A lot of South Asian cuisine involves cooking fresh food from scratch every single day. This makes it easier to make small, simple changes to our diet.
In this video, Dr Ramandeep Kaur shares her top five tips for eating healthy, balanced meals as part of managing your diabetes. Some people struggle to turn eating well into a long-term habit.
Consultant dietician, Salma Mehar, talks us through the importance of eating healthy, balanced meals if you live with diabetes. She shares her best advice for cooking your favourite Pakistani dishes in a healthier way by making small, simple swaps.
Practical changes you can make
Making small changes in the following areas can make a big difference to your diabetes management and overall health:
Shopping
Avoid buying foods high in fat and sugar. Instead, choose low fat, low calorie varieties. You can identify healthier options by the traffic light colours of food labels. Limit your intake of foods that are amber and red.
Cooking methods
Avoid frying foods and cooking curries with a lot of oil. Grilling, baking, steaming, pressure cooking are healthier ways of cooking food. For example, grilled cutlets and steamed dhoklas are healthier options.
Cooking oil
Avoid using ghee and butter and lard in cooking. Use small amounts of rapeseed oil, vegetable oil, corn oil, gingelly oil or olive oil. For example, Palak paneer is a healthier option than paneer butter masala.
Shivali and Rohit live with type 2 diabetes, and in this video, they discuss their top food hacks for Indian vegetarian recipes and food favourites.
Some simple swaps include:
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