I was working away, planning to get a small quilt close to finished today, when I got a last minute phone call to go to a diabetic cooking class. Someone had cancelled and I took their place in a limited class.
I was hoping to learn how to put together a menu plan based on a diabetic diet but using my own frugal recipes. I know how to do a menu plan... just not how to do it for a diabetic diet. Basically what I've done for the last few years is just barely eat enough to say I'm full then stop eating. I can't say I got what I was looking for in the class. It was a good class though.
They had some great food, (at least it smelled good). I didn't eat any because I had already eaten lunch. Also, I usually won't eat other people's cooking because I don't know their sanitary conditions or habits at home. Plus, the class was held at a medical clinic. Lots of sick people in clinics these days. You know.... the h1n1 flu and other illnesses are found in clinics. I'm allergic to the flu shots so I have to be extra, extra cautious around other people during flu season.
I want to learn more about HOW the people who write diabetic recipe books come up with a serving size. There HAS to be a formula for figuring it out because all the books tell the fats, sugars, carbs, and all that stuff at the end of the recipe. I want to know how to figure out my own recipes. Not just use those in a book.
I couldn't explain to the people there what information I needed. Maybe if I put it here some of my readers will have the answer? For example: One of the things served today was a tomato soup. The person who made the soup used a quart of low fat half and half in the soup. I looked at the nutrition label on the cream. (The little box of information all products have.) It said a serving size was 2 tablespoons of the cream then gave the nutrition information based on those two tablespoons. So if a person made the soup.... using a whole quart..... how much would be the serving size of soup? Two tablespoons? Then there are the other ingredients in the soup. I didn't get a chance to read the labels of the other stuff to know what a serving size was.
You see what I'm getting at? If I create a dish based on what's in my pantry, what's on sale at the store, or picked from a garden..... how do I know how much to eat of it? I think the nutrition labels on food are a bunch of hooey. I think I'll stick with my just barely full technique..... even if I always feel hungry.
I did get some books at the class. Maybe the formula will be in there someplace? When I find some time I'll sit down and read through them.
The 30 minute meals sounds interesting. Kind of the way I plan meals already. Might be a recipe or two in there I'll use. The fast lane book is the nutrition information for many, many fast food restaurant items. The outlook book describes diabetes and the treatments. All interesting information but none look like they will supply the formula I'm looking for. Anyone know the answer? (formula)
2 comments:
Actually its not that hard to calculate a serving size. What you should first understand is that the serving sizes given on nutritional labels are calculated by the amount of servings you should have in a day for that particular food group. Most are based on a 2000 calorie diet. So, for example you need to have at least 3 - 5 servings of vegetables per day, according to the food pyramid. Now this is of course for a "normal" person. By "normal", I mean that they are within their target range of weight for their height and they have the right BMI for their size. You then break that up into servings in a menu plan or meal plan. Then you take the recipe that you are creating and do a nutritional analysis someplace on the web. Such as http://www.nutritiondata.com/. Then you calculate how many servings are within that recipe by breaking up the total recipe. So, for example, you use four one inch thick pork chops for a Stuffed Pork Chop Recipe. That would be broken up into four servings. One chop per serving. Now, you may ask why only one chop? Well, according to the food pyramid we only need 2 - 3 servings a day. So you break up the menu plan to reflect that. At least that's the way I do it for my recipe's. BTW, if you need to see some of the diabetic recipe's I have check out http://diabeticcookbookblog.com/.
www.sparkpeople.com (free!) has an online calorie counter and it will tell you the nutritional contents of what you're eating. it also has a place to put in recipes and it will tell you the nutritional content of your recipe and the serving size. and you can save the recipe and use it for your calorie coutning by adding it directly to your meals for the day. I highly recommend!
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