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To listen, or not to listen to the diabetic???

A

alex_read

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Espoo, Finland.
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Inconsiderance for others.
Hi everyone!

I myself am not a diabetic, but have friends and family who are. Recently, I've become friends with a couple recently and the guy is a diabetic. As I'm a keen cook, I've invited them round for dinner soon and asked their favourite foods so I can think up and cook some recipies based on these suggestions. I was given replies of "lasagne" or "gratinated creamy potatoes" (gratin dauphinoise for those cooks here) - basically heavy foods which contain a high amount of cheese, cream and/or butter etc!

My first thought was to research cutting these down and making healthier versions so he could eat them, but after talking to the couple, was told not to worry and to cook with the full, bad/fatty ingredients (as he takes his medication regularly and they don't worry too much with what they eat normally).

My question to all the friendly diabetics on this forum, is I guess what should I do, or how would you like to be treated if this happened to you? I want them to relax and have a nice time and not think of the diabetes and guess they have more experience with it, but at the same time am worried I maybe doing more harm if I do listen.

Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure what type he has, or for how long he's had it - sorry!
Many thanks for taking the time to read this and any insight into your opinions will be warmly welcome!
Thanks,
Alex
 
Hi Alex, Interesting question! I think the general response from most diabetics would be don't worry. The guy has told you what foods he is happy with, and he apparently has diabetes medication that will take care of what he eats (so is more likely to be on insulin injections than tablets).

The thing that you seem to be most concerned about is the fat content - that is something that you really don't need to concern yourself with. Diabetics have a problem with blood sugar (i.e. sugar and other forms of carbohydrate) not with fat. Generally the fat content of a meal will not cause any problem to a diabetic because fat contains nothing that will raise blood sugar.

Hope that helps put your mind at rest. But well done though for thinking to ask your friend.
 
Hi Alex

I wish my friends were as thoughtful as you!!!

As per the previous response I would cook them something they have suggested. It's a dinner party and having something yummy to eat that he has requested will really be fantastic.

Its so horrible being hung up on what you can and cannot eat when youre worried about blood sugars so my advice is just relax and let your friend have a night off thinking about it.

Lydia
 
Hi Alex...blimey, please invite me round for dinner! I agree with Lydia. I am a t1 diabetic, who takes good care of themselves, and watches what they eat...BUT, if a friend, who is a good cook asked me what I wanted to eat at a party...I would be tempted to go for my favourites as well. As a T1, I can adjust my insulin to cope with it, so it is not a big deal. Not suggesting for a minute that this is a good course of action on a regular basis...but just occasionally it is nice not be treated as teh odd one out. I hate feeling "special" althouugh I do really appreciate that people have gone to extra effort for me.
As Dennis said, the fat issues is teh same for diabetics as it is for none diabetics...ie, not good, but on specail occasions won't kill you. Just my 2p's worth.
Hope you have a great dinner party :D
 
Wonderful, ok that's decided it then and put my mind at ease! Thank you for taking the time to reply and so quickly too - this has helped tremendously.

That was exactly my fear Sugar, I really didn't want to single him out at all or make him think about diabetes all night!

You've made a very good point there too Dennis. I remember when my brother was first diagnosed with type 1, he was given pretty strict guidelines that he should split his meals and eat a certain percentage of carbs, of fibre, or protien and of oils (can't remember how much of each now) and should try to aim for that each meal.

The list he was given looked to me pretty much like pure fruit and veg or some healthier meats from memory - and I guess I've always looked at that list like the guidelines they have on some of these TV heathy eating /change-your-life-and-become-healthy programs - just excessive fresh fruit and veg only - with nuts, sauces, cheeses and other fatty or creamy ingredients to be used sparingly.

Whilst I don't stick to this 100%, I've always tried to be pretty healthy when cooking for diabetics, having this impression. The point raised that sugars are the only main point to worry about is an extremely valid one!
 
"hello, everybody... I'm trying an experiment tonight with food. Sorry, but you know how I love cooking and I really want to see how this menu works out..." Meanwhile, replace cream with yogurt, lower the salt in everything (we eat far too much of it and those who want ot it add it later), dress it all up with fresh or at least bottled-in-oil herbs.

Buttered rice? use a small amount of butter for flavour and then make up the rest of the oil with the much lighter grapeseed oil. Hold back on the salt, add a little extra garam masala. and whose going to know the difference if it's (physically) hot, spiced and on a plate in front of them!

Cream of sprouts soup - don't laugh, it really is lovely. Use frozen sprouts and cook them as recommended, then blitz them in a liquidiser with plain natural live yogurt and a substantianial amount of freshly ground Bristol Blend Pepper (the sort that has five different colours of pepper corn).

I'm common: when you have soup, you dunk bread: use a breadmaker on a dough cycle to produce a dough which you then treat as hand made dough. I sure as hell couldn't got through twenty minutes of punching wholmeal malted dough, so I let the machine do it. At the end of the dough cycle, I shape as required, leave it to rest for an hour and bake for 28 minutes at 190 degrees C. Advantage here is that that fresh bread smell sure does linger...

Soups... thicken them with either lentils or pearl barley - even though I don't particularly like pearl barley, it's very good at lowering my BG. Lentils are best cooked seperately before being stirred into the liquor.

Final point: if I'm cooking meat for anyone (a close friend has angina), I'm sure to trim away as much excess fat from the meat as possible. I know everyone maintains that that's where the flavour is, but I don't take all of it, much to the dogs' disgust...

That's my ideal world situation... truth is I eat with friends once or twice a week and we take turns to cook. My meal is going to be along the lines above, Shaun and Louise's meal is going to stray a little more to butter and cheese and other sinful substances, which because I don't eat them all the time, aren't really a sin at all. So whether it's my cuisine or Shaun and Louise's, just to make sure, we open a big bottle of red wine just to be sure...
 
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