About 30 guests attended the Gourmet Dining on a 400-calorie Budget luncheon on November 1. This event started the activities for National Diabetes Awareness Month in November.
The idea for a lunch and cooking demonstration was a collaborative effort from members of the Bertrand Chaffee Hospital Diabetes Education Team. Kyle Schwann, a registered dietitian, developed the diabetes-friendly recipes and worked with the BCH Dietary Department to scale up the size to feed a bigger audience.
On the menu: pork tenderloin with apple stuffing and a raspberry glaze, roasted seasonal vegetables, a brown and wild rice medley, and pumpkin cheesecake bites for dessert.
Schwann had the ingredients prepped and ready for the demonstration, while Chef Linda Hamblin worked in the Concord Senior Center kitchen to cook the pork and rice, and roast the carrots, potatoes, parsnips and kale.
Most crucial to the demonstration was the concept of portion sizes. Each guest received a set of BCH-branded measuring cups to assist with food preparation and portion size.
Questions from the diners included whether they should cook with butter or margarine, and if diabetics could eat rice.
The answers, from Schwann, were that in moderation, you can cook with butter or margarine, but that butter burns at a lower temperature, so watch it closely! And as for eating rice, that comes down to portion size. Brown and wild rice have more fiber than white rice, and a standard portion size of rice would be 1/3 cup – much less than you would expect!
Schwann also talked through possible substitutions for ingredients and techniques for prepping the meat. She also had on display a plate where the approximate portion sizes were draw out as in a pie chart. Liz Cappola set a “1500-calorie” table, with breakfast, lunch, dinner and a healthy snack displayed with realistic food models.
Next on the calendar for BCH: the Ask-an-Expert night on November 16 starting at 7 p.m., presented by the Buffalo Chapter of the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE). This will also be held at the Concord Senior Center, and a panel of experts will be available for questions, large and small, about diabetes, medications, devices, recipes and healthy behaviors. The event will be moderated by Kathleen Hebdon, RN, who coordinates the BCH Diabetes Education Program. Hebdon also is active in the AADE, and was recently elected the vice president for New York State.