Reader question: So far, the recipes I have tried have been lovely, but the carb count is around 60g per serving. Any tips for adapting to feed diabetics? Some of the recipes look fairly easy to leave out the starch and the water or broth, but others I worry about how this will affect the moisture balance of everything else. Plus that will change the fullness of the pot. I guess this is similar to the “dry ingredients” question on your blog, but since this is medical issue instead of a preference one, I wanted to ask anyway. Also, some of your carb numbers don’t seem to match what my nutritional calculator predicts for each recipe…. is there a specific brand of pasta or rice you used to get those numbers? ~ Erin B., Saskatoon Canada
Hi Erin! Glorious One-Pot Meals are great for diabetics not only because of the flexibility the method offers in terms of ingredients, but also because the quick and easy method makes it more convenient to eat healthier meals more often.
Here is the nutritional information disclaimer straight off the Glorious One-Pot Meals website and from the Glorious One-Pot Meals cookbook:
Nutritional Information Disclaimer: All nutritional information here is based upon amounts designated in the recipe presented. Where items such as “pieces of chicken” appear, they are calculated based upon an average 4 oz. serving. All food calculations are derived from The Complete Book of Food Counts by Corinne T. Netzer (Dell Publishing, 2000). Some figures are approximate due to variations in such things as the size of vegetables, amount of oil released when spraying the Dutch oven, etc. Additionally, the figures presented are rounded to the nearest whole numbers to facilitate comprehension.
Glorious One-Pot Meals and its author take no responsibility in insuring the validity of the nutritional breakdowns presented here and offer this information only as a service to readers. Since all Glorious One-Pot Meals can be altered at will, the food counts given may or may not reflect the actual meal created at home.
Legal-ese out of the way, I believe in the wholesomeness of whole foods rather than an arbitrary counting of macronutrients. That said, if you are trying to follow the numbers closely and are coming up with different numbers, you should trust your own calculations.
Your instincts were right that your question does receive that same answer as the one in the previous blog post regarding dry grains in GOPMS: every ingredient is substitutable or omit-able. You never need to add liquid unless you are hydrating grains, and if you remove the grain, you remove that hydrating liquid too, as it is only there to hydrate the grain.
If I were removing grains from a dish, I might replace them with sweet potato, squash, cauliflower, or even white potato with the skin on, but if you’re looking to avoid starch, too, just put in any other vegetables you want to fill the pot. What you put in the pot is completely – 100% – your choice in every GOPM recipe.
By the way, the healthy diet guidelines posted by the American Diabetes Association include whole grains in a healthy diet for diabetics. Glorious One-Pot Meals offer an easy method to prepare whole grains along with the rest of a wholesome meal. You can always substitute parboiled brown rice in for white rice in any GOPM recipe, or choose a whole grain like quinoa, barley, or amaranth.
The carbohydrates diabetics – and everyone else, too – should really limit are those found in processed foods.
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I am a certified diabetes educator and I agree with just about everything Elizabeth said. I would also add that 60 grams of carb isn’t all that high for someone with Diabetes. I always start with 45 grams per meal for women who or small or want to lose weight, and 60 for women who are more active or younger and larger. You could easily take out SOME of the starch in a GOPM recipe after it is cooked – just don’t eat your full portion. I recommend this cookbook for people with diabetes all the time.