Last time, we touched on what types of foods we need to avoid. Mention was made of the POWs group of foods. So this time, we will as promised, discuss these in detail.

P
Processed Foods
Like: Any meat products such as burgers, fish fingers, chicken nuggets, scampi. In other words, avoid any type of meat. No dairy and that means no milk, cheese, butter, margarine, yoghurt, cakes etc. Also no eggs.
 
O
Oily Foods
Like Fish and Chips, Crisps, any food fried
 
W
Whites
White bread, white rice, anything made from white flour
 
S
Sugars
White/ brown or artificial sweeteners. Honey (limit amount)
 

So the big question is WHAT can I eat? Well, almost everything else really! Your diet should mainly be a VEGAN based diet with a few exceptions. There are certain vegan based foods that if a diabetic eats can put their blood glucose levels up. One good example of this is Banana. If you find that giving up meat products (that includes seafood and chicken) is difficult for you, then I suggest you have a 75-80% vegan diet and the balance your “normal” diet. So have your meats twice a week and the rest of the week have the fruits and vegetables.

Below is a list of forbidden foods.

Forbidden Foods:

• Soy products ( contains fat and harmful proteins that affect the hormones, limit intake),
• White products such as white rice, white bread, white flour
• Coffee  and Tea – anything that contains caffeine -are forbidden
• Oily foods, fried foods, even if cooked in vegetable oil. Do not cook in Virgin olive oil as at high temperatures, the oil becomes carcinogenic.
• Sugars – sugar (white or brown) , any products containing sugars – eg biscuits, cakes, cereals, processed juices and fizzy drinks, honey (in moderation it is ok)
• Fast foods – junk food
• No milk, cheese or dairy products in general and that includes butter and margarine
• No sweet fruits, eg Water Melon, Sweet Oranges, Ripe Bananas, Mangoes, Pineapple, Grapes, Apricots, Figs, Raisins, Papaya, Kiwi, Sapote, Cherimoya, Rambutan, Durian, dates (however minimal use allowed for all the above sweet fruits).
• Sweet Corn, Pumpkin, Parsnips (Parsnip has a GI of 97)
• Reduce  meats, chicken, fish and eggs (if you can avoid them completely , even better. Remember all animal products contain cholesterol while plant based products contain NO cholesterol).
• Peanuts, Cashews and Cottonseed ( limit intake, nuts have a high fat content)
• Processed juices (in bottles, cartons etc)
• Products having MSG – Monosodium Glutamate

Next time we will discuss what foods we CAN eat.