Since dietary regimes in diabetics need to be practiced lifelong, every effort should be made to facilitate acceptance of the recommendations made and, hence, compliance. A flexible approach that takes into consideration the patient's lifestyle, socioeconomic and ethnic factors, food preferences and personality has a much greater chance of success than the dogmatic and rigid approaches that have been practiced in the past. Finally, time spent on patient education is likely to reap rewards. The well-informed diabetic patient is the most important member of the team necessary for successful long-term management of diabetes.