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Diabetes Comfort Food Diet

If you're suffering from diabetes or pre-diabetes, it can feel depriving to not be able to indulge in some of your favorite comfort foods. 

However, there are ways you can modify your diet and still eat things that give you fulfillment. 

Laura Cipullo, RD, joins host Lisa Davis to share tips from her new book, The Diabetes Comfort Food Diet.

High-fiber, low-carb, high levels of monounsaturated fatty acids. 

1. Mixed Meals make diabetes easy.
All meals should have a carbohydrate, protein and fat. This allows for a slower breakdown of the macro-nutrients and thus a slow and steady absorption of sugar our bloodstream.

2. Fill with fiber but not too much.
Fiber known as insoluble fiber cannot be absorbed and therefore does not count towards the carb grams at that meal. If a meal has 50 grams of carb but has 10 grams of fiber, your body will likely only absorb 45 grams of carbohydrate. Too much fiber (especially fake fiber) can cause bloating, gas and belly discomfort. Think beans, sprouted grain bread and whole wheat pasta.

3. Have a helping of MUFAs (monounsaturated fatty acids).
Choose fats that work with your body, such as omega-3s and MUFAs. Salmon, avocados and olive oil are good choices.

4. Don’t despair, "All Foods Fit," even when you are diagnosed with diabetes.
Most important is when to eat and how many grams of carbs. Think salmon, with broccoli and a slice of pie.

5. Stop depriving and start spreading the carbs.
You can even eat a grain with dinner and still have dessert. Curb carbs to either 45 grams/60 grams at the meal. For example, separate dinner and your evening snack to ensure your carbs are spread proportionately and to prevent a blood sugar spike.

6. START Here.
Identify your level of readiness: Shock, Tip Toe, Achieve, Repeat or Time and move forward with the action plan created for you. Make this a lifestyle change by figuring out if you are even ready to make changes. If you are in the state of shock from getting diagnosed with Diabetes, there is no expectation that you are going to be losing weight in the next weeks. You need to get to Action before you make real behavior changes.

7. Be wise about weight.
Weight loss can be healthy and long-lasting with diet and exercise changes. Research shows a 5-7% weight loss is reasonable and effective in preventing diabetes. 

Diabetes Comfort Food Diet
Featured Speaker:
Laura Cipullo, RD
Laura-CipulloLaura Cipullo is a Registered Dietitian, Certified Diabetes Educator, Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian, and creator of Mom Dishes It Out.

With a private practice in New York City, Laura provides sound, ethical nutrition advice to both adults and children. She is available for private, one-on-one consultations, family nutrition sessions or meetings with groups of peers. Laura’s holistic approach focuses on meeting you, the client, at your level of readiness.

Using the science of hormones, Laura makes meal and snack recommendations that enable you to feel full and energized while achieving a healthier body. Relying on her endocrine knowledge, she will help you make balanced meal decisions that stabilize your blood sugar and hormone levels. Through her expertise and experience Laura can help you learn from your internal cues to comfortably determine your appropriate food intake and eventually rid yourself of the “diet mentality.” Working with Laura is the first step of a new life: one that is completely free of diets and replaces them with a true understanding of moderation.

Laura earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics at Colorado State University. She interned at New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Weil Cornell Medical Center as a Dietetic Intern and has since held the distinguished positions of Clinical Dietitian for New York–Presbyterian Hospital/ Weil Cornell Medical Center, Nutrition Coordinator for CEDAR Associates in Westchester and Rockland counties, and consultant for the Renfrew Center in both New Jersey and New York. She was invited to join the BMIQ.com team has taught online research-based nutrition to BMIQ patient groups.

In 2000, she opened her private practice, Laura Cipullo, LLC Nutrition Services, in New Jersey, where she specialized in medical nutrition therapy, eating disorders and the non-diet approach. Due to high demand, she soon moved and expanded her offices to New York City. As of 2011, Laura closed the NJ offices and maintains her private practice Laura Cipullo Whole Nutrition Services in the union square area of NYC. In conjunction with her private practice Laura acts as the Nutrition Director for Experience Wellness Group and leads bi-weekly meal support therapy groups.

Laura Cipullo shares her expertise in the nutrition field by providing mentoring services to other registered dietitians as well as volunteering her time to help promote healthy food and nutrition causes. President of the New York chapter of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp), she also chairs the Food and Nutrition Committee for Corlears School, a nursery through fifth grade independent school located in NYC. Her volunteer history includes designation as a food professional helping children participating in the American Institute of Wine & Food’s (AIWF) Days of Taste program and engagement with the nonprofit Children for Children organization which connects and involves young people in community service.

Her wisdom and experience are consistently tapped by a variety of nationally circulated publications including Fitness, Real Simple Magazine, OK! Magazine, Today’s Dietitian, Diabetes Forecast, Diabetic Living, Modern Mom, The Daily Meal, Huffington Post, Fox News and Everyday Health. Laura also makes frequent guest appearances on local and national television shows—CBS’ The Couch, Fox & Friends, The Willis Report, The Dr. Steve Show, Headline News, all shows featured on Veria TV, and more. Laura also maintains two personal blogs: Eating and Living Moderately and Mom Dishes It Out

Laura resides in New York City with her husband and children.