Elaine Magee, MPH, RD
Biography

	How can I control my incredible craving for sweets? When eating fruit should I also eat a carb, such as crackers? How can a beer or two affect your sugar? What food strategies do you have for the holidays?
	Diabetes Meal Plans

Fall is here, and for many people that means it's eating season, but there are so many diet restrictions! Take heart; our own special needs diet guru, Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, joined us on Oct. 14, 2004, to serve up recipe ideas and eating tips from her books, Tell Me What to Eat If I Have Diabetes and The Good News Eating Plan for Type II Diabetes.

If you have questions about your health, you should consult your personal physician. This event is meant for informational purposes only.

Support for this University Course was provided by Medical Mutual

MODERATOR:
Welcome to WebMD University: "Diabetes: Get the Advantage" Your instructor is Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, author of Tell Me What to Eat if I Have Diabetes and The Good News Eating Plan for Type 2 Diabetes . She joins us for a look at how to get the most out of cooking and eating when living with diabetes.

MEMBER QUESTION:
Elaine, I feel so angry about having this condition. I'm so resistant to change and refuse to adopt a new diet. Please help.

MAGEE:
I understand the anger. I worked closely with my father, who had type 2 diabetes, for almost 20 years before he passed away. But if I could offer you some encouragement, the better you manage your diabetes, the better you will physically feel and the longer it will be until you have complications, if at all.

So there is a big payoff to understanding diabetes and managing it for yourself. If I could recommend my book: Tell Me What to Eat if I Have Diabetes. It's a quick read, and it really does not lecture you, but holds your hands and gently guides them through the information with understanding and compassion.

To give you a bottom line, though, today experts agree that the best way to manage type 2 diabetes and to protect against developing it is a healthy diet with:

• Whole grains
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Omega-3 fatty acids (from fish and certain plant foods)
• Plus regular physical activity

In the book there are 10 food steps to freedom and chapters on following those 10 steps in the kitchen, in the supermarket, in restaurants and fast-food places. Plus a beginning section to answer your questions about the medical aspect of diabetes and the dietary end of it, as well.

"Your goal is to be in a place where you can take a fun-size Hershey's from the freezer and enjoy it piece by piece and then move on."

MEMBER QUESTION:
Can you help me learn to control my incredible craving for sweets?

MAGEE:
I have sweet cravings, too...for chocolate . My advice is to kind of roll with your craving instead of resisting it, but the key is to have a sample of the craved food, not to overeat it.

That's the part people have problems with. I've found, for people who don't have disordered eating, for example, that they really can give themselves a sample of a treat and be done with it. Fun-size candy bars come in handy for this. Your goal is to be in a place where you can take a fun-size Hershey's from the freezer and enjoy it piece by piece and then move on. Once you tell yourself you can't have the treat, it generally only makes you want it more.

Another key to keeping cravings at bay is to avoid being overly hungry. Also, avoiding caffeine helps some people. When they're in that sort of overstimulant caffeine rush, I've found some people end up craving things after that.

So, if you eat a healthy diet, eating when you're hungry, stopping when you're comfortable, mostly choosing healthy foods -- whole grains, fruits, veggies, beans, lean meats, low-fat dairy -- there's no reason why someone with diabetes can't enjoy a reasonably sized treat.

The key is to keep them reasonably sized and not to overeat them. Also, it's best for people with diabetes to enjoy a treat or dessert along with part of a meal, so that the other healthy aspects of that meal, like fiber, and some healthy fats, can temper the affect the sugar may have on their blood sugars later.

The other key is to help compensate for the carbohydrate grams in a treat by decreasing the carbohydrate in the meal. For example, passing up the bread, knowing you're going to have some carbohydrate in your dessert a little later.

"Burning glucose is very important for people with diabetes, so I recommend a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise."

The opinions expressed herein are the guests' alone and have not been reviewed by a WebMD physician.