How successful your attempts to control diabetes will depend a lot on what you eat and how you cook. Since the kitchen is the theatre of where this plays out, here are a few tips for diabetes-friendly cooking:
Replace unhealthy fats – Cut out butter, cream, lard, margarine, high-fat yogurt and the likes from your kitchen. Replace them with healthy fats like olive oil.
Choose lean meats– Choose only lean cuts of meat, skinless poultry, and fish.
Steam instead of frying – Getting rid of the fat, which frying would expose it to, makes the dish lower in calories and cholesterol. It results in lighter and healthier meals.
Create healthy salad dressings – Readymade salad dressings are often high in salt. They may also contain full-fat cheese, added sugars like high-fructose corn syrup, and even unhealthy trans fats. Make your own dressing at home using olive, cider, balsamic, and other vinegars, chopped garlic, spices and lemon or lime juice.
Look for sugar substitutes – Some recipes like dalia or ragi porridge can be made both sweet and spicy. Choose wisely. With a little creativity, many sugar-free recipes can be as tasty as standard recipes containing sugar.
Replace refined grains with whole – White bread, white rice, all-purpose flour or maida, white pasta etc are not for anyone wishing to make healthy choices. They are certainly a non-no for those who want to manage diabetes. Use brown rice, whole grain bread, multigrain noodles and pasta.
Mind portion sizes – Using everyday household utensils in the kitchen to get your portion sizes right can be really useful. According to Diabetes UK, one portion is:
- 3 heaped tablespoons cooked veg
- 4 tablespoons of beans and pulses
- 1 medium glass of skimmed milk
- 2 heaped tablespoons of rice.
Weigh foods – Invest in a digital kitchen weighing scale. Measure different foods with your scale to see what a healthy portion should look like. Remember, the nutritional information you’re using could be based on the cooked or raw version of the food. Measure accordingly.
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