Diabetes Forecast October 2005

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FOR TYPE 1/TYPE 2

Healthy Eating

Extreme Makeover
Small Diet Changes = Big Health Payoffs
By Robyn Webb, MS, LN

Recipe of the Month: Walnut, Apple, and Fennel Salad
Product of the Month: Sweet Mele's Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Oil

IT SEEMS LIKE more and more people are reinventing something about themselves or their environments. There are television shows devoted to "improving" bodies, updating wardrobes, and remodeling homes. They reflect our culture's deep fascination with change.

Here's one makeover that's easy and good for you, too: Reinvent your meals!

Adding extra nutritious ingredients to your already familiar recipes is easy. Take time to review your family favorites and tweak them a bit. You can transform almost any meal, even ones your grandmother handed down to you, into healthier and tastier versions of the original.

Value Added

• Use side dishes to add health value to your meals. Fill that bare spot on your plate with sliced tomatoes, baby carrots, a small bunch of grapes, apple slices, or a grilled peach or pear half.
• Add shredded carrots, diced bell peppers, fresh spinach, ½ cup chickpeas, kidney beans or lentils, unsalted sunflower seeds, or slivered toasted almonds to most any kind of soup.
• Top a baked potato with coarsely mashed and heated canned beans.
• Add thin apple slices to homemade turkey sandwiches.
• Top homemade casseroles with toasted sliced almonds.
• Top an egg-white omelet or homemade frittata with slices of fiber-rich avocado.
• Top homemade pizzas with roasted peppers, lightly sautéed mushrooms, steamed spinach, slices of fresh tomatoes, and, yes, even pineapple slices.
• Add diced pears or apples to pancake batter. Add any kind of berry to muffin mixes. Add shredded carrots, zucchini, and even shredded beets into quick breads.
• Add toasted walnuts and dried cranberries to cooked brown rice. Add diced and lightly sautéed zucchini and carrots to cooked barley. Add toasted walnuts to wild rice.

Creative Salads

Today's salads have really "grown up"; salad used to mean bland iceberg lettuce, which is low in nutrients, and fat-laden creamy dressings. Take a look at your own salad bowl. Have you moved beyond just boring slices of cucumber? Don't despair if you haven't: Here are some ideas to add even more vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber to your salad bowl.

Mix and match your greens. Here are some great combos: romaine, endive, and oak leaf lettuce; spinach, red chard, and arugula; watercress, green leaf lettuce, and spinach; radicchio, red romaine lettuce, and red leaf lettuce; mizuma, frisee, romaine, and watercress.

In most produce sections today there are a range of vegetables that will lend interesting flavors and textures to your salads, even if you use them only occasionally. Here are a few:

• Jicama. Known as the Mexican raw potato, jicama has a sweet, cream-colored flesh that tastes like a sweet water chestnut. Peel the brown skin; you can shred the flesh, or cut it into sticks or half moons.
• Jerusalem Artichoke. Looking like a cross between a very lumpy potato and a piece of ginger, the Jerusalem artichoke has a texture that is similar to the jicama, but it is not as sweet. Peel and cut into julienne strips or shred.
• Chayote. Also known as the Mexican zucchini, chayote looks like a green-fleshed pear. Peel the very thin skin and cut the chayote into chunks, sticks, or shred into salads. It has a nice crunchy texture and is slightly sweet.
• Daikon Radish. Looking like a long white carrot, daikon is the Japanese radish. It has a sharp, peppery taste and crunchy texture. Simply shred.

Meal makeovers need not be torturous or tedious. With a little imagination, your meals will get a new facelift with little effort and lots of tasty rewards.

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The latest cookbook by Robyn Webb, MS, LN, Italian Diabetic Meals In 30 Minutes—Or Less!, is published by the American Diabetes Association. This, as well as other books by Robyn, can be ordered from the Association's online bookstore at http://store.diabetes.org or by calling 1-800-232-6733.