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Hi everyone. I am at high risk of type 2 diabetes and want to do something about my weight. I already exercise regularly and I know the chunkiness around my middle is not a good thing so it's weight loss I wish to concentrate on.
Can anyone recommend a good cookbook for this? I know there are lots about but I am vegetarian (not vegan) and don't want to invest in a book where there are only a few recipes I can use.
I'm also losing weight to combat prediabetes. To be honest I just grab recipes off the internet and copy them to my pc. I also just alter recipes to suit me, eg swapping one fat type for another, or reducing it where the recipe will not be affected. I may also switch out larger potatoes for new/baby potatoes as a lower carb option etc etc.
The obvious recipes to look for are low-sugar recipes (mainly deserts/cakes), the other is lower fat recipes. You can always remove the meat from a recipe and swap it for an acceptable alternative, and swap meat based stocks for vegetable based stocks.
Many forum members have lost weight due to reducing carbohydrates (carbs convert to glucose when we eat them). Remember the body can use fat as fuel, or can use glucose as fuel. Unused fuel gets stored as fat.
So one good weight loss tactic is to reduce quantities of Carbohydrates while keeping an eye on how much fats are in your foods.
For carbohydrates always check the per 100g info on the back of food packets.
As a general rule they are high in - most breakfast cereals, any starchy veg (eg potatoes, rice), any item containing flour (eg bread, pasta, cake biscuits)
You don't need to exclude all carbs, but smaller portions will help weight loss.
With weight loss it's important to do some form of exercise while losing weight to help prevent your metabolism slowing down (any exercise is good, even dancing, gardening etc).
Thank you.. and well.. I definitely eat too many carbs! But I don't do sweet stuff except high cocoa chocolate and daily fruit.
The trouble is that I need inspiration to do different recipes rather than the ones I currently do and actually swapping meat out isn't always that simple (I did that for years when married to a carnivore), especially without heading for 'meat substitutes' (although some are good).
Should I trust the nutritional advice on googled recipes for 'diabetic vegetarian'?!
However, I already run 10-15k per week, do yoga regularly, walk lots and do the odd hiit session, so I am not planning on taking any extra exercise on, it's my diet that needs to change.
Well done on the exercise, you are beating me for sure 🙂
That was my problem, needing some inspiration for lower carb options so i googled for various recipes, bookmarked some sites I liked. I've also found with recipe books that I don't bother with most of the recipes in it so I no longer buy them.
One thing I do is look at recreating supermarket food which is made in an unhealthy way.
I look at the key ingredients on the supermarket item, and also google a few recipes for that item, and come up with a recipe for a classic version. I can then play with that classic recipe to customise it if I want.
I eat meat, but am happy not to have it at every meal. I recently did a Mushroom stroganoff using the above method.
As regards the nutritional advice on recipes, from what I have seen they tend to say the nutrition for a specific portion of what they made (as opposed to 'per 100g' information).
I would use your common sense to evaluate a recipe based on ingredients (just check it for ingredients you want to eat less of and decide if you can adjust the recipe to suit you).
Diabetes tends to be a very individual thing both based on the type and severity of diabetes, and any co-existing conditions, so a lot of the advice you find here will be helpful general guidance rather than specific.
Of course it also depends on each persons preferences, I don't like specific diet plans myself and I just go for a balanced approach to food.
Try Amazon for Caldesi's vegetarian (and diabetic) books. Actually any good vegetarian books will do once you adopt the basic meal plan formula of protein and vegetables, plus some oats/barley. Nuts and seeds in moderation when losing weight. The Harcombe Diet 3 step plan book can be had for the price of a coffee, it caters for vegetarians and has some recipes as well as helpful dos and don'ts.
I’m a veggie too and agree that’s it hard to find good low carb recipes. I am still trying to find a great low carb veggie book. To keep my search affordable I take recommendations from forums like this or ones with good reviews on Amazon and either buy 2nd hand on eBay or borrow from the library. I also like the cookie and Kate website.
A recipe I came across today was courgette pancakes, grated courgette, eggs, grated mozzarella, garlic plus chives, parsley, basil, curry or whatever spices you like.
Rather than buy loads recipe books look out for recipes in the free magazines that ASDA, Tesco often have or look at websites like sugarfreelondoner or BBC Good Food website.
Make you own recipe folder.
Charity shops often have loads of cook books and if you haven't paid a lot it doesn't matter too much if you can't use some of the recipes.
A couple I have are the Keto Kitchen and the Low Carb Revolution.
You can pick things from a low carb recipe and make substitution for the meat or fish with tofu or similar. I made a tray bake with aubergine, pepper, onion and instead of lamb you could use halloumi.
I really like that she often adds useful notes, alternatives, variations if you want to swap stuff out.
The american measurements are a bit of a pain, but you can use a set of cups, or google to convert items as and when you need to
Well worth a look from time to time ... you never know what you will find next. Some of my favourites on our kichen shelves are: Patricia Bourne's French Vegetable Cookery; Leaves from a Tuscan Kitchen; and Ian Marber's How Not to Get Fat Diet Book (which goes out of its way to cater for vegetarians).
I also like Nikki Segnit's two Flavour Thesauruses, they are full of good ways to combine flavours, worth the price!!
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