Mail to my friends: How to feed a Indian Vegetarian Diabetic

A mail to my friends on how to accommodate my dietary needs

I wrote  this mail to my friends that I usually hang out with. We invite each other for lunch/dinner/tea etc all the time and I think it might be hard for them to understand how to cater to my dietary needs and lead to awkwardness. So I thought, I would proactively let them know on what they can do and we can minimize the fuss and inconvenience to them upfront. Also, as someone else in a similar boat recently mentioned to me... "What I want is empathy, not sympathy". Understand my limitations and accommodate them so much as you can, but don't feel sad for me or be gloomy for me. I  understand what situation I am in and I am dealing with it the best I can and I am better for it. So, if you show sympathy, it just makes me feel weird and awkward... better if you just behave as if everything is normal while accommodating me as far as you can. I will be happy to talk to you about it and tell all about things, but that is likely going to be boring unless you have a relative etc who has diabetes and you want to help them. Anyways, here is the mail:

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So, friends, I have recently been diagnosed with diabetes and have had to make a bunch of lifestyle changes. Some of these changes were easy e.g. exercise more, drop weight around the tummy etc and some of them are pretty hard; dietary restrictions are one of the hardest things that I am having to adjust to. It is even harder for me because I am a vegetarian and that limits the pool of things that I can eat to a very small set. However, this is a journey, as I learn, I become better at managing my condition. With proper management of my blood sugar levels around the clock, I can leave a very normal life without any complications of diabetes.

However, I understand that this impacts us when we meet for lunches and dinners and even tea and snacks. Although I have spent a lot of time researching what I can and cannot eat and how to manage my blood glucose levels, I am certain you haven't and I would not want or expect you to do that. Given that, I will provide you with easy to do things that will keep our parties lively and full of foods that we all love and that I can share with you.

Essentially, in a nutshell, I am on what is called a Very Low Carbohydrate (VLC) diet. This is a largely vegetable/plant based diet with a significant amount of calories coming in from Proteins and Fats. I am choosing to completely cut out all of my grains. Yep, you read it right, COMPLETELY off of grains. That includes all daals (lentils). The only grain (actually oilseed) that I will eat is soybean and soybean derived products such as nutrella (textured vegetable protein), Tofu and soy flour mixed with wheat bran. If we are having dinner together, I will be bringing the soy flour/bran roti, so don't inconvenience yourself over this. I always keep a good supply handy, so this is pretty straightforward for me.

Anyways, in reality, what this translates to is that to accommodate me, all you need is a big bowl of any vegetable prepared without potatoes or other starches and added sugars... Practically, any indian vegetable sabji e.g. Lauki (opo squash) or karela or green beans, cabbage, Cauliflower pick  your favorite vegetable and very high likelihood, I am going to be fine with it. Also, I can eat any sort of cheese (except feta), paneer works just fine, cream cheese, full fat  yogurt, greek yogurt. A big bowl of vegetable and a 40-60gram of cheese/yogurt is plenty enough to satisfy me and meet my dietary needs. I am not restricted on any oils, so use what you would normally for any dish.

When making tea, I would appreciate if you took out the boiled tea without milk for me. I will add milk as per my own requirement.. usually a teaspoon or two. Also, I will bring my own sweetner, Stevia. I am avoiding all the powdered sweeteners as they contain small amount of sugars. Snacks for me are unnecessary as I don't need them and will not have them in any case.

That's it.

That was easy, wasn't it?

Anyways, hoping to see you soon at our next get together.

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