Cait James

You may think that giving up the diet you’ve followed all your life in favor of the Mediterranean diet requires a major upheaval in your lifestyle. The process may not be simple, but you aren’t giving up good taste. You’ll enjoy the diet — and your blood glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight will all take a turn for the better.

Following a nutritional plan sometimes seems so complicated. But really, if you follow the few simple rules outlined here, you can make the process much easier. None of them cost anything other than time. Doing them one at a time makes a big difference in your calorie and fat intake. Adding one after another makes the results huge.

Children don’t hate vegetables any more than they hate ice cream. It is what you teach them that determines their feelings about food. If you show them that you love vegetables and consider them delicious, that’s how they will feel about vegetables. They love to follow your example. The best time to do this is at family meals.

French food is always associated with the term “haute cuisine,” which means fine food prepared by highly skilled chefs. This kind of cooking derives from Italy and was introduced to France by Catherine de Medici. The French added their own subtle techniques to the methods of the Italians from Florence, adopting their use of truffles and mushrooms and preparing lighter sauces.

Managing diabetes means controlling the amount of fat that you eat. Food terms in recipes and menu items can help you identify high-fat and low-fat foods. Understanding these terms will help you determine which foods and recipes to avoid. These terms indicate a low fat content: BakedBroiledCooked in its o

You can take simple steps to improve your eating habits for healthier living with diabetes. Follow these simple tips to make a difference in your health: Keep a food diary.Figure out why you eat the way that you do.Avoid missing a meal; eat at regular times.Sit down for meals.Use water in place of caloric drinks.

If you're diabetic, you should understand that your body weight, body mass index (BMI), and kilocalorie intake affect the way you manage your diabetes. So take the following steps to calculate your ideal weight, BMI, and kilocalorie intake: Weight: Follow these general rules for calculating your ideal weight.

As you go through life with diabetes, you'll be exposed to many "experts" and different ideas about the best way to manage your disease. Before you make a major change in your diabetes program, run the new ideas by your doctor or diabetes educator to make sure it will help and not hurt you. Here are a few of the more common myths about diabetes — save yourself some grief and ignore them.

Exercise is a key part of the foundation for the management of diabetes (the other parts of the foundation are diet and medication). Everyone with diabetes should exercise, but be sure to check with your doctor if any of the following apply to you: You have complications of diabetes like eye disease, kidney disease, nerve disease, or heart disease.