Healthy Food

By Jose Felipe Abrigo

Did you know that making a few changes with the way you choose and prepare your food could contribute to the health of people with diabetes and the rest of the family?

Eating healthy is essential for diabetics to help them control their blood sugar level, maintain their weight, and prevent them from suffering heart disease and other complications. Though termed as diabetic diet food, the meals prepared for people with diabetes are good for the whole family too.

Here are some healthy cooking and food handling tips for diabetics and the rest of your family:

• Trim the fat. When purchasing meat, choose lean cuts of pork, beef, lamb, and veal. Before cooking, remove all visible fat from the meat.

• Make soups one day ahead and store them in the fridge. This will allow you to remove the fat that has formed on the top of the soup once it is chilled.

• Instead of frying, try other ways of cooking meat products like grilling. Rub dry herbs and spices over the meat before grilling them. It gives the meat great flavor, plus there is no oil or fat involved in your cooking.

• If you really want to eat fried foods, use olive oil in food preparation instead of butter, margarine, or other types of oil. Avoid saturated and trans fat as much as possible. Use non-stick pans and cooking spray too.

• Cut down on sodium. Too much salt in your diet can increase your risk of high blood pressure. Limit salt use by training your taste buds to appreciate herbs and spices. Good salt replacement herbs include basil, bay, dill, rosemary, thyme, dill, and mint.

• When handling vegetables, be sure not to overcook them if ever they require cooking. Veggies tend to lose their nutrients when overcooked. When selecting vegetables, pick those that are in season. Wash them using tap water. Peel them thinly since most of the nutrients of vegetables are mainly found just below their skin. Take care to cook the veggies over low fire. This helps preserve the natural flavors of the veggies and makes them easier to digest.

Eating foods that are good for you requires healthy preparation. Try these healthy food handling tips mentioned above and you are on your way to managing your diabetes.

Find out more about reversing your diabetes permanently - More and more are curing this used-to-be incurable disease!