Having diabetes doesn’t mean that you have to miss a yummy food every time. In fact, home baking is ideal for people with diabetes.
Unlike shop-bought baked products, containing lots of added sugar and unhealthy fats, you can keep your baking healthier as you are the whole sole in charge of what should to mix, considering your ongoing diabetes treatment.
Home baking strategies and tips for diabetes patients:
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- Use Wholemeal Flour instead of White Flour
Wholemeal flour is healthier than white and can help with gut and heart health. It’s more filling than white and processed flour. In fact, its smaller portion satisfies for the longer term. It is perfect in most recipes, but if you find it a bit heavy for things like sponge cakes, try using a ratio of 30:70 or 50:50 wholemeal flour to plain flour.
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- Use an equal amount of mashed banana or pureed apple in place of butter
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Mashed banana or puréed apple can be beaten with a little sugar and rapeseed oil to get a similar effect to creaming butter without an additional saturated fat from butter. It also adds natural sweetness. The key is to beat it well, which helps add air to the mixture.
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- Experiment with less sugar and sugar substitutes
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Add fresh fruit, grated or finely chopped apples, pears, blueberries, blackberries, or chopped peaches and nectarines for flavor and natural sweetness. You can also sweeten cakes with dried fruit rather than sugar as it contains fibre. Soak raisins, sultanas, and currants in a little boiling water to plump them up and make them juicier, also use the water.
There are also available many other sweeteners such as agave nectar and syrups, don’t forget honey, that is marketed as natural and healthy. But the truth is, your body still processes these as sugar, so they count towards your free or added sugar intake. They are best avoided but if you have to use them, try to use in small quantities to be at par with the diabetes medication.
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- Add vegetables
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Grate vegetables and add to a cake mixture. Courgettes, carrots, and beetroot soften up once cooked, adding moisture without overpowering flavour.
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- Try porridge oats
Reducing flour and replacing it with the same weight of oats also adds soluble fibre, which can help lower cholesterol and help promote high blood sugar control.
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- Prefer low-fat oil
Use oil such as rapeseed or sunflower oil or lower-fat spread rather than butter. Olive oil is good too, but it has quite a strong flavour. Also, coconut oil is used for baking, but it’s high in saturated fat. There is also no evidence to support many of the health claims. Use it by all means, but treat it the same as you would use butter and use in moderation.
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- Experiment with something else instead of regular milk
You can also try using soy milk or vanilla soy milk in place of regular milk. Generally, soy milk is counted as lower in fat and higher in protein than regular milk.
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- Healthy and nutritious addition
Throw in walnuts, flax seed, or wheat germ to add up the healthy fats and protein in your baked goods. Protein is an important part of any person’s diet, and it’s an important option for diabetes care for people with diabetes to manage a balanced diet including carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
As a diabetic, it is important to follow type 1 and type 2 diabetes treatments and never exceed your daily carb allowance. You can have treats, but only in limits. Keep in mind to add protein to help break down the carbs slowly, and also remember to reduce your allotted carbs for the rest of the day. In fact, you’re in charge of the ingredients, you can adapt recipes, for example, using whole meal flour to add fibre and you can manage the portion sizes by baking bite-sized treats.
Its fun and not the difficult one, it’s tasty and there are no chemicals or additives. As you’ll be using natural ingredients, it is cheaper, particular items like bread, flapjacks, cakes, rock cakes and cookies providing basic ingredients at low cost and last for a long time. You’ll also be able to cook a variety of different cakes, at least much more than you can buy in the shops. Last but not the least it’s relaxing and often brings up nostalgic memories of childhood.
Also Read: Aerobics a Positive Path of Losing Weight
