Charlene Loves Red Beans and Rice

Charlene's doctor cautioned her to be careful about her blood sugar, to be careful about the carbohydrates and calories she consumes.  She had been accustomed to eating whatever she wanted.  Like most people who live in Louisiana, she loves her Red Beans and Rice.  She grew up among generations of people accustomed to a meal of Red Beans and Rice once a week.

Traditional Red Beans and Rice appears on every one's table in New Orleans at some time or another.  The dish has loads of flavor, along with a deep heritage in family life.

It also has loads of carbohydrates and fat.  The red beans are big, red kidney beans boiled with some kind of seasoning meat, like smoked ham hocks or smoked sausage.  different cooks have their own ways of seasoning the beans with onions, spices and herbs.  The rice is always white, long or medium grain, refined rice, cooked separately.  At serving time, you dish up a bowl of beans and add a big scoop of rice to each bowl, along with a substantial piece of smoked sausage on the side.  The carbohydrate count in a meal sized serving runs around 120 grams, enough to send blood sugar skyrocketing.

When Charlene heard the news, she was shocked with disbelief, "What?!  Red Beans and Rice are bad for you?"  To Charlene, Red Beans and Rice is a nutritious, satisfying meal.  To be fair to the dish, it does contain good protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber.  The calories and carbohydrate make it dangerous to someone living with Type 2 Diabetes.

Charlene hung her head and put her hands over her eyes.  She couldn't help but feel dragged down, "Another thing I can't eat."

Adapting to healthy diabetic eating challenge everyone.  There's something we all must do:  give up some of our favorite foods or reduce our portions.

For those of us living with T2D, a safe portion of Red beans and Rice is a small side dish of about 1/2 cup of red beans with cut up sausage and a tablespoon of rice, yielding about 30 grams of carbohydrate.  That small a serving cannot satisfy Charlene's love for Red Beans and Rice.  That small a serving also violates her lifelong custom, a custom going back generations, of making Red Beans and Rice the meal.  It would leave her feeling deprived.  Charlean would be left yearning for more and the yearning would be painfully hard to resist.  For most people, the yearning overwhelms them and they give in to it.  Even people who can resist their cravings most of the time, will give in sometimes (see Do As I Say No As I Do, below). We humans are like that.

Charlene might do better with a substitute for her traditional Red Beans and Rice than to tantalized, or tormented, be a tiny portion.  The question to answer:  "What would have the same taste satisfaction and carry the cultural satisfaction, while still being safe for a diabetic to enjoy?

Here are some ways to change this high carb dish into something more T2E friendly:

1.  Increase the vegetables cooked with the beans.
Many cooks add chopped onion and bell peppers for flavor when they cook the beans.  Increasing the amounts of these vegetables will help lower the carb count in a serving.  Other vegetables to add that are flavorful and taste good with the beans are eggplant, zucchini, celery, and  tomatoes.  Substituting vegetables for most of the beans can give you a hearty, tasty carb safe meal.

2.  Change the traditional smoked sausage to low fat turkey smoked sausage.
Smoked turkey sausage tastes great and lowers fat quite a lot.

3. Use brown rice instead of refined white rice.
The higher fiber content in brown rice helps prevent blood sugar spikes.  Have one serving of rice, about 1/2 cup.