Diabetes Cookbook For Canadians For Dummies. Cynthia Payne

Enjoy a variety of foods from the four food groups (vegetables and fruit, grain products, milk and alternatives, and meat and alternatives).

      ✔ Emphasize vegetables, fruits, and cereals, breads, and other whole-grain products.

      ✔ Choose lower-fat dairy products, leaner meats, and food prepared with little or no fat.

      ✔ Achieve and maintain a healthy body weight by enjoying regular physical activity and healthy eating.

      ✔ Limit salt, alcohol, and caffeine.

      We look more closely at the recommendations in Canada’s Food Guide later in this chapter (see “Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide”).

      In addition to general healthy eating principles as discussed in this chapter, you can undertake several other CDA-approved strategies to enhance your health.

      ✔ The Mediterranean diet can improve blood glucose control and lower the risk for cardiovascular disease. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes consuming olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, dairy products, and fish. Meat is consumed in only small amounts.

      ✔ A vegan or vegetarian diet can improve blood glucose control and lipid levels. (Though definitions vary, generally speaking a vegan diet excludes all animal products, including dairy products, and a vegetarian diet excludes meat, fish and poultry, but includes dairy products such as cheese, eggs, yogurt, or milk.)

      ✔ A DASH (“Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension”) diet can lower blood pressure, improve blood glucose control, and lower the risk for cardiovascular disease. The DASH diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, fat-free or low-fat dairy products, whole grains, fish, poultry, fibre, and nuts, and avoids saturated fats, cholesterol, and red meats.

      The CDA also notes that diets high in “dietary pulses” (examples of dietary pulses are beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils) can be consumed to improve blood glucose and lipid levels.

      

In order for you to succeed with your diabetes nutrition plans, you must know what to eat. This chapter provides helpful information, but nothing replaces the guidance that a registered dietitian provides. If you haven’t seen one, you’re missing out and we would strongly encourage you to arrange an appointment. In Chapter 1, we look at how you can find a dietitian.

      

A prescription for a healthy eating program

      Doug hadn’t seen a doctor for years but, having turned 40, he figured it was time to get “checked out.” Although he was quite a bit overweight, he felt reasonably well and was very surprised when his family physician told him that not only did he have diabetes but he also had high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

      “Gee doc, I guess this means you’re going to recommend I take a whole bunch of pills, eh?” he said dejectedly.

      To Doug’s surprise, his doctor responded by saying, “Well, we could use a whole bunch of pills, but your blood glucose levels aren’t all that high and your blood pressure and cholesterol aren’t all that bad, so it’s up to you.”

      “Up to me?” Doug said with surprise.

      “Yes, it’s up to you,” the doctor continued. “If you think you can change your eating habits, cut down on your calories, and reduce your salt and fat intake, you may be able to avoid medication.”

      Doug was all for that, so the doctor arranged an appointment with Cynthia, who got Doug set up with a healthy eating program, and it didn’t take long before his blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol were on the way down. Was Doug on a “diabetic diet”? As Shakespeare said, a rose would smell as sweet by any other name.

      Exploring the Key Ingredients

      Most of what people eat is made up of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Other necessary ingredients in a person’s diet are vitamins, minerals, and, in abundant quantities, water.

      Although everybody needs to pay attention to how much of each of these things he or she eats, in order to stay healthy, people with diabetes need to be especially careful to ensure they get the right amounts of the right nutrients.