Just because you will be serving a diabetic friendly holiday meal, it doesn’t mean that your favorite dishes need to be skipped this year. Instead, it simply means that you need to know the right swaps to make to ensure that it is safe for everyone at the table to eat.
A Diabetic Friendly Holiday Meal Protects the Health of People with the Disease
Just as you would protect your eyes with vision supporting vitamins, you can protect your family members with diabetes by serving diabetic friendly holiday meal swaps. By doing things this way, you also ensure that everyone feels they are eating together. The individual with diabetes isn’t set aside from the rest of the group. Instead, everyone is eating the same meal, which is safe for all members of the family.
These Diabetic Friendly Holiday Meal Swaps are as Easy as Taking Vision Support Vitamins
Appetizers
Beginning with your appetizers, avoid those dishes that will cause blood sugar levels to be thrown off their target ranges. Consider serving the following.
- Veggie sticks to dip in spinach and artichoke dip made with fat-free Greek yogurt.
- Ground turkey meatballs with a low-sugar barbecue sauce.
- Stuffed mushrooms containing diced veggies and light sour cream. Great vegetable options include shredded carrots, bell peppers and broccoli.
Mains
Traditional holiday main dishes are often centered around ham, roast beef or turkey. These are typically perfectly diabetic friendly holiday meals. The key is in how they are prepared and the sides that are available.
- Avoid sugar added glazes like a honey glaze on hams. Instead, choose a preparation that is sugar-free, which is easy with a good ham.
- Choose leaner cuts of meat whenever possible.
- Avoid deep frying your mains.
Sides
Traditional side dishes are often very sugary but can easily be altered to be diabetic friendly holiday meals.
- Skip casseroles that use marshmallows and other sugar-based ingredients.
- Serve mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes (or create a half and half potato and cauliflower mash for a more traditional texture at half the carbs).
- Roast veggies instead of making fatty, sugary casseroles. Brussels sprouts, asparagus, carrots, parsnips and other harvest veggies are fantastic when roasted. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese to add some color and flavor.
- Skip the packaged stuffing and make your own using whole grain bread. This will spike the fiber content which is great for boosting blood glucose control. Barley and farro bread are also great for this reason.
