One of the major health concerns across the world, diabetes or high blood sugar, is a condition that affects millions of people every year. In fact, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is a chronic lifestyle disease that affects almost 6% of the world population. With no permanent cure for diabetes, one way to manage it is to tweak our meals to suit a diabetic-friendly menu.
Diabetics are advised to eliminate processed carbohydrates from their diet and include more whole grains and complex carbs in their meals instead. In such a case, oats, a whole grain, is considered beneficial for regulating blood sugar in diabetes patients, as it ensures slow release of sugar or glucose in the blood, preventing any sudden spikes in levels.
Oats, being a versatile grain, can be consumed in many different forms - be it in breakfast, lunch, or dinner. But before we delve more into what you can make from oats for a diabetic-friendly diet, let’s look at how and why oats are good for.
1. Rich in fibre and low in calories, oats are a wholesome grain. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, about a 100 gm serving of oats contains just 68 calories and 21 gm of fibre.
2. Having zero cholesterol, oats may as well help lower bad cholesterol levels since high cholesterol levels are a risk factor for diabetes.
3. Rich in fibre, oats make for a fulfilling meal, and keep hunger pangs at bay, which eventually manages weight, and also helps in managing diabetes easier.
Here are three oats recipes that you may include in a diabetes-friendly diet:
1. Oats Roti
In the Indian household, you may skip roti for a day or two in your regular meal, but cannot eliminate it totally. No meal is ideally complete without the addition of roti to it. So naturally, one cannot remove it from a diabetes-friendly meal either. But one can simply tweak the roti to suit the needs. And one way to do so is by mixing different flours, or by adding ragi, buckwheat, or oats to add more nutrition. All you need to do is mix your whole wheat flour with some rolled oats, throw in some spices, onion, chillies, and coriander, make a dough, and cook it like a regular roti.
2. Oats Dosa
A South Indian staple, dosa is a comfort food for many, and let’s just agree a crispy, hot and stuffed dosa is simply irresistible. Oats dosa is one such dish that diabetics may add to their diet. It’s easy-to-cook, filling and delicious. It can be savoured with sambar and coconut chutney, just like your regular dosa. Oats, rice flour, spices, and herbs make for a delicious and healthy treat that is hard to miss.
3. Oats Khichdi
India’s favourite comfort food of all times, khichdi is, perhaps, a go-to food for most of us. Especially, when we are low and feeling under the weather, or are simply too lazy to cook an elaborate meal. It is nutritious, wholesome yet light on the tummy. And the best part? You can give it a spin in any which way. Play around with different veggies, grains, dals and so on. This one here is an oats khichdi recipe, made with oats and yellow moong dal, lightly spiced with turmeric and chillies.