Canada's Best Cookbook for Kids with Diabetes

Arlene Gryfe is a Toronto-based professional nutritionist and home
economist.

In the past 10 to 15 years, there has been an alarming increase in the
development of type 2 diabetes in children. With growing rates of
obesity in Canada, this trend is likely to continue. Type 2 diabetes can
be managed with a plan that distributes carbohydrate foods throughout
the day, and encourages weight management and regular physical activity.
Some cases also require oral medications and/or insulin.

Colleen Bartley, the mother of a child with diabetes, wrote this book,
reasoning that a child’s participation in meal planning and
preparation would encourage an interest in healthy eating, and also
prepare him or her for independent living in later years. With input
from her daughter and several dietitians, she assembled a book of more
than 125 recipes that are tasty, nutritious, easy to prepare, and
suitable for both diabetics and the whole family.

The recipes are divided into the expected sections of breakfasts,
snacks and appetizers, dinners, and so forth. All ingredients are in
both metric and imperial measures, with the method in easy numbered
steps. All recipes have brief comments, nutrition analysis, diabetic
choices, and useful tips.

There are more than a dozen tempting pictures and an extensive
cross-index. Preceding the recipes is an extensive discussion of the new
guide developed by the Canadian Diabetes Association—Beyond the
Basics: Meal Planning for Healthy Eating, Diabetes Prevention and
Management—which helps make meal planning more flexible. There are
also explanations of carbohydrates, fibre, glycemic index, fats,
labelling, sodium, and activity, as well as many pertinent websites.
Although this cookbook does not replace a prescribed program by
physicians or dietitians, it facilitates a family’s understanding of
the condition and offers greater variations in menu planning. It also
will prove useful for anyone wishing to interest an older child or
teenager in the preparation and partaking of nutritional meals.