Diabetes Cookbooks & Info

If you've just been diagnosed, one of the biggest challenges is to re-invent your diet and find healthy recipes.

As well as enjoying cooking from monthly recipe magazines, adding a few helpful low carb or diabetic cook books to your bookshelf can be helpful.

Once you're familiar with the types of food that you can eat on a diabetic diet, you'll feel more confident at trying new recipe ideas.  There are a number of books with creative recipes for the low carb diet which you may enjoy browsing as many of the recipes will also be helpful for anyone with diabetes.

Here's some reviews of our favorite cookbooks that we use everyday.  These great recipe books make cooking and finding the best new recipe ideas a real joy for all the family!

Cranks Recipe Book - Nadine Abensur

Cranks were real trail blazers for healthy eating in the early 1960's - offering delicious, healthy & vegetarian food.

Some of their offerings have now become classics, particularly their  wholemeal bread recipe and simple, but tasty, homity pie.

Cranks Bible: A Collection of Vegetarian Recipes

Diabetes Weight Loss Diet - Antony Worrall Thompson

Don't be mislead by the title, this is just as suitable for type 1 and type 2 diabetics.  

There's some great everyday recipes, as well as some great ideas for party & entertaining, which is what you'd expect from a chef like Antony.

We love this cook book because it's a real celebration of taste - every recipe is bursting with goodness and wonderful flavours. 

Diabetes Weight Loss Diet - on Amazon

You Don't Have To Be Diabetic To Love This Cookbook - Tom Valenti

This is our most recent purchase and we haven't been disappointed.  From the clear illustrations to the beautiful cuisine that comes straight from the chefs kitchen. 

You Don't Have to be Diabetic to Love This Cookbook on Amazon

Although it's aimed at diabetics and their families, there are some great everyday staples, as well as some unusual creations for that perfect dinner party. 

Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook - on Pre Order

This cook book is likely to be highly popular with readers of Elanas Pantry blog.

If you're coeliac, then this is the book for you - full of gluten free, often milk free recipes that are SO tasty!

Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cook book on Amazon

Omega 3 Cookbook - Michael van Straten

I love the format of this book - it's a softcover and easy to open and browse through for recipes.  The byline is "over 100 smart recipes for body and brain" and if you're looking for some easy health boosting foods - this is a great cookery book to have on your shelf. 

Plenty of deliciously unpredictable & innovative ideas, including options for vegetarians, showing that it's not just oily fish you can eat to boost your health.

Omega 3 Cookbook

Things on Toast

This is an unlikely book by Tonia George.  It's full of inspiring ideas for cooking with toast - perfect if you're cooking for one or need a snack in a hurry.

Information on Diabetic Diet

On diagnosis, you're almost certain to have been handed some leaflets from your health care professionals.

Whilst you'll find these very useful, you may wish to find out more about particular areas, such as diet or to dig a little deeper into just what sorts of things can affect your blood glucose levels.

In particular, the range of books which look at glycemic index (G.I.) is huge, given the success of the GI diet books in recent years.

Amazon offers some of the most popular books online, of which this is a selection.

My own personal recommendations include the following books:- 

Pumping Insulin - when Alissa first went on the pump, we were really trail blazing at the time, as she was the first child in Wiltshire to have one. Hence, we knew that there would be little support apart from the diabetic nurse who was assigned by Minimed at that time (Susan Judge, what a star!).

Purchasing and reading this book really helped to understand the principles behind the pump and how we needed to manage it - as there are some definite differences between pump management and managing with injections.

Bonnie Bionic - we all know that kids get picked out for being different when they go to school, this book looks like a great way of helping your child approach the situation positively and might be helpful for their teacher in explaining to the class about their new "friend", the insulin pump.

GI Diet - there are probably dozens of books showing you how to eat a sensible GI diet (GI stands for glycaemic index). This is particularly helpful if you're trying to manage the levels of sugar in your bloodstream and avoid the sharp ups and downs that can be created by sudden influxes of sugar.

Worth a look if you're struggling with your weight or to manage your blood sugar levels.

Search for Further Information - find what you're looking for by searching the Amazon site, whether it's the GI jeans diet or a low carbohydrate dieting book, there's plenty of useful books for giving you ideas:-

eBay Bargains

You'll find the eBay has some great bargains in used books that can often be picked up for a snip. Don't forget to check for postage costs to your area, as these can vary significantly from one seller to another.

Line Directory - useful health & cooking links