Diabetes Mellitus is a serious and potentially life threatening disease that will affect thousands of Americans. The quality of life of many people are threatened by the side affects of this disease, some are blindness, circulatory disorders, nerve damage, and ulcerations of the skin.

Understanding Carbohydrate Metabolism is a Step in Controlling Diabetes Mellitus

Carbohydrates are made up of simple and complex sugars. What has to happen is these sugars must be broken down in the simplest form to be used by the body. Some of the sugars are used immediately by the body, some of the sugars are stored in the liver or muscles, and some stored away for later use in the form of fat. The process is called carbohydrate metabolism.

The fact is that carbohydrates are metabolized more quickly than proteins. The problem with proteins is they are more complexed and need to go through many changes before the body is able to convert them into the simplest forms of energy.

Menu Planning According to Carbohydrate Metabolism

Once carbohydrate metabolism disorders are understood, the information is useful to plan a diabetes-friendly diet. Dieticians have since changed the way diet control is taught to diabetic patients.

A long time ago a diabetic person could not touch sweets or birthday cake, those days are long gone. Today we are looking for net carbs that are contained in each food. Calorie counting is long gone and portion control is stressed. Some doctors teach to adjust their insulin dosages to their carbohydrate intake.

Menu planning tries to balance a portion of carbohydrates with portion of protein. Now the portion should be the size of your clinched fist. Diabetics divide their dinner plate into sections and have appropriate sized portions balanced with fruits and vegetables. Foods with high sugars are consumed on a limited basis. Consume low fat foods to help with weight control and regular exercise is a must.

If to many carbohydrates are consumed, a rise in blood sugar levels will occur since a diabetic pancreas does not secrete insulin properly to compensate for the high levels of glucose. Insulin can bring the glucose levels back to normal range, but the patient has to consume protein to stabilize the blood glucose as the endogenous insulin will continue to lower the blood sugar level.

Carbohydrate metabolism and high levels of glucose for extended period of time will put stress on a weakened internal organs of the diabetic patient and should be avoided. When you understand that the diet control and glucose monitoring can help the patient control their diabetes.

If you would like more information on this topic as well as other was to increase your metabolism visit: Carbohydrate Metabolism