1,200 Calorie Diabetic Diets
By Eddie Tobey

Breakfast can consist of a cup of cereals, skimmed milk, a cup of any fruit and a muffin. This need not be an everyday affair. A 1,200-calorie diet requires that you stick to the calorie count while eating the right kind of food; how exactly you follow the regime is up to you. For instance, you can substitute the cereals with bread, have a little bit of cheese instead of muffin, and have a different kind of fruit everyday, say blueberries one day and an orange another day. These variations will ensure that you do not run out of steam as you follow the diet.

For lunch, you have the choice of baked chicken, a piece of ham, or a fish of some kind (for example, tuna or salmon), any kind of vegetable (i.e., tomato, lettuce or cucumber). If you want to go light on the midday meal, you can have yogurt, a fruit of some sort, salad tossed with lightweight dressing and some unsweetened coffee. About half a cup of white rice with few servings of vegetables and diet soda would be another choice.

For the afternoon snack you can munch on nuts, cashew nuts or almonds and have a cup of tea. But do not gorge on hamburgers, fries and Coke. This will undo all the good work that you have done during the breakfast and lunch.

If you had a light lunch, you can compensate for it at dinnertime with turkey, two to three kinds of vegetables like broccoli, tomatoes, or beans, and maybe one wheat roll. If it was a heavy lunch, the dinner should be easy on the stomach with a few slices of bacon, cornbread and a piece of orange or an apple.

The idea of a 1,200-calorie diabetic meal is not that every time you sit down to eat, you need to have weighing scales or a calorie meter on hand. A 1,200-calorie diabetic diet plan just entails eating right, eating frequently and stopping short of overstuffing oneself.