How to think about lunch as a Type 2 diabetic.

As someone with Type 2 diabetes, I have tested various combination of carbs and proteins to arrive at an optimal mix for me.

There is one good thing about lunch. It is the least challenging among all three meals in terms of blood sugar control. As I had mentioned before, breakfast is the toughest and dinner is only a little better. My tolerance for carbs is at its maximum at lunch time. And my "clearing" time, i.e. time to pre-meal sugar level is the shortest.

So I have had a good deal of freedom of choice in picking a good midday meal. My first requirement is that I want to keep my carb amount to no more than 20 grams. In the beginning, I aimed for only 15 grams.

I always have a salad of some kind. This can be Baby Spinach Salad available in pre-washed plastic bags in grocery stores or salad made from Romaine lettuce that I wash and cut myself with slices of cucumbers. I add walnuts to the salad as often as I can. And I use a near zero gram carb salad dressing. Creamy Caesar or Blue Cheese dressing is also fine with me. As long as their carb content is below 2 grams and they have no sugar added. Newman's is a brand I like quite a bit.

For the protein portion of the meal, tuna fish in cans mixed with full-fat mayonnaise can be a good option. Or an all-natural hot dog or soy burger. The sky's the limit with protein choices. I sometimes have leftovers from the prior night's dinner.

The best part about lunch is that I can even have a small piece of dessert if I want, specially if I have kept the veggie portion of my meal to lower than 15 grams.

I love the lunch meal.