Eat 3 meals and 3 snacks daily.

• Space snacks so that there is no more than 3 hours without eating.
• Always eat breakfast, and choose protein to eat with any carbohydrates you eat. 
• Eat a late afternoon snack, including protein, and a bedtime snack including protein. 
• This will help you sleep and also help to keep your blood sugar more normal during the night. 

• Avoid adding sugar (white sugar, brown sugar, or honey) to foods.
• Avoid soda pop, lemonade, and sweetened yogurt.
• Eat starchy carbohydrates rarely, as they impact your body in the same way that sugar does. 
• Omit juices, but instead use whole pieces of fruit (apples instead of applesauce). Fruit provides fiber and bulk.

• If after-breakfast blood glucose levels are outside the target range, you may be asked to shift some carbohydrates (starch and fruit) to other snacks or meals.
• Choose foods high in fiber: whole grains, vegetables and fruits, beans and legumes, oats, and minimally processed whole grains.
• Eat lots of leafy green vegetables, asparagus and the foods you find with lots of color. These are healthy for you and have a positive impact on your blood sugar.

Choose olive oil and even a little butter instead of margarine, which contains trans fatty acids. Choose low-fat meat selections, such as lean cuts of beef, pork, and lamb. Emphasize more fish and poultry (without the skin). Choose:

• baked, broiled, or roasted instead of fried chicken or fish
• low-fat yogurt instead of butter and sour cream on a potato
• herbs to season vegetables instead of cream or butter sauces
• salad dressings that are low in sugar and carbohydrates.
• Avoid pretzels, popcorn, bread sticks, foods fried in oil, such as doughnuts, chips, and French fries. These foods are either high in fat, and/or high in carbohydrate and provide little, if any nutritional value to you and your baby. 

Limit foods from fast-food restaurants. Ask for nutritional information on menu selections, and choose foods that are low in fat. For many women, a burger and fries or more than 2 pieces of pizza will cause high blood glucose levels. If you want a burger, eat the meat and skip the roll. These foods also are high in salt, so will make you retain water.

Do not think of yourself as being on a diet. You need adequate nutrition for your health and your baby's growth and development. Cutting back too much on calories and weight gain can increase your risk of a low-birth-weight infant. 

Recent research suggests an understanding of the Glycemic Index (GI) will help you make healthier food choices that will help to keep your blood sugar within a normal range. The GI is a ranking of foods based on their immediate effect on blood glucose. Carbohydrate foods that break down quickly during digestion have the highest GI and their response is fast and high. Carbohydrates that break down slowly, releasing glucose gradually into the blood stream have low GI values. More information about the glycemic index and specific foods can be found on this page: http://home.comcast.net/~creationsunltd/foodchoices.htm

 

Support Resources

Rubin, Alan L. (1999) Diabetes for Dummies.

http://www.diabeteswebsite.com/main.jsp

Gestational Diabetes

http://www.diabeteswebsite.com/facts/Gestational.htm

Happier, Healthier Babies: http://www.diabeteswebsite.com/facts/JuneBarbaraGestational.htm

Diabetes in Pregnancy http://www.diabeteswebsite.com/facts/OtherPregnancy.htm

Diabetes Health Care Web Sites for Consumers

http://home.comcast.net/~creationsunltd/dmwebsites.html

http://www.midwivesofwa.org/websites.htm

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Understanding Gestational Diabetes: Diet and Weight Gain

http://156.40.88.3/publications/pubs/gest3.htm

Pat Sonnenstuhl, ARNP, CNM	webmidwife1@comcast.net
These pages may be printed and used freely for you and your clients.
More Info: Healthy Lifestyle Choices
http://home.comcast.net/~cnmpat/siteindex.htm
http://home.comcast.net/~cnmpat/nutrition.htm