Starchy vegetables, known as provisions, are ubiquitous in the Caribbean. Give the patient the skills needed to include these favorites while ensuring balance at other meals. For instance, a patient may enjoy sadza with fermented milk for a meal and can’t include vegetables. Understand that the plate method, while valuable in promoting an overall healthful eating pattern, may not always work for some meals. Instead of eliminating it, focus on what they can add to their plate to create balance. Sometimes individuals don’t feel as though they’ve eaten a meal unless it includes their favorite starchy staple. Since many nutrition professionals are unaware of these food traditions, Msora-Kasago offers the following counseling tips: This porridge is known by names such as sadza in Zimbabwe, pap in South Africa, nshima/nsima in Zambia and Malawi, and ugali in East African countries, including Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya,” Msora-Kasago says. “Throughout southern and eastern Africa, maize meal is used to make a thick porridge that’s accompanied by a stew and leafy greens. Starchy vegetables also are dried and milled into flour and used to create staples. Msora-Kasago, who’s from Zimbabwe, says, “It’s not uncommon for Zimbabweans to enjoy cassava, sweet potato, or pumpkin with a piping hot cup of tea for breakfast or midday snack.” But sweet potatoes and plantains also are enjoyed. Cassava, taro, and yam-not to be confused with the southern yam or sweet potato-are the most commonly consumed starchy vegetables. “Starchy vegetables are a mainstay of African cuisine, with most countries on the continent including at least one starchy vegetable in local meal patterns,” says Los Angeles–based Cordialis Msora-Kasago, MA, RDN, regional nutrition manager for Sodexo. Understanding how traditional starchy vegetables show up on the plate is the first step in helping clients and patients maintain cultural traditions and rediscover the food they love. Of note, in this study, potatoes that were cooked and cooled (which increases resistant starch) produced a low glycemic response.4 In clinical studies, vegetables with resistant starch have improved insulin sensitivity and stabilized blood glucose.3Īnother study in Clinical Nutrition found that adults with type 2 diabetes who ate a mixed evening meal with skinless potatoes had a lower overnight blood glucose response compared with a dinner including low-GI basmati rice. Plantains, cassava, green bananas, taro, and white potatoes all contain resistant starch. Many starchy vegetables contain resistant starch-a type of carbohydrate that resists digestion and doesn’t increase glucose levels. The study authors suggest that nutrition interventions for these populations should provide strategies for maintaining healthful aspects of traditional diets.2 Moreover, Hispanics who lived in the United States the longest were less likely to follow a more healthful dietary pattern. Studies show traditional diets that include these vegetables are more healthful than the standard American diet and they can be safely included in a diabetes meal plan.įor example, a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that Black and Hispanic adults with diagnosed diabetes who maintained a traditional Caribbean starch pattern, which included yuca/cassava, starchy green banana, plantains, and yautia had a more healthful dietary pattern than those who didn’t. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 13% of non-Hispanic Blacks, 11.2% of Asian Americans, and 10.3% of Hispanics, compared with 9.4% of non-Hispanic whites, are living with diabetes and face the devastating consequences of the disease without proper treatment.1 The cooking and eating traditions of these ethnic groups often include nutrient-rich vegetables such as cassava (yuca), yam, taro (cocoyam), plantains, sweet potato, and white potato. Of the more than 34 million people in the United States with diabetes, BIPOC and Asians are disproportionately represented. This article provides insights on how Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and Asians with diabetes can safely include traditional starchy vegetables in their meal plans. All too often, starchy vegetables such as pumpkin, plantain, and cassava, which are the foundation of many global cuisines, are classified as “bad” because of their high carbohydrate content and value on the glycemic index (GI). Unfortunately, that’s not the message many people of color with diabetes receive during encounters with nutrition professionals. Having diabetes shouldn’t prevent clients and patients from living healthy lives and enjoying the ethnic foods they grew up with. Helping Clients Rediscover the High-Carbohydrate Foods They Love Dynamics of Diabetes: Diabetes Meal Planningīy Constance Brown-Riggs, MSEd, RDN, CDCES, CDN
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