The Diabetes Diet

I have always made the argument that because I have Type 1 diabetes, I can basically still eat like everyone else, as long as I give myself the right amount of insulin to take care of my meal. While I still believe this to be true, it doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be eating more foods work well with my diabetes. This last week I made a diabetes meal plan, using a good number of recipes I found online and through the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recipe page. Sticking to my diabetic meals I noticed that I wasn’t needing to use correction boluses as often, My numbers stayed in a much tighter range, and I hate admitting this, but overall I felt much better. 

to create my meal plan I used the ADA meal planner. And you know what I noticed, most diabetic food is boring. I love seeing pictures of colorful food that makes my mouth water, I found a few to get me through the week, but had to dig around the internet to complete my meal plan. I looked on Pinterest, and found hardly anything that looked edible. Who decided that once you become diabetic you have to stick to a bland diet? With that, I decided to take some of the recipes I found and spice them up a little bit. 

A lot of the recipes I found used artificial sweeteners. I understand that these sweeteners are life savers for some of you, believe me diet Pepsi was my water for a long time. But now days the idea of putting artificial sweeteners in my food to make it a freebie bothers me. If there was a recipe that called for Splenda instead of sugar, I chose to use things like Agave Nectar, Honey, or basic granular sugar. One of the benefits of using real sugar was knowing that I had a to use more insulin to enjoy it, which helped me keep my portions down on those recipes.

Eating as a diabetic for just one week didn’t kill me. Talk with your nutritionist and see what a diabetic meal plan looks like for you, or use some of the sample diets the American Diabetes Association offers. Eating like a diabetic doesn’t have to suck. If you like food as much as I do, then just learn to put your own little twist on it. 

Here are some of the recipes I tried and loved this week. 

Breakfast:

Egg, Prosciutto, Arugula Breakfast Sandwich from Verses from my Kitchen

Peanut Butter Crepes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling from a Dash of Sass

Lunch:

Turkey Spinach Salad with Beets from Diabetic Living

Turkey Ruben from Diabetic Living

Dinner:

Mango Salsa Chicken from The American Diabetes Association

Pesto Stuffed Chicken with Bruschetta Sauce from the American Diabetes Association