(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Parties can present a challenge for those with diabetes, so it's important to have a game plan before tackling the Super Bowl spread.

"Managing diabetes is really about making healthy food choices and controlling portions," says Dr. Deborah Clegg, a diabetes nutritional specialist at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

If you're hosting a party, include healthy options such as salad, fruits, and vegetables. Low-calorie and sugar-free options can help diabetic friends and family control calories and carbohydrates and make sound choices without much fuss.

If you're trying to keep control of your diabetes, find out what's on tap for the Super Bowl party you're attending. If it's shaping up to be a high-carb feast, bring some of your own favorite dishes, or coordinate with other family and friends with diabetes to ensure the table includes healthier options.

Dr. Clegg offers these hosting guidelines:

Zero ‘penalties' for eating these foods:

• Broad array of salad options, including sugar-free and low-calorie dressings, including salad greens, sprouts, mushrooms, onions, peppers, radishes, and tomatoes.

• Unlimited beverages options such as water, unsweetened tea, coffee, and calorie-free diet sodas.
• Grilled fish, skinless chicken or turkey, and/or soy-based "veggie" burgers.
• Low/Non-fat dairy options including non-fat cheeses, yogurts and skim milk.

5-yard penalties (meaning go sparingly and watch portion sizes)

• Other vegetables (in more limited amounts) such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, artichokes, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, eggplant, and okra.
• Fruits such as apples, peaches, and most berries.
• Whole grain options for rice, pasta, and breads in small portions.
• Beans/legumes such as kidney, pinto or black beans, chick peas (also known as garbanzo beans), and lentils.
• Fruits and vegetables, especially those with edible skin (apples, corn, and beans) and those with edible seeds (berries).

15-yard penalty for consumption of these items:

• Cookies, pies, desserts.
• Potato chips, high-fat dips, and high-fat crackers.
• Regular sodas, alcohol, and sweetened beverages.

"The goal is to keep the carbohydrates down - and encourage more of the protein-enriched foods -- to enhance satiety," Dr. Clegg advises.

Dr. Clegg also coaches her patients to eat slowly, so that they eat a limited amount per quarter, and to get up and walk around during each commercial to encourage activity as well as better eating habits. It's also important to monitor blood sugars on a regular basis throughout the game.

Visit www.utswmedicine.org/conditions-specialties/endocrinology/diabetes/management.html for more information from UT Southwestern on managing diabetes.

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