Gestational Diabetes diagnosis - what am I going to cook?

[PaytonPlace]

The hardest part about following a strict diabetic diet will be giving up on my love of cooking for the next 10 weeks. Can you still be a foodie with diabetes? Does anyone have any suggestions for cookbooks, websites or magazines with great recipes that are compatible with a diabetic diet?

[DeerMother]

Check your library for diabetic cookbooks. Also glycemic index cbs. Most of them will have nutritional info right there so you don't have to figure out how much you can eat on your own. I found lots of things that worked w/ my diet and fit into my love of good food. There are a zillion recipes online but i always found it easier to get 20 books from the library than spend hours searching online. Some of it will have sugar subs and you'll have to make a decision if you want to go that route. I stayed away from all desserts and just had plain fruit when I wanted something sweet. (or 5 m and ms towards the end when i just plain needed some chocolate)

[cristeen]

Be careful with actual diabetic cookbooks - many of them use plenty of white flour and sugar.

It is absolutely possible to be a foodie on a restricted diet.

The first thing I would recommend doing is getting a blood glucose monitor. You need to know what you react to and how badly you react. Keep a food diary along with your blood glucose numbers so you can see any patterns that emerge.

And then the first thing to do is to cut out refined grains and sugars. Be sure to combine any whole grains or natural sugars with fat and protein (cheese with an apple, meat with brown rice, etc.).

I also highly recommend doing some research into the diagnosis of GD. There is no research as to acceptable numbers for blood sugars during pregnancy, and most labs use numbers lower than the numbers used for diagnosing diabetes in non-pg people. So before doing anything beyond modifying diet, I highly recommend you do some reading. But the "GD diet" is actually really good for the baby, so no harm in modifying that.