Diabetic meal replacements can be a healthy alternative to skipping a meal in diabetics who are pressed for time. Many of the meal replacements can be in the form of nutrition bars or shakes. Since these are supposed to be just that, meal replacements, they should be balanced and nutritious and shouldn't favor one nutrient over the other. They should contain approximately 200 to 300 calories, contain 15 to 35 grams of carbs, and 10 to 15 grams of protein. A bar or shake containing much more protein than this may cause protein intake to become too high. Too much protein can be hard on the kidneys and thus excessively high protein intake should be avoided.
Some may think that diabetics should not use meal replacements because they believe them to be unhealthy. This, however, is not true as the America Diabetes Association encourages the use of meal replacements over skipping a meal, which a diabetic should never do, as blood sugars are key and skipping meals causes lows and highs.
The carbohydrate source in these meal replacements must be carefully chosen. It is important to choose ones that are low or absent in refined carbs such as sucrose, corn syrup, and high fructose corn syrup as these cause spikes in blood sugar. Usually, if these are the first ingredients in the ingredients list, the meal replacement shouldn't be chosen. Glucerna is a diabetic meal replacement made especially for people with diabetes. They come in shake form and can be found in a can in your local grocery store or pharmacy.
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