These healthy, balanced, and popular dinner meal ideas are safe for people with type 2 diabetes and tasty enough for the whole family to enjoy.
Dinnertime is different when you’re living with type 2 diabetes. Specifically, strategies like portion control and carbohydrate counting are crucial to keeping in mind to manage weight and lower your A1C — your average blood sugar level over two to three months. Also worth considering is nutrition, which everyone can benefit from.
These 5 delicious diabetes-friendly recipes are balanced and tasty enough for people having a diabetic condition to enjoy and eat healthy daily without worrying about the calorie count.
1. Lemon garlic salmon:
Fatty fish like the baked salmon featured in this recipe is a huge source of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, according to the AHA. If you have type 2 diabetes, eating foods with omega-3 fatty acids may help reduce your risk of diabetes-related complications like heart disease and stroke. This recipe calls for baking your salmon with healthy, flavorful ingredients like lemons, lemon zest, garlic cloves, olive oil, and fresh parsley.
2. Low-carb Mediterranean broccoli salad:
This salad recipe is incomplete without non-starchy vegetables, including broccoli, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, and onions. These foods are high in fiber, which will help you feel full longer. The healthy fats get included in olives and olive oil. Olives and olive oil are a rich source of monounsaturated fat, which helps lower your risk of heart disease.
3. Chicken veggie stir fry:
Stir-fries make it easy to score a healthy diabetes dinner. And this recipe features plenty of diabetes-friendly veggies, including carrots, broccoli, zucchini, and green onions. It also features chicken as a lean protein choice. This chicken veggie stir fry contains garlic, jalapeno, fresh ginger, lime, and reduced-sodium soy sauce.
4. Vegetarian lentil tacos:
Another healthy dinner and recipe for people suffering from diabetes are vegetarian lentil tacos. This recipe combines and mixes several unique and flavorful ingredients like green lentils, vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, green chiles, yellow onion, garlic, cilantro, lime, and a palette of spices like cumin, chili powder, ancho chili powder, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Using pulses like lentils instead of traditional taco starches like rice may slow the digestion of sugar, ultimately lowering blood sugar levels for diabetic people.
5. Low-carb zucchini lasagna:
This healthy version of lasagna uses zucchini instead of traditional pasta to lessen carbs and calories without losing flavor. The zucchini contributes plenty of nutrients. One medium zucchini provides 35 g of vitamin C, making it an excellent source of nutrients. This antioxidant may be lacking in many people with type 2 diabetes, perhaps thanks to high levels of oxidative stress brought on by abnormalities in blood sugar metabolism.