November 26, 2013

Holiday Gifts for a Person with Diabetes


Rather than wait until close to the holidays, I think before Thanksgiving is about right. Many of us have a hard time giving gifts to people with diabetes, especially when we do not know what they might need or desire. I did post a blog last December too close to the holidays, so I will repeat much of it and add a few more ideas plus some details.

Yes, the Joslin blog from last year is still appropriate and has some great to poor ideas for people with diabetes. Because the cookbooks the ADA promotes often have high carbohydrate low fat recipes, I would not purchase one for myself. In addition, many of the recipes have difficult to locate ingredients and recipes that some people would not make. While many cookbooks have these recipes, this does not justify ADA cookbooks.

If you are a spouse or family member, you may wish to consider a digital food scale that can provide most of the nutritional information, such as the Kitrics Digital Nutrition Scale found at this link. Or, if you have the funds, this digital food scale by Eatsmart, EatSmart Digital Nutrition Scale - Professional Food and Nutrient Calculator (at the same link). It is more expensive than the first one. The least expensive is this one, Newlineny SAD4181-SL Newline Digital Nutrition Calculator Kitchen Food Diet Scale, Silver at this link. There are other scales of varying prices.

For all of the scales, do your homework and read the reviews. For all three scales, the following is sound advice. If portion control is high on your list of priorities then this is the scale for you. It works well for a typical American diet but if you eat ethnic foods, you are bound to be stumped when entering a code for a food that's not there.

If you know the person likes to read, books are always in demand. Use care and make sure the book is one the person will read. Some off hand questions now may point you to a book they would enjoy. Or if you are bold, print out a list and clearly state the limit you are willing to spend. They may say none of them or be happy to know that the book they want is on the list.

One the less expensive side is items like a pedometer or resistance bands. Just be sure that the gift is something that will be of help and that the recipient likes to exercise.

The links in my blog from last year still work as of the date of this post.

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