Six cooks shared the kitchen at a Diabetes and Nutrition Cooking Class on Wednesday.
In the Endwright Center in Elletsville, Indiana, two instructors and four students pieced together a vegetable-and-rice-filled chicken casserole.
Kadey Welch and Morgan Carpenter, interns at the Endwright Center, used breaks in the process to teach the women about cooking to manage blood sugar and healthy eating habits.
“For a lot of it, you want to use low-fat substitutes: things that are whole grains, things that are low in sodium and sugar,” Welch said.
Welch, who tested the recipe before the class, assembled ingredients like bread crumbs, onions, Parmesan cheese and pre-cooked chicken on the low wooden table, while Carpenter delegated chopping, whisking and sautéing tasks to the class members.
As the kitchen heated up, the two passed out packets of information titled “What I Need to Know About Eating and Diabetes” and helped the participants determine their own caloric needs and how to cook to keep their blood sugar and metabolism steady.
Pre-diabetic or diabetic cooks have to carefully read food labels, Welch said, as a low-fat or low-sodium food may have extra sugar added to make it taste as good as a full-fat version.
Janet Barriger, an Elletsville resident who attends some health classes at the Endwright Center, chopped onions, mushrooms and celery in one corner of the kitchen.
Although she is not diabetic, Barriger, 65, said she has concerns about developing the condition.
“My dad was diabetic, my grandmother was diabetic, my uncle was diabetic,” she said. “So it runs in the family.”
Although none of the class members said they were diabetic, many were aware they could develop the disease in the future.
Diabetes is alarmingly prevalent in older Americans, according to the American Diabetes Association.
When combined with normal deterioration of health and mobility, diabetes can decrease an adult’s ability to function without help and accelerate institutionalization, the ADA’s website reads.
Peggy Stuckey, who pitched in to teach the class a few cooking tricks she’d learned over the years, said she can tell when her own glucose levels dip.
“Periodically, if I don’t get enough sugar, if I don’t eat right, my levels get low,” she said. “I’m trying to get on top of it now.”
The class emphasized prevention more than diabetes treatment, and developing healthy eating and exercise habits that can carry through even if the disease materializes over the course of one’s life.
The two instructors stressed going back to the food pyramid and evaluating eating habits based on recommended starch, fruit and vegetable and protein servings.
“What’s important is knowing what to eat, how much to eat and when to eat,” Welch said.
A diabetes diagnosis comes with an increased risk of developing other cardiovascular diseases, Welch said.
Welch and Carpenter, IU students in their final semester at the School of Public Health, teach a balance class focusing on exercise and strength on Tuesdays and Fridays, Carpenter said.
“It’s all to prevent falling, because that’s such a huge issue with this age group,” Carpenter said.
Although both are interested in occupational training and focus more on exercise, Carpenter said teaching the class on cooking for diabetes gave them a chance to look at public health as a whole.
“We get to focus on community health, which is our major,” she said. “This is obviously something that applies, and we thought it would be beneficial.”
