Diabetes Diets and Diabetic Recipes

Maintaining a healthy food regiment is critical for managing diabetes. But, a proper diabetic diet doesn't mean conforming to a complicated meal plan, or eating any specially designed foods. It simply means eating moderate portions of a rainbow of foods, at routinely scheduled mealtimes; aiming for more positive choices of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Because a diabetic's body counters the excess of consumed fat and calories by generating a rise in blood sugar, staying consistent with wise food choices is important in keeping blood glucose levels at your target rate.

The National Diabetes Education Program provides many recipes to help get started on creating your own healthy meal-plan. Here are a few samples:

Spanish Omelet
Ingredients:
5 small potatoes, peeled and sliced
Vegetable cooking spray
medium onion, minced
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 cups green/red peppers, sliced thin
5 medium mushrooms, sliced
3 whole eggs, beaten
5 egg whites, beaten
Pepper and garlic salt with herbs, to taste
3 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 Tbsp. low-fat parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 F.
• Cook potatoes in boiling water until tender.
• In a nonstick pan, add vegetable spray and warm at medium heat.
• Add onion and saut until brown. Add vegetables and saut until tender but not brown.
• In a medium mixing bowl, slightly beat eggs and egg whites, pepper, garlic salt, and low-fat mozzarella cheese. Stir egg-cheese mixture into the cooked vegetables.
• In a 10-inch pie pan or ovenproof skillet, add vegetable spray and transfer potatoes and egg mixture to pan. Sprinkle with low-fat parmesan cheese and bake until firm and brown on top, about 2030 minutes.
  Remove omelet from oven, cool for 10 minutes, and cut into five pieces.

Caribbean Red Snapper
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
cup red pepper, chopped
cup carrots, cut into strips
1 clove garlic, minced
cup dry white wine
pound red snapper fillet
1 large tomato chopped
2 Tbsp. pitted ripe olives, chopped
2 Tbsp. crumbled low-fat feta or low-fat ricotta cheese