snacks Archives - Diabetes Counselling Online

D-thoughts on snacking

January 26, 2015 by Sally Leave a Comment

Happy Australia Day! And what good timing for a blog on snacking! It must be the ‘most asked’ question I get as a dietitian: “What are the best snacks for people with diabetes?”

It’s not really a black and white question as the answer depends on your personal diabetes requirements, your personal tastes, your ability to be mindful in your choices and your knowledge of healthy eating in general. So this blog aims to help you to be mindful in making snacking decisions.

We encourage you to choose foods that are higher in nutrients to add to your overall wellbeing, rather than ‘discretionary choices’ which everybody, diabetic or not, is encouraged to limit. It’s especially the case for us with diabetes… but it doesn’t mean missing out on delicious flavours!

Priority One

Your first priority needs to be your overall diabetes goals. Are you getting all the nutrients from your diet that you need for wellbeing? Are you needing to watch your weight? Is matching your food intake to your body’s ability to process carbs an issue for you?

A perfect segue to our Australian Dietary Guidelines… Are you actually meeting the quantities recommended in the 5 main food groups across your day?

In an ideal world we would choose snacks that are included in the foods that we are recommended to enjoy each day. In these examples I’m referring to the ‘Healthy Eating for Adults’ brochure, but there’s also a Healthy Eating for Children brochure for those thinking about their children with diabetes. In both cases, the actual food group listings are on page 2.

Each of the food groups has snacking potential, so there’s always plenty to choose from.

In the ‘Vegetables and legumes/beans’ group you can always find a low-carb snack if that’s what you’re after. Whether it’s raw veg to nibble on, celery with nut butter, blanched asparagus spears when they’re in season, tasty tiny tomatoes that burst with flavour in your mouth, hummous dip with veggie sticks, or even leftover cold roasted non-starchies or ratatouille (recipe in the files section of the closed ‘Diabetes and Food – let’s celebrate it!’ Facebook group). There are always options in this group of foods if one of them will meet what you’re looking for…

Next group down and a great one for those wanting something to satisfy a sweetness craving is the ‘Fruit’ group. With diabetes we are recommended to aim for about 2 serves per day, eaten at different times. However, some fruits are really low in carbohydrate, so we can have more of these without upsetting our glycemic control. Some of those include berries, passionfruit and kiwifruit. But still watch your quantities. If you want to know how much fruit will contain 15g of carbohydrate, take a look at www.calorieking.com.au , search for the fruit you are looking at, and adjust quantities to get to the 1 carb serve number.

In the ‘Grain (cereal) foods’ group, it’s easy to calculate whether you’re going to meet your daily recommended amount. Often for people with diabetes this is a group that people actually tend to be low in. Instead of choosing a ‘discretionary item’, swapping in a low-GI high fibre grain snack such a piece of heavily grained toast with a topping to suit your taste can be a great option to satisfy your hunger and keep your BGLs stable. Or even a small bowl of your high-fibre cereal. Of course these options all contain carbs, but they are all much more nutritious than a cracker or sweet biscuit.

In the ‘Protein’ group, snacking options are easy to find, but it’s important to remember to try not to exceed the guidelines in terms of serve sizes and number of serves recommendations. This is because protein contains energy (or calories/kilojoules) that will cause weight gain if you have too much, although they shouldn’t upset your glycemic control. I recommend having a read of this blog on Protein : written earlier, if you’d like more info. The perfect snack from within this group for us with diabetes is really a handful of nuts, as the evidence behind inclusion of nuts in our diet is quite outstanding. Read more about nuts in this blog.

And last, but not least, is the ‘Dairy and/or alternatives’ group. I wrote a couple of blogs about dairy and diabetes as it’s such an important food group for us with diabetes. Here’s a link to the first one and the second one that contain more great ideas for snacking. My favourite snacking recommendations to help meet the nutritional guidelines are a low-fat yogurt (low sugar too if you’re watching your carb intake closely) or plain low-fat greek yogurt with berries mixed in. Or a low-fat milk based smoothie made on frozen berries, with a couple of teaspoons of chia seeds added for extra fibre. Even a cup of milk based coffee can do the trick… These should work well to satisfy hunger and provide you with the nutrients this group is known for.

Priority Two

Your second priority, also a very important one, is to ask yourself what do you actually feel like eating and why? Sometimes snacking can become a habit. People say “I have a sweet tooth and NEED a biscuit or cake”. (or whatever) This is important too, because if you deprive yourself of what you really want (or feel you need) all the time, then your craving will only grow bigger and you’ll end up overdoing it and regretting it later. Not a good thing, but happens all too often. If you can enjoy a small amount of what you feel you “need”, being mindful of enjoying every mouthful, savouring the textures and flavours that you’ve wanted so badly, then you’re in a better place to return to your ‘healthier’ options on a regular basis.

Do I really need to snack?

If you’re medicated for your diabetes, and are putting yourself at risk of a hypo if you don’t snack, then you should snack as you’ve been advised by your medical diabetes team. If in this case you’d rather not be snacking as you’re just not hungry, then you should talk to your d-team and arrange to have the medication adjusted so that you don’t need to snack.

For those of you where snacking has just become a habit, it’s worth thinking twice to see if you really are hungry before you just head for a snack. Is it out of habit or because you’re bored? Sometimes a drink of water will satisfy that ‘hunger’ feeling, which may actually be your body telling you that you’re dehydrated. If you’re bored, take the opportunity to go for a walk, call a friend, do something off your household chores list, read a book, or engage in your hobby.

If you are constantly actually hungry, it may be worth your while to visit an Accredited Practising Dietitian to see how your meal plan can be adjusted to help avoid that happening. Being hungry is not good or necessary for you to manage your diabetes and weight well.

More ideas?

In the Diabetes Counselling Online closed Facebook groups ‘Diabetes and Food – let’s celebrate it!’ and ‘Diabetes Weight Matters’ we’ve asked the members what their favourite snacks are and have created a document up in the files section of the groups. I think I still need to finalise the weight matters file, but it’ll be there soon. These are member ideas, not necessarily dietitian approved, so please use this blog as a thought process in helping to make your snacking decisions right for you.

Also in the current issue (February 2015) of the Australian Healthy Food Guide they’re running a feature relevant to this blog that you may find helpful. It’s entitled “Your Treat Foods Toolkit” and explains “why those ‘naughty’ treat foods are discretionary, and how they can fit into a healthy diet.” It’s written by an Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Brooke Longfield and can be found on page 34. Although not related specifically to diabetes, you’ll find it helpful for portion sizes and understanding more about ‘discretionary’ foods.

Happy snacking! Sally

Sally is the Social Media Dietitian with Diabetes Counselling Online, owner of her private practice (Marchini Nutrition), has had type 1 diabetes for close to 40 years and coeliac disease for many years too. You can access a linked list of all Sally’s Diabetes Counselling Online blogs here.

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Making 2&5 easy

November 3, 2014 by Sally Leave a Comment

We’re all so busy these days. How on Earth are we meant to able to consider our health and getting enough fruit and vegetables (our 2&5) into the meals we eat?

Often I see clients who, when I take their diet histories, they don’t even start to consider foods like fruit and vegetables until so late in the day that it’s actually too late to get enough of those important plant nutrients. Or when they’re doing it they find them so unappealing that there’s no incentive to make them want to eat more.

In this blog I hope to help you find it easier to get them all in and enjoy them, which in turn will help you to improve your own wellbeing, diabetes health, mental health, heart health and so much more!

The Australian Dietary Guidelines tells us:

“There are many nutritional, societal, culinary and environmental reasons to ensure that vegetables, including legumes/beans, and fruit are a major component of Australian dietary patterns. These foods are nutrient dense, relatively low in energy (kilojoules) and are good sources of minerals and vitamins (such as magnesium, vitamin C and folate), dietary fibre and a range of phytochemicals including carotenoids. Many of the sub-components of foods and their relationships have not been studied in detail, and it is expected that other sub-components – and their biological effects – are still to be discovered.”

From a diabetes point of view, they’ll help improve our immune system, mental health, good cholesterol, bowel health and help with weight management (just to name a few benefits!).

Perhaps a good start would be to look at ideas to include them in your meals across the day, and then provide you with some easy recipes – some of my personal favourites, and I encourage you to share your personal favourites below too in case they inspire someone else to enjoy more of these wonderful foods.

A good starting point is to know what the guideline is and how much a serve is. This snip from the Australian Dietary Guidelines for Adults brochure provides a pretty clear picture.

One of my best tips is to break up the intake of these foods across the day so that you’re not left with large amounts required at the end. Personally I aim to get 2-3 serves of vegetables at lunchtime and another 2-3 for dinner, and I one of my fruit serves at breakfast and one as a snack later in the day. But there are no rules about this. Here are some ideas that might help you.

Breakfast

Weekday breakfasts usually need to be fast to prepare and eat. So a bowl of high fibre cereal with a serve of fruit is one easy way to get you off to a good start. Think bananas, strawberries, blueberries. A milk based smoothie also works well here, as does multigrain toast with peanut butter and a squashed banana.

On weekends with a little more time, why not wilt some baby spinach leaves and panfry mushrooms and tomato, served on toast with an egg. Remembering that one medium sized tomato equals a serve, and half a cup of cooked veg (the mushrooms and wilted spinach) is another serve, you’re off to a great start with two vegetable serves already under your belt.

Lunch

I love lunchtimes in my office. I take the various ingredients to build my favourite salad and set aside an hour to build and eat it while I check my email and Facebook. My salads include mixed leaves, baby tomatoes (various colours if they’re available), Lebanese cucumber, onion, half a cup of 4 bean mix and a quarter of an avocado. That gives me around 3 vegetable serves and I salivate over every mouthful.

Of course leftover are also a top idea for lunch, especially ones high in vegetable ingredient, and can be served with baby spinach leaves to lift them.

And if you’re in a massive hurry and can only have time to make a sandwich, pile on the salad and take some extra veg in a box to nibble on with your sandwich. I just adore the flavour in the grape or Perino tomatoes, and cooked and cooled asparagus (in season at the moment) are such a treat flavourwise – I even enjoy it raw!

Dinner

A good place to start here is to remember the plate model, in that half your plate should be non-starchy veg or salad.

I’ll provide ideas below on some yummy ways you can make this happen. It is definitely the easiest meal to get those extra serves in, so 2-3 shouldn’t be a challenge at all.

Snacks

Of course a piece of fruit is an excellent snack, remembering you’re aiming for 2 per day, so if you’ve had one with your breakfast you only need one later in the day too. For us with diabetes they’re better off eaten at separate times to keep our BGLs more stable.

Five easy ideas to enjoy your vegetables

Simply steamed or microwaved to an ‘al-dente’ texture (ie not overcooked) mixed vegetables of your choice such as broccoli, zucchini, green beans and peas. Dress with the juice of a lemon, a finely chopped clove of garlic, extra virgin olive oil (equal amount to the lemon juice) and salt and pepper to taste. Delicious!
Start with a tin of tomatoes and add flavours such as garlic, anchovies and chilli. Then just add your choice of veggies and simmer in the sauce for 5 minutes or until they’re an al-dente texture (not overcooked). Tasty!
Take a bowl and add a huge variety of vegetables such as mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, capsicum, zucchini, pumpkin, beans, whole garlic cloves, onion and toss them in some extra virgin olive oil with fresh or dried oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Tip them into a baking tray lined with baking paper (for easy washing up) and roast at 180 degrees Celsius for about 30 mins. Also wonderful with crumbled feta cheese tossed through at the end, and delicious cold the next day for leftover lunches!
Soups and stews are such an obvious choice for those who find it hard to enjoy their veggies as all you need to do is add a whole load of mixed veggies into a large pot, cover with stock, simmer for 20-30 minutes and blend with your desired flavourings. How easy is that?!
Last but not least, if you have left over steamed vegetables it’s so easy to reinvigorate them by adding them into a mix of a few beaten eggs and some cheese and a few extra fresh herbs, baked for 30 mins at 180 degrees to make a frittata that will ‘Wow’ your guests. Also fabulous for next day lunches to help get your vegetable serves in. Yummo!

That’s probably enough to cover in this blog. I’ve give you quite a lot to consider. As mentioned, we’d love you to share your favourite ways of enjoying vegetables, and let’s talk about them more in our Diabetes Counselling Online groups such as Diabetes and Food – let’s celebrate it!, Diabetes Weight Matters and Men Living with Diabetes among others.

Sally is the Social Media Dietitian with Diabetes Counselling Online, owner of her private practice (Marchini Nutrition), and has had type 1 diabetes for close to 40 years and coeliac disease for many years too. You can access a linked list of all Sally’s Diabetes Counselling Online blogs here.

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Juggling Wellness and Diabetes

September 15, 2014 by Sally Leave a Comment

I’m writing this personal kind of blog on a Saturday. I love Saturdays. They encompass lots of things I love to do which all contribute to my wellbeing. This morning I was out on my run and because it’s Saturday and lovely Spring weather lots of my neighbours were also out and about. Nearly everyone I ‘ran’ into made the comment about how well I looked. I had at least 3 such comments this morning and they inspired me to share with you what I believe to be the key to being well with diabetes, or what works for me anyway.

This is important to me because I have diabetes and I’m turning 50 next year, so I know that if I don’t focus on being well myself I’m in a higher risk group to lose my wellness that is so important to me. I want to do all I can to hold onto it for as long as I can, so I can enjoy more of this wonderful life. I’m also passionate about helping others to be well too to the best of their ability, so here goes!

Sleep

Every Saturday I get to sleep in. Yay! To catch up on a few hours I may have missed through the busy-ness of my week. Time to give my body a chance to repair and relax. I usually get to sleep in until around 8am, which is a big improvement on my 6-6.30am starts on other days of the week. The only thing that stops me from doing this is waking early with a hypo, but this morning my BGLs behaved themselves. This week I found an awesome article in The Conversation on the importance of sleep which I encourage you to read. It’s just so important for our wellbeing, and especially so for us with diabetes.

Eating Well

As a dietitian you would know that I am particularly passionate on this topic! This is the only topic in today’s blog that I’m qualified to talk about as a health professional, and it’s such an important one! The Australian Dietary Guidelines that we follow actually makes the comment, “Diet is arguably the single most important behavioural risk factor that can be improved to have a significant impact on health.” It is something that I think about, read up on and focus on every day.

Today I started with my fibre rich, low-GI and high nutrient breakfast, a combination of two cereals that enjoy eating together topped with skim milk. I had a banana for morning tea and a delicious bowl of vegetable and low-GI carb rich Minestrone soup. This afternoon I’ll probably have a snack of a handful of nuts and another piece of fruit. We have a delicious lean meat and vegetable rich stir-fry planned which we’ll serve with plain Basmati rice, and I’ve marked out my favourite Black Cherry yogurt for dessert.

I know that I’m getting the nutrients I need to be well each day, and I’m sure it must also reflect in my outward appearance when I’m out on my run, makeup free in my daggy running shorts too lol

Regular Exercise

Nice segway to the exercise! Also lots of evidence here to support wellbeing, reducing inflammation, improving mental health and keeping our BGLs more stable. You may know that I’m a golfer. I try to play 18 holes in a comp twice a week, and 9 holes if I have time as a break in my day on a Friday. On the days I’m not golfing I do my best to get in at least the minimum recommended 30 minutes of moderate physical activity. Usually I try for 45 minutes. Since I’ve been doing this I have noticed a big improvement in the stability of my glycemic control as my fitness has improved. It’s so worth the effort even when you don’t really feel like it!

Family Time/Love

I’m incredibly fortunate to have so much love and support from my family, but I guess it works both ways in that I also love and support them! I believe that love and giving love is an important part of wellbeing. We hug each other a lot in our household, and in the wider family too. Have you hugged someone today and told them you love them?

Being sociable

Although I was out on my run, I enjoy stopping along the way on a Saturday as I have more time available to me to chat with my lovely neighbours in the suburb I live in. I chat with the children, and the parents, and the older people, and the neighbours who are my friends. To me this is important as I feel loved within my community too, and I know that I’m helping some of these people to feel loved too <3

Hard Work

I enjoy working. It keeps my brain active. It gives me a purpose and keeps me inspired each day to stay well and make the most of my life. The lovely Helen Wilde called me a workaholic this week, which made me think. You know I probably am a workaholic, but that’s because I love what I do and it makes me happy to help other people to be well. But I honestly try very hard to keep a balance with the other important factors in my life.

For those of you who are lucky to be retired or not have to ‘work’ as such I would encourage some kind of volunteer role as it can really be so rewarding and contribute to your wellness. We have some awesome volunteers who help us out at Diabetes Counselling Online. You can read more about our team and some of our ambassadors here. They’re so important in making our charitable organisation what it is.

Keeping the Balance

Of course, being Saturday, I also have household chores to do, preparation cooking for the week ahead, and I might even fit in a quiet hour of reading a book. It’s always a good day, and means I really relax and enjoy myself on my day of rest (and golf) Sunday.

If you try to imagine all these aspects (including any others you may have yourself) as a number of balls that you’re juggling, I believe that remaining well is all about keeping a balance amongst them. Sometimes you need to drop one ball to keep the others going smoothly, but don’t forget it and go back to collect it as soon as you can. I don’t see diabetes as one of those balls – it’s just part of me and often influences how I manage some of those balls/aspects.

Hopefully some of this will inspire you to focus on keeping your balls in the juggle, and know where you can make some positive changes to improve your own wellness. Diabetes Counselling Online actually has a whole section on the website on Diabetes & Wellbeing. Check it out!

You know we’re here to help. With love, Sally.

Sally is the Social Media Dietitian with Diabetes Counselling Online, owner of her private practice (Marchini Nutrition), and has had type 1 diabetes for close to 40 years and coeliac disease for many years too. You can access a list of all Sally’s Diabetes Counselling Online blogs here.

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Oats for d-health

June 9, 2014 by Sally Leave a Comment

Oats are an awesome topic for a d-blog as they bring together so many aspects of food in our lives with diabetes including the glycemic index of carbohydrates, the importance of whole grains in our diets, soluble and insoluble fibre, heart health and the chance to talk about more delicious recipes. Not to mention with winter on our doorstep, oats are a wonderful comfort food breakfast for the coming cold mornings – Yes! And this idea follows on well from a recent blog about healthy eating on a budget as oats are definitely a bargain food!

Of course, like with all foods that I talk about individually, I need to make clear that they should be consumed as part of a varied and balanced diet as is demonstrated in the Australian Dietary Guidelines.

I’ll also talk about oats and coeliac disease, since around 10% of us with type 1 get coeliac disease, and I know I was devastated to find out that oats were off my diet when I was diagnosed. Now they’re back, so I’ll speak more of that further down

Glycemic Index

Oats come in various states – groats (the whole oat, just with husk removed), steel cut (the next ‘least’ processed version), oat bran, rolled oats, traditional oats and quick oats – just to name a few. As we often discuss, the less processing that the grain goes through, the lower it’s glycemic index should be as our body has to do the processing itself to break the whole grains down into glucose that our bodies need for fuel. So, when you’re choosing oats try to avoid the ‘quick oats’ which have been chopped smaller for faster cooking, when whole oats actually don’t need much (if any) cooking anyway.

It is also interesting to note that oats are lower in carbohydrates than many other grains. According to Calorie King, they come in at only 58% carbohydrate compared with rice at 79%, wheat at 71%, and quinoa at 64%.

Our D-health

We’ve probably all heard of the cholesterol lowering and glucose ‘slowering’ (I know, I made it up, but you get what I mean lol) abilities of beta-glucans that are found in oats, but oats are packed with a huge range of nutrients that are essential for maintaining health including B-vitamins, minerals (including iron, magnesium, and zinc) plus a whole lot more as well both soluble and insoluble fibre to keep our gut healthy too.

They also contain a plant nutrient that is unique to oats called Avenanthrades which have been demonstrated by research to possess anti-histamine and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as being shown to reduce a process involved in atherosclerosis. All good evidence for us with diabetes to include them in our diet on a regular basis as part of our 3-6 grain serves per day where one serve is a quarter cup of raw oats (17g carb = 1 serve/exchange).

There’s a lot of evidence to demonstrate the heart health benefits of oats, and I’m sure there’ll be more to come!

Oats and coeliac disease

Coeliac Australia says on their website that “FSANZ defines wheat, rye, barley and oats as gluten containing grains, as all four grains have been shown to trigger a reaction in those with coeliac disease.

“Many gluten free or pure oat products are now being imported to Australia. It is important to note that this means that the product is only free of contamination from wheat, rye or barley crops during the harvesting, processing or packaging of the product. The product has not had the gluten extracted or been genetically modified to be gluten free.

“It is recommended by the Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) for Coeliac Australia that despite the extensive medical research done in relation to oats and coeliac disease, oats should be excluded from a gluten free diet until the research is more conclusive and definitive.”

However, if you’ve been strictly gluten free for over a year and have fully recovered any previous damage, then it’s possible to do an ‘oat challenge’ using uncontaminated oats including 50g oats a day for 3 months with a pre- and post- biopsy to determine if oats are likely to cause you villi damage/inflammation.

Having diabetes, my doctor encouraged me to do this to help with the inclusion of more low-GI grains in my diet, and I would encourage the same of other people with diabetes who miss oats in their diet.

Notice I said ‘uncontaminated’ oats? From a coeliac perspective it’s important with all ‘gluten free’ grains to ensure they’ve been processed/packaged in a gluten free facility. Two I know of here in Australia are Freedom Foods and Carman’s Fine Foods. If you know of any others, please comment in the space below, thanks

Recipes

The obvious way to eat oats is to include them in your breakfast as porridge, muesli or in a smoothie, but there are so many other delicious ways to use them.

One of my favourite snacks used to be this Lowan recipe for oatbran and apple muffins as they were so easy to make and turned out perfectly every time, remembering I’m not a baker lol With both oat bran and apple, the GI of these would definitely be low. I just used a little less sugar – if you like it sweet you could use some sweetener in place of some of the sugar. I also choose to use light olive oil rather than vegetable oil (from an inflammation perspective).

I also like the look of this oat crumble topped pears with yogurt recipe which is likely to have a low-GI, but go easy on the sugar/maple syrup. Perhaps try some Agave syrup with its low GI instead?

And as far as savoury goes, they’re ideal to add to casseroles and soups. And how delicious does this recipe for lamb rissoles with tabouli and hummus sound? Yummo!

This roasted pumpkin crumble also looks like a top low-GI idea, especially good for those vegetarians amongst us!

And if you’re after more info on oats, Accredited Practising Dietitian/Nutritionist Catherine Saxelby wrote a blog on oats with more detail on the types of oats and her own favourite recipes that you can read here. And here’s a website that has a listing of all the nutrients if you’re interested.

Please share your favourite oaty recipes in the comments below! Sally

Sally is the Social Media Dietitian with Diabetes Counselling Online, owner of her private practice (Marchini Nutrition), and has had type 1 diabetes for close to 40 years and coeliac disease for many years too.

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A smooth(ie) way to ensure nutrient sufficiency over Christmas

December 23, 2013 by Sally 4 Comments

As suggested by a member of the Diabetes Counselling Online Diabetes Weight Matters closed Facebook group, today’s blog is on the topic of ‘smoothies’. It’s very timely as this being the week before Christmas (only 2 days to go!!) as so many of us are short on time.

Smoothies are a great topic to chat about because they can involve ingredients from all the major food groups, they’re convenient and easy to make, as well as being both nutritious and delicious. In today’s blog I’ll cover how they can help you meet your dietary guidelines in certain food groups as well as providing a few recipe ideas to get you started if you like the idea.

When we look at the Australian Dietary Guidelines (for Adults) which are designed to show us how to eat best for health and wellbeing, some people find it tricky to include all the serves from all of the five food groups:

Vegetables and legumes/beans – 5-6 serves per day
Fruit – 2 serves per day
Grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain and/or high cereal varieties – 3-6 serves per day
Proteins – lean meat and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, and legumes/bean – 2-3 serves per day
Dairy (Milk, yogurt, cheese) and/or alternatives, mostly reduced fat – 2.5-4 serves per day

I should point out here in the beginning that it’s also important not to exceed those recommendations, especially if you’re watching your weight, so understanding your energy needs is important. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because something is healthy you can eat as much of it as you like! We need to balance our energy intake with our nutritional requirements for good health. The National Medical Health and Research Council (NHMRC) reminds us: “Energy is not a nutrient but is required in the body for metabolic processes, physiological functions, muscular activity, heat production, growth and synthesis of new tissues”.

So, unless you’re an athlete who needs to gain muscle density or are generally malnourished, I do not recommend adding protein powers and the like to your smoothies. Just use fresh ingredients and you’ll have everything you need. You can read more about our energy requirements in the blog I wrote last week: ‘Energy In/Energy Out – understanding how much you need and where you get it’ and more about the benefits of low-GI foods here which are also a great selling point for smoothies, especially those made on dairy or soy milk alternatives.

Convenience

In terms of convenience, all you need for a smoothie is quality ingredients and a blender of some sort. I use a stick blender to save on washing up, but any kind will do. They take only between 5-10 minutes to make, so are perfect for people in a rush trying to get the nutrients and energy they need. Perfect too for those who say they can’t do breakfast as there’s not enough time, and they can be consumed on the run (although I wouldn’t recommend that if you can avoid it). They can replace a meal if you’re in a hurry, and are perfect as a snack too.

Meeting your nutrient needs

Many people find the areas that are hardest to include are the vegetables, fruit and dairy and smoothies are perfect to boost those areas. Proteins can also be included in the form of nuts and seeds which are highly nutritious, but watch those portion sizes as they’re also high in energy. (I wouldn’t advise using raw eggs due to related health safety concerns.) Including grains such as oats and quinoa flakes are another good option.

Low fat milk based smoothies (1 cup = 1 dairy serve) made with fresh fruit and berries can create a delicious snack that provides a serve from two groups, and if you use berries you can even minimise the carb serves to about one serve. If you choose frozen fruit, your smoothie becomes a frozen smoothie – so great for afternoon tea on a hot day.

Many people use vegetables such as spinach, kale, tomato and others to boost their vegetable intake, which is actually a very sensible idea if you’re struggling with so many serves and you understand the fabulous health benefits that come from including a variety of plant-based foods, remembering there are over 3000 different plant (phyto) nutrients!!

One member of the Diabetes Weight Matters group posted that she had just started green smoothies: kale & spinach, berries and a small OJ. She had chosen the juice as it mixed better with the vegetables than dairy would do, but she wanted it to be low GI and not to high in carbs. The way to go here is to include a whole piece of fruit such as an orange or an apple so you get the benefit of the fruit fibre, and then top up with water if you need more liquid.

Helen Edwards, our founder at Diabetes Counselling Online wrote a blog recently on a “pick me up, guilt free, chocolate, banana, blueberry, walnut smoothie”! This one covers dairy, fruit, and protein food groups. Here she is enjoying every sip!

Recipe ideas

My favourite online recipe sites are those that include nutrient values with their recipes, so we can keep track of both our carbohydrate numbers and our overall energy intake numbers.

My first call is always the Australian Healthy Food Guide because all their recipes are dietitian approved. Here I found The Breakfast Super Smoothie – loving their tip to turn breakfast into a lunch-time treat: pour smoothie into a drink bottle, freeze overnight and pack it into your child’s lunch box. It’s a little high in carbs for those aiming for 2-3 serves at breakfast, but you could just make a smaller serving or cut some of the juice, oats or the honey out of it.

Australia’s Taste.com.au is another great site for recipes that offers the nutrient values too. They had loads of smoothie recipes, so I chose a veggie-based one to share with you – great to use when you feel that you haven’t had enough of your vegetable serves. Doesn’t this sound yummy?? – Carrot, beetroot, apple and celery juice. And only 34g of carbohydrates

There are masses of smoothie recipes around, so try a few out and see how you go. We’d love you to share the ones you enjoy with us here on our Diabetes Weight Matters or Diabetes & Food – let’s celebrate it! Facebook groups, and I’ll be back next Monday with a summary of my dietitian blog posts over the 2013.

Wishing you all a wonderful, safe and happy festive season!

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