Diabetic diet online tools - WHfoods

There are many sites available on the web that helps you make better food choices. Among these sites, the ones that I most frequently visit are WHfoods and Nutrition Data. You might have noticed I frequently refer to these sites when I am posting recipes. I believe that eating healthy food and eating moderately will make a big difference to our health.

My belief was vindicated when Viswa's blood glucose levels came under control(his A1C is 6.6 now) after following a diet high in vegetables, fruits, lentils and beans and exercising regularly. When Viswa was diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy, we had to reassess our daily routine and diet. To do so we needed more information about the food we ate.

Though we had guidance from Viswa's dietician, we wanted to be proactive. Hence, we educated ourselves by subscribing to newsletters and reading online health-related sites. The information on some of these sites may be redundant in some way, like everywhere we were advised to eat more vegetables and fruits and to stay away from junk food. However, it definitely helped in getting the message into our head. Some sites are worthwhile reading.

WHfoods

WHfoods gives us a list of food items that it thinks is the world's healthiest foods. According to WHfoods some of the criteria for choosing the foods are nutrient-density, availability and affordability.

There are many lists of super foods available online but they contain vegetables or fruits that are extremely expensive and very rare to find. So its a relief this list does not contain any such food. We don't really plan our meals strictly around the list but use the site to know more about the properties and benefits of the vegetables and other foods that we already eat and the ones that we plan to include in our diet. It rather reinforces our healthy food habits.

For example if you read the WHfoods:Almonds page you get to know all the wonderful health benefits including that it protects us against diabetes and heart disease. Now thats a very good reason to go nuts about almonds. As a bonus, you get to know how to select and store almonds. Plus there are recipes for you to enjoy them too.

Ok, I think it is safe to assume that the majority of us love almonds or at least do not hate it. But what about broccoli. Not everyone is a fan of broccoli. Definitely not me. Now when I read what WHfoods has to say about broccoli I'll be crazy not to eat this veggie and reap its benefits. Nowadays I sneak in broccoli in the form of soup, hidden under a pile of other veggies in a salad, etc. It even makes instant noodles healthier (by skipping the seasoning that comes with the instant noodle pack, of course). WHfoods also explains that steaming is the best way to cook this veggie.

There are many disease related information available too. This is the page related to Type II diabetes. Hopefully the site will be useful to you too as it was for us.

The other website Nutrition Data has some cool features and great information. I'll post more about it in the coming weeks.