Dr. Prabhat AryaMBBS, MD (Internal Medicine) · DMC Reg. No. DMC-83759drprabhatarya.com

Reviewed by Dr. Prabhat Arya, MD (Internal Medicine) on 29 September 2026

Diet chart for prediabetes

Prediabetes means your sugar is above normal but not yet diabetes. This is the best time to act: with the right food and daily walking, many people bring their sugar back to normal.

½ Vegetables and salad ¼ Dal, paneer, curd, egg, fish, chicken ¼ Roti, rice or millet
  1. Fill half the plate with vegetables and salad, a quarter with dal, paneer, egg or chicken, and only a quarter with roti or rice.
  2. If you are overweight, lose weight slowly: even 3 to 5 kg less can bring sugar back to normal. Walk briskly 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
  3. Cut sugar and maida first. Sweet drinks and white-flour foods push sugar up fastest.

Eat more

  • Green and leafy vegetables: lauki, tori, bhindi, palak, methi, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, karela
  • Salad before meals: cucumber, tomato, onion, carrot, radish
  • Dal, chana, rajma, lobia, sprouts, soya, paneer, curd, eggs, fish, chicken
  • Whole grains: atta with chokar, bajra, jowar, ragi, dalia, oats, brown rice
  • Whole fruit, one at a time, twice a day: guava, apple, orange, pear, papaya, jamun
  • Water, chaas, lemon water without sugar, tea or coffee without sugar

Eat less, and measure

  • Roti: two small ones per meal. Mix besan, bajra, jowar or ragi into the atta
  • Rice: one small katori, eaten with dal and sabzi, not a heaped plate
  • Potato, arbi, shakarkandi, corn: count them as roti or rice, not as sabzi
  • Mango, banana, chikoo, grapes, litchi: a small portion, not with a meal
  • Cooking oil and ghee together: 4 to 5 teaspoons per person for the whole day
  • Salt: less than one teaspoon a day in all, counting pickle and papad

Avoid

  • Sugar, gur, honey, shakkar in tea, milk and food
  • Sweets and mithai; keep them for a festival, and a small piece only
  • Cold drinks, packaged juice, fresh fruit juice, sweet lassi
  • Maida: white bread, biscuits, rusk, naan, bhature, noodles
  • Fried snacks: samosa, pakora, namkeen, chips
  • Late-night eating and eating in front of the TV

A sample day

Vegetarian first; the swap is for those who eat eggs, fish or chicken.

On waking
Water. Tea or coffee without sugar. 4 or 5 soaked almonds or 2 walnut halves
Breakfast
Two besan or moong chilla with vegetables and a katori of curd, or one bowl of vegetable dalia or pohaSwap: Two-egg omelette with vegetables and one multigrain roti
Mid-morning
One fruit: guava, apple or orange
Lunch
Salad first. A big katori of sabzi, a katori of dal or rajma, two small rotis or one roti with a small katori of rice, raitaSwap: Chicken or fish curry in place of dal
Evening
Tea without sugar with roasted chana, makhana or a bowl of sprouts chaatSwap: A boiled egg
Dinner, by 8 pm
Sabzi, paneer or dal, one or two rotis (bajra or jowar is good). Lighter than lunchSwap: Grilled fish or chicken with sabzi
After dinner
A 10 to 15 minute walk. Nothing more to eat after dinner

Common myths

Prediabetes is not a disease, so nothing needs to change.
Without change, most people get diabetes. Now it can still be turned back.
Gur, honey and brown sugar are safe.
They raise sugar just like white sugar.
Fruit is banned.
Whole fruit in small portions is good. Juice is the problem.
Jamun seed or karela powder will cure it.
No powder does the work of food, walking and weight loss.

Dr. Arya’s note for you

This is general advice for adults. If you already have diabetes, follow the diabetes chart instead. If you also have kidney disease or are pregnant, your diet may need changing: ask Dr. Arya first.