Diabetes treatment comes in four ways, including, a healthy diet, exercise, insulin and medicinal tablets to lower blood glucose, and it’s usually best to use some combination of the above.

A healthy diet can adjust the levels of blood and urinary glucose, and this can work wonders for those suffering from diabetes.

Good foods for diabetics are vegetables, fruits, meat, fish and shrimp, as opposed to starches and grains.

Primary vegetables:

Rau mồng tơi (malabar spinach), cải bẹ trắng (white cabbage), cải bẹ xanh (green cabbage), rau dền (amaranth leaves), rau muống (water spinach), cucumber, bitter melon, lettuce, white radish, salad, gourd, squash, celery, and tomato.

Secondary vegetables:

Đậu bắp (okra), bông súng (water lily), cassava, soybean curd, beans, green peas, bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms, eggplant, mint leaves, black sesame, garlic and onion.

All of the above vegetables should be eaten raw or boiled; it’s best not to eat them fried.

Primary fruits:

The best fruits for diabetes are less sweet and contain Vitamin C and minerals, such as tangerines, plums, oranges, pomelos, star fruits, casaba melons, apricots and watermelons.

Secondary fruits:

Other fruits that can be eaten in small quantities include apples (one a day), papaya (1/4th of a fruit per day), pineapple (half a fruit per day) and bananas (one per day). You should not eat dry or canned fruits.

Protein:

You should eat lean pork, beef and chicken, as well as eggs and soybean curd or tofu. Diabetics should eat fresh water fish including cá lóc (snakehead fish), cá rô (anabas), cá chạch (loach), cá trê (sheatfish) and cá bống (gudgeon). In addition, saltwater fish also can be eaten such as cá chim (butter fish), cá thu (codfish), cuttlefish, shrimp, crab, clam, snail and mussels.

Fatty substances:

Soybean oil, sesame oil, peanut oil and olive oil should be eaten.

Some following recipes can be used to supplement diabetes treatment:

- 150-200g of fresh bitter melon should be ingested each day in either a soup or tea.

- Wash 100g of fresh and young guava leaves, cook them with one liter of water until the water level is 750ml. Drink three times a day one hour before meals.

- Cook 100g of carrot, 100g of sugar beet and 20g of mộc nhĩ đen (black wood ear fungus) with one liter of water until the water level is 750ml. The dish should be eaten twice a day on an empty stomach. You also can add 50g of unpolished rice to cook porridge with the concoction, also to be eaten twice a day on an empty stomach.

- Cook 100g of sweet potato leaves, 100g of winter melon, 100g of tomato and 150g of young soybean curd mixed in a soup.

- Cook 60g of fresh watermelon skin, 30g of winter melon skin, 30g of red beans, and 50g of fresh lotus leaves with one liter of water for 15 minutes. The cooked water can be drunk three times a day.

- Dip 200g of fresh celery in a pot of boiled water and take it out immediately. Then grind them and crush it in your hand to take its juice. Drink the juice twice a day after your meal.

—
By Herbalist Dinh Cong Bay (General secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Medicinal Material Society)