When you are diabetic like me, dealing with food and nutrition can be daunting. The Diabetes Comfort Food Diet (Robert Rose, $24.95), from registered dietitian Laura Cipullo and the editors of Prevention magazine, offers no-nonsense solutions to help us try and figure it all out.
The author opens by urging us not to panic when coming to terms with our diagnosis. There is usually so much information being thrown at us that our first instinct may be to stick our fingers in our ears and say, "la, la, la, la." But with sound information from a trained diabetic educator, we can get through it.
The first three chapters offer basics for dealing with diabetes, with the result being, hopefully, managing or reversing insulin resistance. Topics covered include carbohydrates, balanced meals, exercise, fiber, reading nutrition labels, finding support, formulating a plan of action and stocking a pantry.
The rest of the book is filled with recipes that don't
require exotic or expensive ingredients. Many are probably already in our pantry or fridge. The chapter topics are Breakfast, Appetizers & Snacks, Meat, Poultry, Seafood, Vegetarian, Sides and Desserts.
Each recipe includes a box labeled "Makeover Magic" that has nutrition information for the original recipe and for the "made over" one in the book.
For most, the carbohydrate, fat, sodium and calories are lower, but I noticed a couple where the upgraded recipe amounts were higher.
We tried the South of the Border Shrimp Soup, with a few tweaks, and were pleased. It called for corn, but in the name of lower carbohydrates omitted it. We substituted onion for leek and orange bell pepper for green. And I found it odd that it called for Cajun seasoning, which isn't really a south of the border flavor. Is it?
Food on 03/02/2016