8 Best Snacks For Diabetics

Have you have had a hard time finding the right snack to help control your diabetes?

Are you looking for a snack for a diabetic friend?

Diabetes can be difficult to control, requiring extensive planning, timed meals, and consistent snacking to keep your blood sugar levels maintained. Often, this means filling your bag with on-the-go snacks and fresh vegetables, hoping they stay appetizing throughout the day as you work or run errands.

At Youtopia Snacks, we believe that snacking should be easy, whether you have diabetes or not. Our team has put together this article about snacking with diabetes, why it’s important, and what you should look for in a snack.

We've also put together a list of 8 of our best snacks for diabetics, making sure that you are covered with a perfect snack-pack portion wherever you are.

Whether you're diabetic or you're looking for snacks for a diabetic friend, chances are, you’ve come across a lot of snacks that look like they are made out of sand, taste like cardboard, or simply aren’t inspiring.

Finding delicious, healthy snacks for diabetics is important not just to control glucose levels, but to provide a tasty, healthy snack wherever you are. For a lot of diabetics, the joy of snacking has been taken away by their health.

Snacking is meant to be something pleasurable, but many snacks advertised for diabetics are plain and uninspiring. Yet, snacking plays such an important role in anyone’s life who has diabetes.

For diabetics, snacks are not just pleasurable munchies, but also something to help keep glucose levels as close as possible to a normal, stable level, preventing hypoglycemia and low blood sugar.

Based on your type of diabetes, lifestyle, and level of physical activity, you may need to snack more (or less) often. Portion control is also an important part of managing diabetes, which can be time-consuming if you are trying to portion snacks out from a family-size bag of snacks. For this reason, smaller snack packs may be beneficial to people with diabetes because it makes the daily challenge of controlling blood sugar levels just a little bit easier.

Smaller snack packs of healthier snacks are also easier to bring on the go, making blood sugar management easier without having to opt for junk food from the corner store.

Finding snacks that provide the right nutrition with the same level of flavor is possible, it just takes a little extra digging. Most snacks for diabetics should be easy to digest and low in carbohydrates. Keeping a range of snacks on hand will help you choose the right snacks according to your blood sugar levels.

Beyond carbohydrates and calories, snacks with too much protein and fat can cause a change in your blood sugar, however, this doesn’t happen nearly as fast as it does with carbohydrates. (1)

“Your health care provider may tell you to eat a snack at certain times of the day, most often at bedtime. This helps keep your blood sugar from getting too low at night.”

MedlinePlus

Likewise, just because you might need some sugary snacks in your diet to bring your blood sugar up quickly if it gets too low, it doesn’t mean you can’t opt for healthy snacks. Understanding your snacks is the first step towards regulating your diabetes and making healthier choices.

Every diabetic has had to face low blood pressure. Feeling weak and dizzy is a key sign of low blood pressure, and for many people, it comes at the worst times. Your blood sugar is considered low if it falls below 70 mg/dL, which can leave you feeling jittery, faint, irritable, or lightheaded.

Of course, your blood sugar levels change throughout the day, making it important to check regularly to keep yourself informed of any changes. (2)

The rule of thumb with diabetes is to have 15 grams of carbohydrates, wait 15 minutes, then check your blood sugar again to see how your levels have fluctuated. This is called the 15-15 rule, and should only be used when your blood sugar drops lower than normal levels.

“Your blood sugar tends to fluctuate throughout the day. It’ll be lower when you first wake up, especially if you haven’t eaten for the past 8 to 10 hours.”

Healthline

Checking your blood sugar levels frequently can help regulate your snacking habits as well; if you notice you experience low blood pressure at certain times of the day or before certain activities, you can plan ahead to pack a snack and bring your blood sugar up quickly.

This is why it is important to keep a variety of snacks on hand, not just snacks that will keep your cravings satisfied and your blood sugar regulated, but snacks that will help bring your blood sugar up quickly if it drops too low.

Several foods that can help raise your blood sugar quickly are apples, grapes, raisins, bananas, and oranges. Snack packs and other healthy, portion-controlled snacks are perfect on the go. These portion sizes should not exceed a half-cup at a time, otherwise, you risk spiking your blood sugar too high.

If you don’t have food on hand, you can dissolve a small spoonful of sugar in water or eat a small spoonful of honey.

Foods with higher levels of fat or protein will take longer for your body to absorb, so they won’t raise your blood sugar as quickly as you might need. Foods with these higher levels of fat and protein are better for raising your blood sugar over a longer period, but only if your blood sugar is still within a normal range.

Did you know that nighttime snacking, while not typically recommended, can be beneficial for people with diabetes?

You learn something new every day, right?

There are several snacks that can help raise your blood sugar levels in the middle of the night when levels typically drop.

A key factor in ensuring your bedtime snack will provide the most benefit is ensuring it lasts a long time. If your blood sugar levels are normal, you should avoid snacks that are high in carbohydrates or simple sugars, which digest very quickly.

Look for a snack that has the following:

- A high level of protein

- Healthy unsaturated fats or oils

- Limited carbohydrates

Snacks that meet these metrics will help sustain your blood sugar levels throughout the night, tiding you over until the morning hours when your blood sugar begins to naturally rise again. (3)

“The best snacks for each person will depend on how the body responds to the dawn phenomenon* and the Somogyi effect^, as well as personal preferences and goals.”

Jenna Fletcher

* Dawn phenomenon: an abnormal early-morning increase in blood sugar in people with diabetes.

^ Somogyi effect: a counter-intuitive phenomenon that happens when you take insulin before bed but wake up with high blood sugar levels.

With this information, it can be a wonder that you keep your blood sugar under control at all during the day, never mind at night. The body’s natural processes are meant to regulate your blood sugar and keep it stabilized based on how much you are using it, but when you add diabetes into the mix, it can become a detriment.

Our list of the top 8 snacks for diabetics qualifies as good snacks for bedtime snacking as a diabetic, helping your blood sugar rise slowly and steadily. Several snacks that you can eat also include the following:

- Celery

- Boiled eggs

- Chickpeas

- Sugar-free yogurt

- Seeds or nuts

Of course, like any healthy snack, it is important to moderate how much you consume at once. Treat your bedtime snack like you just had lunch, but you are feeling hungry and need to keep your energy up until dinner time.

Generally, this means eating more mindfully, pacing each bite, and savoring the taste, giving your body time to adjust to the food. Refrain from snacking while you are distracted to avoid eating too quickly.

If you plan your meals out ahead of time, plan for success and include a bedtime snack as well. Planning for your bedtime snack can help your body become accustomed to the routine and help you adjust how you eat in the evening to accommodate the extra sugars.

Did you know that your glucose levels fluctuate throughout the day, even into the night when you are sleeping?

Your blood sugar levels drop steadily from the time you go to sleep, as your body’s metabolism slows down, and you enter into a deep sleep. After a while, your body begins to wake up again, and your blood sugar will rise slightly higher than normal, coinciding with an early morning wake up time.

If you find yourself waking up during the hours of 2 and 3 AM with low blood pressure, or waking up in the middle of the week feeling faint, then you might want to consider eating a snack before bedtime to lessen the effect of this blood sugar drop.

Your blood sugar drops between 2 AM and 3 AM. This is known as the Somogyi effect and can cause you to wake in the middle of the night feeling restless or tired. This can even diminish the quality of sleep you get if your sleep cycle is frequently interrupted.

Between 3 AM and 8 AM, your blood sugar will begin to surge upwards as your body begins the process of waking up. If your body releases too many of the hormones that keep these levels rising, you may wake up with high blood sugar.

The exact levels may fluctuate slightly depending on how much you had to eat that day, how consistently you ate, at what times you ate, and how long your insulin stays in the body. Your body takes all of these factors into consideration and attempts to carefully balance out the body’s blood sugar throughout the night.

This is a natural process whether you have diabetes or not. It is, however, much more pronounced in people who have diabetes since blood sugar can be so difficult to maintain during the day.

Planning your snacks ahead of time can help lessen the effects of this drop in blood sugar. Plus, let’s talk about the real reason: you finally have an excuse to indulge in a midnight snack!

Lastly, it is important to keep the snacks healthy, as empty calories and low-quality carbohydrates can have the unintended side effect of becoming fuel for fat storage in the body, especially right before bed.

There are some situations when, even as a diabetic, you should not have a late-night snack. Yes, your blood sugar levels do drop in the middle of the night naturally, however, depending on the medication your doctor has prescribed for diabetes, you may not need a late-night snack to prevent your blood sugar from dropping lower than normal.

In this instance, there is no need for a late-night snack. For some people, this snack can be a chore. It’s important to always talk to your doctor before modifying your eating habits and discuss how your medication affects your diet and blood sugar levels.

Your doctor may recommend adjusting the dosage of your medication depending on your goals and whether you prefer snacking or would rather not make it a chore.

It is true that eating a snack right before bed creates more calories that your body will store, causing fat gain. This, however, does not magically happen for every snack, and the timing for when you need to start avoiding snacks doesn’t have to be exact.

If you are worried about gaining weight or high glucose levels in the morning, you might find yourself avoiding snacks after 8 PM. Having a light, healthy snack at 10 PM, for example, won't ruin your figure and, if your doctor recommends snacking, you could even see the benefits in how soundly you sleep throughout the night.

Above all, listen to your body and take your blood sugar readings frequently. That is the best way to tell whether snacking at night is right for you.

Imagine this: it's late at night and you're considering indulging in a midnight snack. This snack will help satiate your cravings and help you sleep soundly throughout the night as it keeps your blood sugar from falling too low in the early morning hours.

Have you considered how late is safe to eat?

Everything about managing your diet with diabetes is about timing your meals, your insulin doses, and everything in-between to make sure you carefully manage your blood sugar levels; something your body cannot do naturally for you.

No set time suddenly makes it unsafe for someone with diabetes to enjoy a snack. We recommend consulting your doctor to figure out a time that works for you based on your normal meal and insulin schedule, as well as what type of diabetes you have.

Often, an hour or two before bed is considered safe, while other diabetics will have a snack as little as fifteen minutes before bed.

Unfortunately, figuring out the optimal time for a bedtime snack is a trial-and-error process on a personal level, learning what works for you. Your doctor will be able to provide the best guidance otherwise.