Diabetic Diets

GO easy on sweets this Christmas season. There are lots of sweet offerings this Christmas season but remember that sweets are sources of diabetes. And diabetes can be a real pain in the ass because you’ll be injecting insulin for the rest of your life if you’ve got the disease.

Of course, there are now products that are sugar-free such as Coke Zero but there are only too few of these products. So here are some of the sweets that you should shun this Christmas season and generally, these are called confectioneries (they are really common this Christmas season): the most common of them is the fruitcake. Of course, fruitcakes are harmless but only when taken minimally. Other than that, you are tolerating the presence of too much sugar in your body.

Another confectionery you should avoid is ice cream. Ice cream specially Haagen-Dazs can be tempting this Christmas season but they are really harmful and an invitation to diabetes.

The most common culprit is the chocolate fountain. There’s really lots of sugar into that.

ONE of the foods that can prevent diabetes is constantly eating salads. Salad is in essence raw vegetables thus the energy, fiber, protein and other nutrients found in vegetables are retained as contrasted to vegetables which are cooked. One of the most nutritious salads which can also prevent diabetes is the fresh swordfish nicoise salad.

For this particular dish, we need tuna steaks for the main filling and green beans, butter beans, tomatoes, cucumber, olives and parsley. Hmm…sounds yummy already! If there is no raw fresh tuna available in your area, canned tuna will do. On a grill, toss the vegetable ingredients with the tuna then serve. Isn’t it great?

But wait, there’s more. There are more salads out there which you can explore yet good for diabetic persons. All you need to watch out is the nutritious meter of your recipe on how much calories, fats, carbohydrates and sugar are inputted in your dish.

Another salad you may wanna try is the artichoke salad. For this particular dish, you’ll need artichoke of course as well as romaine lettuce, red bell pepper, broccoli and fresh mushrooms. The same with the fresh swordfish nicoise salad, all you need to do is whisk off all the ingredients then served either with olive oil or lemongrass sauce or a salad dressing mix. Olive oil is obviously healthier but I love the taste of lemongrass sauce. Yummy!

BURRITOS are a Mexican kind of finger food usually accompanied with cocktails during luncheon launchings. Burritos are made of flour which of course has large concentrations of carbohydrates. Too much carb may be one possible cause of diabetes. But now, dieticians from all over the world have perfected a burrito which is more in fiber and less in carb. This is the burrito that we will use in our menu for the day – the chicken burritos.

The fillings that we will use for this burritos are oregano leaves, basil leaves, parsley leaves, chicken breast, chicken stock, pepper, lettuce and tomato salsa.

There are other burritos that you may want to try to replace chicken as the main filling which are equally healthy and nutritious and of course, diabetic-free. Take this one recipe for example which is high in fiber, high in protein but low on carbs and low on fat and sugar. The key here is actually the filling and not the burrito itself. The more vegetables and olive oil you pour into your burrito, the healthier it is. You may want to try Mediterranean fish as a replacement for your chicken. Mediterranean fish is actually healthier and less fatty than chicken.

Blueberry and Apple Muffins www.foodnetwork.com

WHO says that diabetic food ain’t sweet? Of course, they are laced with minimal sugar only but they still taste yummy. Think of blueberry and apple muffins. This particular menu I’m gonna introduce you is like your typical blueberry and apple muffins minus the sugar. It’s like Coke Zero.

Oh before I forget, speaking of that particular soda, there are already hundreds of food in the shelves that do have zero sugar from milk to even chocolate. In lieu of sugar, sweeteners which are not sugar-based are added. This is what we use in whipping up blueberry and apple muffins. Remember that this particular menu only has 11.8 sugars per serving.

For this particular menu, we need reduced fat milk, eggs, unsweetened apple juice, orange, apple, a half cup of blueberries and cream cheese. Whisk the whole thing just like your usual blueberry and apple muffins and you’ve got a very delicious serving.