Enjoy Nachos Guilt-Free: Expert Tips from a Diabetes Educator
Living with diabetes doesn’t mean you have to give up the foods you love.
In fact, with the right guidance from a diabetes dietitian, managing blood sugar while still enjoying delicious meals is not only possible but can become a key part of living a healthy and fulfilling life. Whether you're dealing with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) or Type 2 diabetes (T2D), working with a T1D dietitian or T2D dietitian can make all the difference when it comes to navigating your meals.
One common challenge for people with diabetes is managing their blood sugar while enjoying foods that may seem off-limits like a plate of nachos loaded with kettle-cooked chips, sour cream, cheese, ground beef, pulled pork, and beans. At first glance, this meal might seem like a recipe for disaster, especially for those concerned about their blood sugar levels. However, with the expertise of a diabetes educator, people with diabetes can learn how to enjoy these meals while still keeping their blood sugars in check.
Importance of Carbohydrate Counting
The first step in managing a meal like nachos is understanding the carbohydrate content. A diabetes dietitian can help break down the meal into its components, showing how much carbs come from the chips. For example, if there are six servings of chips, each containing around 20 grams of carbs, this meal could have a total of 120 grams of carbs just from the chips alone. For people with Type 1 diabetes or Type 2 diabetes, knowing how to count carbs and calculate insulin doses is essential.
However, it's not just about counting carbs—fat and protein play a role too. While sour cream, cheese, and proteins like pulled pork and ground beef don’t directly impact blood sugar, they will affect it over time. This is where a T1D dietitian or T2D dietitian can be incredibly helpful. They will help you understand how to dose insulin for the carbs immediately while planning for the delayed effects of fat and protein later on.
“Now and Later” Dosing Strategy
A key piece of advice from a diabetes dietitian is to use a "now and later" dosing strategy. This means taking insulin for the carbs in the meal right away, but also accounting for how the fat and protein will affect blood sugar later on, potentially hours after eating. For instance, in a meal like nachos, the pulled pork, ground beef, cheese, and even the fat in the chips will impact blood sugar over time.
If someone with Type 1 diabetes or Type 2 diabetes doesn’t account for these delayed effects, they may find their blood sugar spikes several hours after eating, especially during the night. This is why it's important to work with a diabetes educator or a diabetes dietitian who can teach you how to manage both the immediate and long-term effects of a meal.
Without the right guidance, it’s easy to make the mistake of only considering the immediate carb count when dosing insulin. Many people with diabetes have experienced a situation where they ate a large meal, took the right amount of insulin for the carbs, and then woke up with high blood sugar. The reason for this is often due to the impact of fat and protein, which can cause a delayed spike in blood sugar.
A T1D dietitian or T2D dietitian is trained to help people understand the entire picture of how different nutrients in food affect blood sugar. They’ll help you avoid common mistakes like forgetting to account for the fat and protein in your meal, and instead teach you how to balance all the components of your meal for more consistent blood sugar control.
If you’re someone who struggles with eating foods like nachos because you’re worried about their impact on your blood sugar, working with a diabetes dietitian could help you enjoy these meals without concern. They can provide you with the tools and strategies needed to eat what you love while still managing your diabetes effectively.
