Nutrition Feature: Diabetes Diet Watch-Cooking A Meal For A Diabetic: Fibre is generally flound in whole, unrefined foodstuff.Instead of using refined flours a diabetic should use unrefined flours from wheat, bajra and jowar.Similarly it is preferable to use the whole grains and lentils instead of their split forms(dals).Fruits should be eaten whole along with thier skin, whenever possible, instead of fruit juices.If the patient has difficulty in chewing raw fruits and vegetables, they maybe stewed with thier skins.On stewing, loss of nutrients in cooking water is not important, because the juice is normally kept and served with the stew. Reducing the fat in the diet does not mean just limiting the amount of fat added during cooking, but at also includes careful choosing of low fat foods. Thus it is better to use fat free buttermilk and skimmed milk instead of whole, evaporated and condensed milk.Use cottage cheese prepared from skim milk instead of cream cheeses.Avoid oily salad dressings, mayonnaise, peanut butter and nuts.Also avoid pastries, pies, chocolates, ice cream and desserts prepared with butter, shortenings, margarine and whole milk.Use skim milk desserts. In the low calorie diabetic diets, chapattis or phulkas, which are devoid of oil are preferable to puris or paranthas.Rice is best prepared plain, without oil. Butter Substitutes:
While preparing sandwiches or pies, white sauce (made from plain flour,butter and milk) maybe used as a spread in place of butter or mayonnaise, because the same amount of white sauce has lesser calories than butter.Another substitute, which is very low in calories is green chutney(without coconut or other nuts), it can be consumed in any amount. Eating salad daily may not appeal to the palate, but using a variety of dressings will help break the monotony.Dhokla dressings, spices, curds prepared from skim milk or gelatin (molded salad)maybe used in salads. Soups are a light appetizer with little food value.The stock obtained after boiling chopped vegetables maybe used for soups and gravies.Avoid soups which are thickened with starch, fat or cream.Use clear soups flavoured with lemon juice, celery, pepper, mustard, vinegar, ajinomoto (unless restricted in case of hypertension), garlic and spices. Vegetables should be short cooked to conserve thier food value.Use minimum oil, instead to make curries and gravies, fat free curd, tomato puree, ginger garlic, grated onion or even skim milk and cornflour can be used.The following methods require less oil and should be used by diabetics on low calorie diets:
1.Boiling: Use minimum water to make it less time consuming.This is useful for low-calorie diets and in instances when the patient is unable to chew raw vegetables
2.Steaming: This method requires less time and minimal cooking water, thus preventing loss of nutrients.
3.Stewing: This method requires gently simmering the food in its stock or in milk and water.The liquid maybe flavoured or seasoned.
4.Baking: This method requires no water and very little fat.
5.Roasting: Preferable to frying as this method requires no oil is therefore good for health. ********************************************* Recipes For A Diabetic |
