Diabetic Exchange Lists

Comprehensive Food Lists

Our massive diabetic exchange lists make following your diet easy! Don't guess at exchange values or waste time calculating them yourself.

Our food exchange lists are easy to follow include the most popular foods around.

As you know, there are six categories of foods in the diabetes food pyramid:

• Starches and Breads
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Meat and Substitutes
• Dairy
• Fat

There are also many combination foods, such as stews, casseroles, and pizza. Everyone also wants to know about free foods, such as coffee and tea. We will deal with each one of these categories in turn.

Please Note: All of the exchange values provided below are for illustration purposes only. Any given food item may be more or less depending upon the individual ingredients. The values provided are to help you plan your meals, but you should always review individual food labels to confirm exchnage values.

Starches and Breads Diabetic Exchange Lists

One Exchange Value serving typically should conform to the following:

Calories: 80
Protien: 3 grams
Carbohydrates: 15 grams
Fat: minimal to none

When at all possible choose whole grain bread, pasta and cereal. Also, when evaluating breakfast cereals, make sure there is less than 5g of sugar per serving, otherwise you get "bumped up" into a higher number of exchange points.

You should also note that "starches" don't just include the standard breads, pastas, and grains. They include high starch vegetables, such as potatoes, corn and some beans.

Common Breads, Rolls, Pasta and Cereal Diabetic Exchange Lists

Common Starchy Vegetables Diabetic Exchange Lists

Common GrainsDiabetic Exchange Lists

Common Crackers and Miscellaneous Diabetic Exchange Lists

Fruit Diabetic Exchange Lists

One Exchange Value serving typically should conform to the following:

Calories: 60
Protein: 0 grams
Carbohydrates: 15 grams
Fat: 0 grams

As expected fresh fruit is the optimal choice. If you must eat other types (canned, frozen, etc.), make sure there is no sugar added.

Common Fruit Juices

Vegetable Diabetic Exchange Lists

One Exchange Value serving typically should conform to the following:

Calories: 28
Protien: 2 grams
Carbohydrates 5 grams
Fat: 0 grams

Raw vegetables are considered the best choice, particularly dark leaf vegetables, such as spinach. Steaming vegetables is the next best preparation choice.

Low Carb and Low Cal Vegetable Diabetic Exchange List

Some vegetables have very little carbohydrates or calories. They are not technically "free" foods as outlined below, but if eaten raw they may be eaten in greater quantity. This does not mean you can eat 12 lettuce heads in one sitting, but generally you do not have to stress over the serving size like other foods.

Meat and Meat Substitutes Diabetic Exchange Lists

Meat and Meat Substitutes are a little more involved for determining One Exchange Value of any given serving. The conventional wisdom is that meat exchange values are determined based on their fat content as follows:

High fat meat choices should be rare occasions. If at all possible stick with low fat options. Also, avoid frying meat and try to bake, barbeque or broil when cooking.

If eating hamburger, you may also want to rinse the meat after you cook it. This will remove a tremendous amount of the fat. Lastly, trim any excess fat before cooking.

No Fat Meat and Meat Substitutes

Low Fat Meat and Meat Substitute Diabetic Exchange Lists

Medium Fat Meat and Meat Substitutes Diabetic Exchange Lists

Higher Fat Meat and Meat Substitutes Diabetic Exchange Lists

Eat these meats only infrequently. The saturated fat content is not good for you.

Dairy Diabetic Exchange Lists

Dairy Exchange Value per serving is split into nonfat, low fat and medium to high fat categories.

Dairy choices are best if nonfat or low fat. The key is also to avoid as much, or all saturated fat in this category. If you are not a big dairy consumer, make sure you take a calcium supplement. Amongst other things, this will help with avoiding or minimizing diabetes and osteoporosis.

One Exchange Value serving typically should conform to the following:

NonFat Dairy Diabetic Exchange Lists

Low Fat Milk Diabetic Exchange Lists

Medium to High Fat dairy Exchange List

Fat Diabetic Exchange Lists

One Exchange Value serving typically should conform to the following:

Try and choose unsaturated or low saturated fat choices. Better cooking oil choices includ safflower, olive, canola, etc.

Lower or Unsaturated Exchange Lists

More Saturated Fat

Use the following fats very infrequently.

Free Foods Diabetic Exchange Lists

Finally, if you have read this far, you are now rewarded with some free food items!! Wahoo!! They may not seem like much, but let's take what we can get. If the item has an * next to it, it has high sodium, so be careful.

The following items have very few calories and are considered free!.

Diabetic Exchange Lists Summary

The above diabetic exchange lists should get you started toward implementing your exchange diet. However, as you may have determined, many of the foods we eat come already prepared.

Initially, it will take some time to figure the appropriate exchange value, but the reward will be well worth it. Great health and feeling great!