Defeating Diabetes

There’s apparently a plague of diabetes and pre-diabetes in this country.

One of the doctors I most listen to says the only way to defeat it is to absolutely avoid all the sugar possible. It’s in most canned foods. Read the labels. If molasses, honey, sugar, dextrose, maltose, sucrose, fructose or any other word ending in ‘ose’ appears in the list of ingredients, he says, “Put it back on the shelf.”

Another very sage word of advice: “Eat raw foods.” You will lose weight, diminish your risk of diabetes or make it easier to regulate your blood sugar level if you have it. Also, if you were a bit on the heavy side there’s bonus from loading your menus with raw foods you’ll soon fit into your bathing suit better. Here’s a Greek-inspired salad high in protein and full of raw veggies to boot.

  Feta & Olive Salad          
        3 Servings
6 large green or red leafy lettuce, washed, dried and torn or cut in bite size pieces
½ lb. feta cheese, cubed
18 black olives
3 green onions, green part included, sliced
½ Cucumber, sliced
1 red ripe tomato sliced or diced

Line a serving bowl or three individual bowls with the lettuce. Top with the feta dice. Arrange the olives, green onions and tomato pieces around the feta. Line the salad bowl/bowls with cucumber slices.  Pass the extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil and the red wine vinegar.
Accompany with whole-grain, gluten free bread toasted and buttered. Use real butter. It and the olive oil give you Omega-3 fats.

   Lower Carbohydrate
   Black Bean Brownies
            Makes 16
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1 (15.25 oz) can Black Beans, rinsed and drained
3 eggs
3 Tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup coconut sugar
½ cup chopped walnuts

Lightly grease an 8x8-inch square baking pan or dish. Combine the drained beans, eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla, and coconut sugar, in a food processor. Process until smooth. Stir the walnuts into the mixture and pour into the pre-greased baking can. Bake in center of preheated oven until the edges start to pull away from the pan’s sides, 30 to 35 minutes. Test with toothpick for doneness. Allow to cool in pan. Cut into squares. These, still in their pan, travel well to picnics and potlucks.

Brownies made with all purpose wheat flour and chocolate chips would stick you with 41 grams of carbohydrates each. These contain only 10 grams carbohydrate each and are low on the Glycemic Index. Each also yields 3.56 grams of protein.