Flavoring Foods For The Diabetic

Snacks are a necessity. Most people cannot avoid snacking and/or having a few sweets. You can have snacks, but work them into your meal plan.

The following food items all have about 15 grams of carbohydrates.

  1.  1small orange, peach, or tangerine
  2.  3 dried dates
  3.  2 small plumbs
  4.  15 grapes
  5.  1 cup no-fat and no-sugar flavored yogurt
  6.  3 graham crackers
  7. 1/2 low-fat granola bar
  8.  6 vanilla wafers (some items will have a little fat in them)
   9.  15 fat-free potato chips or tortilla chips
  10. 3/4 oz. pretzels
  11. 3 cups popcorn (lo-fat, microwave)
  12. 1/2 cup sugar-free pudding

You can make delicious snacks from Jell-O Pudding and Pie filling (or whatever brand you prefer) using fat-free, sugar-free pudding mix, 1% or 2% milk and Cool Whip.

You should always substitute monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats for saturated.

Generally, carbohydrates should make up about 50% to 60% of the diabetics daily calories.

Most herbs and spices are grown for commercial use and are not difficult to find. You can buy them almost anywhere, fresh or processed. Herbs and spices are plants having a strong scent or taste, and they are great for flavoring foods.

Herbs

Herbs are the leaves, flowers, and stems of plants like parsley, mint, basil, rosemary, thyme, and sage. Herbs are good to use because they have no calories but a lot of flavor. When using fresh herbs, chop or mines them before adding them to food so they will release their flavor better. You will need to use more of the herb if they are fresh. If you don't want the herb in the food itself, you may want to use a tea ball to hold them together.

Spices

Spices are the roots, seeds, and nuts of plants like cinnamon, onions, pepper, nutmeg, and cloves. It is best to buy spices whole. When you reduce the fat content in a recipe, you may want to add more spice. Adding fresh fruit juice to a salad (instead of salad dressing) such as orange, lemon, or lime juice can add a lot of flavor. To get fruit to release more of the juice, you can heat it just a little. Add nuts to enhance the flavor. Use lemon juice on meats. Prepare and serve chutney, which consists of acid fruits with raisins, onions, and spices. Hot peppers, dried fruit, onions, and garlic make great flavoring for foods. Rub meat with spices before grilling. When you marinate, use
lo-fat oil, yogurt, or fat-free broth.

As a diabetic, whether it be in diet or exercise, making the right choices are important. The complications from having the disease are very serious.