Here at the Diabetes Diet, we’re fully on board with the making life easier message. Living with diabetes is like supporting a part-time job on top of everything else in your life.
And boy, if we were unionised, we’d revolt against the lack of time off and sick pay (ha!), and work conditions that are an uphill struggle all the time… One of the reasons low-carb diets make life easier for the sugar-challenged is that we don’t have to spend ages figuring out how many carbs are in particular dishes and how much insulin we need to cover them. Meat, sauce and salad is a lot easier to work out than meat, veg, roast potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding.
So, with that in mind, here are our favourite hacks:
Make your home carb-proof
If it’s not there, you won’t miss it. Temptation comes in many forms, but it’s much easier to ignore the siren call of crisps or chocolate if you don’t keep them in the house*.
Have easy meals
If you can master the omelette, fried fish, steaks, burgers or open a tin of tuna, mix it with mayonnaise and tip it on a bed of crispy salad, you’re laughing. Diabetes makes you tired. Have some go-to super-fast meals you can make quicker in the time it takes to order and wait for a take-away.
Eat two starters when out
Starters tend to be lower in carbs than main courses, so go for two of them. Three, if you are very hungry.
Stock up on low-carb snacks
Cheese, olives, unsalted nuts, hard-boiled eggs… all help satisfy cravings and have plenty of protein for satiety.
Try some of the substitutes
To be honest, I’ve yet to meet the low-carb bread recipe that convinces me, but some of the baking ideas might work for you. Bread, cakes, biscuits and even fudge are out there so why not give some of them a try?
*Reader, all too often I slip on this one. Or do that thing where I buy crisps or chocolate for my other half, kidding myself that they are for him. No, no, not me oh luscious purple-foil wrapped packet…
Diabetes Diet 
I love the idea of easy snacks and two starters.
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Two starters are brilliant. I often find main courses disappointing.
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Especially if one of the starters is a plate of oysters 😃👍
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Sainsbury’s dark chocolate whole nut bars are good. This brand has cocoa mass as the first ingredient. Most others have sugar as the first ingredient.
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I favour the Co-Op 85% but the nuts have to be eaten separately.
I have a whole mass of meals that take very little cooking or other work, some kind of meat grilled and some green vegetable boiled briefly, fried mushrooms optional. Add a thickly buttered oatcake or two and a glass of Carmenere. Very little fossil fuel used in the cooking which more than compensates for the cow farts.
Tonight’s meal took a bit longer, king prawn stir fried in coconut oil with cashews, multicoloured peppers and chillies and garlic, then I added a bunch of spices and simmered briefly until it became a succulent curry. Since I never ate many other carbs all day I had a SMALL portion of basmati rice. Still done in less than half an hour.
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Nice!
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Shrimp (not fired of course) is a terrific low carb protein. I am all about the fish and seafood.
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Me too. I love shrimp, or prawns as we call them here.
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King Prawns are my favourites. Then there are Crevettes which I call God Prawns. Peel them and scran them down with some avocado. There’s a fish restaurant (and smokehouse) not far away which does griddled squid and angels on horseback – oysters wrapped in bacon and grilled – among other things, all tasty nutritious and low carb.
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Morrisons have a high protein loaf which is only 8.9g carbs per slice, still quite high but better than the 21g white slices. It’s really good toasted with plenty butter and a fried or poached egg.
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Thanks for the tip!
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