Gestational diabetes and thanksgiving

[mom to 3 boys & 1 girl]

I was wondering if I could get some help with my Thanksgiving menu. My SIL has gestational diabetes and she has been having a really hard time lately. I want to make sure that she has a nice holiday and that I have enough food that she will be able to eat. I don't have any experience with diabetes so I'm feeling very lost as to what I should serve. I do plan on calling her and checking in before I go shopping, but I would like to have some dishes in mind for her to approve.

 

I know she can't eat any type of potatoes as it makes her blood sugar spike. I'm assuming that she won't be able to eat stuffing either. She loves veggies so I am planning on steaming some broccoli.

 

I usually make a squash casserole that she loves. It has squash, zucchini, carrots, onion, garlic, butter, cheese, eggs, salt, and pepper. It also has a topping of crumbled Ritz crackers. Does this sound like something she will be able to eat? If not is there anything I could change to make it acceptable?

 

I also make a green bean casserole. It has homemade cream of mushroom soup and homemade fried onions on top.

 

I also make a spinach dish that she loves. She ate this last week at her baby shower so I know this will be ok.

 

I don't usually serve salad on thanksgiving but I was thinking I could make a small one for her this year. Would regular dressing be ok or do I need to buy something special?

 

Thank you so much for any help you can give me. If you have any suggestions about anything else I can serve I would love to hear it!

[Emmy]

You need to call and find out if there's anything special you could make that would help her out. If she's medicating for it- if she's on insulin, she'll have far more flexibility than if she's trying to get by without medication. Or she might be on oral meds which will help some.

 

Potatoes and breads (stuffing, rolls) and desserts are going to be problematic for her. The veggies you mentioned are "ok" but the fact that they have carbs and fat added will probably increase her blood sugar as well.

 

All that being said, it's just one day and having slightly higher blood sugar for that one day isn't going to be the end of the world.

 

Typically a meal for a gestational diabetic would be protein heavy with high fiber and a small serving of carbs. Higher fat increases blood sugar.

[mom to 3 boys & 1 girl]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. She isn't on any medication. She only failed her sugar test by a small margin. She has changed her diet and is testing 4 times a day. She has only had a few times where her blood sugar was too high.

 

I think you are right, I will just have to figure it out with her. She always tries to be so polite and agreeable I'm a little worried that she won't want to make extra work for me and will end up with nothing to eat!

 

Thanks again!

[Laurie4b]

There is a diabetic in our family. Protein is great and you've got that covered with turkey. Some carbs and fats are fine.

You could either modify the casseroles for everyone, or do the regular casserole for most people, but modify or set aside some fresh vege's for her. Modification in terms of your casseroles would mean decreasing the fat content. You could modify the squash casserole by decreasing (or eliminating) the butter and choosing a 2% cheese from the store. You could do steamed green beans with sauteed mushrooms for her. Also think of ways that you could add fiber. All Bran makes delicious crackers that are high fiber. Offer some whole wheat (real whole wheat, not slightly) rolls at dinner along with what you usually offer. I make pumpkin pie with about 2/3 the sugar and with nonfat evaporated milk and my family loves it. (Pumpkin pie is full of fiber and vitamin A. With the nonfat milk and eggs, there is a good bit of protein and not much fat.) She can skip the crust.

[cougarmom4]

That's sweet that you are being so thoughtful and trying to help her! I had gestational diabetes with my last baby and it was so hard, especially with yummy feasts like Thanksgiving. I probably would have just had smaller portions or tastes of things that weren't the best for me and filled up on turkey and salad (so yes, a small green salad w/lots of veggies and no dressing). Steamed broccoli would be good, too. In my case, I *loved* strawberries & cantaloupe and the serving that counted for each of these was quite large & filling (versus say half a banana as a serving). So perhaps your sil has something like that--that she enjoys and you could add to your meal (or have just for her). And maybe you could find a sugar-free dessert...even if it is just a sugar-free ice cream sandwich so she can eat something yummy while everyone else is eating pie.

[*Inna*]

I would call and ask her.

 

My SIL and I both had a GD at the same time (our middle kids were born 6 weeks apart). We had a nice salad for Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, took one bite of everything else and took a brisk walk around the neighborhood after dinner. And we had a sugar-free pie for dessert. It was fine.

[Rosy]

I was wondering if I could get some help with my Thanksgiving menu. My SIL has gestational diabetes and she has been having a really hard time lately. I want to make sure that she has a nice holiday and that I have enough food that she will be able to eat. I don't have any experience with diabetes so I'm feeling very lost as to what I should serve. I do plan on calling her and checking in before I go shopping, but I would like to have some dishes in mind for her to approve.

 

I know she can't eat any type of potatoes as it makes her blood sugar spike. I'm assuming that she won't be able to eat stuffing either. She loves veggies so I am planning on steaming some broccoli.

 

I usually make a squash casserole that she loves. It has squash, zucchini, carrots, onion, garlic, butter, cheese, eggs, salt, and pepper. It also has a topping of crumbled Ritz crackers. Does this sound like something she will be able to eat? If not is there anything I could change to make it acceptable?

 

I also make a green bean casserole. It has homemade cream of mushroom soup and homemade fried onions on top.

 

I also make a spinach dish that she loves. She ate this last week at her baby shower so I know this will be ok.

 

I don't usually serve salad on thanksgiving but I was thinking I could make a small one for her this year. Would regular dressing be ok or do I need to buy something special?

 

Thank you so much for any help you can give me. If you have any suggestions about anything else I can serve I would love to hear it!

 

From my experience, a lot of docs approach the GD diet differently. Some use it strictly to manage blood sugar, others also use it for weight management. My friend who had GD at the same time as I did was only restricted from eating carbs, my doc encouraged me to stick to a low-fat diet as well, so I couldn't have a lot of cheese, etc.

 

Also, everyone is different (somewhat) in what will make their blood sugar spike. So somethings might be a problem for one person and not another. And she might be more strict (or lax) in following it than other people. It's great that you're being so sensitive to her needs. :)

 

I would leave the Ritz crackers off of the squash casserole, she still might not eat it because of the cheese and butter, but the Ritz crackers definitely would not have been ok for me.

 

You might look into recipes for a low-carb gravy (one not made with flour or cornstarch).

 

You're right about the stuffing and potatoes.

 

The green bean casserole and spinach dish should be fine.

 

A green salad would be great, a ranch-type dressing or oil & vinegar should be fine. Some salad dressings have a lot of sugar, I would check the label for carbs--most carbs in a salad dressing would be from sugar.

 

The only other thing you haven't mentioned is dessert. You might need to just ask her what will work. Anything fruity is probably out, except maybe fresh fruit, and even then it might be a problem for her if she had many carbs at dinner. You might consider sugar-free ice cream and/or a sugar-free pumpkin pie or cheesecake. You also might ask her to bring a dessert that will work for her and make a regular dessert for the rest of the family.

[Rosie_0801]

I think it's very nice of you to take the trouble. Last year I ate beans while everyone else had a nice Christmas dinner. I ate beans while everyone else ate my bestest ever Christmas cake! :crying: Your SIL might not be able to provide you with much info. If she's only just been diagnosed, she won't have figured it all out yet.

 

To be on the safe side, leave out the carrots in your squash casserole. Actually, avoid any cooked root vegetable. Then avoid the ones that you don't eat raw ;) Garlic and onion are exceptions, she can eat those no worries. She'll probably be fine with the Ritz crumble, since it is such a small amount, but if you can find a crumble that is made from a less refined product, that would be better.

 

Your cream of mushroom soup will be more diabetic friendly if you can avoid using any flour as a thickener. Salad is wonderful. Diabetics can pretty much eat as much as they want. As for dressings, use a bit of olive oil and some nice vinegar. Don't buy those nasty sugar filled things from the shops, she'll want to spend her diabetic leeway on something more important! Don't buy any of those nasty things filled with artificial sweeteners either. A little olive oil won't hurt, and vinegar helps regulate blood sugar levels.

 

If you are making something with grains, try using barley instead of your usual. It is the lowest GI of any of the grains, though there seems not to be info available yet for quinoa and amaranth.

 

Rosie

[Carol in Cal.]

Squash and cooked carrots have very high glycemic indices. That means that they raise blood sugar quite rapidly, which is considered especially bad for gestational diabetes.

 

I would have two cold salads, as well as the other cooked veggies that you have suggested. One cold salad could be lettuce-based. The other could be radiccio with blue cheese and slivered almonds in a low carb vinaigrette, or multi-colored sweet peppers in balsamic vinaigrette, or something similar. The point is that it would be really nice if they were quite different from each other, so that people can get full on them without getting bored.

 

Being on a limited diet, the hardest thing is that often there is only one thing on the table that you can eat, and so you get really, really tired of it.

 

It is really nice of you to look out for her so much. She is going to have to do her part and skip the potatoes, stuffing, and maybe even the gravy, so it's going to be an 'eat your heart out' session for her for sure.

[Halftime Hope]

As many of the other posters have said, the first thing would be to ask her. There's nothing quite like that feeling of being loved when someone asks how they can take your needs into consideration, so you can start her Thanksgiving off a week early with the gesture of thoughtfulness. :001_wub:

 

I was wondering if I could get some help with my Thanksgiving menu. My SIL has gestational diabetes and she has been having a really hard time lately. I want to make sure that she has a nice holiday and that I have enough food that she will be able to eat. I don't have any experience with diabetes so I'm feeling very lost as to what I should serve. I do plan on calling her and checking in before I go shopping, but I would like to have some dishes in mind for her to approve.

 

I know she can't eat any type of potatoes as it makes her blood sugar spike. I'm assuming that she won't be able to eat stuffing either. She loves veggies so I am planning on steaming some broccoli.

 

I usually make a squash casserole that she loves. It has squash, zucchini, carrots, onion, garlic, butter, cheese, eggs, salt, and pepper. It also has a topping of crumbled Ritz crackers. Does this sound like something she will be able to eat? If not is there anything I could change to make it acceptable? To make this more diabetic friendly, I'd take out the onions and the carrots. Both contain a lot of carbs. If you need the onion flavor for it to taste the same, use powdered onion. The Ritz crackers are high in fast acting carbs, but you could sub grated parmesan broiled at the last second for the topping to bring the carb count down. Or mixed powdered parmesan and crushed/pulverized pecan, broiled.

 

I also make a green bean casserole. It has homemade cream of mushroom soup and homemade fried onions on top. I'd look for some other way to fix the green beans, as both the mushroom soup and the fried onions are carby.

 

I also make a spinach dish that she loves. She ate this last week at her baby shower so I know this will be ok.

 

I don't usually serve salad on thanksgiving but I was thinking I could make a small one for her this year. Would regular dressing be ok or do I need to buy something special? The oil and spices dressings are usually very low in carbs and quite good for you, except balsamic viniagrettes.

 

Thank you so much for any help you can give me. If you have any suggestions about anything else I can serve I would love to hear it!

 

For my family member that is diabetic, we've run into a dilemma. He'd rather eat a bit of the traditional dishes the way they are than change them--I've rather uncharitably called it the "sacred cow" approach to recipes--so, you might ask if she would prefer to alter recipes a bit to make them more diabetic friendly, or if she'd prefer to just have a bite of the "good old food" and then then focus the majority of her meal on the non/low-carb dishes. If it is her choice, it should all be good.

 

hth