Curiously, a good diabetic food grocery list is hard to find. I will provide a number of different grocery lists below, please be patient! The bigger issue is: why it is so hard to find a good list?
If you search for a list on the Internet, you primarily get lists of low glycemic foods. I am not really sure how this helps you. After all, if you go buy all this stuff, what kind of meals are you going to make?
The other problem I noticed is that most meal plans out there don’t include a grocery list. You have to create it yourself. I am not lazy and do not have a problem making my own list. BUT….
The issue with that solution is that most meal plans give you 7 different breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes (21 total) and 14 different snack recipes (one for morning and afternoon) for a grand total of 35 different recipes in any given week. Unfortunately, each recipe seems to try and out do the other in complexity and has about 15 different ingredient choices.
Do most people really eat like that? Am I the only one who finds it hard to cook like this?
Okay, you get the problem, so what is the solution? Let’s look at the options out there.
CAVEAT: Regardless of what you do, I would strongly urge you to develop and follow a meal plan. Following a plan, will help you maintain a healthy lifestyle and will be much easier to develop a simple grocery list.
COMMERCIAL GROCERY LISTS
Of course, you can always buy a list. How did you know I was going to say this? Did you really want something for nothing? Don’t worry, I get to some free options below.
NutriSystem D (See my Review) is a meal delivery program, meaning you buy the meals and they mail them to you. However, they also require you to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables as part of the program. They give you the grocery lists to do this.
South Beach Diet (See my Review) is not a meal delivery program. However, the company does have a unique service where you go online to their site and you create your meal plan for the day or week. Once the meal plan is created, you simply click a button and your diabetic grocery-shopping list is automatically generated. You also have access to registered dieticians to help create a custom plan. This only costs about $20-$25 a month, a serious bargain.
Seriously, you only need to do this for 2-3 months and you should have enough meal plans and shopping list to last a lifetime.
Registered Dieticians. There are thousands of registered dieticians who will do this for a fee. If you go this route, make sure they are familiar with diabetic eating concepts.
FREE GROCERY LISTS
A good friend of mine always says: “If it is free, it’s for me!” Well, here you go with the free stuff.
Health Care Providers: You can check with your health care team to see if they have free meal plan options. Even if you have to make the list yourself, it still is nice to have the meal plan already done.
American Diabetes Association: Every month they offer a free ONE day meal plan. I suppose in 7 months you could string together a free 7 day plan. You will have to generate your own grocery list.
Free 7 Day Meal Plan with Diabetic Food Grocery List: Okay, not just yet. I couldn’t find a good free option, so I am making one for my readers! I am finalizing the free 7 day plan with a nutritionist and will hopefully have it available in 2013.