I have pre-diabetes and am trying to lose weight.  How many servings of fruit and veggies should I have each day?

Answer: Pre-diabetes are people whom are at risk of becoming diabetes.  Therefore, they should watch their comsumption on carbohydrate or calories.

Both fruit and vegetable are great source of vitamin, mineral and fibers.  They are good for human health.  Most importantly, they are low in fat and carbohydrate or calories. Therefore,  they are good food to eat if you want to lose weight.   They help to make you feel full while still providing adequate nutrient. 

So instead of cutting back in fruit or vegetable, try to cut back in grains, fat, sweet and alcohol.  Substitute starchy vegetable with nonstarchy vegetable.  Eat small but frequent meal through out the day.  Do moderate exercise everyday is the good way to lose weight.

For your information:

-3, 500 kcal = 1 lb of body fat.

So if you want to lose 1lb per week, then you should burn 500  kcal more than what you eat per day

 1 serving of nonstarchy vegetable= 5 g carb, 2g protein, 0 g fat and 25 kcal.    Recommended serving is: 3-5 serving per day.

Be careful to not mistake with starchy vegetable, which contain higher carbs.

Starch vegetable includes potato, corn, pumpkin, sweet potato and yam.

Nonstarchy vegetalbe includes cabbage, bean, broccoli, mushroom, etc.

1 serving of fruit = 15g carbohydrate, 0 g protein, 0 g fat and 60 kcal. As you can see, fruit contain more carb than nonstarchy vegetable.  So the recommended serving is 2-4 serving per day.

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Reference: Question from FOODPICKER.org

Source of information: 

Rolfes, S.R.; Pinna K. & Whitney, E. (2009).  Life Cycle Nutrition: Pregnancy and lactation. Understanding Normal and Clinical Nutrition,  8^th edition, 477-491.

Remember: time + food portion, serving  size+ types of food/beverage  are important notes that diabetes should carefully watch, since these can link to hyperemia.  Hyperemia is the condition of increasing blood flow due to presence of extra glucose or other substances in blood.  Hypercemia is dangerous because it can lead to shock and death.

 Here are some helpful measure conversions to control food portions in preparing and cooking food:

         -Dash, speck, or few grains=less than 1/8 teaspoon

         -3 teaspoons (1/2 fluid ounce)=1 tablespoon

         -1 cup=16table spoons

         -2 cups (16 fluid ounces)=1 pint

         -4 cups (32 fluid ounces)=1 quart

         -16 ounces (dry measure) = 1 pd

         -2 pints=1 quart

         -4 quarts=1 gallon

         -1 ounce=28.35 g

        -1 pound=453.6 g

Here is an easy way to estimate a portion size by using our hands:

• 1 fist = 8 flz oz  or  1 cup of liquid
• 2 cupped hand = 1 cup of food on plate
• 1 palm of hand = 3 oz (which is about a slice of meat)
• 1 handful =2 oz or (1/4 cup)
• 1 thumb  = 2 Tbsp or 1 oz
• 1 thumb tip = 1 teaspoon

Reference: Boyle, M.A ., & Long, S.  (2001).  Rules of Thumb for Portion Size-It’s all in Your Hands.  Personal Nutrition (p54).  Belmont, CA: Thomspon Learning Inc.

Changing life with Diabetes. (2009). USA, Novo Nordisk Inc.

Hello.  I am a Nutrition Editor at http://FOODPICKER.org- a wonderful website designed to guide people with diabetes for healthy eating. 

I have always had a great passion to Health and Nutrition, and would like make a difference in people’s lives. My career goal is to become a registered dietitian.

I created this blog to provide many useful nutritional information. I hope that through this blog readers can learn to make healthy food choices. As a result,  they can eat better and live healthier.

More information will be added every week. Please feel free to check back, leave comments and share your exprience of nutrition-related problems.

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