Diabetes has become an epidemic, affecting 29 million Americans. But here’s the fine news if you’vis–vis concerned roughly your blood glucose: “One of the best ways to stay healthy is to create bigger food choices,” says Mitchell L. Gaynor, MD, author of The Gene Therapy Plan. Try these trades to lower your blood sugar and pack more protective nutrients into all bite.

Breakfast
Instead of: Fried egg + bacon + American cheese + bagel
Eat this: Scrambled egg whites + onion + tomato + spinach + black beans + sprouted cumulative-grain tortilla

The unchanging breakfast sandwich is packed as soon as saturated fat and refined carbs. But wrapping an egg-white scramble in a 6-inch sprouted whole-grain tortilla cuts calories and cholesterol and boosts fiber content to symbol your blood sugar. “Throw in some color for late late strengthening nutrients,” says Tami Ross, RD, a diabetes educator in Lexington, KY., and author of What Do I Eat Now? Onions, tomatoes, spinach and black beans all contain minerals necessary to glucose metabolism.

Lunch
Instead of: Romaine lettuce + carrot + cucumber + Thousand Island dressing
Eat this: Kale + dandelion leaves + radishes + chicory + scoop of tuna + olive oil + vinegar

A basic green salad is OK, says Dr. Gaynor, who is clinical scarf in crime professor of medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York City. “But you can make it a lot bigger if you’a propos worried roughly diabetes.” He tells his patients to ensue kale, dandelion leaves, radishes and chicory: “It’s amazing what they realize to prevent blood sugar spikes.You won’t be hungry for hours.” A scoop of tuna offers a dose of protein and heart-healthy fat, even though olive oil fights insulin-blocking inflammation.

Dinner
Instead of: Breaded white fish fillet + corn + couscous
Eat this: Whole baked trout + collard greens + quinoa

Trout is adroitly-to-obtain bond of in omega-3 fatty acids that guard adjoining heart illness. Just skip the additional carbs in breaded fillets, suggests Amy Stephens, RD, a diabetes nutritionist in New York City. Pair your fish as soon as collard greens, a good source of alpha lipoic prickly, which lowers glucose levels and improves insulin aversion. For your grain, go as soon as nutrient-dense quinoa highly developed than couscous. “People profit these polluted happening because they see alike, but couscous is in endeavor of fact pasta,” Stephens says.

Snack
Instead of: A granola bar
Eat this: Cacao nibs + almonds

Avoid completely the fillers (and blank calories) in a snack bar by noshing upon cacao nibs and almonds. Both are loaded subsequent to magnesium, and a large Harvard University psychoanalysis found that high dietary intake of the mineral condensed women’s risk of developing diabetes by 34percent. Happy auxiliary: “The tryptophan in cacao raises serotonin levels in your brain to in front you atmosphere full,” Dr. Gaynor says. “And you get your hands on your chocolate newscaster, too.”