The Ultimate Diabetes Grocery List

Managing diabetes starts with making smart food choices, and that begins at the grocery store. The right foods can help keep your blood sugar stable, support your energy levels, and make it easier to stick to a healthy routine. But with so many options on the shelves, it’s not always clear what’s best. If you’ve had trouble knowing what to buy to help manage your diabetes, here is a breakdown of the different food groups and what you should be looking for when you go grocery shopping.

The Importance of Choosing the Right Foods for Diabetes Management

For people with diabetes, it’s incredibly important to choose the right foods to build a healthy diet. Diabetics need to eat a lot of high-protein foods and high-fiber foods for diabetes management and blood sugar management.

Protein and fiber are very important to a diabetes diet because they lower the rate at which sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream. When that rate is slowed, it keeps blood glucose levels stable and reduces the risk of blood sugar spikes and crashes.

Building Your Diabetic Grocery List

A lot of foods have more sugar or carbohydrates than you may expect, so it’s important to know what the best choices are when doing your regular grocery shopping. Here are foods you should try to incorporate into your diet for diabetes management.

Fruit

Eating fruit is a source of essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. When choosing fruits, it’s important to prioritize ones that are low in starch and high in fiber. High-fiber fruits are important for a diabetes diet because fiber helps slow down the rate at which sugar reaches the bloodstream.

Fruits to incorporate into your diet include things like:

• Apples
• Cherries
• Kiwis
• Underripe bananas
• Peaches
• Plums
• Grapes
• Apricots
• Papaya
• Oranges
• Berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, etc.)

Dried fruit and canned fruits can also be good additions to a diabetes diet when fresh fruits aren’t available. When choosing processed fruits like these, make sure you read food labels to ensure the ones you buy don’t have any added sugars. Canned fruits in their own juices or water are best.

Vegetables

Just like fruits, it’s important to choose non-starchy vegetables. Starchy vegetables have more carbs, which can lead to blood sugar spikes if eaten in excess. These vegetables can be good additions to your diet for diabetes management:

• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Eggplant
• Asparagus
• Green beans
• Brussels sprouts
• Carrots
• Zucchini
• Celery
• Lettuce
• Cabbage
• Okra
• Onions
• Tomatoes

Canned vegetables can also be a good alternative to fresh vegetables. When choosing canned vegetables, be aware that they often have added salt. If this is a problem, choose low-sodium varieties or ones with no added salt. You can also rinse your canned vegetables under water to remove some of the salt.

Meat & Seafood

When choosing meat and seafood for a diabetes diet, it’s important to prioritize lean proteins and fish with omega-3 fatty acids, as those are known to help regulate blood sugar levels. Meat and seafood to include on your shopping list include

• Lean beef
• Lean pork
• Poultry such as chicken and turkey
• Fatty fish such as salmon, sardines, trout, tuna, and mackerel
• Eggs
• Tofu, for meat substitutes

The American Diabetes Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week, as they are full of essential nutrients and healthy fats.

Dairy

Dairy is an important part of a balanced diet because it’s a great source of protein, vitamin D, and calcium. When choosing dairy products like milk, cheese, or yogurt, try to choose low-fat options when possible to reduce the number of carbs you consume. Also, make sure you read food labels to ensure you’re choosing products without added sugar that are low in saturated and trans fats.

Dairy products that are good additions to a diabetes-friendly diet include things such as

• Milk
• Milk alternatives like almond milk or soy milk
• Cheese
• Cottage cheese
• Greek yogurt

Flavored milks typically have a lot of added sugars. So while they may be a nice treat for every now and again, they aren’t recommended for daily consumption.

Bread & Grains

Bread can be an excellent source of fiber and whole grains that are extremely important for a diabetes-friendly diet. High-fiber foods tend to have a lower glycemic index rating due to their naturally slow digestion rate, and high-fiber foods are also linked to improved gut health, blood sugar management, and can even lower the risk of heart disease. Breads and grains to add to your diet include

• Whole-grain bread
• Quinoa
• Brown rice
• Oats
• Barley
• Millet
• High-fiber cereals

In general, it’s best to avoid eating white bread if you have diabetes. White bread doesn’t offer very much fiber and contains refined carbs that the body breaks down easily, leading to fluctuation in blood sugar levels. White bread can be eaten on occasion if paired with high-fiber or high-protein foods, but whole-grain bread is the best for ensuring your blood sugar levels remain stable.

Beans & Legumes

Beans and legumes are an essential part of healthy eating for people with diabetes. They’re full of fiber, folate, iron, and potassium, and a half-cup serving size of beans contains as much protein as an ounce of meat while avoiding the saturated fat.

You can buy beans and legumes fresh, dried, or canned, and they’re all good options. Canned beans you may want to keep in your pantry include black beans, cannellini beans, garbanzo beans, fava beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, and lentils.

Just like with other canned foods, be sure to look for varieties without added hidden sugars, and you can rinse the beans in water to remove additional salt.

Pantry Staples

When looking for foods to keep on hand for cooking or snacking in the future, it’s important to read food labels to ensure you’re choosing foods without added sugars or low-sodium versions of foods. This can include things like low-sodium soy sauce, low-sugar ketchup, and low- or no-sodium broths.

For cooking oils, it’s important to choose varieties with healthy fats, such as olive oil, avocado oil, or canola oil, instead of oils like soybean, corn, or peanut oil.

Nut butters are another great pantry staple to have around as they’re full of protein and healthy fats. When choosing peanut butter, make sure to read the food label carefully to ensure there isn’t any added sugar. And if you’re interested in other nut butters, try almond butter, cashew butter, or sun butter.

Snacks & Desserts

If you have a sweet tooth, you want to be able to get your fix without sacrificing your blood sugar levels. Sugary snacks can spike your blood sugar, but it can be hard to ignore cravings when they hit. If you’re the kind of person who likes to have sweets around the house, here are some more nutritious ideas.

• Sugar-free candy
• Dark chocolate (70% or higher)
• Fresh fruit
• Smoothies
• Sugar-free sorbets
• Low-sugar popsicles

Making your own desserts at home can also be a good way to make sugar-free or low-sugar options. When you make desserts at home, you have direct control over what goes into them, making it much easier to customize them to your dietary needs.

How to Read Nutrition Labels for Diabetes

Reading nutrition labels is a key part of managing diabetes. It helps you understand what’s really in the food you’re eating and make choices that support healthy blood sugar levels.

Start by checking the serving size. All the numbers on the label are based on that amount, so if you eat more or less, you’ll need to adjust. Next, look at the total carbohydrates—this number includes sugars, starches, and fiber. It’s the most important number for blood sugar management.

The dietary fiber listed under total carbs is especially important. Fiber slows down how quickly sugar enters the bloodstream, so the more fiber a food has, the better it is for blood sugar control. Aim for foods with at least three grams of fiber per serving.

Added sugars are also something to watch. These are sugars added during processing and can cause spikes in blood sugar. Choose foods with little to no added sugars whenever possible, and check out the ingredients list, as well. Sometimes, sugar will be listed under different names like corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, maltose, or sucrose.

Pay attention to fats and sodium as well. People with diabetes are at higher risk for heart disease, so it’s best to limit saturated fats and avoid trans fats altogether. Try to choose low-sodium foods to support heart health.

Diabetes-Friendly Meal Planning Tips

Meal planning is one of the most effective ways to stay on track with a diabetes-friendly diet. By organizing your meals ahead of time, you can make better food choices, avoid unnecessary sugar or carb intake, and reduce the temptation of last-minute, less healthy options.

When planning your meals, it helps to start with your protein, including a source of lean protein in each meal, such as chicken, fish, eggs, or tofu. In addition to helping regulate your blood sugar levels, protein also keeps you feeling fuller longer.

Once you’ve chosen your protein, focus on adding fiber-rich, complex carbohydrates such as brown rice, lentils, quinoa, or sweet potatoes. These types of carbs break down more slowly than refined carbs, which helps keep blood sugar levels stable.

Vegetables should make up a large part of every meal. Non-starchy vegetables like spinach, zucchini, bell peppers, and cauliflower are excellent choices because they’re low in carbohydrates and high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. A good rule of thumb is to aim for half your plate to be filled with vegetables.

It’s also a good idea to plan your snacks in advance. Having ready-to-go, nutritious snacks like sliced veggies, hard-boiled eggs, Greek yogurt, or packets of nuts can help you avoid blood sugar crashes and keep you from reaching for less healthy options when you’re hungry between meals.

Creating Your Diabetes-Friendly Shopping List

Managing diabetes doesn’t have to be overwhelming, especially when you know what to look for at the grocery store. By choosing fiber-rich foods, lean proteins, healthy fats, and whole grains, you can build a balanced diet that supports stable blood sugar and overall health. If you’re looking for more personalized guidance, consider speaking with one of our registered dietitians. A dietitian can help you create a meal plan that fits your lifestyle, food preferences, and health goals. And the best part? You can work with a registered dietitian at no cost to you.

Diabetic Grocery Shopping FAQ

Is There a Nutritional Difference Between Fresh and Frozen Foods?

In general, there isn’t a big difference between the nutritional value of fresh and frozen foods. When it comes to produce in particular, fresh produce can lose nutritional value if not eaten quickly enough, while frozen vegetables and fruits are often flash frozen to preserve as many of those nutrients as possible. However, if you’re eating your fresh food in a reasonable amount of time, the difference is very small and not something that should sway you from buying one over the other.

Can People With Diabetes Still Eat Starchy Vegetables and Fruits?

Yes, people with diabetes can absolutely still eat starchy vegetables and fruits. Starchy produce tends to have more carbs and can have a larger effect on blood sugar levels, but people with diabetes can still enjoy starchy vegetables such as beets, carrots, corn, peas, potatoes, squash, and sweet potatoes so long as they do so in moderation and are careful to balance out the extra carbs with high-protein foods and fiber.

Do People With Different Diabetes Types Have Different Dietary Needs?

Yes and no. For people with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, or gestational diabetes, the requirements are typically very similar. It’s important to focus on high-fiber and high-protein foods while avoiding carbs and sugars when possible. However, where differences arise typically occur based on individual need rather than the type of diabetes someone has. This is another reason why talking with a dietitian can be so helpful. They can look at your eating habits, your physical needs, and help develop a meal plan that works for you.