Not easy in Nigeria and for Type 2 diabetes only.
To eat.
1) Swallow ( Low GI carbs) - Oats , Green Plantain, millet, Guinea corn. check if you can get chia seeds and add a little blended. Millet and Guinea corn can be blended to make ogi baba, Okpa (Bambara beans)
2) Vegetables and salad - This should be your most go to meal as no carbs. You can have your salad with egg. Salad with chicken. Salad with fish.
3) Beans the different kinds eg, black eyed, oloyin, Okpa etc. Legumes in general just check the glycemic index of your local one. Below 50 is recommended. Beans can be cooked as porridge with green plantain. It can also be made into moi moi and akara once in a while.
4) Drinks and fruits - Pawpaw (including about a teaspoonful of the seed to deworm) Sour sop, cucumber, make your own hibiscus drink sweetened with dates or pineapple(mainly the skin). Warm or cool water with a slice of lemon or Ijagbonyi(African natural lemon)
5) Snack on nuts (cashew, groundnut, kola nut, bitter kola, tiger nut, African walnut (asala) and other local nuts ) and edible seeds (sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds etc)
6) Herbs (try to get seeds and plant the ones you can) and Iru instead of maggi and little iodised or sea salt. Coriander, parsley, rosemary, garlic, ginger, turmeric etc
7) Go to high fibre vegetables is all of the usual African leafy vegetables ie ( ugu, waterleaf, bitter leaf, moringa, Ewedu, Okro, tête, shoko, afang etc) then others like carrots, beetroot, garden egg , ube, igba , avocado etc.
cool Meat protein - Fish, Chicken, Turkey, other birds, eggs, seafood, liver, little cattle, goat, ram and bush meat.
9) Peppersoup with spices that you ground yourself and add little white yam(only), Green plaintain and/or sweet potatoes and lots of cabbage and carrots vegetables etc to fill you up.
10) Teas - guava leaf, moringa leaf, soursop leaf, hibiscus( zobo) can be served hot as tea.
11) Stews with vegetables.
AVOID if you can white rice, yam, Irish potatoes, semo, garri, wheat, processed meat (sausages) and soft sweet drinks, bread, spaghetti and indomie, seed oils, corn, cakes, ice cream.
When it comes particularly to carbohydrates which turn to sugar, portion sizes and mixing with fibre is critical
If you can’t avoid then
1)Rice wash 3 times, mix with beans, eat with vegetables or okro and just have one serving spoon. Also don’t let the water dry but put it in a strainer to get rid of the water at the end. Also also substitute with Ofada rice.
2) Yam. 1 slice of boiled or roasted (with the skin on ) white yam and eat with vegetables.
3) Irish Potatoes yellow better than white and about 3 medium pieces with vegetables or eggs. Also sweet potato is much better.
4) Semo, garri and wheat best to substitute with swallow above ie oat, millet and green plantain otherwise add beetroot or turmeric juice while turning.
5) Sausages substitute with fish or eggs
6) soft drinks and malt substitute with homemade hibiscus drink (zobo) and water. The ones bought are made with saccharine which is deadly for people with diabetes
7) Bread - make your own with lentils or beans look for recipes online. Alternatively not more than 2 slices.
cool Spaghetti and noodles very small sizes and mix with carrots, cabbage, eggs, salad onion, garlic, peas to fill up.
9) Most of the oil in the market called vegetable oil are seed oils and should be avoided. Most things can be cooked without oil if not use little butter(not margarine) or lard from soft animal fat or olive oil and coconut oil. Better to use little palm oil than seed oils.
10) Cakes save this for my cheat days and make it myself substituting blended dates for sugar or have a small piece from the one bought for my teenager
11) Ice cream cheat day make it myself so no sugar.
At the beginning it is difficult but once you set up and you have regular electricity then it gets better. The mixed herbs I blend fresh and freeze in ice blocks containers and the mixed vegetables I cut and wash and also freeze in portions. If you don’t have the option of regular light then check for the ones you can dry and blend into powder.
We all have cheat days maybe once a week you just eat a small portion of something you like I do.
Canned food is a no no including tomatoes, sardines and milk.
Also rest and walks. Intermittent fasting (Allowing more than 12 hours between your night and your morning meal) and limiting your food to 2 times a day will also help. I eat at about 10am to 12pm and again between 4pm to 6pm. I started 2 meals about 7 years ago and have only had Diabetes in the last 2.5 years.
Start to discipline yourself in your late 30s and early 40s around carbohydrates and sugar as prevention of type 2 diabetes is better than cure.
I also decided to be using ogun ijedi once a month to clear out any undigested food.
I will continue to research and update.
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