Abstract

Dietary education for patients with type 2 diabetes: failure or success?

Author(s): Chung-Mei Ouyang*

Type 2 diabetes is a significant public health concern. Food intake has been strongly linked with obesity and diabetes, not only related to the volume of food but also in terms of the composition and quality of diet. Improvement in the elevated blood sugar levels can be achieved through diet management; thus, the patients could be prevented from developing the diabetes complications. Health-care providers should encourage patients to understand the importance of diet which may help in diabetes management, appropriate self-care and better quality of life. However, making the changes to diet is difficult proposition for many people. Health-care providers trained to work with people who have diabetes on appropriate goal-setting around self-care behaviors to better enable them to accomplish the changes needed for better outcomes. Many factors are discussed for finding the best practice to deliver the dietary education for patients with type 2 diabetes.