Diabetes Cookbooks: Top 5 Choices

Find out the best diabetes cookbooks. With literally thousands of choices, which cookbook is the BEST for you? I have reviewed some of the more popular choices, as well as some of my favorites.

Whether you are looking for the best Mediterranean Diet cookbook, South Beach Diet cookbook or one that follows the American Diabetes Association (ADA) standard diet, I have many choices to choose from.

You should also note that the ADA states that no one diet is right for every diabetic. This means that the number of eating choices, and thus cookbook choices, is massive.

Think about the food you like and the food that is good for you and see if you can come up with a choice that works for you.

Here are my TOP 5 Diabetes Cookbooks

FORKS OVER KNIVES – THE  COOKBOOK

By: Del Sroufe

book-forks-over-knives-cookbookPositives: It is no secret I believe that a whole food plant based diet is the best diet for controlling and reversing diabetes. This book is the “go to” book for following this eating plan. Even if you do not want to commit completely to this diet, this book has very tasty and healthy recipes: low fat, nonexistent cholesterol, etc. There are also many cooking tips and a tremendous amount of recipe choices.

Negatives: There are over 300 recipes, but only about 20 pictures. I am a sucker for pictures in recipe books! The picture often inspires me to cook the meal.

Recommendation: This is my No. 1 recommended diabetic cookbook.

THE 4 – INGREDIENT DIABETICS COOKBOOK

By: Nancy Hughes

Positives: Do you ever feel like some of the diabetes cook books out there are written for the author’s ego rather than the person doing the cooking? Some of the recipes would take an advanced chemical engineering degree to properly do right! This is not one of those books. Bottom line, for all of us who have difficulty producing meals with complex recipes, this book is a god send. Four ingredients. book-4-ingredientThat’s it. If you like delicious meals that are easy to produce, you should check this book out.

Negatives: While not a true negative, the book follows the American Diabetes Association guidelines. As you can read on other pages of this site, many people feel the ADA guidelines are not appropriate for healthy diabetes eating. That being said, the majority of people with diabetes tend to follow the ADA guidelines.

Recommendation: This is a great overall book which does a good job of following ADA guidelines and has fast, simple and delicious meals. Recommended for your kitchen library! Probably, my favorite diabetes cook book.

THE MIAMI MEDITERRANEAN DIET

By: Dr. Michael Ozner

book-miami-mediterranean-dietPositives: The Mediterranean diet is arguably the most healthy in the world. Multiple studies prove that diabetes can be avoided (if you don’t have it) or controlled (if you do) by following a Mediterranean diet. This book is not perfect, but it does a great job giving a brief overview of the diet’s advantages. More importantly, it provides over 300 recipes. Many of the other diet books discussing the Mediterranean lifestyle are light on the recipes. Not this book.

Negatives: The author, a noted surgeon, does utilize certain artificial sweeteners in his recipes. While not against the diabetes diet, some of these substitutions do not reflect a purist ideal of the Mediterranean diet principles.

Recommendation: Highly recommended if you are interested in getting started with this type of eating regimen.

THE SOUTH BEACH DIET COOKBOOK – 200 EASY SOLUTIONS FOR EVERY DAY MEALS

By: Dr. Arthur Agatston

book-south-beach-cookbook Positives: The South Beach Diet Super Quick cook book is loosely based on a Mediterranean diet, low in carbohydrates and high in lean proteins and fresh vegetables. This cookbook provides many different choices for people pursing this diet.

Negatives: I was a follower of the South Beach Diet. I found that I lost a lot of weight during the “Phase 1” stage. This is not a negative. Traditionally, the challenge with the diet is that the recipes are very complex (many ingredients). This also goes for the numerous snacks, not just the meals. It will take a lot of time to find the ingredients and then assemble them. The first several weeks it will take literally many hours a day just to prepare the meals.

This book seeks to ameliorate the traditional south beach diet difficulties with preparing meals.

Recommendation: Recommended. This book is a easier to follow than other South Beach recipe cook books. Who doesn’t like easy?

HEALTHY CALENDER DIABETIC COOKING

By: Laura Rondinelli, Jennifer Bucko

book-healthy-calendarPositives: This is a very novel book. Every week there is a menu plan, complete with a grocery shopping list. Each recipe has the exchange diet information and complete nutritional content (calories, fat, carb count, etc.). For those looking to follow the ADA diet and have things laid out very simply, this is a great tool.

Negatives: No pictures. I like to have pictures of each recipe. It gets me in the mood (to cook), so to speak.

Recommendation: Highly recommended for the person on the go who is not a big fan of following complex recipes. Easy to copy the grocery list and take it to the store with you. It is too bad other diet alternatives (e.g., South Beach, Mediterranean Diet, etc.) do not provide this easy to use format.

Hopefully, you have found one of your TOP diabetes cook book from our choices! Happy Cooking!!

READER RECOMMENDED DIABETES COOKBOOK

We have gladly started to get comments on the above books from several readers. Some readers even recommended a diabetes cook book or two not on the list and we thought we would share their thoughts.

DEATH TO DIABETES: THE SIXTH STAGES OF TYPE 2 DIABETES CONTROL & REVERSAL

BY:DEWAYNE McCULLEY

READER WROTE:

It wasn’t until my wife got “Death to Diabetes” that both of us saw improvement in our health.B

The book is well structured, easy to use, and more importantly, it WORKS! I lost 37 pounds, my wife lost 27 pounds, our BS went down and now our average is less than 97.

The book covers everything plus it goes beyond the other books to actually get you “past” the disease — it doesn’t keep you in a box. “Death to Diabetes” explains the exact foods to eat vs. not eat and why. It explains how to exercise the right way. It provides other alternatives to fight the disease including raw juicing and detoxing.

And, the book explains how to improve the health of your eyes, liver, kidneys, heart, etc., and what are the critical blood tests to get. Sincerely, RJ

Thanks for the Diabetes Cook Book Recommendation RJ!

By Erich Schultz – Last Reviewed November 2012.