Make Delicious, Diabetes-Friendly Meals

[MUSIC PLAYING] If you're eating a lot of the processed carbohydrates, it's not too difficult to make some easy switches. So if you're already eating cereal in the morning, you might want to try swapping out for oats. And you can actually season it on your own with a little bit of honey and cinnamon. For savory meals, for lunch and dinner, I love to use ancient grains, like kamut or quinoa. And you can actually toss that with veggies and then fresh herbs and spices to make it a complete meal. Another option is, if you are cooking a lot of pasta, maybe switch to a whole wheat pasta, and limit that to just once a week. I know that you love white rice. A great alternative is going to be brown rice, because it still has the whole, which has a lot more protein and fiber. We absolutely want to focus on getting more veggies in. One tip is just starting by adding more vegetables to anything that you're cooking already. So for example, if you're making spaghetti sauce, just chop up some broccoli or some kale really small and add it to your sauce. And then you have a cup of veggies that you didn't have before. If you want to make vegetables taste good, one of the best ways to do that is to add fresh herbs or spices to it. I really love dill, basil, tarragon. They have really beautiful flavors, and they're super fresh. And you can buy them fresh or dried, and just sprinkle them onto your veggies before or after cooking. Smoothies are a really easy way to add a lot of nutrients to your day, and to help balance your blood sugar. So, all you need is a great blender. So, you can have a smoothie for breakfast or a snack. What I like to put in my smoothies is just a banana, a handful of blueberries, a little bit of water or almond milk, and then I always hide a handful of greens, like baby spinach or kale. When you're looking for snacks, we like to try to find things that are high in fiber, protein, or even good quality fats. So something like a hummus or a bean dip, nuts and seeds are a great snack. A simple way to prepare a Mexican flavor is to use a little bit of cumin and some chili powder. Beans and lentils are really great for a type 2 diabetes diet. They add a lot of protein and unrefined carbohydrates. I like to just add them to a crockpot with my favorite no-sugar barbecue sauce and about four handfuls of chopped-up veggies. Let them simmer, and it's a delicious meal. Eating healthy with type 2 diabetes is really important to your feeling great. We can look at what you're eating now, and we can find some alternatives to help shift what you're eating to make it more diabetes-friendly. [MUSIC PLAYING]