If you’re prediabetic, casting a critical eye on your food choices is part of getting out of prediabetes land.
Making changes to your diet is tough because food doesn’t just quiet a rumbling belly, it also soothes or even boosts emotions. For many reasons it’s difficult to give up comfort foods or foods that are simply favorites.
But, but, but . . . warm cookies, ice cream, pies with exquisitely flaky crusts. Dessert. The sweet stuff. It’s all so yummy and addicting, which makes carving simple carbs out of your day’s intake hard.
It helps to increase the flavor profile of the other foods you eat through spices, herbs, and methods of cooking. It also helps to keep in mind how challenging type 2 diabetes can be.
So, you can banish the sweet stuff entirely, fill the void with artificial sweeteners, or find alternatives that give you a little sweet without filling up your carb cup.
Here are a few options to get you going:
- Dark chocolate usually comes first on everyone’s list. Don’t despair if you’re a white or milk chocolate person but prepare yourself for a slight bitterness. Try it with at least 70% cacao to get the benefits and read the label for carb count.
- Cheese is often but not always low carb. Check the packaging before indulging. Adding half a pear to your cheese plate after dinner is nice (note the number of carbs in your pear to decide how much you want).
- Berries, traditionally blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries, are low carb. Drizzle on a teaspoon of honey to lift the sharp or sour taste.
- Fruit can be low in carbs, depending on what and how much you eat. There are loads of apps that will tell you the nutritional value of foods. If you don’t want to use an app, use a search engine or get a book. The information is out there.
Learn how to count carbs for all the foods you eat and set a daily limit. This will inform your choices when it comes to browsing in the kitchen.
There’s nothing wrong with occasionally eating sweet things that have real sugar in them. As you move away from desserts, you’ll find that your sweet tooth starts shrinking — you’ll be satisfied with a cookie instead of a sleeve of cookies.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/brb3.70338
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/52/14/910?_rvid=0199fd60-3868-7192-8646-8bc0be1d5b1b