Healthy meal choices

Making healthy meal choices for yourself or a loved one with diabetes can often be a daunting task. Do you find yourself reading labels at the grocery store, searching for good choices? Here are some quick tips to keep in mind when struggling to eat healthy for your diabetes:

1. Focus on eating from all the food groups. You don't have to buy "special" diabetes foods.

2. Switch to whole grains. Check the ingredient list and look for the word "whole" in the first 5 ingredients.

3. Consume zero or no calorie beverages.

4. Switch to lower and reduced sodium canned goods.

5. Try to have 80 percent of your grocery cart filled with items from the exterior of the store. Think fruits, vegetables, loin and round cuts of meat, fish, and low-fat milk products.

Tips for balancing carbohydrates:

1. Opt for brown rice instead of white rice, eat sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes, and choose whole-grain bread over white bread. These food options, along with essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber, contain complex carbohydrates that your body turns into sugar for energy. Even though carbs make blood glucose levels rise, complex carbs are absorbed more slowly than simple carbs, thus providing sustained energy throughout the day.

2. Balance your meals with all the food groups; strive to make veggies the largest part of the meal. Frozen, fresh, lightly steamed, roasted, or grilled vegetables are the healthiest vegetable choices. Eat carbohydrates along with protein or a little fat to reduce the impact on your blood sugar levels.

3. Reduce the amount of soda and juice that you drink. Switch to water or mineral water with a little juice mixed in instead.

4. Choose a bran muffin over a pastry, croissant, or donut for a breakfast "on-the go."

Establishing regular eating habits:

1. Never skip breakfast - Always start your day off with a good breakfast. Eating breakfast everyday provides you with ample amounts of energy and helps to keep blood sugar levels steady throughout the day.

2. Eat small meals at regularly scheduled time periods- It can be helpful to eat 3 small meals plus 3 snacks spread evenly throughout the day. People tend to eat large portions when they are excessively hungry, so eating regularly will help keep portion sizes in check.

3. Strive to consume the same amount of calories everyday- Varying the amount of calories you eat on a day-to-day basis has a significant impact on the regularity of your blood sugar levels. Rather than overeating one day or at one meal and then skimping on the next meal; try to eat consistent amounts every day.

4. Listen to your body- It takes a little time for your brain to get the message that you've had enough to eat, so stop eating when you start to feel full. Wait for about 15-25 minutes. If you're still hungry, choose a small additional item to help curb your hunger.

Tips when "eating out" at restaurants:

1. Pay attention to the descriptions on the menu - Meals labeled deep-fried, basted, batter-dipped, breaded, creamy, crispy, scalloped, au gratin, or Alfredo, are usually high in calories, as well as fats and sodium. Avoid foods with the above descriptors in their names.

2. Drink water with your meal-Soda is a huge source of hidden and empty calories. Add a little lemon to your water or order unsweetened iced tea instead.

3. "Undress/Unpack" your food- When choosing items, avoid calorie- and fat-packed salad dressings, margarine, butter, cheese, sour cream, etc. For example, ask for a grilled chicken sandwich without the mayonnaise. You can ask for a packet of ketchup or mustard and add it yourself, controlling how much you put on your sandwich.

4. Special order your food- Many menu items would be much healthier if they were only prepared in a little different of a way. Ask for your vegetables and main dishes to be served without sauces added to them, ask for olive oil and vinegar for your salads instead of fat-packed salad dressings, and instead of getting a baked potato loaded with chili and cheese, opt for broccoli and chives. If your food is fried or traditionally cooked in oil or butter, ask to have it broiled or steamed instead.

Laura and Amy Recipe Corner:

Enlightened Chicken Tenders with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

1 egg white

2/3 cup bran cereal flake crumbs (about 1 1/3 cup bran flakes)

1 pound boneless skinless chicken tenders (8 tenders)

Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk

1/4 cup fat-free sour cream

3 Tbsp. crumbled blue cheese

2 tsp. minced green onion

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk egg white in pie plate. Spread bran flake crumbs onto wax paper.

2. Roll chicken tenders in egg white, coat with bran flake crumbs. Arrange tenders in single layer on jelly roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake 15 minutes, turning once, or until golden brown and cooked through.

3. Meanwhile, to make Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce, combine buttermilk, sour cream, blue cheese, green onion, salt and pepper in medium bowl. Serve sauce with chicken tenders.

Makes 4 servings.

Calories 220; Total Fat 5g; Sat. Fat 2g; Protein 29gm; Carbohydrate 14g, Cholesterol 80mg; Fiber 2g; Sodium 406 mg

This is a healthy recipe exchange for chicken wings with blue cheese sauce. A typical chicken wing dish with dipping sauce will cost you 514 calories, 47 gm of fat and up to 1,000 mg of sodium.