Healthy and Happy Chinese New Year Series： Getting rid of the ＂sweetness＂ and relaxing the Chinese New Year.

　　Cctv news (Reporter Liu Liang Zhang Ke）：Year after year, live a healthy and happy New Year. Diabetes is called "sweet burden". According to the data of the Eighth Global Diabetes Survey released in 2017, there are 114.4 million diabetic patients in China, ranking first in the world. What should diabetics do in holiday diet, and what key issues should they pay attention to during the holiday? See what the experts say.

　　How to eat when traveling abroad?

　　When traveling, the amount of exercise will be greatly increased than usual, and patients who take hypoglycemic drugs or insulin. If you don’t eat on time or eat less than usual after taking the medicine, it is easy to cause hypoglycemia. In severe cases, it will lead to hypoglycemia coma, secondary injury and even life-threatening. Therefore, diabetic patients should pay more attention to eating on time when traveling, and should also carry candy, chocolate, etc. with them in case of hypoglycemia.

　　What should I pay attention to when eating in a restaurant?

　　When dining in a restaurant, especially when many friends gather for dinner, we should pay attention to choosing dishes with less oil and salt as far as possible, and it is better to steam, boil, blanch, rinse and cold salad. Try to avoid fried, fried, roasted and smoked foods. Pay attention to eat more green leafy vegetables, mainly fish, shrimp and shellfish, followed by chicken and duck, and avoid oily meat such as ribs, elbows and brisket.

　　Some people find that the blood sugar level is low after drinking, so they think that alcohol can lower blood sugar. In fact, this is because alcohol disturbs the normal energy metabolism after entering the human body, and often does not eat staple food after drinking, thus creating the illusion of low blood sugar response. It is really not advisable to control blood sugar by drinking, and diabetic patients should try to avoid drinking.

　　What are the dietary misunderstandings of diabetes?

　　1. blindly reduce staple food. Some people think that eating less or not eating staple food can reduce the rise of blood sugar, and indeed this way will have a certain effect in a short time. However, carbohydrates in staple food are the main source of human energy and should account for more than half of the total energy in the whole day. In particular, glucose is the only source of energy for the brain and red blood cells in general. In the process of human energy metabolism, fatty acid metabolism also needs carbohydrate to participate. Blindly reducing staple food will change the state of energy metabolism in human body, and this unhealthy diet is not desirable.

　　2, only vegetarians do not eat meat. Animal food is the most important source of high-quality protein, and its amino acid ratio is suitable for human needs, which is irreplaceable by plant food. Animal food can also provide rich vitamins and minerals for human body, especially iron in red meat is not only rich in content, but also easier to absorb than plant food. Therefore, whether it is to control weight or blood sugar, it is not worth the loss to eat vegetarian food.

　　3. Do not limit the intake of vegetable oil. In fact, animal oil and vegetable oil are both lipids. It provides more than twice as much energy as carbohydrates of the same mass and protein. Therefore, excessive intake of animal fat or vegetable oil will lead to excessive total energy, which will affect the control of blood sugar. In addition, long-term excessive intake of fat will also increase weight, leading to a decline in insulin sensitivity in the body. It will also cause dyslipidemia and increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in diabetic patients. Therefore, on the basis of reducing animal-derived fat as much as possible, vegetable oil should also be restricted, and the daily intake of vegetable oil for diabetic patients should be below 25g.

　　4. Don’t eat breakfast. Many diabetic patients, especially young patients, skip breakfast or only eat milk and eggs instead of staple food, so as to control the total energy intake and lower blood sugar. I don’t know that using this method to control heat often fails. Because if you don’t eat breakfast, you will be particularly hungry at noon, and unconsciously you will eat more than before, which will make your blood sugar rise faster. In fact, the purpose of blood sugar control is that blood sugar is up to standard and stable, and high and low blood sugar is extremely harmful to human body. Because diabetic patients have absolute or relative deficiency of insulin secretion and poor blood sugar regulation ability, this practice of skipping breakfast will aggravate blood sugar fluctuation and violate the principle of blood sugar control. Therefore, the calories of three meals of diabetic patients must be balanced to avoid a certain meal energy being too high or too low. In addition, setting up meals in addition to three meals, such as 9: 00 am, 3: 00 pm and before going to bed, will distribute the food for dinner more evenly throughout the day, which will help the blood sugar to reach the standard smoothly.

　　5. You can eat more things that are not sweet. Saying that you can eat more things that are not sweet is based on the fact that the sweeter the food, the stronger the ability to raise blood sugar. In fact, this is not accurate. Fructose with the highest sweetness has the least effect on blood sugar, while maltose has the strongest ability to raise blood sugar, but its relative sweetness is very low. This shows that the statement that unsweetened food has little effect on blood sugar is untenable.

　　How should family members take care of diabetics?

　　1. Family members should also learn about diabetes. Encourage family members to accompany diabetic patients to the hospital, receive diabetes education together, and master some diabetes care skills, such as blood sugar monitoring, insulin injection and hypoglycemia treatment. According to IDF data, less than a quarter of family members have the opportunity to receive diabetes education. Family members and diabetics learn diabetes knowledge together, so as to better communicate with diabetics, better understand their needs, and better participate in patients’ home management.

　　2. Care and understand diabetic patients. Diabetes is a chronic and lifelong disease, which requires complicated and strict daily self-management, lifelong medication and monitoring, causing economic burden to families, resulting in pressure and pain, affecting the mental health of diabetic patients. The prevalence rate of depression in diabetic patients is much higher than that of the general population. Emotional support and active encouragement from family members are of great significance for diabetic patients to maintain a good attitude, follow treatment and improve their condition.

　　3. Family members adhere to a healthy diet together. It is very important for family members to arrange their daily diet scientifically and reasonably for patients with diabetes. The good practice is not to prepare the so-called "diabetes meal" for patients alone, but to adhere to a healthy diet by the whole family and play a clever role at the family table. A healthy diet can also be delicious and rich, so that patients with diabetes will not be isolated and every family member will benefit from health.

　　4. Exercise with diabetic patients. Regular exercise can help diabetic patients to improve their blood sugar control, but it is not easy for them to persist in long-term exercise. Moreover, diabetic patients may be at risk of hypoglycemia and sports injury during exercise. Therefore, in order to exercise better and safer, family members should accompany patients to exercise. (Interviewed guests: Li Shiyang, Department of Clinical Nutrition, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Tsinghua, Tsinghua University, and Li Caihong, Diabetes Case Manager, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Tsinghua, Tsinghua University)