THE TYPE 2
Diabetes Revolution
100+ Recipe s and 4-Week Meal Plan
A Cookbook and Complete Guide to Managing Type 2 Diabetes DIANA LICALZI, MS, RD, CDCES & JOSE TEJERO
Dedication To the millions of people struggling with pre- and type 2 diabetes. And to our wonderful community, we thank you for your unwavering support, invaluable feedback, and trust in us—all of which made this book possible.
Copyright 2023 Diana Licalzi and Jose Tejero Published by Blue Star Press PO Box 8835, Bend, OR 97708 contact@bluestarpress.com www.bluestarpress.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Photography by Roberto Alvarez
Introduction .................................................................................................. 5 Part 1: Diet and Nutrition .................................................................... 11 Chapter 1: Diabetes Basics .................................................................. 13 Chapter 2: Placing Diabetes into Remission with a (Mostly) Plant-Based Diet ................................................... 25 Part 2: The Meal Plan ........................................................................... 35 Chapter 3: Preparing for the Meal Plan and Recipes ........ 37 Chapter 4: Frequently Asked Questions about the Meal Plan ................................................................................ 51 Chapter 5: The Meal Plan ................................................................... 63 Chapter 6: Beyond the Four Weeks ............................................. 93 Part 3: The Recipes ............................................................................. 103
ISBN: 9781958803196
Breakfast ..................................................................................................... 105
Printed in Colombia
Soups, Sandwiches, and Salads .................................................... 129
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Mains .............................................................................................................. 157
DISCLAIMER: This book is for informational and educational purposes. The information presented herein has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please consult your health-care provider before beginning or modifying any diet, exercise, or healthcare program.
Snacks ............................................................................................................ 187 Desserts ....................................................................................................... 201 Sauces, Dips, and Dressings ............................................................ 219 Appendix: Our Favorite Brands ................................................. 248 References ................................................................................................ 251
Vegan vs. Whole-Food Plant-Based Eating We want to emphasize that we are not recommending a strict vegan or vegetarian diet, but rather a nutrient-dense, whole-foods one that is predominantly plant-based (about 80%) while allowing for the consumption of animal products and more processed foods (20%). Many people find vegan and vegetarian diets too restrictive or too inflexible. We understand this—hence the 20% allowance for other foods, should you choose to add them. Remember, vegan doesn’t always mean healthier, either, as a vegan diet still allows foods such as fried potato chips, OREO cookies, fake meats, and highly sweetened soft drinks. Given that we’re not recommending a strictly vegan diet, you may wonder why all our meal plans and recipes are fully plant-based. There are two reasons: 1) Most people already know how to include meat and dairy in their meals, but fewer are able to prepare delicious, satiating plant-based meals that they’ll look forward to eating. The variety, tastes, textures, and flavor profiles of a plant-based dietary approach are boundless, and we’re excited to help you find the joy in plant-based cooking and eating. 2) We believe adopting a fully plant-based diet is the quickest way to reverse insulin resistance, regain control of your blood sugar levels, and minimize your risk of diabetes complications. For this reason, we suggest beginning with a four-week meal plan that is completely plant-based. At the end of the four weeks, if you’d like to re-introduce animal products, we’ll show you the best way to do so in Chapter 6: Beyond the Four Weeks (page 93). If you prefer not to, or cannot, do the meal plan completely plantbased, then focus on lean animal-based foods such as fish and shellfish, egg whites, and low-fat yogurt. But the more you stick to a 100% plant-based diet, the more likely you are to see greater results.
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Part 2: The Meal Plan
CHAPTER 3
Preparing for the Meal Plan and Recipes To reiterate, our meal plan is 100% plant-based because we believe it is the quickest way to reverse insulin resistance, regain control of your blood sugar levels, and prevent long-term diabetes complications. Soon, you’ll be able to enjoy high-fiber carbohydrates without experiencing abnormally high blood sugar spikes. Don’t feel that you need to rush into the meal plan. It’s always best to start by making dietary changes that you’re comfortable with. If you feel intimidated or overwhelmed when starting a meal plan, remember you will still benefit simply by incorporating more plant-based meals into your diet. If you’re ready to dive into this meal plan and try a plant-based diet for four weeks, then we’re excited to help get you started. Take a moment to read these next two chapters, which tell you everything you need to know to succeed. Each week of the meal plan includes a grocery list, snack and dessert options, and guidance on how to best prep your meals for the week ahead. While we would love to accommodate everyone’s dietary preferences, it’s impossible for us to do so. We do our best to provide gluten-free options and ingredient swap suggestions for the top allergens in the United States (which include tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soy) when possible. Many ingredients are easily interchangeable, so feel free to get creative with the foods you prefer.
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How Does It Work? Each week’s meal plan includes a complete shopping list, a weekend meal-prep to-do list, and a full weekly menu of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, which you can make using the recipes in this book. We also provide suggestions for snacks and desserts. The meal plan is structured assuming you will shop and do some meal prep over the weekend, but it can be adjusted to suit your lifestyle. If a specific meal doesn’t appeal to you, feel free to swap it for another one. All meals are completely interchangeable.
Unlimited Non-Starchy Veggies Yes, you read that correctly: on this plan, there is no limit to the number of non-starchy veggies you can eat! Non-starchy vegetables are a perfect example of nutrient-dense foods; they are low in carbohydrates and calories but packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. They are the ideal food to help fill you up while keeping your blood sugar in check. In fact, the more of these foods you can include in your daily meals, the better it will be for your overall health. So if you want more spinach in a meal or baby carrots in your snack, go for it!
Here’s a list of common non-starchy vegetables: • Artichokes
• Kohlrabi
• Asparagus
• Leeks
• Baby corn
• Mushrooms
• Bamboo shoots
• Okra
• Bean sprouts
• Onions
• Beets
• Peppers
• Brussels sprouts
• Radishes
• Broccoli
• Rutabagas
• Cabbage (green, bok choy, Chinese)
• Salad greens (chicory, endive, escarole, lettuce, romaine, spinach, arugula, radicchio, watercress)
• Carrots • Cauliflower • Celery • Chayote • Cucumber • Daikon • Eggplant
• Sprouts • Squash (cushaw, summer, crookneck, spaghetti, zucchini) • Sugar snap peas • Swiss chard • Tomatoes
• Green beans (string beans, Italian/runner beans, wax beans)
• Turnips
• Greens (collard, kale, mustard, turnip)
• Yardlong beans
• Water chestnuts
• Hearts of palm • Jicama
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Recipe Nutritional Information
Increasing Calories on the Meal Plan
With every recipe, we’ve listed the Calories, Fat, Carbs, Fiber, Protein, and Carb-to-Fiber Ratio. This nutritional information was calculated for every recipe exactly as written, without any extra toppings or swaps, including optional ingredients. Of course, the information may change based on what products you use—for example, one non-dairy milk may have more protein and less fat than another—but the nutritional information listed here will serve as a basic guideline. We tested our recipes with Silk’s Unsweetened Soymilk, Kite Hill’s Unsweetened Plain Almondmilk Yogurt, Sunwarrior’s Vanilla Protein Powder, Kirkland’s Creamy Peanut Butter, and Lily’s Dark Chocolate Baking Chips.
Your recommended calorie intake for the day depends on various factors, such as your age, sex, height, weight, and activity level. But generally, most women need 1,600 to 2,400 calories per day to maintain their weight, while most men need 2,000 to 3,000 calories. Eating less than your recommended calorie intake leads to weight loss.
Carb-to-Fiber Ratio As you may remember from Chapter 2, fiber is a type of carbohydrate that is not digested or absorbed by the body and slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream. Therefore, the more fiber in the carbohydrates you eat, the better control you’ll have over your blood sugar. A report from the Harvard School of Public Health recommends using the 10:1 ratio rule for choosing grain products, which states that for every 10 grams of carbohydrate, there should be at least 1 gram of fiber. We applied this principle to our recipes and kept most of our recipes below a ratio of 6:1. You can easily figure out the carb-to-fiber ratio of any food by simply dividing the carbohydrates by the fiber, in the nutrition information provided here. In most cases, we rounded to the nearest integer, unless shown otherwise. So you can rest assured that even though you’re eating more carbohydrates with this dietary pattern, you’re also consuming plenty of fiber.
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We can’t match the calorie requirements for everyone in a single meal plan, so let your hunger and satiety signals guide you on this journey. If a meal doesn’t quite fill you up, then that’s a sign you may need another serving of it. Or if you find that you’re hungry between meals, have a snack! The meal plans in Chapter 5 only include breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but you should feel free to incorporate snacks and desserts as you see fit. You can choose from the nutritionally balanced snack and dessert recipes in this book, or take advantage of the unlimited non-starchy veggies allowed on this meal plan, for any between-meal snacking. You shouldn’t feel hungry on this meal plan. If you do, it’s a sign that you’re not eating enough.
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Tips for Success
Stocking Your Kitchen with Essentials
Mindset and Motivation
Stocking your fridge, freezer, and pantry with healthy, diabetes-friendly ingredients will make meal preparation and cooking much easier. Below, we’ve listed a few of the pantry, fridge, and freezer staples that will help you throughout the meal plan. We’ve also listed our favorite kitchen tools and appliances, which you’ll need to prepare many of the recipes in this book.
Mindset matters when starting a new dietary plan. Understanding your “why” is a powerful motivator. Before you begin, grab a piece of paper and write down the reasons why you are embarking on this meal plan and dietary program. A “why” statement can look like this: “I want to lose 15 pounds and drop my A1c by 1 to 2% within the next three to four months so I can reduce my need for medications, prevent diabetes complications, and extend my quality of life. I want to see my children and grandchildren grow up and I want to be able to spend family time without having to worry about any health issues.” Once you have written down your “why,” post it where you will see it several times a day, such as on your bathroom mirror, behind your house door, or on your fridge. This will serve as motivation and will help remind you why you’ve started this journey, especially when times get tough. Meal Prep Preparing and cooking meals at home saves time, money, and calories— standard restaurant meals tend to have more calories, fat, refined carbohydrates, and sodium than home-cooked meals—but for many of us it’s hard to find the time to cook at home every day. Meal prepping not only makes weekday cooking easier, it can also directly improve your diabetes health. A study found that after completing a meal-prep program, participants with type 2 diabetes experienced improvements in eating control, body weight, HbA1c levels, and blood pressure. Meal prepping works, and it will be essential in helping you succeed with the meal plan. Each week, we provide tips on what to meal prep over the weekend to save you time in the kitchen during the week.
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To Keep in Your Pantry: Beans and Other Canned/Bottled Goods: • Black beans (canned and/or dry)
• Pasta sauce
• Bottled lemon/lime juice
• Pinto beans (canned and/or dry)
• Chickpeas (canned and/or dry)
• Salsa
• Light coconut milk
• Tomato paste
• Diced tomatoes
• Tomato sauce
• Kidney beans (canned and/ or dry)
• White beans (canned and/ or dry)
Dried Herbs and Spices: • Bay leaves
• Ground cumin
• Cayenne
• Garam masala
• Chili powder
• Garlic powder
• Curry powder
• Ground turmeric
• Dried oregano
• Onion powder
• Dried mint
• Paprika
• Ginger
• Red pepper flakes
• Ground cinnamon
• Salt and pepper
• Lentils (canned and/or dry) Vinegars and Condiments: Whole Grains and Pastas: • Brown rice
• Millet
• Brown rice noodles
• Oats (steel-cut and rolled)
• Chickpea pasta
• Quinoa
• Farro
• Whole-wheat pasta
• Apple cider vinegar
• Rice vinegar
• Balsamic vinegar
• Tamari, less-sodium soy sauce, or coconut aminos
• Mustard (yellow and Dijon) • Olive oil cooking spray
• Lentil pasta
Other:
Nuts and Seeds: • Almonds • Brazil nuts
• Peanut, almond, or sunflower seed butter
• Cashews
• Pine nuts
• Chia seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
• Ground flaxseed (also called flax meal)
• Sunflower seeds
• Hemp seeds (also called hemp hearts)
• Walnuts
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• Cocoa powder
• Popcorn kernels
• Dates
• Protein powder
• Monk fruit sweetener
• Rice paper sheets
• No-sugar-added chocolate chips
• Shelf-stable non-dairy milk
• Nutritional yeast
• Vegetable broth
• Vanilla extract
• Tahini
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To Keep in Your Fridge: • Fresh fruit
• Salad dressings
• Fresh vegetables
• Tempeh
• Hummus
• Tofu
• Non-dairy yogurt
• Vegan mayonnaise
• Pesto
Helpful Kitchen Tools and Appliances: • High-powered blender: great for blending larger batches of food like sauces, smoothies, ice cream, and sorbets • Food processor: helps with food prep by chopping, mincing, mixing, and blending • Instant Pot®, or other electric multi-cooker: allows you to quickly make grains, beans, and other foods • Air fryer: great way to “fry” foods without the need for oil
To Keep in Your Freezer: • Banana (peel and freeze ripe bananas)
• Peas
• Berries
• Stir-fry veggies
• Cauliflower rice
• Strawberries
• Edamame
• Veggie burgers
• Spinach and/or kale
• Tofu press: not essential, but helpful in removing excess liquid from tofu; see “How to Press Tofu” on page 49 • Food storage containers: preferably glass, not plastic; great for leftovers and meal prepping • Mason jars: use different sizes for overnight oats, salads, soups, smoothies, and other foods on the go • Veggie chopper: not essential, but helps save time chopping vegetables • Reusable zipper-lock bags: saves money on traditional plastic storage bags; great for taking snacks on the go • Measuring spoons and cups • Spiralizer: great for making noodles out of vegetables (zucchini noodles, sweet potato noodles, etc.) • Good chef’s knives • Silicone baking mat: helps with oil-free baking
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Discover how you can reverse the root cause of type 2 diabetes with this easy-to-follow resource guide and cookbook featuring 100+ recipes and a 4-week meal plan Developed by a registered dietitian and exercise physiologist, this revolutionary, science-based program provides: • A comprehensive plan for achieving non-diabetic blood sugar within weeks
• Grocery shopping lists for every week of the meal plan and tips for meal prep
• 100+ high-fiber, plant-based recipes that keep your blood sugar balanced
• Guidance on stocking your pantry and knowing which foods to have on hand
• Daily meal plans for 4 weeks that minimize your time in the kitchen
• Useful lessons on how nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress impact your diabetes health
Learn how to eliminate or reduce your need for medication and lower your blood sugar with The Type 2 Diabetes Revolution.
$24.95 USD / $34.95 CAD ISBN 9781958803196
52495
9 781958 803196