How much pear should a diabetic eat?
Pears and Diabetes
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Pears: A Sweet You Can Eat
Type 2 Diabetes: Overview
We naturally have sugar in the bloodstream that provides energy to every body cell. Healthy levels of this sugar, glucose, are maintained by insulin, a hormone secreted when blood sugar rises too high. Type 2 diabetes happens when your body doesn’t make enough insulin or your body’s cells don’t respond normally to insulin, called insulin resistance. This causes high blood sugar and immediately starts to starve cells of energy. Over time, high blood sugar damages sensitive tissues, such as those in the extremities, eyes, and kidneys.
What Should I Eat?
Following a regular meal plan, being active, taking medications, and tracking your blood sugar levels will help you manage your diabetes. Indeed, you may be able to control your diabetes just by eating healthfully and exercising regularly. Most people benefit from 3 meals plus 2 to 3 snacks every day. For easy snacking ideas, click here.
What are Carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates provide energy, and every cell needs energy. Carbohydrates are found in fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, beans, and dairy and come in three forms, sugars, starches, and fiber. Sugars are the simplest, most easily absorbed carbohydrates and include glucose needed to sustain energy. Starches are longer chains of sugars. Fiber is the indigestible part of a plant. While it is generally not digested, it may offer cardiovascular and digestive benefits.
Why Pears?
Everyone’s digestive system needs carbohydrates, and it is best to balance them with fiber, protein, or fat at every meal. Balancing carbohydrates decreases the rate of absorption of glucose, so your blood sugar won’t spike as dramatically. Good carbohydrate choices are those that already contain these nutrients, such as fiber-rich fruits and vegetables.
Pears pack a nutritional punch! Each medium pear contains 6g of fiber, 21% of the recommended daily value, and they contain vitamin C. Eating two pears every day meets your fruit needs as outlined by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. What could be sweeter?
But Doesn’t Fruit Contain Sugar?
Sometimes people think that since fruit naturally contains sugar, eating fruit is not appropriate for managing diabetes. This is not true! Fruit is full of vitamins, minerals, water, and fiber – all important nutrients – and most fruits are considered low GI foods. Indeed, foods high in fiber, such as pears, taste sweet without having the deleterious effect of spiking blood sugar.
For those counting carbohydrates, a small piece of fruit contains about 15g, or one serving, of carbohydrates.
For more information on including fruit in your diet, visit the American Diabetes Association website.
The Glycemic Index:
Many practitioners suggest following the glycemic index (GI). The GI is a scale from 1 to 100 that ranks how foods affect blood sugar. Foods that contain carbohydrate naturally increase blood sugar; the lower a food is on the GI, the less that food increases blood sugar. According to Diabetes Care, a medium-sized pear ranks 38 on the glycemic index and is considered a low glycemic food. [1]
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Low GI Foods: <55
Pears and most fresh fruits, non-starchy vegetables, sweet potatoes, rolled oats, quinoa, beans, nuts, seeds, milk
Medium GI Foods: 56 -69
Whole wheat bread, brown rice, quick oats
High GI Foods: >70
White bread, sugary cereals, white potatoes, pretzels, candy, cookies, pineapple, melons
Pears and Diabetes: Benefits, Risks, and Nutrition
Pears have been a part of Eastern medicine for centuries. They play a part in helping with everything from inflammation to constipation to hangovers.
We also know that pears can help control blood sugar and lower your chances of type 2 diabetes and stroke. They can even help you digest food better.
And, as a bonus, they’re a good way to make you feel like you’ve had a small treat with some added nutrition.
How Pears Affect Blood Sugar
The glycemic index (GI) rates food and its effect on your blood sugar on a scale of 1 to 100. The higher the GI level, the faster it makes your blood sugar go up.
Pears fall between 20 and 49 on the glycemic index. That makes them a low-GI food, mostly because they’re high in fiber. One small pear has about 7 grams of it. That's as much as 20% of the fiber you need each day. (Women should get about 25 grams of fiber a day, while men should shoot for 38.)
Some studies suggest that the pigments that give pears their color, called anthocyanins, can lower your chances of type 2 diabetes. We need more research to understand why this is and how eating pears might help if you have diabetes.
Other Health Benefits of Pears
In addition to being a good source of fiber, pears are also high in vitamins C and K, as well as potassium and antioxidants. They’re also especially good for gut health, and they may help keep you regular, too.
What's more, there’s evidence that the antioxidants in fruits like pears may make you less likely to have heart disease or trouble with cholesterol.
Things to Consider
When you have diabetes, it’s always important to think about carbohydrates. A small pear has about 22 grams of carbs, which is about 1.5 servings. You’ll want to factor that in when working pears into your diet.
As with any fruit, the best way to eat a pear is to eat the whole thing. The skin is where most of the nutrients are, particularly the fiber and antioxidants. That said, be sure to wash it thoroughly before you eat it.
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