The Simply Gourmet Diabetes Cookbook: Easy, Healthy Recipes and Menus for People with Diabetes and Those Who Love Them

If all you can do is buy one book, this is the one! This book is warm, understandable, thorough, educational, and worth every penny. To make things even better, it is full of wonderful recipes! I consider this book a companion, and I am not alone anymore.I have been diagnosed with diabetes for almost a year. I have struggled through materials from different sources, doctor visits, and nutritionist visits for months and was still confused. With this book in hand, I feel more positive, more grounded, and more capable of managing my disease.If I could rate this book freely, I would give it more than 5 stars.

This book provides me with meals that are as delicious as the resturants I frequent in Beverly Hills. It is different from other cookbooks in that, it is not typical Diabetic "American." You do not feel as if you are preparing or eating a meal for diabetes. This cookbook is romantic, especially when you are planning passionate evenings and breakfasts. Another equally import ingrediant of this gourmet book are the educational guidelines for explaining how to critical think through what your goals are and how to achieve them in a chapter by chapter "diabetes 101" support style. Mary Donkersloot wrote a very savy book for everyone to feel as if they are dinning in Beverly Hills or at the Chez Panisse!

Diabetes is a major part of every family physician's practice. Though the DCCT in Type 1 diabetics and similar evidence in Type 2's mandates better control, the patient must do the bulk of management with our guidance. Unfortunately, the amount of time we have for education and the coverage for diabetes educators may be limited under managed care. I found a solution to this dilemma with The Simply Gourmet Diabetes Cookbook. The first 116 pages of the book contain the best, most concise, patient friendly explanation of diabetes and its management I've read. With nary a wasted word author Mary Donkersloot covers the New Guidelines for diabetic nutrition, the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, carbohydrate counting, weight loss, exercise and cholesterol. In the next 300 pages, she has written a complete cookbook from breakfast to desserts. A very helpful appendix contains the traditional exchange system values for common foods, a guide to reading the new nutrition labels and lists of lean, medium fat and high fat meats along with "free" foods. Besides clear writing, the formatting is clear with well organized tables. For Type 1 diabetics, the chapter on carbohydrate counting explains how to maintain a consistent caloric intake and match one's insulin requirements for any changes. One big help is advice on compensating for sweets like occasional desserts (for which the author includes a variety of recipes). Also helpful are recipes for various ethnic foods like burritos, quesadillas and enchiladas along with information about eating out at regular restaurants and fast food restaurants. For Type 2 diabetics, chapters on weight loss and exercise essentials are superb. The recipes are quite varied and well organized. They all contain ten or less ingredients and most have just three steps so they are easy to make. Each recipe lists total calories, percent of fat, sodium, carbohydrate choices and food exchanges for easy calculations. The cornerstone of good diabetes control is consistent caloric intake and this book tells patients how to accomplish this. It contains everything I want my patients to know. As you all know, after informing patients of their diagnosis, the first question they usually ask is, "What should I eat?" Rather than searching through my files for my diabetic diets, I'm going to be recommending this book to answer their questions, to start them with a good diabetes education, and to save me time.