Cookbook makes controlling diabetes easier

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Choice Menus by Marjorie Hollands and Margaret Howard, published by Macmillan Canada, spiral bound paperback, 128 pages, $19.95

Linda Caldwell, Windspeaker Staff Writer

There is an easy way to help control non-insulin dependent diabetes, and cookbook authors Majorie Hollands and Margaret Howard have condensed it into book form.

Choice Menus is not just a cookbook, however. It offers suggested menus, all with computations of calories, amount of fat, carbohydrate and fibre, based on the Canadian Diabetes Association exchange system. The menu section has pages split into four parts, starting with breakfast on the top portion and snacks on the bottom portion, so readers can plan their meals according to what they want to eat.

Any breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack combination will add up to the same number of calories. All meal plans offer a 1,200 calorie, 1,500 calorie and 1,800 calorie option, so if losing weight is your goal, this book can help.

In the general population, some 125,000 people have diabetes, or five per cent of the population. But the rate among Natives is two to three times higher, according to statistics compiled in 1989.

Part of the reason is the tendency to develop diabetes is inherited, and many Native people live in small, remote communities and choose their spouses from the local community, says cookbook author Majorie Hollands. A change in lifestyle is another culprit. Hunting, trapping and living off the land has given way to a more sedentary way of life. That, combined with a change in diet, is also driving diabetes rates up.

Obesity is another important factor.

"It doesn't seem to be the amount of fat; it's the amount of fat above the belly - that 'beer belly'," she says, because upper body fat is around the organs.

Weight loss - even a moderate loss of five to 10 pounds - can help normalize blood sugar levels.

"Your doctor says you need to improve your diet and lose a few pounds and you say, 'How'?

"We're saying use this book. Take your book to the dietician," says Hollands, a diabetes educator and former chairperson of the National Nutrition Committee of the Canadian Diabetes Association.

Even if a person with Type 2 (non-insulin dependent) diabetes gets the disease under control, they must always be on guard against it recurring.

"It's like an iceberg just beneath the surface of the water. If you get stressed by work or sick with the flu, it comes up."

Lifestyle changes are the best way to control the disease, Hollands adds. More exercise, better food and a balanced diet, along with weight loss if needed, will be the most effective.