Diabetes is a complicated condition and you should be careful about what they eat and what they do not. Managing your meal plan is one of the best ways of effectively managing diabetes.

In this article, let us check whether sabudana or sago is good for someone with diabetes.

What is Sabudana or Sago?

Sago or sabudana is a food item that is extracted from the roots of the tapioca, a native of the South American continent and is used in most of Maharashtra and the Southern parts of India. It is considered to be one of the healthiest sources of carbohydrates. It is a great source of several vitamins as well as nutrients that are needed in good quantity by the body to stay fit and healthy.

Advantages of Eating Sago in Diabetes

When you are a diabetes patient, you need to be really really careful about your overall diet. If you want to eat sago, you can derive the following mentioned advantages from the same:

=> Sago is a great energy booster. If you have low energy due to various reasons, sago or sabudana is greatly recommended for you

=> In diabetes, most of the patients also suffer from the problem of constipation or the problem of emptying the bowels. When you eat sago or sabudana, that problem can be gotten rid of. The high carbs actually help in emptying your bowels. This aids a lot in the digestive system

=> The sago is a great source of protein as well. protein is needed by the body for performing various activities. The most important benefit derived from protein is its ability to build up and boost the immunity system of the body. Diabetes, as we know, is an autoimmune disease and that is how sago helps in building the immunity system of the body

=> managing weight is an important element of dealing with diabetes. If you are unable to do so, diabetes will bring about a lot of complications in different body parts. Some of these complications include cardiovascular diseases, nerve damage, kidney-related conditions, joint pain, amongst several other things.

=> Protein is really essential when you are someone who is into a lot of physical activity and exercise. In diabetes, you need to be physically very active. That is how you keep going while avoiding diabetes-related complications. When you eat sabudana within the recommended quantity, you are sure to get the much-needed energy that you require for daily exercise and physical activity.

=> Sago is a great source of vitamin C. Vitamin C is very much-needed by the diabetes patient as this vitamin helps you get rid of various complications that diabetes is known to bring about such as it helps to build up the immunity system of the body.

Risks of Eating Sabudana in Diabetes

Not everything is good about sago or sabudana. The food item that is mainly eaten during fasts is known to be very high in the total starch content. The starch gets converted into sugar or glucose really quickly and that is the reason sago might pose a diabetes patient at some risk.

Hence, you need to be really careful while you eat sago or sabudana in your meals.

Ways of Including Sabudana in Your Diet

Sabudana can be included in a number of ways in your diabetic diet. Some of the best and the most common ways include the following:

• You can make the traditional kheer out of it.
• If you wish to go for the savory item, you can make a khichdi out of sabudana
• The most common item in fasts and also in Maharashtra is eating sabudana in the form of the sabudana vada.

The above are just a few of the various ways in which sago or sabudana can be included in the daily diabetic diet.

Recommendations and Factors to Consider

Sabudana is really high in carbohydrates. So, you simply cannot include it in your meal plan particularly if you are someone who has diabetes. You will have to consider the following factors:

• Do not include it in the diet before consulting your medical expert
• Have only the limited and recommended quantity. You should not go overboard at any cost
• Avoid eating it just before sleeping. Give a good 3 to 4 hours gap between eating sabudana and before going off to sleep
• Avoid eating the sabudana variant if the same is fried
• Also, avoid eating the kheer made out if it as it contains a lot of sugar

Thus, as is very clear from the above article, you can eat sabudana if the same is recommended by your doctor and as long as you are careful enough to not go overboard with it.