Food Selection and Preparation

Selecting the best food and preparing it properly is vital in any program for preventing and treating diabetes. Here are some practical guidelines.

Shopping for Good Food Guidelines

When grocery shopping, focus on choices in the perimeter of your supermarket where fresh produce, poultry and meats, and limited amounts of dairy (such as plain yogurt) tend to be displayed. By filling your cart with whole, live, natural foods, you will be able to avoid processed temptations in the inner aisles.
Take your children grocery shopping with you and allow them to make healthy choices. The number of obese children is rising rapidly, and this is a primary risk factor in diabetes. Encourage your children to pack their own lunches filled with nutritious whole foods instead of resorting to sugary, high-fat treats at school.
Stock up on bulk portions of whole grains. Choose brown rice and whole grain pastas, flours, and cereals that are high in nutrients and fiber but low on the glycemic index. Prepare double batches of long-cooking grains and keep them in the refrigerator or freezer for last-minute meal options.
Choose raw ingredients whenever possible. This includes fresh produce, but also extends to dressings and sauces. Cold-pressed oils and vinegar make simple, healthy salad dressings, while sugary stir-fry sauces can be replaced with soy sauce, tamari, and toasted sesame oil.
Walk to the grocery store whenever you can. You’ll enjoy a healthful bout of exercise, and limit yourself to only the necessities you’re able to carry home. This will assist you in avoiding impulse purchases.
Upon returning from a shopping trip, make healthy choices easily accessible. Wash and chop vegetables, and place fruit on the counter to ripen where you’ll remember to enjoy it.

Food Preparation Guidelines

Making Stock and Broth
Homemade stock and broth can be made in large quantities and frozen in appropriate sized quantities to be used in sauces, gravies, and soups. They can also be concentrated by boiling down for several hours and frozen in ice cube trays.

Marinating
In addition to using stock and broth to help digest proteins, another method is to marinate meat and fish in olive oil and lemon juice before cooking. Extra virgin olive oil contains naturally occurring lipase, an enzyme the body uses to digest fats, while the acid in lemon juice helps break down proteins. The meats and fish are thus somewhat predigested, making the nutrients more readily available. The end product is more tender, more flavorful, and more easily digested.

Steaming
Many vegetables are more easily digested and assimilated if they are steamed or lightly cooked. Steaming vegetables neutralizes oxalic acid found in some vegetables (spinach and collards, for example). Lightly cooking cruciferous vegetables, including cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts, neutralizes the goitrogens in them that can adversely affect the thyroid gland.
However, a diet of primarily cooked foods can lead to enzyme exhaustion and difficulties in digestion. For rich sources of digestive enzymes, look to extra virgin olive oil and other cold pressed unrefined oils, lacto-fermented foods and drinks, freshly juiced greens or lemons, raw egg yolks and dairy products, raw honey, tropical fruits grapes, figs, avocados, wine and beer.

Making Dressings
Homemade salad dressings are quick and easy to make using foods rich in digestive enzymes. Adding fresh herbs, fresh garlic, anchovies, cultured cream, raw egg yolk, and homemade mayonnaise not only enhances the flavor of the dressing, but also the nutritional value, adding vitamins and antioxidants to your diet. Consider using naturally fermented apple cider vinegar, which is readily available at health food stores. Cultured whey, beet Kvass, and fresh lemon juice may be substituted. Using these dressings on a salad helps control blood sugar levels by preventing spikes. There is a 25% improvement in blood glucose levels by lowering the glycemic index or load of the meal that follows.

Soaking
Seeds, grains, and nuts contain substances that keep them from sprouting until the right conditions of heat and moisture exist. These same substances also make them difficult to digest. Soaking these foods overnight in warm, salted, and filtered water solves this problem. This initial preparation should make it easier to digest these foods and to assimilate their nutrients. Apply this preparation principle to all grains, all shelled nuts, and all flours used in baking, as well as pumpkin, sesame, and other seeds. An exception is flaxseeds, if not eaten in large quantity. Nuts may be dried in a slow oven or dehydrator after soaking.
Dried beans and legumes also benefit from overnight soaking. Before cooking these foods, they should be soaked for a longer time than nuts, seeds, and grains, with the soak water thrown out. This process will make these foods easier to digest and less gaseous.

Sprouting
When seeds and grains are soaked and allowed to sprout before they are eaten, their nutritional content is maximized, as well as their digestibility. This process produces digestive enzymes and releases vitamin C, the B vitamins, and carotenes. Sprouting also neutralizes many harmful substances found in seeds and grains, such as aflatoxins (potent carcinogenics found in all grains); phytic acid (which inhibits our absorption of minerals); and enzyme inhibitors (found in all seeds, grains, and nuts).
However, raw sprouts do contain irritating substances that help to keep animals from eating the young, tender shoots. To nullify these irritants, these sprouts are best lightly steamed or added to soups and casseroles.
Commercially grown alfalfa sprouts have been found to have the salmonella bacterium and may contain a substance that is highly carcinogenic. They may inhibit the immune system and may contribute to inflammatory arthritis or lupus. Alfalfa seeds also contain the amino acid canavanine that is toxic when eaten in quantities. They should be avoided completely. This substance is not found in the mature plants, however.

Fermenting
In the past, lacto-fermented foods were common in traditional diets. However, with industrialization, recipes were changed for commercial production and now vinegar is used as the pickling medium. The product is then either pasteurized or preservatives are added. These changes not only remove the health benefits from lacto-fermentation, but they also create foods full of sugar, white vinegar, and preservatives, which many would argue are quite detrimental to health. In their book Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon and Mary Enig present a method for fermenting foods that is very easy, virtually full proof, and only requires a 1- or 2-quart mason jar to sit on the counter for 2 or 3 days after mixing the ingredients.

Good Cooking Oils

Coconut oil or full fat coconut milk (may be used for sautéing and cooking, but not at high temperatures)
Cultured unsalted butter, made from raw milk from pasture-fed cows
Ghee made from organic unsalted milk
Organic unsalted butter

Food Behavior Guidelines

Eat approximately every 3 hours, with three small meals, three small snacks, and a small amount of quality protein upon arising and at bedtime. This will help prevent spikes in blood sugar levels.
Never force yourself or your children to finish what is on your plate. Eat only until you are satisfied, and wrap leftovers for the next day. Forcing yourself or your children to overeat discourages you from listening to your body’s hunger signals and can contribute to weight problems and other eating disorders.
Never use food as a reward or restrict certain foods as a punishment. This behavior places an inaccurate value on unhealthy foods and casts healthier options in an undesirable light. Choose non-food rewards for yourself and your children, such as a special outing, tickets to an event, or a new article of clothing.
Children develop their sensibility to taste at an early age, so keep in mind that the typical ‘sweet tooth’ that many children have can be minimized.
Find ways to increase the nutrient value of your favorite comfort foods. Mash potatoes with the skins on to increase fiber. Make your own popsicles using a mixture of pure fruit juice and water. Pop your own corn in an air popper. Add ground flaxseed to cereals, smoothies, and yogurt to boost fiber and essential fatty acids.
Critically review your recipes to see if you can make reasonable alterations that will help you to achieve your diet goals.
Bake your own muffins and cakes, using whole grain flours and reducing or eliminating sugar. Most recipes work well without a sweetener. This will help you to avoid hidden ingredients in processed varieties.
Make sure your portion sizes are reasonable. In North America, we’ve come to value quantity over quality, and our expanding waistlines are evidence of the health effects. A serving of most foods should fit in the palm of your hand. Meat cuts should be about the size of a deck of cards, and a cup of whole grains shouldn’t be bigger than a tennis ball.
Share meal preparation duties, especially if you live in shared dwellings. By preparing one or two meals a week and trading portions (or getting together for shared meals) with neighbors or friends, you’ll have healthy and appetizing fare on hand, and save on effort.
Avoid processed foods, including food processed with trans fats and processed grains, such as white starchy foods (white flour, pasta, white rice), along with foods containing chemicals and preservatives (such as fatty or smoked/cured meats), artificial sweeteners, and refined sugar. Most of the food we eat should be fresh and whole, not processed or enhanced.
Eat a varied diet to minimize the likelihood of nutrient deficiencies. The more varied the diet, the more varied the nutrients. However, the North American diet often consists of various combinations of essentially the same foods, often wheat, meat, eggs, potatoes, and dairy products. Breakfast might consist of cereal and milk, toast and bacon or sausages, and eggs. A lunch of hamburger on a bun, fries, and a milk shake contains many of the same food choices. Dinner then follows made up of steak and potatoes or pasta. The best diet consists of a wide variety of different colored fruits and vegetables. And the deeper the pigment, the greater the mineral, vitamin, and phytonutrient content.

Daily Meal Guidelines

Eat a small amount of protein upon arising — for example, a teaspoon of high quality whey protein powder mixed in water, a small piece of quality cheese cooked meat, or nuts and seeds) — and the same just before going to bed.
Eat something every three hours — for example, three small meals and three small snacks.
Eat a small amount of high-quality protein at every snack and meal. Always add low GI or GL fruits and vegetables. Snacks should consist of small amounts of protein (nuts are excellent protein snacks) with a small amount of vegetables or fruit.
Eat many servings (up to 10) of low GI or low GL fruits and vegetables.
Eat only carbohydrates with a low GI or a low GL, except following strenuous exercise or a workout. Then have a higher glycemic index food – for example, a bowl of old-fashioned oatmeal. This is the only time your body can handle the higher GI food without spiking the blood glucose or insulin levels. It is also best if a small amount of protein is eaten with the high carbohydrate food a half hour before exercise.
Eat only quality proteins. The best are free-range chicken, fresh eggs from free-range hens, and meats and dairy products from pasture-fed ruminant animals (beef, lamb, goat, organic meats, organic cottage cheese, cheese made from raw milk and bacterial enzymes, good quality whey protein powder).
Eat only high quality fats and oils, such as macadamia nut oil, coconut oil and full fat coconut milk, extra virgin olive oil, high quality butter (organic, raw, and cultured), and organic ghee.
Totally eliminate sugar and sugar products. Read labels and avoid products with glucose, fructose, dextrose, sucrose, corn syrup, maltose, etc.
Avoid all junk foods — chips, french fries, donuts, all commercial snack foods and bakery goods. An occasional treat of dark (bittersweet) chocolate is okay.
Eliminate alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and caffeine.
Do not drink soda pop at meals or any time during the day. Drink herbal teas, unsweetened vegetable and low-glycemic fruit juices, and water instead.
Drink at least 8 glasses of quality water.

Seven Day Meal Plans

Day	Breakfast	Snack	Lunch	Snack	Dinner	Snack
Day 1	Poached eggBlueberry smoothie	Green and red peppers slices with guacamole	Black bean soup Green leafy salad	Almonds Apple	Salmon Sauteed spinach, garlic, and onionsOat flour cookies	Macadamia nuts Pear
Day 2	Whole-grain cereal with almond milk Banana	Veggies with salsa	Whole-grain wrap with hummus, feta cheese, green onions, lettuce, cucumber, avocado Apple	Sauerkraut with coleslaw	Garlic shrimp Lentil Salad Stir-fried collard greens	Pecans with peaches
Day 3	Smoothie Bran muffin	Olives and pistachio nuts	Tuna salad Orange	Guacamole and veggies	Stir-fried free-range chicken and vegetables Bean salad	Walnuts and apples
Day 4	Oatmeal with low-fat milk, blueberries, and cinnamon	Veggies with salsa	Vegetable soup Salad	Peanuts and raspberries	Eggplant pizza crust with desired toppings	Macadamia nuts
Day 5	Free-range eggsStrawberry smoothie	Cashews	YamsTossed vegetable salad	Celery sticks with peanut or almond butter	Poached or broiled SalmonGreen Beans Salad	Brazil nuts and blueberries
Day 6	SmoothieBran muffin	Bean salad	Veggie wrap Orange Juice	Olive oil, garlic, and mushrooms	Pasture-fed beef or liverSaladCoconut macaroons	Flax seeds and yoghurt
Day 7	Smoothie Oatmeal with lo-fat milk, flax seeds, and cinnamon	Dandelion greens with tomatoes	Tuna saladPear	Soy nuts and olives	Spaghetti squash Salad	Celery with peanut butter
Beverages	Water, herbal tea, diluted unsweetened juice

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