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Celebrity Chefs Across America: The Ingredients for Managing Diabetes
By Anthony Dias Blue
SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals

Just when I was about to abandon myself to the gluttony of the holiday season, Celebrity Chefs Across America arrived. Given the unhappy food choices that surround us, a cookbook that glamorizes the healthy way is always welcome. It is particularly clever to designate November as American Diabetes Month, before the estimated 23.6 million Americans with diabetes give up and start rolling the piecrust.

Readers familiar with low-end diabetic cookbooks that feature desserts concocted out of artificial sweeteners will be relieved to find that this book is a cut above. There are a few fruit-based desserts, but the emphasis is on hearty, moderately trendy meals. Although aimed at people with diabetes, this is the kind of heart-healthy food we should all be eating. And a forward by Ginger Kanzer-Lewis, president of the American Association of Diabetes Educators, lends a stamp of approval for diabetics.

Blue has assembled recipes from chefs in six regions across the country to ensure a variety of tastes to tempt the virtuous palate. (I recognized Martin Yan from public TV in my region, the West. I suspect most of the chefs will be familiar to those who consider themselves foodies. Others include Emily Luchetti, executive pastry chef at Farallon in San Francisco, and Marcus Samuelsson, executive chef at Aquavit in Minneapolis. The only chef who mentions a connection to diabetes is Michel Nischan, whose son has Type I diabetes.) Blue has taken care to choose recipes with the home cook in mind. He does not assume a kitchen staff or a pot of homemade stock. The instructions are clear enough for a beginner, although some techniques, like roasting peppers, are not typical first steps in the kitchen.

This is not the book to choose, however, when dinner has to be on the table in half an hour. The time estimate for Alaskan Halibut with Asparagus is 40 minutes of prep time and 40 minutes of cooking time. This seems excessive for a dish that is essentially sauteed fish fillets garnished with mushrooms and asparagus, all of which cook quickly. Maybe it takes that long for the cup of port wine to cook down to 1/8 cup for the optional garnish, a step I would be tempted to skip. Stews like the Navajo Green Chile Stew and Chipotle Black Bean Turkey Chili do require time for the flavors to blend.

While I did not check the calorie and nutrient breakdown offered at the bottom of every recipe, the numbers seem in the ballpark. The author does not try shave calories by decreasing portion sizes unrealistically. Not every single dish makes it in under 30 percent calories from fat, so the reader needs to pay attention to the information about meal planning at the back, to make sure that daily totals don't mount up too high. For adults with Type 2 diabetes, lowering fat to prevent heart disease is as important as watching total carbohydrates.

There are some interesting digressions, about mushrooms in the Northwest section and herbs in the Midwest section. Some dishes do not seem particularly emblematic of the part of the country they are asked to represent (since when do midwesterners steam bass with lemongrass, ginger and mint?), but sound delicious anyway. I wondered about the national availability of ingredients like fresh poblano chiles (as in Corn and Cheese Stuffed Chiles in Rice) and broccoli rabe (Rigatoni with Broccoli Rabe and Tomatoes). Fortunately, only a few recipes are dependent on such exotic produce.

The book's publisher, SmithKline Beecham, has included promotional material for the diabetes drug Avandia in some of the introductions to the regional recipes and an information page about the drug at the end. This might confuse some readers: People with Type 1 diabetes have to take insulin, not pills, because their bodies do not make insulin. Anyone giving this book to someone with Type 1 diabetes should clarify this point (which is made, in fine print, on the information sheet). It's also important to note that the Food and Drug Administration issued a safety alert for Avandia because the drug increased the risk of heart attacks and heart-related deaths in clinical trials. The healthy recipes are just as useful for people with Type 1 diabetes as for those with Type 2.

At least one page touts the benefits of physical activity for people with Type 2 diabetes. The advantages listed include lower blood sugar, decreased complications, and helping insulin work more efficiently, among others. They do not include "losing weight," which is a breakthrough in thinking about exercise. For far too long, physical activity has been touted only as an adjunct to diet for weight loss. People who sweated and didn't lose weight gave it up, since in their minds the exercise wasn't doing any good. But it does, so take that walk after Thanksgiving dinner. Physical activity makes you healthier, even if you never lose a pound.

The trouble with adopting a healthy lifestyle is that it is a choice that has to be repeated meal by meal, day by day. Blue, who is a cookbook author and Wine and Spirits Editor of Bon Appetit magazine, has chosen recipes with bold flavors and ethnic roots to overcome the bland "I'm not allowed to eat that" blues. For those of us who want to celebrate the holidays by cooking lightly but eating with gusto, they come just in time.

Southwest Roast Turkey from chef Richard Chamberlain

For marinade:

1/3 cup of lime juice
1/2 cup of chili powder
1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 cups of water
1/2 tablespoon of salt (optional) One whole turkey breast (approximately 3-4 pounds)

1. To prepare the marinade, combine lime juice, chili powder, sugar, olive oil, water and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from the saucepan and chill.

2. Place the turkey in a large bowl. Pour in the marinade mixture. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

3. To cook the turkey, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the turkey breast from the bowl and reserve the marinade. Place the turkey breast, skin side up, on a roasting pan. Cook for 35 to 40 minutes or until the internal temperature is 160 degrees. Baste the turkey occasionally with reserved marinade.

4. Remove turkey from oven and allow it to rest for 8 to 10 minutes. Slice and serve. Use remaining turkey to make salads and sandwiches for your family.

YIELD: 12 servings

PREP TIME: 4 hours, 30 minutes (including marinating time)

COOKING TIME: 1 hour

Nutritional information

Calories: 173; Calories from fat: 26 percent

Total Fat: 5g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Cholesterol: 52mg

Sodium: 375mg; Carbohydrate: 8g; Fiber: 0g

Exchanges: 1/2 Carb, 3 Very Lean Meats and 1/2 Fat

-- Toni Martin, M.D., is a board-certified internist and geriatrician who has practiced in Oakland, California for 19 years. She is also a member of the clinical faculty at UCSF Medical School, and has written for Hippocrates magazine, among other publications.

References

First published November 21, 2000
Last updated July 22, 2008
Copyright © 2000 Consumer Health Interactive

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