Choosing snacks with prediabetes

A snack can be useful when it prevents you arriving at a meal extremely hungry, but grazing out of habit can add energy without much nourishment. Foods rich in fibre, protein, or both are generally more filling than sweets, biscuits, crisps, or sweet drinks. Examples include plain yoghurt with nuts, a piece of fruit with unsweetened nut butter, chopped vegetables with hummus, or a small whole-grain sandwich filling. Fruit still contains carbohydrate, yet pairing it with protein or fat can make it more satisfying. Your needs depend on activity, medicines, cultural foods, appetite and other conditions.

Keep nourishing options visible and prepare portions before hunger arrives. Check labels for added sugar and choose water, unsweetened tea, or coffee instead of juice and soft drinks. A snack is not mandatory; use hunger, activity and your meal pattern as guides. Nutrition Counselling can help adapt familiar UAE foods and eating times without turning food into a list of forbidden items. If weight is a concern, discuss a Weight Management Programme alongside your wider Prediabetes plan. Screening can show whether your glucose pattern is changing.

Snacks do not treat severe glucose problems. Arrange medical advice for ongoing excessive thirst, frequent urination, blurred vision, marked tiredness, or unexplained weight loss. Seek urgent help for confusion, severe drowsiness, repeated vomiting, or difficulty breathing. These signs require assessment rather than a change to snack choices. If you take glucose-lowering medicine, ask what to eat when meals are delayed.

Do I need snacks between meals? Which portions suit my activity? Are there foods that interact with my medicines? How can I include dates, fruit or traditional breads? Would referral to Nutrition Counselling help me plan?