On The Go

Snacks – Get a Food Dehydrator!

food-dehydratorIt would be rather stupid of me to say “all Diabetics are ———–“. Any time you say “all” in reference to anybody or anything you usually get in trouble. If it were not for that truism I would say “all Diabetics are overweight and need to lose anywhere from some to a lot of weight”. Since “all” is a dangerous word I will say—-most Diabetics have some degree or another of a weight issue. Also (and this is a generalization that is quite accurate), it is far more difficult for a Diabetic to take off weight than a non-Diabetic. Every time your sugar drops you must ingest some amount of carb-containing food or drink. Not necessarily a lot, but some, depending on how low you are and how carbsensitive you are.

For those of us on insulin, we must inject (I do so a minimum of 5 injections a day). Insulin has been called
“the fat hormone”. I never knew that until I started injecting it, but according to lots of literature, insulin helps generate fat. Yuck! But if I don’t inject, I die. And the death is not fast and clean. So I do it. And for one reason or another I could easily stand to lose 15-20 pounds. So, in this situation, WHAT IS A DIABETIC TO DO??

Well, I have given you lots of main meal recipes, and I will give you more, but what about snacks? Look inthe snacks, crackers, munchies aisles of the store and you’re just in deep trouble! The answer: get a food dehydrator. Mine is a very large, five tray Excalibur. I have had it for possibly 17 or so years. With it, I make dehydrated vegetables of every kind that tastes good dehydrated. I also make my own jerky (turkey breast and salmon) and dehydrated fruit for when blood glucose is low. I have made dehydrated green beans, zucchini, mushrooms, okra, beets and carrots. All of those are great snacks except the mushrooms.

Ordinarily, I manage to work raw or cooked mushrooms into almost everything I fix. I LOVE mushrooms. But dehydrated, my experience was not good. I have made all sorts of dehydrated fruit and have not had a bad experience. If you are a highly active, outdoors person, dehydrated fruit is extremely light and easily packed, stuffed in your pocket, whatever. They are a very quick, easy to counter the lows that frequent physical activity (hiking, biking, skiing, soccer, softball, whatever). I have also never had a bad result with making my own jerky, and jerky is a no carb, low calorie, very filling snacfruit-roll-ups-homemadek. Just because you have dehydrated good-for-you snacks does not mean you can eat unlimited amounts. I use my diet scale and weigh one ounce portions of each snack and put them in the small snack size Zip Lock baggies. I store them in the freezer just because I make a huge amount at a time and keeping them in the freezer ensures freshness for a long time. The baggies are easy to grab as I pack my lunch box every day and, since they are pre-measured, I know exactly how many calories and grams of carbs I am eating.

So get a dehydrator, make your own snacks, and save some money! (Have you priced dried snack veggies and jerky in the health food stores?), keep your carbs down, and maybe even drop a pound or two.

AboutMiss Kate

Miss Kate is a diabetic who has perfected her cooking processes and recipes over the years. She shares her unique way of cooking for diabetics so that they can benefit from the discoveries she has made.