LIVINGLIVING MAKING CARBS COUNT
Some tips and tricks to get you through the
season of good cheer with your carb counts
under some kind of control.
CHRISTMAS CLASSICS
Cristmas is a particularly
tricky time for people
with diabetes. In
fact most times of
celebration mean
navigating around cakes, sweet drinks
and special treats that mostly involve
sweet ingredients, or ingredients where
the carb count is not easily calculated.
It can be tough to keep refusing food
offered. But with many classic dishes, it's
possible to adapt them so that some of
the 'nasties' are reduced, or taken out
altogether. Nor need they taste awful!
These are a few seasonal recipes that
you could try that need not make your
blood sugars rise (at least not too much).
See a couple overleaf.
Bakes, pies and puds
It's not a celebration without a cake
involved. Generally a no-no for anyone
with diabetes, the issue with Christmas is
it's not limited to one day like a birthday,
so cakes, biscuits, Christmas puddings
and mince pies abound. Not only do they
have a high carb count due to the flour,
and with fat from butter in pastry, but the
contents are often high-octane in terms of
carbs as there's a high quotient of dried
and preserved fruits (often preserved by
being boiled in syrups). Due to the fact
that people in the past have had to adapt
to the seasons, storing and preserving
food from autumn to be eaten in winter,
the two biggest classics - Christmas
pudding and mince pies are extremely
hard to navigate even by having extra
doses of insulin to cover a portion. Just
having 'a little taste' is a better bet.
Fruit and nuts
There are no particular seasonal problems
with fruits like oranges, satsumas and
clementines in their natural form over
Christmas, but watch out for dried fruits,
which often have added sugar at this time