I am a type II diabetic and would like to add more fruit to my diet. Currently I am on oral medication, careful diet (no simple carbs, only complex), and a lot of walking (five miles per days). I have been diabetic for seven years and at age 60 am doing OK with a blood sugar after a twelve hour fast usually just under 100 (started at over 300).

I want to add more fruit to my diet. I avoid all citrus because of the high sugar content (simple carbs), no bananas or apples due to high simple carbs. I eat peaches, some grapes (raisins), strawberries and blackberries. What other fruits are very low in simple carbs and high in complex carbs?

-- Lynn Goltz (lynngoltz@aol.com), February 13, 2001

Answers

My book says blueberries and raspberries.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 13, 2001.

What you want are foods with a low glycemic index.

Dried apricots are the very best.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), February 14, 2001.

Thanks Paul and Diane. Years ago when I was hunting I carried dried apricots as a snack and liked them. What other dried fruits are good? Is there a book on this?

-- Lynn Goltz (lynngoltz@aol.com), February 14, 2001.

Lynn, I dry blueberries and strawberries and they are a wonderful carry along snack. Any book on drying will help you with that. The book I was getting my info from was the (dare I say?) Protein Power that I mentioned on a previous thread.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 14, 2001.

You want stuff with a low glycemic index. Try this link

http://www.nutrinews.com/public/recipesfood/referencedatabases/glycemi cindex/index.cfm

(I just grabbed it from a quick web search)

Other notes: Eating fat or dairy products with carbohydrates naturally lowers the GI of the carbs. Simply avoiding carbs is a good idea too.

If you're eating less carbs, don't worry about gaining weight while eating more fat. A lot of people that eat this way experience weight loss.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), February 14, 2001.

Lynn, I am not diabetic but mother is & I try to find info. for her. I read somewhere that grapefruit was good for diabetics. (Maybe for fiber?) Should she avoid that?? Thanks. DW

-- DW (djwallace@ctos.com), February 18, 2001.

What about avocados? I suppose they would be considered a fruit.

-- amy (acook@in4web.com), February 18, 2001.

Lynn,

Check out www.nativeseeds.org

They are a non-profit seed company that has information on controlling diabetes with native plants.

-- Mona in OK (jascamp@ipa.net), February 20, 2001.