My Diabetes Blog - Green Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

22 September 2020

Week Four - Day Seven - Lunch

Hi there, Amelia Robinson here 😊 How's it going? I hope you're going great and keeping safe.

And a big 'Hi' from sister Mo too, as we attempt another recipe from my 'Stamp Out Diabetes in your Life - 30-day Menu'. This one is a green salad with a very yummy raspberry vinaigrette. It's very easy to make, the ingredients are not expensive and are readily available - this salad is delicious and healthy.

The ingredients are salad greens, pear and blue cheese with a raspberry vinaigrette, topped with chopped walnuts. The combination of these ingredients is a delicious explosion to the taste buds and it's very healthy.

So let's have a closer look at these ingredients to see how they benefit us diabetics -

As with most of the recipes in my 30-day Menu, this recipe has a large amount of green leafy vegetables. I remember my mum always saying, "Eat your greens, they're good for you", and me screwing my face up at the thought of such a notion, lol. Mums know best, right? But even though my mum repeated that sentence night after night, I don't think she realized just how good these green leafy babies actually were.

Green leafy vegetables are high in fibre and at 5g per cup, they certainly help toward our recommended daily intake of between 22-35g. Fibre helps keep us regular and according to MedicalNewsToday, also protects us against heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and digestive illness.

Green Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

A medium-sized pear contains 6g of a soluble fibre called 'pectin'. This type of fibre helps to nourish the good bacteria in our stomach and it is also helps to maintain a healthy stomach.

The recommended daily intake of calcium is around 1000mg for an average person and one-third cup of blue cheese will provide us with 150mg of this much-needed mineral.

Calcium as we know, helps our bones to grow strong and healthy, but did you know that this mineral also helps to moderate our weight? According to WebMD, studies have shown that blue cheese maintains the level of visceral fat around our stomach and this type of fat is very hard to get rid of. It is also the main type of fat that can cause type 2 diabetes.

Raspberries are my favourite fruit and that probably came about because I grew up in a small town that was abundant in fruit farms. When I was old enough, I spent school holidays picking raspberries - eating more than I put in the bucket. The raspberries I purchase in supermarkets and fruit stores today, fail in comparison to these beauties and the only place I can get a truly delicious, mouth-watering raspberry, is home.

Raspberries, unbeknownst to me, are full of antioxidants, which is awesome news for us diabetics. According to MedicalNewsToday, raspberries contain vitamin's C and E, selenium, beta carotene, lutein, lycopene and zeaxanthin. These antioxidants help to rid our bodies of toxins called free radicals which are a by-product of our body's chemical reaction process, or when we eat unhealthy food.

Walnuts contain all sorts of vitamins and minerals, polyunsaturated fat and omega-3 fatty acids. These compounds help to lower bad cholesterol by cleaning the inside of our artery walls. Studies have also shown that walnuts help to lower the risk of developing blood clots by lowering inflammation that causes heart disease.

Balsamic vinegar is another ingredient used in this recipe and has many health benefits. Balsamic vinegar helps to reduce blood sugar levels from spiking by releasing sugars into the blood stream slowly and the antioxidants present help to lower cholesterol. That's extremely good news for us diabetics.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is oil that has the least amount of processing and so therefore contains the most amount of nutritional value. Extra virgin olive oil contain polyphenols, which is an antioxidant that, as mentioned earlier, helps to rid our bodies of free radicals.

When you are a diabetic, it is really important to monitor what you are eating to ensure that you are receiving your recommended daily intake of all necessary vitamins and minerals. Too much or too little could have drastic effects on our health. That's why I wrote the 30-day menu for diabetics and the Nutritional Value Information Booklet so that we can see exactly what we're eating and adjust the amounts so that we are not exceeding our recommended daily intake.

Why not try this menu for yourself? I know that in a few short weeks, you will see and feel a difference and you will wonder why you didn't try this earlier. Have a great day 😊

Let's Stamp Out Diabetes in your Life, together 😃

Cheers

Amelia Robinson