Newly diagnosed with Diabetes? These kitchen tips and tricks for diabetes make food prep easier
If you have been newly diagnosed with prediabetes or Type 2 diabetes, these handy kitchen tips and tricks for diabetes will make managing your condition a little easier. Finding out you have diabetes can be a little overwhelming. Fortunately, making the necessary changes to your diet and eating habits can actually be a lot easier than it initially seems. To help you on your way, we have four easy kitchen tips and tricks for diabetes that will help you switch to a diabetes-friendly diet without a lot of hassle:
Adopt a whole family approach
Cooking separate meals for the family member with diabetes and everyone else in the family is a recipe for disaster. In addition to taking up more of your time, this approach ends up isolating the family member with diabetes, leaving them feeling deprived, and tempting them to make unhealthy food choices. Get the whole family on board instead and embark on a new food journey together. If you enlist the rest of the family in taste tests of new ingredients and find diabetes-friendly recipes that appeal to everyone, you can turn this diabetes diagnosis into a new healthier chapter with delicious foods that the entire family will love.
Get the appropriate tools
Diabetes-friendly recipes call for some different food preparation methods than the recipes you may be accustomed to preparing. Getting the proper tools will allow you to make healthier food choices. Switch to a roasting pan with a rack that allows fat to drip away so you can roast healthy, low-fat chicken breasts. A food spiralizer allows you to create zucchini noodles as a delicious low-carb substitute for carb-heavy pasta. A rice steamer and non-stick wok are essential tools for creating stir-fry recipes that are delicious and diabetes-friendly. Purchasing a sharp set of kitchen knives is a good idea as they make it easy to cut through lean, protein-dense meats and poultry.
Spice up meals with herbs
When you have been diagnosed with diabetes you need to avoid salt, but that doesn’t mean your food needs to be bland. You can open up a whole world of flavor using spices and herbs to flavor your meals instead of salt. For the best taste, choose fresh herbs and add toward the end of the meal. Fresh herbs such as basil, parsley, chives, and oregano are rich in flavor and can easily be grown in pots on a windowsill so you always have some to add to a meal. If you use dried herbs, crush lightly between your palms immediately before adding to recipes to bring out the richest flavor.
Have healthy snacks ready to go
Pre-packaged snack foods such as chips, cookies, and sweets top the list of foods to avoid with diabetes. These food items are typically loaded with carbs that threaten your healthy weight goals, unhealthy fats that are bad for your heart, and/or processed sugar that can cause your blood sugar levels to drastically spike. Prepare healthy snacks and have them where you can easily access them. Prepare sweet pepper slices, carrot sticks, and other healthy veggie snacks and have them ready in the fridge, and bag up snack-sized portions of walnuts and pistachios, and other nuts that are loaded with heart-healthy fats and protein for healthy snacking on the run. Keep a bowl of washed fruit on the counter so you have delicious snacks ready to grab-and-go that will satisfy your sweet tooth in a healthy way.
For more tips on managing diabetes with diet and strategies for healthy living, visit www.BetterHealthKare.com You will find eating guidelines for diabetes, delicious diabetes friendly recipes, and much more.
