Food Safety: Diabetics and Healthy Eating 2010

Food Safety: Diabetics and Healthy Eating 2010

Healthy People 2010 is a government-backed health initiative aimed at improving the health and well-being of Americans. Each decade the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services designates a list of focus areas it aims to improve over the next decade. Americans are challenged to improve their own lives by living healthier and helping others live healthier. Our Healthy People 2010 initiative assignment was Food Safety. Food Safety as an objective of Healthy People 2010 is actually focused on improving inspection processes for food manufacturers and restaurants as well as educating about correct food temperatures. We chose to look at Food Safety in a different light, as in, how eating safely can improve the disease process and quality of life for diabetic patients. As nurses, it is our job to ensure our diabetic patients know how to eat correctly to manage their disease and actually help lessen their signs and symptoms. If we can educate our diabetic patients in counting carbs or help our pre-diabetic patients alter their physiological state to avoid diabetes then we will have made a difference in their lives.

Diabetes is a nationwide epidemic in the United States that affects millions of people every year. Millions more are also newly diagnosed each year and even more are warned by doctors that they have borderline cases. As nurses, we will see the effects of this disorder on a frequent, sometimes daily, basis. We must have knowledge of the effects of diabetes and the importance of healthy eating for the sake of good quality of life for these patients.

Diabetes is a tricky disease that can be controlled with only using an amazing hormone-replacement called insulin. These patients can control their own blood sugars by simply increasing the amount of insulin they are using based on the amount of carbohydrates they have taken in. This seems like an easy fix to the problem, but overuse of insulin and uncontrolled high blood sugars can have detrimental effects. We will focus on how nurses can educate their diabetic patients about the importance of maintaining control over their diabetes using the foods they eat. Healthy eating is the simplest way a diabetic can exert some control over their diabetes if they have Type-II or use the least amount of insulin as possible if they have Type-I. As nurses, we can give our patients the tools they need to live a healthy, active lifestyle as a diabetic.

The diabetic diet often focuses mainly on eliminating processed, refined, or sugary foods and counting carbohydrates. The patient's doctor will determine the amount of insulin the patient requires based upon their blood sugars and how many carbohydrates they may have taken in at each meal. As nurses, we should educate our diabetic patients in which foods