India is a country with an increasing number of lifestyle diseases. It is all because of urbanization, unhealthy eating habits, and physical inactivity and inherent genetic characteristics. In this post about Indian diet plan for pre-diabetes, we will be tackling the most common lifestyle disorder, diabetes.
The pre-diabetic stage is when your blood glucose levels and HbA1C are higher than normal. Though, the levels are not alarming high to conclude that the person is already a diabetic, but is on the higher side of the normal range. This is a warning stage, and if not taken care of, You might land up as a complete diabetic. Act before the problem arises!
Classic signs of pre-diabetes:
- Insulin resistance manifested by acanthosis nigricans
- HbA1c between 5.5 to 6
- Polycystic ovarian syndrome ( pcod )
- Fasting sugar is more than the normal range
Pre-diabetes is majorly caused by:
- Obesity
- Physical inactivity
- Faulty eating habits
Indian diet plan for pre-diabetes
Before we see the Indian diet plan for pre-diabetes we need to see how we can stop this from becoming an illness.
There are 2 steps to control pre-diabetes
- Diet modification
- Physical activity
Diet modification:
Do not skip meals:
Meals if skipped leads to overeating in the next meal. This causes excess caloric intake. Excess calories are stored as fats in the body. More fat storage more is insulin resistance. Divide your meals accordingly and try to consume 5 – 6 small meals in a day.
Keep the protein intake high:
Indian diets are rich in carbohydrates. This causes glycaemic overload and may lead to excess sugar in the blood. This worsens insulin resistance. The proteins balance the glycaemic load of the meal and also help in the slow release of sugars in the blood. Include good quality of low-fat proteins. Consume low-fat dairy products, egg, and poultry, lean meat, fish, dals and pulses, nuts and soy.
Read – Indian Low Carb Diet
– Top 10 Low carb Indian Recipes
Consume lower glycaemic index foods:
Blood sugars are greatly affected by glycaemic index foods. Consume whole grain cereals, pulses, whole fruits, fresh vegetables, oats, chia seeds, and millets. These are high in satiety value and have added the benefit of reducing weight. Low glycaemic index foods reduce the sugar load and thereby control the blood sugar levels.
Read – Fruits and vegetables allowed in Diabetes ( You can follow the same list, till blood sugar comes to normal.)
Select fiber-rich foods:
The foods that are high in fiber reduce the glycaemic index of food. More the fiber more is the control over the blood sugars. Fiber also absorbs excess fat from the intestines itself and restricts its absorption in the blood.
Fiber also helps reduce the food intake, has high satiety value and keeps you full for a longer period of time. Include lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains cereals, multigrain flours, millets, brown rice, quinoa, chia seeds, flaxseeds, etc.
Read – Different types of millets that help in diabetes and weight loss.
– Different types of rice that help in diabetes and weight loss.
Include nuts in the diet:
Nuts are fiber and omega 3 rich foods. Omega 3 helps to reduce insulin resistance. Also nuts are the best option for the small hunger between the meals. It reduces hunger pangs, avoids overeating in the next meal and control blood sugars too. Walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds are a good choice.
Read – Benefits of Almonds
Consume more healthy fats:
Avoid consumption of trans and saturated fats. It worsens insulin resistance. Consume more of MUFA and PUFA rich oils. Include omega 3 rich foods in your diet. Omega 3 helps to correct the insulin resistance. Consume rice bran oil, olive oil. Include walnuts, flax seeds, fish and egg in your daily diet.
Read – Benefits of Flax seeds.
Control portion sizes:
This is the stage where with a little caution you can avoid the onset of diabetes. Restrict the portion size to the recommended allowance. This helps in weight reduction, sugar control and avoids fat deposition in the body.
Read – How to stop food cravings?
Reduce your weight:
Obesity is the classic manifestation of pre-diabetes. Once you get rid of excess weight the symptoms of pre-diabetes will reverse. With prominent obesity, you can consult a doctor and start with pre-diabetes medicines which will help reduce weight.
In initial stages, only diet modification and some exercise will help to reduce weight. The decrease in weight dramatically reduces insulin resistance, fat deposition, and blood sugars.
Read – 1200 calories Indian diet plan for weight loss.
– Top 10 basic tip for weight loss
Add functional foods in the diet:
Oats have beta glucan that reduces body fat, weight and controls blood sugars. Methi seeds if added in the diet also helps in all the above three issues. Cinnamon in small quantity also helps to reduce insulin resistance. Psyllium husk also helps to reduce weight, reduce fat deposition and controls sugars.
Read – Benefits of Methi seeds in diabetes and weight loss
– Benefits of Psyllium husk / Isabgol
– How does Bhindi help in diabetes?
Avoid junk and soft drinks:
Junk food and soft drinks are too high in fats and sugars respectively. These foods increase weight and cause insulin resistance. Also, these foods have an immense impact on blood sugars because of their high glycaemic index.
Before we move on to the Indian diet plan for Pre-diabetes, we need to look into the second Important aspect that will help you in getting the elevated blood sugars to normal.
Physical activity:
Start with any physical activity. Aerobic activity will help to reduce the insulin resistance and thus control pre-diabetes. Take up walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, dance or yoga. Combine your workouts with strength training to tone the body.
Here are some important reads that will help you in choosing an appropriate workout that suits you.
- Top 10 yoga asanas for weight loss
- Benefits of walking
- Benefits of skipping rope
- Strength training vs Yoga Vs aerobic exercises for weight loss
Indian diet plan for pre diabetes
Here is a sample diet chart of Indian diet plan for pre diabetes.
Empty Stomach:
water with lemon and a pinch of cinnamon powder + 1 tsp soaked methi seeds.
Breakfast:
1 cup oats with 2 walnut halves in milk (no sugar)
or
2 Egg white Omelette
+ 1 cup tea/ coffee / milk (no sugar)
Mid-morning:
1 Fruit (Avoid banana) / 1 cup green tea ( without sugar)
Lunch:
sprouts salad (2 – 3 tablespoons) or vegetable salad – 1 cup
+ 2 Chapati or 1 cup Brown Rice or 1 cup broken wheat daliya
+ Any Vegetable – 1 cup
+ Dal – 1 cup
+ Curd -1 cup
Non-veg options – 2 pc chicken or 2 egg whites or 1 pc fish in gravy with 2 whole wheat chapati.
Post Lunch :
1 glass warm water with lemon and 10- 15 mins walk.
Mid Afternoon:
1 glass buttermilk / Ambil ( ragi kanji) / 1 cup sol kadhi
Evening Snack:
1 cup Tea/ coffee (no sugar)
+ Roasted low-fat soya beans
or Puffed rice with Roasted chana
Dinner:
Salad -(1 cup )
+ Nachni Roti / bajra roti / jau ( Barley flour) roti – 1 in no.
+ Vegetable (1 cup )
+ Green leafy vegetable (1 cup )
+ Curd (1 cup )
Post Dinner :
1 glass warm water with lemon and 10- 15 mins walk.
Bedtime:
1 cup Milk
Points to remember:
- Do not skip any meal
- Incorporate vegetables in every dish possible. This reduces the glycaemic load of the food
- Consume protein in each and every meal
- Keep a minimum gap of 2 to 3 hours between each meal. Do not extend the gap beyond 4 – 5 hours max.
- Wait for 2 hours after meals if you want to exercise
Here is a detailed 1200 calorie diet plan for diabetes. this too will help you if you follow in place of above mentioned Indian diet plan for pre-diabetes.
Endnote:
Perfect lifestyle modification can cut the risk of developing diabetes in the near future. You can always start with baby steps like by choosing healthy food options, controlling portion size and increasing physical activity. Even if any one of the readings of blood sugars is normal, it will cut down the risk of developing by half. Hope this Indian diet plan for pre-diabetes helps you in avoiding the medicines and getting your blood sugar to normal.
My sincere apologies for misspelling as PayPal !! . Autocorrection must have caused it..
Should extra calorie come from protein (dal etc) or fat (olive oil, butter etc) ?. As Fat contains more calorie, probably its easy to increase Fat to achieve calorie
I understand increase in protein via veg diet will also increase carb consumption, and protein increase can cause troubles to kidney.. At the same time increase of Fat may also impact LDL.. My LDL is also high ( 179 )
So which evil is better for me ?.. Sorry to call it a evil, but these are now turning like that to me 🙁
Hi Swaroop ,
That’s ok … actually, you are looking it the wrong way. decide total calorie intake you need to maintain, and then divide the macros. 60 % from healthy and complex carbs, 20 – 22 % from proteins and 22 % from fat.
for fats, you do not need to increase your ghee/butter intake. stick more to healthy fatty nuts and oilseeds, like flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, macadamia nuts, almonds, walnuts.
Thank you PayPal. I used healthily to count calories.
Diet plan given about accounts to about 1300 calories, with 150grm of carb, 55grm of protein, and 50grm of fat.. Is this calorie is not too low ?
So, I am confused on the objective on what should be my objective to reverse prediabetes. as my BMI is normal..
Whether it is to reduce the calorie along with carbo OR reduce carbo, but increase fat such that overall calories come close to 2000
hmm, the above-mentioned diet plan was made with an objective to induce weight loss too. But because you are in the correct weight, you should increase your calories and consume around 1700- 1800 calories everyday . and those should come from protein. so increase the number of protein foods in the diet, like add black channa flour to your roti, have more of dals/legumes and pulses if you are a non- vegetarian, include more of fish and eggs in the diet. Or simply look at the above mention and increase the quantity of protein foods where mentioned. along with this, if you can do some resistant training/strength training, it will do wonders in terms of boosting your health and increasing lean body mass, while decreasing your body fat % which could be high, unlike your normal BMI.
Hi Payal, thanks a lot for putting this together, which simplify a complex thing. My fasting blood sugar is 123, and am 75kg, 181cm tall.
I read many internet sites about reversing diabetes. It all talks about loosing weight by low carb high fat diet. But as my BMI is normal, I don’t think loosing weight will help me.. Please advice.
The diet plan you have suggested is easily doable, as it does not enforce on low carb. But few questions..
1. Dal contains 20% carbo. So won’t 1 cup of dal gives too much of carbo?
2. How much carbo, fat, protein each main meal is supposed to provide?
3. I used calorie meters online, and it says I would need about 2000cal. But when I translate this to food items, i sounds too much of food. What’s the disconnect?
Hi Swaroop,
Thanks for your words of praise. we make it a point to plan the diets that are practical and doable for our readers to benefit from.
Regarding weight loss – Most people who are being diagnosed with diabetes now days are obese / overweight, hence you will find a mention about weight loss in all the articles. But it is not necessary that all pre-diabetics are overweight. if your BMI is normal , then just try to maintain your weight , as a possible weight loss / weight gain may follow owing to the blood sugar level .
1] There is a difference between low carb and “NO “Carb. the diet plan we have mentioned is “Low Carb “. hence you find some complex carb giving foods mentioned. as “no carb “diets are impractical to follow for life long. No matter how much the internet hypes it.
2] Along with the quantity of carb, it is very imp to check the source where the carb is coming from. if you are a non – vegetarian , you can simply avoid these carbs by eating an egg curry / fish curry / chicken curry . but if you a vegetarian , you need to keep your protein intake intact, and hence pulses and lentils become necessary.
3] the usual distribution is carb : protein : fat = 65:20:15 but in case of diabetes it changes.
very-low-carbohydrate diet: 21–70 g/day of carbohydrate
moderately low–carbohydrate diet: 30 to 65% of kcal as carbohydrate
So the choice is entirely yours.
4] which app are you using for calorie counting ?
Hi Payel,
Thank you for replying back to my earlier post. I have two questions:
1. Can having methi seeds in the morning lead to gas problems?
2. Can you please suggest some healthy late night snacks? I eat dinner by 9pm but I generally stay awake until 2am and get hungry before going to bed.
Hi ,
1] if you have soaked methi seeds , then it will not lead to gas issues . Make sure you drink enough water through the day if you have gas.
2] You can have a glass of milk and 12- 15 soaked almonds, 1 apple , or 1 whole wheat khakra with curd .
Hi Payal,
What is the best option to eat if someone has Hypothyroid plus prediabetic symptoms. I am not sure what should not be eaten for the thyroid symptoms. The article for prediabetics is really helpful. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Hi Rashmi ,
Thank you for your kind words . You can use the diet plan mentioned as it is , and for donts and dos of thyroid , you can check this – https://www.dietburrp.com/?s=thyroid+
Hi Payal,
Thank you so much for all the information. This is very helpful. Can you please provide clarifications as to how we should drink soaked methi seeds + lemon water + cinnamon all together? I am confused. How much water should I use to soak the methi seeds?
you can soak some methis seeds and small piece of cinnamon in little water over night , next morning , remove the cinnamon stick , and gulp the methi seeds and the remaining water that is now infused with cinnamon with regular water , or warm water , and then over it drink 1 glass warm water and lemon.
if you find it toi much , start them 1 by 1 … start with methi seeds and warm water , and after 1 week , introduce cinnamon to it .
Empty Stomach:
water with lemon and a pinch of cinnamon powder + 1 tsp soaked methi seeds ,
1. shall we use soak methi water and squeeze lemon in it and eat methi seeds separately
2.Take fresh lukewarm water and squeeze lemon on it and eat methi seeds separately
Hi Swapnali ,
1] No , this water is very bitter , so just little water, so most of the water is all soaked in the seeds, the pending 1 tsp or so can be drank seperately. and use a fresh glass of warm water to squeeze lemon .
Please advise below :
1. Request if you can specify non veg lunch?If we are eating 2 chicken piece aprox (100 gram or 250 gram) then there is no need for sprout s/ Salad and curd? Please advise.
2.Vegetable in Lunch and dinner means any subji like Bhendi?
3. Please advise dinner, that is what should include in Vegetable and Green leafy vegetable?
4. Can we have non veg in dinner? If yes how much quantity?
Hi Swapnali ,
1] yes you can have 150 gms , and replace with sprouts and curd .
2] yes any sabji would do , green leafy vegetables are always preferable.
3] parval , palak , methi , bathua , drumstick leaves , toru , bottlegourd , bhindi .
4] 100 – 150 gms of chicken or fish .
Hi Payal.i want to know whether fasting blood sugar of 116 abd pp of 150 considered as pre-diabetic. I am suffering from pcod. What precautions will u suggest for me
Hi Nidhi ,
if you have any of your parent or both suffering from diabetes , and these are your sugar readings , then yes , you are a pre diabetic . If non of your parent or grand parents are diabetic , and this is your reading , again you are at a risk , but chances of yOU turning in to a diabetic are comparatively less. Please check this plan and try to follow it . –
Can I take 1 table spoon honey with Lemon & cinnamon in the morning?
Also can I add 2 tablespoon honey with 1 cup oats to enhance taste?
Please advise what vegetables to eaten in Dinner along with Leafy vegetable?
Instead of Leafy vegetable any alternate food? Can I eat non veg in dinner?
Hi Amit ,
for fruits and vegetable , check this – https://www.dietburrp.com/fruits-vegetables-allowed-avoid-diabetics/
If your fasting blood sugar is above 150 mg/dl , it is best to avoid honey till your blood sugar comes down below 120 mg/dl .
Can I eat any of the below item in breakfast? If yes, then what quantity
1. Masala Dosa, 2. Idali, 3. Poha, 4. Upama or Egg Sandwich
Hi Amit ,
Yes you can have them all
1. Masala Dosa – have plain dosa , without aalu masala. 2 no. 7 inch diameter.
2. Idali – 2 pieces
3. Poha – Add lots of vegetablesto your poha 1 soup bowl .
4. Upama – Add lots of vegetables to your Upama 1 soup bowl .
5. Egg Sandwich – instead of bread you can have egg roti. that is healthier.
M prediabetic ma’am
Thats why m asking
yes this diet plan will definitely help you in that case
Can i eat shrimps and crabs ?
Can i do exercise on evening ? Will it burn my fat ?
yes , yes and yes 🙂
Very nice information to Loss your weight.