Holidays are stuffed with tasty and filling dishes and drinks. It’s hard to resist dreams of cookies, special cakes, wealthy meats and exceptionally spicy additions.
Many of the healthy ingredients utilized in holiday dishes could be overshadowed by sugar and starch. While adding extra sugar could also be tasty, it isn’t necessarily good for your metabolism. Understanding the food and cuisine science behind what you cook means you may make a few changes to a recipe and still have a delicious dish that won’t loaded with sugar.
Especially for those who’re someone with type 1 diabetes, the vacations can come with an additional layer of stress and soaring blood glucose levels. However, this just isn’t the time to despair – it’s the vacations in spite of everything.
Cranberries are a seasonal, tasty fruit that could be tweaked in recipes to make them more Type 1 diabetic-friendly – or friendly to anyone searching for a sweet dish without the added sugar.
I’m a food scientist and sort 1 diabetes. Understanding food composition, ingredient interactions, and metabolism literally saved my life.
Type 1 diabetes has been defined
Type 1 diabetes it lasts all day, without sleep breaks, without holidays and weekends, without remission and without cure. Type 1 diabetes don’t produce insulin, a hormone essential for all times, which promote the absorption of glucose, i.e. sugar, into cells. Glucose in your cells then provides the body with energy on the molecular level.
Therefore, people with type 1 diabetes take insulin injections using an insulin pump attached to their bodies and hopefully it really works well enough to stabilize our blood sugar levels and metabolism, minimize health complications over time, and keep us alive.
Type 1 diabetics have in mind mainly type and amount of carbohydrates in food when determining how much insulin to take, but in addition they need to understand the interactions of proteins and fats in food to use it, or bolusappropriately.
Apart from insulin, type 1 diabetics don’t produce one other hormone, amylin, which slows down gastric motility. This means food moves faster through our digestive tract and we regularly feel very hungry. Foods high in fat, protein and fiber can keep you from feeling hungry for a while.
Cranberries, a seasonal snack
Cranberries are native to North America and grow well within the northeastern and midwestern states, where they’re in season from late September through December. They dominate holiday tables everywhere in the country.
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One cup of whole, raw cranberries comprises 190 calories. They are composed of 87% water, trace amounts of protein and fat, 12 grams of carbohydrates and just over 4 grams of soluble fiber. Soluble fiber combines well with water, which is sweet for digestive health and might slow the rise in blood glucose levels.
Cranberries are tall IN potassiumwhich helps maintain electrolyte balance and cell signaling, in addition to other essential nutrients similar to antioxidants, beta-carotene AND vitamin C. They also contain vitamin Kwhich helps in healthy blood clotting.
The taste and aroma of cranberries comes from compounds present in fruits similar to cinnamates, which add a hint of cinnamon, vanillin for a vanilla note, benzoates AND Benzaldehydethat tastes like almonds.
Cranberries are high in pectin, a soluble starch that forms a gel and is used as a binding agent in making jams and jellies, in order that they thicken easily with minimal cooking. Their beautiful jewel tone red color belongs to a class of compounds called anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins with which they’re associated treating certain forms of infections.
They also contain phenols, that are protective compounds produced by the plant. These compounds, which appear like rings on the molecular level, interact with proteins within the saliva, causing a dry and tight feeling that causes the mouth to pucker. Similarly, the so-called benzoic acid naturally occurring in cranberries, it adds sourness to the fruit.
These chemical components make them extremely sour and bitter and difficult to eat raw. To moderate these flavors and effects, most cranberry recipes call for plenty of sugar.
All this extra sugar could make cranberry dishes difficult for type 1 diabetics to devour since the sugars cause blood glucose levels to rise quickly.
Cranberries without sugar?
Type 1 diabetics – or anyone looking to limit their sugar intake – can try some cooking tactics to reduce their sugar intake while still having fun with this holiday treat.
Don’t cook the cranberries too long once they pop. You’ll still have a sticky cranberry liquid without having to add a lot of sugar, because cooking concentrates a number of the bitter compounds, making them more visible within the dish.
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The addition of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg and other warming spices gives the dish a depth of flavor. Adding heat with hot chili pepper it might make a cranberry dish more complex while reducing sourness and astringency. Adding salt can reduce the bitterness of cranberries, so you will not need a lot of sugar.
For a richer flavor and glossy quality, add butter. The butter also moisturizes the lips, which reinforces the natural tartness of the dish. Other fats, similar to cream or coconut oil, also work.
Adding chopped walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts may decelerate the absorption of glucose, so your blood glucose levels may not rise as quickly. Some recent forms of sweeteners, similar to allulosethey taste sweet but don’t raise blood sugar levels and require minimal or no insulin. Allulose has GRAS – Generally Regarded as Safe – status within the US but just isn’t approved as an additive in Europe.
During the holiday season, you may easily reduce the quantity of sugar added to cranberry dishes and revel in the health advantages without spikes in blood glucose levels.