A FEW SIMPLE FOOD SWAPS TO KEEP YOUR CALORIES,
FAT AND CARBOHYDRATES IN CHECK
You don’t have to say goodbye to good taste just because you have diabetes. Try some of these swaps to make the foods you love more diabetes-friendly.
USE WHOLE GRAINS
Whole grains are loaded with nutrition and may even help you avoid heart disease.
- Make spaghetti and meatballs with wholewheat pasta.
- Make sandwiches with whole-grain bread.
- Serve your family your favorite stirfry with brown rice instead of white rice.
- You can even mix the two kinds of rice together.
- For breakfast, choose whole grain grits, or whole, steelcut oats. Oats and barley both contain the fiber beta-glucan, which lowers cholesterol and helps your body’s insulin work better.
- Mix oats into lean ground beef when you make meatballs or meatloaf.
- If you have a recipe for pasta salad you enjoy, use barley instead of pasta. It’s delicious.
UP THE VEGGIES
There’s a whole world of great tasting, low-calorie, low-carbohydrate vegetables out there. Add loads of veggies to your favorite comfort foods to boost nutrition and trim both calories and carbs.
DITCH SOLID FATS IN FAVOR OF SOFT FATS AND OILS
Solid fats like butter, stick margarine, lard and shortening have a lot of calories and are unhealthy for your heart. To help cut back, cook, spread and bake with lower-calorie soft tub margarine and a variety of heart-healthy cooking and salad oils, such as olive oil.
TIPS FOR PORTION CONTROL
If you won’t be happy with anything but a high-calorie, carb-heavy and saturated fatrich food, keep your portions in check:
- Serve your steak on a small plate and mini brownie sundaes in tiny glasses.
- Double up on veggies, and cut your lasagna portion in half.
- Eat one fried chicken leg instead of two.
- Cut back elsewhere in the same meal, so you stay on target with your carbohydrates, calories and saturated fats.
- Try to keep splurges to just now and then.
Take a look below for some easy swaps you
can make to cut down on fat and calories.
easy ways to
eat more veggies
➊ Replace some
of the pasta in your
pasta salad with
colorful veggies like
cherry tomatoes,
chopped red onion,
diced carrots and
artichoke hearts.
➋ Layer thinly sliced
zucchini in place of
some of the noodles
in your lasagna.
➌ Slip sliced
tomatoes and
sweet bell peppers
into your grilled
cheese sandwich.
➍ Stuff your
sandwich with
more veggies than
meat and cheese.
➎ Sauté mushrooms
and onions for
spaghetti sauce.
➏ Make rice pilaf
with equal amounts
of rice and veggies.
➐ Add steamed
cauliflower to
macaroni and
cheese and diced
broccoli to lasagna.