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Can cooking still be fun?

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G

grainger

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
hi all,
I received my good food subscription this week and stupidly thought i'd look through it today - which resulted in floods of tears as I love cooking and eating out and I'm scared that now that my passion for food and cooking new things/trying new things is going to disappear.
I realise i'm still very new to type 1 diabetes (less than a week) but I guess I'm after some reassurance that cooking will still be enjoyable?
Any great websites or books to buy that might be suitable?
Thanks x
 
Yes, you can still enjoy all the good things you did before diagnosis! Probably the best type of diet to follow is the GL diet (Glycaemic Load), or GI (Glycaemic Index). I reviewed a couple of good introductory books on the subject:

http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=7719
http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=7337

These work on the principle of eating meals that will release their energy slowly and steadily so they have a smoother impact on your blood sugar levels. For meals you prepare yourself you can ensure that they are both tasty and blood sugar friendly - it's very flexible! Once you are familiar with the principles it's easy to create your own recipes, or work out if recipes in books and magazines need adapting in any way to make them more suitable.

Eating out can present a few more problems because it can be difficult to estimate carbohydrate content so you can match insulin. However, a very useful book, Carbs & Cals: A Visual Guide to Carbohydrate & Calorie Counting for People with Diabetes is a great aid to estimating 🙂
 
I've certainly never turned anything down just because I'm diabetic. Some of the meals on offer may not have been the most suitable but I'm still alive and haven't lost the use of anything yet. :D

Try not to see it as a bar to anything. It just requires a greater knowledge of nutrition with a little bit of endocrinology thrown in (there's not much to it 🙄) and you'll hopefully find food even more satisfying and fascinating than you ever did. If nothing else, you can make everyone else feel a lot less healthy for their own choices whilst you tuck heartily into your own food without a care.😉

I hope you can come to terms with it quickly but don't beat yourself up if it takes a while. Just trust that it will happen.🙂

Rob
 
I'm saying nothing really, just take a look here as well!

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/forum/Blah.pl


Scroll down to the recipe section, neatly arranged in 'courses'. 3 years worth of recipes from people who like you love cooking. Lot of patti's recipes have been adapted from 'Good Food' magazine. It's part of the fun for her, she sees it checks out the carbs and goes right then - how can I make this lower carb?

Please note these are not low calorie or low fat - just low spike!
 
Good advice from these 2 ! Doesnt stop you eating what you like but you will have to keep an eye on carb values. I used to run around the block when i was a kid to get blood sugar down (before blood tests where invented 🙄) & still do that these days in my own way. It is a ballencing act at times but is good when you get the hang of it 🙂
 
I just wanted to add to this thread (better late than never!). You are only a week into diabetes, don't worry about particular diets, just stick to a healthy, balanced diet - just like any one would be recommended.

You may find, when you get more into the whole diabetes thing, and start to see patterns in your blood sugars, that you might want to adapt what you eat to improve your sugar levels. But to begin with I would go with the idea that you can still enjoy food and you can adjust your treatment to fit around your lifestyle. Hopefully you will get taught how to carb count - that is adjusting your insulin doses to match what you want to eat.

I have a couple of Anthony Worrall Thompson's recipe books which are written in association with diabetes uk. These gave me some good ideas for new dishes which were healtier than versions you might find in other cook books.

Most of all, don't worry, enjoy your food and fit your diabetes around your life!
 
Hi all,
Sorry for late response - it's been a mad few days but on the plus side my temporary job got made permanent today so much to be happy about 🙂
Thank you for words of encouragement, this site is definitely making me feel better so thank you to all of you who are helping to make me feel less worried about things.
My specialist nurse has said that the goal will be to teach me daffy so hopefully I'll learn to get good at carb counting so I can eat most things.
Thanks again all - very glad I found this site, I'm learning a lot!
 
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