Effect of nutritional counseling on the blood glucose and nutritional knowledge of diabetic subjects.

The nutritional knowledge and control of diabetes was assessed in 43 nonketosis-prone diabetic subjects. Patients were semiliterate or illiterate. They were exposed to a 1-h nutritional counseling program in groups of three to five. The nutritional counseling program was highly simplified and emphasized only a few important aspects of diabetic diet. Patients' nutritional knowledge improved significantly after nutritional counseling. The control of diabetes also improved significantly in those patients in whom control had been inadequate.