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Take a look at our FAQs so you can make the most of our meal plan designed to help you eat well with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes - it's packed with Diabetes UK-approved recipes and top tips. For more inspiration, take a look at our diabetes recipes and learn just how easy it is to enjoy delicious food whilst managing your condition with our simple guide.
We have created a 3-day meal plan, which is budget friendly and focuses on reducing food waste by using frozen fruit and vegetables instead of fresh, where it is possible, and utilises similar ingredients such as oats and pulses to demonstrate buying in bulk and still having a variety of meals.
The meal plan is calorie counted each day to help some people with weight maintenance and some people with weight loss. There are varying amounts of carbohydrate each day to help you choose which works best for you, including one lower carb day.
The meal plan also contains at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day and meets fibre requirements for adults across the 3 days.
The meal plan includes the values for protein too to help you meet your nutritional requirements. It also contains 2-3 servings of dairy each day to help adults meet their calcium requirements.
The meal plan is designed for adults, many of the meals are appropriate for children, but the plan hasn’t been designed to specifically meet the nutritional needs of children. Please note that this meal plan is not suitable for people who want to gain weight. It may be suitable for pregnant women if all dairy products are pasteurised and all meat, eggs and seafood are thoroughly cooked. Please speak to your GP, midwife or dietitian if you are pregnant, as you will have increased nutritional needs for certain nutrients.
Some of the recipes within this plan serve anywhere from 1-6 people. You can either reduce the quantities to serve as many people as needed or look to see if the recipe can be made in bulk and frozen for a later date. This will also help reduce waste.
Please speak to your diabetes health care team before making significant changes to your diet.
This is especially important if you treat your condition with insulin and diabetes medications that increase the risk of hypos (low blood sugar levels). Reducing your carbohydrate intake and changes to your body weight may mean your insulin and diabetes medication needs to be adjusted.
1. This meal plan has taken nutritional information from recipes developed in partnership between Tesco and Diabetes UK and the sixth edition of Carbs and Cals, unless otherwise stated.
2. This meal plan includes 250ml milk each day in addition to the recipes and snacks to help meet calcium requirements. Semi-skimmed milk has been used in the nutritional analysis, but please use whichever you prefer (e.g. whole milk, semi-skimmed or skimmed). Any dairy alternative should be unsweetened and fortified with calcium.
3. This meal plan meets the recommended amount of fibre for adults each day.
4. This meal plan outlines daily food intake for one person, but it's still important to remember to drink regular fluids throughout the day. This includes plain water, plain milk, and tea or coffee without added sugar. Some of the recipes aren’t for one person, but the quantities can be adapted to serve one.
Disclaimer: every effort has been taken to make these meal plans as accurate as possible, but there will be some variation in nutritional values. Speak to a dietitian or your diabetes healthcare team if you have questions about your individual dietary needs.
No, this is optional, not everyone needs to have two snacks a day. If you are not having both the snacks, this will change the overall nutritional values of the day.
Yes, you can mix and match recipes and snacks across the days. All of these would make up a healthy diet. Just note the overall values for carbs, calories, protein and fibre would be different to what is listed.
We use Brazil nuts in this meal plan, a source of healthy fats, but you can choose a different type of nut based on your budget and preference. However, this swap will slightly change the overall values for carbs, calories, protein and fibre to what is listed for the day. You can also swap fruits and vegetables to other types of fresh, frozen or canned fruits and vegetables available.
All of our recipe content is reviewed by our consultant nutritionist. Each and every ingredient is run through nutrition software to determine the individual and combined nutritional information, whether that be at a generic or brand-specific level. NutriCalc, the software used, draws on the McCance and Widdowson database which provides comprehensive nutrient information for foods commonly consumed in the UK.
Diabetes UK are the leading charitable funder of diabetes research in the UK, and it’s their mission to tackle diabetes, day in and day out, until it can do no harm. They campaign for better care, give support in times of need and fund groundbreaking research into new treatments and a cure.
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