Food and diet advice

What is steroid induced diabetes?

Steroid induced diabetes is when the level of sugar in your blood is too high.  This can be caused by high dose steroids such as prednisolone which you must take after you have a kidney transplant.

We all need some sugar in our blood.  It comes from the carbohydrate (sugars and starches) that we eat.  Steroid induced diabetes is often, but not always, a temporary condition; in general your blood sugar level will return to normal when the dose of steroids is reduced.

Simple dietary changes:

You can help control the level of sugar in your blood by following a healthy balanced diet.  The following are simple steps which you can take to help control your blood sugar level

• Eat regular meals and avoid skipping meals
• Try to eat a starchy carbohydrate food with each meal, eg cereal, bread, rice, pasta, potato, noodles, chappatis, pitta bread, plantain, sweet potato or couscous.  These starchy foods cause a gradual rise in your blood sugar
• Where possible choose wholegrain or granary versions of bread, cereal, rice and pasta.  These foods are high in fibre
• Avoid sugary foods as these will cause your blood sugar levels to rise quickly
• It is important to include fruit and vegetables in your diet.  These are a good source of fibre, vitamins and minerals.  Fruit contains a natural source of sugar therefore it is a good idea to space our your fruit portions throughout the day rather than eat these in one go.  Fresh fruit juice is a concentrated form of fruit and causes your blood sugar level to rise faster and is best to avoid
• Avoid drinking sugary drinks such as full sugar pop and fruit juice.  Instead choose 'diet', 'zero' or no-added sugar type drinks
• Avoid adding sugar to drinks

Reading food labels

Looking at food labels can help you decide whether foods are healthy and suitable.  A simple way to tell whether a food is suitable would be to lok at the ingredients list.  If sugar is high up the list then the food will be high in sugar. Alternatively you can look at the food label.  Nutritional information is often given as an amount per 100g.  Choose foods using the traffic light system: you need to look at per 100g column and look at the value for carbohydrates of which sugars

RED - over 15g/100g (high)

AMBER - 5-15g/100g (medium)

GREEN - 5g or less/100g (low)