What is Metformin? Foods To Avoid While Taking During Diabetes

Metformin is a medication that is prescribed to patients by their doctors if they have type 2 diabetes. It should be taken with the proper diet plan. Below, you will get to know about this medication more deeply and also about some foods that you need to avoid while taking it.

Metformin: What Is It?

Metformin is made especially for patients with diabetes. This medication controls their blood sugar and can be used with a proper diet along with some other medicines. It is mostly prescribed to patients with type 2 diabetes. This is the best medication that is suggested by doctors for almost every diabetic patient. There are so many advantages to using metformin. It controls blood sugar. You cannot eat almost everything when you are taking this medication.

What Foods Do You Need To Avoid While Taking Metformin?

On the other hand, there is no specific diet for Metformin. Here’s some detailed information that you should look at.

According to the Centers for Diseases Control & Prevention in the United States, there are almost 30 million people with diabetes and 90-95% of them have type 2 diabetes, and most of them do not even know that. Most people over the age of 45 get affected by type 2 diabetes. This is the time for those people when their blood cells stop responding to insulin. The work of insulin is to collect glucose from the blood and sends them to the cells to transfer energy to them.

When the resistance of insulin stops the cells become unable to find glucose and energy as well. As a result, the high level of sugar in your blood damages your organs and blood vessels which increases the risk of cardiac issues along with diseases of kidney and neuropathy.

Here Metformin acts as a life-saver for so many people. This drug falls in the category of medication which is known as biguanides. Prescription medication lies in this category which stops the liver from producing excess sugar in the blood. The quantity of blood sugar that your body absorbs from the meals you eat is also reduced with the aid of metformin. Additionally, it helps the blood cells better absorb insulin.

After reading the above discussion you might get an idea that Metformin is a day saver for patients with diabetes. It may take control over the sugar in your blood but it’s not magic that cures your diabetes. To get a lot of benefits from metformin you need to follow a strict diet plan along with the exercise program that your dietitian prescribed.

What Is A Diet Of Metformin?

The Diet depends on the level and type of diabetes and the energy needed by a person. But when it’s time to manage your diabetes that you take plays an important role sometimes even more than the other medicine.

When we talk about digestion and metabolism there are certain types of food materials that break down into glucose which turns into energy for the blood cells. All of these foods contain carbohydrates. If you take glucose more than the required amount then your body will be stored glucose in other organs like the liver and muscle. If not stored then it becomes fat.

Some of the Carbohydrate foods are the following:

Fruits & Their Juices
Cereals, Grains, Bread, and Starches
Yogurt and Milk
Beans and Peas
Starchy Vegetables including Peas and Corn

Moreover, if you have diabetes you don’t need to cut off the carbohydrates in your diet. All you need to do is to control your carbohydrate in each meal. Multiple methods show you how you can use a controlled amount of carbohydrates to manage your glucose level. But before going to any of the methods you should concern with your doctor or your doctor to determine one for you.

Foods to Avoid While Taking Metformin

Below are the top six foods that you should cut from your diet if you have diabetes and you taking Metformin

Sodium
Refined and Simple Carbohydrate
Alcohol
Fats

Foods You Need To Add To Your Metformin Diet

Lean Protein
Complex Carbs
Healthy Fats
Non-Starchy Vegetables
Moderate Fiber Consumption

Additional Things That You Should Avoid While Taking Metformin

Along with the foods, there are some additional things that you need to avoid while taking Metformin. It could be some other medication because these medicines can increase the risk of developing lactic acidosis. This is the reason why these medicines prescribed to you should tell your doctor that you are on Metformin.

Following are a few medicines:

Antipsychotic Medications including Chlorpromazine
Oral Contraceptives
Diuretics like Acetazolamide
Anticonvulsants like Topiramate, Zonisamide
Antihypertensive such as Amlodipine
Corticosteroids like Prednisone

Moreover, if one is consuming these drugs then one should avoid taking high-fiber foods because fiber can bind and reduce the concentration of medication.

AfterEffect of Metformin

Along with so many advantages of using Metformin, there are also some drawbacks to consuming it. According to the published review in December 2016 named Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, there were common complaints written against Metformin such as it causes vomiting, nausea, gas, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.

It is written the authors of the review that it’s not understood why Metformin is becoming the reason for many gastrointestinal because this medicine promotes the resistance of insulin and the possible reason for diarrhea is the consumption of carb

Conclusion

There are so many ways to control your Blood Sugar, and Metformin is one of them. But there are some things that you need to consider while taking Metformin and avoid several foods which can cause different issues if you are on Metformin.