Eliminate Sugar. Need a Simple Food List

you need Low Glycemic foods, here's a good link with a list:
http://www.lowglycemicdiet.com/gifoodlist.html

I just want to say my husband is diabetic and it is a lot easier to look at carbs, not sugar. I know you don't want a book, but it helps to have a reference for a couple of weeks and then after that you can kind of estimate on your own at each meal. A fairly healthy distribution would go like this:

40-45% of your calories should be Complex Carbohydrates. Pick low glycemic carbs with lots of fiber like whole grains, beans and plant based phytonutrients found in fresh fruits and vegetables.
25-30% of your calories should come from lean protein foods like soy, low or nonfat dairy, fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids and lean poultry.
25-30% of your calories should come from healthy fats like olives, nuts. avocados and seeds. Just be careful about your portions.

Other tips: This is the way we should all eat!

#1-Don’t skip meals
#2-space Meals 4-6 hours apart
#3-healthy snacks should be spaced 2 hours away from a meal
#4-Do your best to follow the distribution above at each meal, while watching portions.

I hope this helps. I sell a weight loss program and have meetings on occasion to coach people and help them. This has worked and is a healthy way to eat. Send me a message if I can offer any other advice.

Best of Luck!

The list from 1babygirl's post is a great start. To really be able to understand more varieties of foods' effect on blood sugar you will need a book. It is not always apparent which foods are better for a diabetic. For example, the glycemic count on potatoes is more than twice as high (88) as premium ice cream (38). So no, how things taste is NOT a good measure of their effect on blood sugar. And "God" did make foods with high sugar counts, like some fruits (dates 103, watermelon 72) and some vegetables (parsnips 97, pumpkin 75).

I agree that a meeting with a nutritionist could be very valuable. My father's wife scheduled one soon after their marriage once she realized how much there is to know about properly cooking for a diabetic.

It's simple -- if it tastes good, it probably has some sort of sugar in it. My Mr is a diabetic.
Stay away from
rice, pasta, white bread
candy
sweets
grapes
watermelon
wine
beer
soda - all soda
ice cream
See? If it tastes good, don't eat it.
My Mr. eats a lot of salad, chicken, rye or pumpernickel bread, fish, almonds and green apples.
Contact a diabetic nutritionist -- they can help you.
LBC

I was just diagnosed with diabetes in March of this year so I understand how you might be feeling a little lost. It's really important for you to read about diabetese and learn how and what affects your blood sugar levels. It might be overwhelming at first, but there are a lot of good resources out there for low carb-low sugar recipes. I was able to bring my sugar down to normal levels rather quickly by cutting out all sugar (including fruit) and, of course, with the help of medication.

I would suggest that for the first few weeks you completely cut out all sugar and carbs and eat high protein and high fiber foods. Then start to re-introduce healthy carbs and fruit. I found that I can have a small serving of fruit for my afternoon snack without making my sugar levels spike.

It's also very important to not skip any meals! It was very hard for me to force myself to have breakfast in the mornings and snack in between meals, but it really does make all the difference and keeping your sugar levels balanced so that they never spike and they never dip too low.

Small changes like eating whole wheat bread instead of white bread, cutting out starches like potatoes, rice, pasta (unless it's whole wheat and you portion control), etc. really make the biggest difference.

A short list of basic high carb/sugar foods to avoid (or at least limit):

sugar (AVOID)
Carrots (limit)
Peas (limit)
Corn (limit)
Potatoes (best to cut out-but at the very least limit)
milk (limit)
white bread (avoid)
rice (avoid)
pasta (whole grain ok in small portions)
onions (limit)
juice (limit)
cereal (unless it's high fiber/low sugar) avoid in mornings or portion control and have an egg as well to add protein

This is turning out to be a very long list! Basically you need to do some reading! There's no avoiding it, it's important to learn how to know which carbs are good and which are bad, the best times of day to have certain things and the worst i.e. you should avoid having carbs/sugar in the morning; I just have eggs which are very high in protein and protein is important to have at every meal. Try different nuts for snacks (I really like pumpkin seeds and almonds are always good-especially because when you are diabetic you are at higher risk for heart disease), crystal light to mix up what you can drink with meals.

Once you get your sugar under control you will probably find that you will be able to have the occasional slice of pizza or burger (try to avoid the pizza though or just have a slice with salad and wrap the burger in lettuce instead of a bun) without causing your sugar to go crazy, but you still have to be very careful and monitor/test constantly.Other than diet, the only other thing you should really focus on is getting some light exercise in every day. You don't need to do anything high impact, just start walking every day for at least half an hour. Maybe start playing a sport w/your hubby. My boyfriend and I started playing tennis in the evening. It's good exercise for me, fun for both of us, and gives us some good quality time.

Good luck, it's going to be tough sometimes but I'm sure you and your family will figure out something that works for you. If I can help with any more information feel free to send me a message and I'll help as much as I can.

This should help you...
http://diet.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Diabetic_Food_List

Not sure if your actually diabetic or if you're just doing the diabetic diet, have a few friends doing that diet, but believe they bought a book or maybe just researched it online. If you're truly diabetic, you MUST see a diabetic counselor - Warren Clinic has some. They provide great lists and I think for $5 or so you can buy a wonderful guide book called Calorie and Fat Carb Counter, which helps a ton. Go with Sugar Free and/or Low Carb foods (Jello, Walmart even sells a Low Carb Ice Cream, etc). I found Low Fat foods were really high in Carbs, better to avoid Carbs with Diabetes than Fat. Hope that helps a little. Best of luck.

sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. I haven't heard the carrots but the corn yes. anything that is a grain has to be a whole grain it turns to sugar slower. it also has to have more protein than grain. up his protien and cheese and veggies. 2% milk tortillas turn to sugar slower than bread. use a rule of thumb if it is bread or pasta it is sugar. but you have to allow minimal sugar or his sugar will bottom out which is just as bad. As long as protien outwieghs the pasta and bread you should be ok.

Carrots, potatoes, corn are all healthy foods for a diabetic. Think in terms of WHOLE foods, things that do not have any ingredients on a label...usually because there isn't one. Whole grain breads are also perfectly good for the diabetic. Look for breads that have whole grain as the first ingredient and a ratio of 4 to 1 carbs to fiber.

Eating high fiber foods will keep sugars from entering the bloodstream quickly. I work with many forward thinking healthcare professionals and I have lots and LOTS of really great information I could share with you. I'd be honored to do so. Hope this helps. Be well, D.

Healthful foods do taste good, I would even say great. If you get off the junk food for a while and then taste it, you will realize how bad it tastes.
I would not eliminate watermelon. It is very nutritious. If God made the food, you can eat it. Just don't over do the fruit.
Xylitol is a sweetener that is not absorbed.