor Meal Plan
When it comes to choosing a meal plan, the Diet Doctor has something for everyone.
The Diet Doctor offers;
1. A quick and easy meal plans
This meal is suitable for people who are always busy with little or no time to prepare a healthy meal.
These meals can be prepared in 20 minutes or less. They involve little or no cooking, yet tasty, and with this meal plan, you will be eating less than 32g of carbs at the end of the day.
2. Budget-friendly plans
You can prepare delicious and healthy meals using simple recipes provided with affordable ingredients and still stay below 30g of carb per daily using this meal plan.
3. Family-friendly plans
This meal plan provides simple and tasty recipes that can be enjoyed by everyone in the family, even kids. It saves you from the stress of preparing different meals, and at the end of the day, you will be eating less than 28 g of carbs.
4. Vegetarian plans
The Diet Doctor vegetarian meal plane is a superb vegetarian lacto-ova meal plan. This means the recipes exclude meats, fish and poultry but include dairy, eggs, nuts, and colorful and nutritious veggies.
With this meal plan, you will be eating less than 33g of carb a day.
5. Dairy-free plans
With this meal plan, you can speed up your weight loss and reverse type 2 diabetes. The recipes for this plan exclude the use of dairy product except for butter because butter contains milk protein and sugar in trace quantity. However, one can always substitute the butter with olive oil and coconut oil.
This meal plan will help you to keep your carbs intake under 33 g per day.
How Can Diet Doctor Help People With Diabetes?
Diet Doctor platform can help diabetics to manage and even reverse type 2 diabetes by encouraging and providing them with science-based guidelines and tips, which will help them to cut their carb intake. By reducing the intake of carbohydrates can help in stabilizing the blood sugar level, reduce blood cholesterol and triglycerides, lowers blood pressure.
Adhering to the meal plan can help to increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL) also known as the good cholesterol and counteract some of the effects of diabetes such as obesity and heart disease
Potential Health Benefits of Diet Doctor Diet
Just like every other low carb diet, Diet Doctor has the following health benefits.
- Lowers the average blood glucose and helps to reverse type 2 diabetes
The main cause of diabetes is high blood sugar and the primary source of the sugar in our bloodstream is from the carbs you eat. So logically, when we reduce our carb intake, the quantity or level of sugar in our blood is reduced.
- Reduce the risk of hypoglycemia
- Gives more energy
- Aids in weight loss
Insulin is a fat-storing hormone, and eating less carb means the amount of insulin your body produces is eventually reduced. So, your body uses the fat as fuel instead of depositing them into a different part of your body.
- Keeps you satiated for long and reduced the craving for sugary food
According to Healthline, low carb diet result in an automatic reduction in appetite and people who eat more fat and protein instead of carbohydrate tends to consume fewer calories.
- Lowers cholesterol and reduces the risk of long-term diabetes complications.
Eating fat is one of the ways to increase good cholesterol and reduce bad cholesterol, which increases your risk of high blood pressure and coronary heart disease.
The Dangers of Using Diet Doctor Meal Plan
- Constipation
Fiber is automatically reduced when you reduce your carb intake, and this affects bowel movement. But you can solve this problem by loading up on veggies.
- Headache
- Irritability
- Muscle cramps
Especially leg cramps. It is usually a minor issue although sometimes it can be painful, and the exact cause is unknown.
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Low blood pressure
- Vitamin and mineral
deficiency - Bad breath
Although not everyone experiences bad breath, most people may develop a strong, fruity smell similar to the smell of a nail polish remover. This odor caused by acetone, a ketone body and it is a sign that your body has switched from using carbs to using fat as fuel and is converting a lot of fats to ketones.
This odor lasts for a week or two, although for some people this odor has come to stay and this becomes a long-term problem.
- Fatigue and weakness
- Heart palpitation
This is common and normal, and is not a cause for alarm so long as there are no symptoms of weakness, chest pain and fainting.
How To Get Started On Diet Doctor?
You can get started on Diet Doctor by signing up for 30 days free trial on their website or using their Apps from iOS and Google Play Store. This will allow you to gain access to lots of resources such as amazing keto meal plans, tons of delicious recipes, videos courses, health guides, interview and advice from weight-loss experts, dietitians and doctors.
After the first 30 days of the free trial, if you wish to continue your membership, you will be charged $9.99 monthly or $99 annually as a subscription fee. You can cancel this payment anytime you wish.
You can subscribe from anywhere and can also switch your subscription from monthly to yearly or vice versa. It is a wonderful program for anyone who wants to lose weight.
Pros
- Provides lots of educational material on how to eat healthily and lose weight
- Excellent service
Cons
- The content is only available online
Members Review and Comments about Diet Doctor Program
Diet Doctor ranks 7th among weight loss sites, with a rating of 4.8 star which proves that most of its members are impressed with the site.
Here are some of our customers are saying about Diet Doctor –
Our first reviewer, from the US, who was a diabetic rated the site 5 stars. He said he was able to get rid of diabetes and is no longer on medication thanks to Diet Doctor.
The second reviewer is a lady from the US, who also gave the site a 5-star rating said she loves this site because it provides all the information on the keto lifestyle.
The third user who gave the site a 5-star rating from Australia said the site is excellent, ethical, trustworthy and evidence-based.
The fourth review, a man from the US, said he was able to solve the problem with his blood sugar and weight with the help of Diet Doctor, and he gave the site a 5-star rating.
Our final review from the US said he doesn’t think Diet Doctor is the right diet for him because he hates heavy cream, sour cream or yogurt. Complained that he only loss 1 lb and he blood sugar level did not reduce after 2 weeks of following the plan, all instructions and advice.
Caution!
If you are diabetic and on medication make sure you consult your doctor before using the Diet Doctor diet meal plan or any other low carb diet. This because the medications that are given to you are meant to help reduce and regulate your blood sugar level. So taking the same dose of drugs and eating low carb food can result in hypoglycemia or low blood sugar level.
Remember, some of the hypoglycemia symptoms are heart palpitation, dizziness, weakness, confusion, severe case seizure and loss of consciousness.
Secondly, eating food high in protein can put too much stress on the kidney, so make sure you consult your doctor before starting any low carb diet if you have any kidney disease.
Conclusion
Diet Doctor does not only offer meal plans that are nutritious but also meal plan that is low in carbs which help to minimize your risk for complication. This diet plan can help you to manage inflammations, reduce your blood sugar level and blood pressure, allow you to lose weight and be full of energy. It can even help to reverse the course of diabetes.
However, not to forget to consult your doctor or dietitian before starting any diet plan.
