A person in my life has just recently been diagnosed with diabetes. Consultations with a dietitian are provided as part of treatment. However, I'm curious if others who have lived with diabetes for some time have any tips to share... what worked best for them in terms of diet and meal-schedule changes, exercise, medication, etc. Thanks.

I have taught many new onset diabetics in Home health. Many of my suggestions included:

#1 start and keep a food journal. Knowing WHAT you ate and WHEN you ate it can give good information on how your sugars act with those foods.

#2 When you have a major food craving, youu can often allow modest portions of that food by altering what OTHER foods you are eating to allow for it.

#3 If dropping sugars is a major issue, keep several things to hand: a tiny tube of yellow gel frosting (for writing on cakes) in case you drop too fast too far. It costs a LOT less than perscription liquid sugar and this doesn't stain your mouth all that badly. Keep a pack of store bought or home-made peanutbutter and crackers sandwiches and water on your person at all times. Milk isn't as easy to keep on hand, but the purpose is for the long-medium and short acting sugars to work on your glucose levels. You don't want to eat something really sweet (sugar packets, for example) because you will bottom out again after that initial sudden 'high'.

#4 Always have a protein and carb snack before bed (sleep) so that your sugars are 'held' more evenly through the sleep cycle.

Anyway, I hope that some of this helps.