Tasty Tricks: Ways to Turn Your Favorite Dishes into Diabetes-Friendly Meals

Excerpts taken from Diabetes Forecast Magazine/November 2009
Written by Tracey Neithercott


One of the most repeated diabetes myths is this: People with diabetes must eat special foods. Truth is, whether you have diabetes or not, you should be eating more whole grains, vegetables, and fruits and fewer packaged items, fried foods, and refined carbohydrates. But that doesn't mean you have to stick to a diet of salad and yogurt. By employing some clever kitchen tricks, you can cut out excess calories, fat, carbohydrates, and sodium without sacrificing taste.

1..Adjust Portion Sizes. Before you alter your recipe, consider whether you can simply eat a little less of it. Example, if your pie recipe yields six servings, cut it into eight portions instead. Doing so would save 92 calories per slice of a 2,200 calorie pie.

2. Make Simple Swaps. Next time you dish out a plate of spaghetti, make sure it's the whole wheat kind. Eating rice? Choose brown rice instead of white. Swaps like this can help you get more nutrients without drastically altering the taste of a dish. Other ingredient substitutions are equally easy: Pick skim milk or 1 percent over whole. Cook with 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder instead of an ounce of unsweetened bar chocolate. Try evaporated skim milk as a replacement for cream. Use two egg whites instead of a full egg (though usually some of a recipe's eggs should remain whole to maintain texture) or switch to Egg Beaters, which are also lower in cholesterol. And when creating a dip, skip the mayo or full-fat sour cream and use nonfat sour cream or fat-free plain Greek-style yogurt in its place.

Baking a dish is a little trickier since any changes you make will affect the final product's texture, density, and volume. An easy-to-adopt swap: Replace cooking oil with an equal amount of unsweetened applesauce or baby-food pureed prunes.

Finally, you can dump at least some of the salt. Experts agree that this one change won't cost you flavor since many recipes are already too high in sodium. A simple fix is to use herbs and spices instead.

3. Get More of the Good Stuff. Give yourself a double dose of vegetables or beans, and you'll eat less of the high-carb, high-fat, or high-calorie portion of the meal. Throw some broccoli and cauliflower into mac and cheese and you're bulking up on vegetables.

4. Become Meat Savvy. Certain meats (think ground beef, bacon and sausage) are high in saturated fat, a major dietary cause of high cholesterol. But eating healthfully shouldn't force you to scrap your favorite recipes. Instead pick lower-fat proteins: Ground turkey can sub for ground beef, turkey bacon for pork bacon, and turkey sausage or meat-free sausage for the fattier variety.

5. Be Smart About Fat. Skip saturated fats found in butter, certain meats, cream, and cheeses in favor of healthier fats from avocados, walnuts, and olive oil. Give sandwiches a feeling of richness without using mayo or cheese by including avocado slices. Though they're higher in calories than other veggies, avocados are packed with vitamins and made of healthful monounsaturated fats. Use hard cheeses like Parmesan (they're lower in fat) instead of softer ones, or picking reduced-fat or low-fat versions instead.

6. Save the Best for Last. The reason most recipes call for butter, butter, and more butter is that fat adds fullness of flavor. But if you're trying to cut back, do most of your sauteeing or roasting with cooking spray or a little olive oil. Then, as a finishing touch, add a teensy bit of butter for flavor. Except when baking, you can greatly reduce the amount of oil a recipe calls for, then add a drizzle of flavored oil at the end.

You can slim down a meal and make flavors pop by topping your dish with an indulgent ingredient. So, sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese over your pasta, but don't dump in a cupful.

7. Think Outside the Box. Sometimes the best way to make a recipe healthier is to reinvent it. Lasagna is just as ooey-gooey when transformed into lasagna rolls, but since each roll requires less cheese and fewer noodles, it's much more diabetes friendly. Similarly, baked chicken that's seasoned and rolled in Japanese panko bread crumbs (airier and crunchier than the typical crumb) is every bit as tasty as fried chicken.

8. Go Easy on Yourself. Even professional chefs can't get a recipe right on the first try, so don't beat yourself up if it takes a few dinners to find success. Don't be afraid of experimenting. Once you've modified a recipe to your liking, you can enjoy it over and over again.