To use carb counting method to plan your meals, it is important to have an idea about your daily carb limit. It is also good to know the maximum amount of carbs allotted to each meal.

To use glycemic load to plan your meals, it is suggested to keep daily glycemic load below 100 and for each meal or snack a glycemic load of 20 or below is suggested. For diabetics, glycemic load could provide better visibility on each meal or snack. However challenge is to calculate the glycemic load accurately by hand or manually without the help of a sophisticated software.

Key to controlling blood glucose level is to spread the Glycemic load or Carbs evenly through out the day. Simple way to accomplish it is to spread your meals or snacks evenly through out the day, better way is to spread it, based on Carbs or glycemic load of each meal or snack.

Planning meals using the meal matrix takes into account other aspects of diet as well, for instance, if blood lipids are elevated, amount of fat needs to be controlled. If blood pressure / hypertension exists, sodium in diet needs to be controlled. Fiber is good for digestion, specifically soluble one and helps control blood glucose levels.

Main goal is to get the optimum diet plan which can help exercise tight control on blood glucose levels. Right diet plan is even more important if there is no medication used to control blood glucose levels, in such a case, meal matrix offers a complete and comprehensive approach, because it offers two parameters (Carbs and Glycemic load) for blood glucose control in addition to other five elements which take into account other diabetes related conditions.