Healthy During the Holidays: Delicious Ways to Celebrate When You Have Diabetes

With our flavorful, diabetes-friendly recipes and easy-to-follow tips, you can celebrate deliciously and enjoy your favorite foods while keeping your health in check.

Reviewed by Dietitian Victoria Seaver, M.S., RD

The next several weeks are some of the most delicious of the year. Grand feasts featuring roast turkey with creamy mashed potatoes. Dessert buffets loaded with beautifully decorated cookies and luscious pies. Cocktail parties with bubbly beverages and charcuterie boards. EatingWell has all of the recipes you need—from appetizers to desserts, and everything in between. The recipes showcased here are all mindful of carbohydrates, saturated fat and sodium so you can feel your best this holiday season while taking care of your diabetes. Plus they’re some of our most popular recipes, so you can feel good about serving them to your friends and family. Apple Pie in an Apple will definitely make a statement on the dessert table!

But the holiday season is about more than just what you eat; it’s how you feel, too. Starting your morning off with movement you truly enjoy doing, rather than something you feel like you “should” do, can have benefits that last the whole day. And the idea of practicing gratitude over the holidays is something you may want to consider doing year-round: Research shows it can help lower both blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Here’s to delicious eats and good health!

Featured Story

Anthony Anderson is an award-winning actor, producer and comedian, best known for his roles in Black-ish, The Departed and Transformers. For almost as many years as he’s been in the spotlight, he’s been living a healthy life with diabetes, thanks to a balanced approach to eating and exercise. In an exclusive interview with EatingWell, Anderson discusses how he keeps his blood sugar stable, both during the holidays and year-round. 

Read More: Anthony Anderson Shares How He Celebrates the Holiday Season While Managing His Type 2 Diabetes

Anthony's Favorite Holiday Recipes

Anderson shared two of his favorite holiday recipes from his own kitchen with us—One-Pot Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese and Sweet Potato Home Fries with Cranberry-Hazelnut Crumble. We hope you love them as much as we do!

Let's Eat

We all have family-favorite recipes we love to make every year, but whether you’re looking to incorporate something new, or you’re hosting for the first time and need some help planning your menu, this collection of recipes is a great starting point. Not only do they all fit our diabetes-appropriate nutrition parameters by being mindful of sodium, saturated fat and carbohydrates, but they’re all portable—so if you’re not hosting, they’re great to make and take along.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Pineapple Bites

These sweet-and-salty one-bite appetizers are perfect for any gathering. We think they taste best made with fresh pineapple, but you can use canned chunks instead.

3-Ingredient Cranberry-Brie Bites

If you like baked Brie, you’ll love pretty little bites made with tart cranberry sauce and creamy Brie. Using pre-made pie crust makes this crowd-pleasing appetizer even easier to prepare.

Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes tossed with maple syrup, butter and lemon juice and roasted until tender and golden brown result in a side dish that goes with practically everything. Though sweet potatoes are higher in carbs than some other vegetables, they’re packed with fiber, which slows down the absorption of sugar, helping prevent significant blood sugar spikes.

Roasted Beet Salad

The genius of this gorgeous salad is roasting garlic cloves alongside the beets to make a super-flavorful dressing for a side dish that contrasts nicely with rich dishes like roast turkey.

Apple Pie in an Apple

Get ready for oohs and aahs when you set these adorable “pies” on your dessert table! Baking apple pie filling in hollowed-out apples, instead of in pie crust, yields a lighter, sweet treat you’ll want to dig into after a celebratory meal.

Peppermint Chocolate Tart

If you always reach for the chocolate dessert, this one’s for you. Plus, it’s lower in added sugar than other chocolate tarts! A sprinkle of crushed peppermint candy gives it a festive look.

Holiday Recipe Collections

Need to plan an entire menu? Asked to bring something specific? These recipe collections feature everything from classics like herb-roasted turkey and mashed potatoes to spiced butternut squash soup and pear rose tarts.

Our 19 Best Diabetes-Friendly Thanksgiving Recipes

13 Make-Ahead Diabetes-Friendly Desserts to Make This Holiday Season

15 Delicious & Festive 5-Ingredient Appetizer Recipes

16 Easy Veggie Sides You'll Want to Make Forever

Finding Joy During This Season

For some, the holidays bring a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time with our loved ones, spark meaningful conversations and make way for lots of laughter. For others, it’s more complicated. Regardless of which category you fall into, you could likely benefit from practicing gratitude. Research actually shows that practicing gratitude can positively impact our overall health—from reducing blood pressure and stress levels to increasing our feel-good hormones, serotonin and dopamine. This holiday season (and every day), we invite you to acknowledge at least one thing that you’re grateful for.

Read More: Practicing Gratitude Is Linked to Happiness and Better Health, According to Experts

Food-focused traditions this time of year can bring their own set of challenges, especially if you have diabetes. You want to be able to enjoy your favorite holiday dishes and feel good afterward. You absolutely can! Keep a few practical tips top of mind, like stashing healthy snacks you can nosh on and not skipping meals ahead of the big feast.

Read More: 7 Tips to Feel Your Best During the Holidays When You Have Diabetes

One of the best ways to help yourself feel good this holiday season is to make sure you’re getting plenty of movement, and it doesn’t have to be tedious or strenuous. Whether you like to dance to the beat of the music, go for a walk with friends or jump rope, doing activities that bring joy benefits you mentally and physically—and makes it easier for you to stay active in your daily life.

Read More: How to Make Joyful Movement Part of Your Everyday Routine  

Credits

Editors: Maria Laura Haddad-Garcia; Carolyn Malcoun; Jessica Ball, M.S., RD; Alex Loh; Dani DeAngelis.

Visuals & Design: Cassie Basford (visuals editor); Maria Emmighausen (art director)

Special Thanks: Penelope Wall; Victoria Seaver, M.S., RD; Sophie Johnson; Alysia Bebel; Anne Treadwell; Dillon Evans; Sadie Schulte; Allison Little; Riley Steffen; and the entire staff of EatingWell.

Read the original article on Eating Well.