Need ideas for a heart healthy diabetic diet!

I don't have any specific ideas for you because I don't know what kind of food your dad enjoys. But I can offer some suggestions since my wife is a type 1 diabetic. Go to Amazon and check out diabetic cookbooks. There are a few to pick from with good ratings.

One is made by Betty Crocker, but it uses a lot of recipes with refined flour and some processed food (I don't know if that is a big deal for him). There is another called the All Natural Diabetes Cookbook which focuses on natural foods instead of the processed stuff. We have both of those and they have lots of good ideas.

I also subscribe to a magazine called Diabetic Cooking which comes every three months. It will usually have about 20 recipes in it and all of the nutrition information. They even keep a good amount of recipes online. http://www.diabeticcooking.com/

Hope that helps!

I'm a type 2 diabetic, and honestly those guidelines aren't actually strict. Those are preferred diets for anyone, really. Diabetics need to take into account the amount of carbs they take in. It's not just sugar content, which is a stigma that most people get confused with. Carbs convert into glucose which affects blood sugar levels. Given that you stated he had a "quintuple?" bypass, is it safe to assume he is also a bit overweight?

Make changes to the diet. And they have to be permanent changes. Once you have diabetes, even if you reverse the symptoms, it's extremely easy to become hyperglycemic again. The first thing you need to know is the carb count and diabetic exchanges for food. The hospital or facility where your dad had the procedure should be providing diabetes classes that talk about foods and food portions. For a quick breakdown, 15g of carbs = 1 serving of carbs on the diabetic exchange; and 1 serving is equivalent to 1 slice of wheat toast, 1/2 a potato, 1/2 cup of milk/juice, 1 medium apple, 1/2 banana, etc... you really have to pay attention to food nutrition labels. When you read those, make sure you take note that they list the amount of carbs PER serving, so you're going to probably wanna invest in a food scale as well.

Measuring and weighing out portions is really the best way to make sure that your dad doesn't go over his carb and portion sizes. Generally for each main meal of the day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, ideally, he should be having 45g of carbs (3 - exchange servings). So an example would be one measured serving of oatmeal (made with water only), and 1 slice of wheat toast = 45g of carbs already. A lot of condiments have carbs in them also. If you decide to use reduced fat peanut butter, it may have a little less fat, but the carbs are more per serving than regular peanut butter.

For snacks, it shouldn't be any more than 30g (2 servings) of carbs. And snacks should be 2 hours in between the main meals of the day, to keep his glucose levels steady.

I'd love to explain more, but I have to get ready for work. PM me if you need more info. I'll get to it when I'm at the office. Hope that helps give an idea of what entails a diabetic so far. Don't let it overwhelm you guys. Just make small changes and eventually it'll become easier to gauge everything.

I try to eat a similarly styled menu, since I have been pre-diabetic in the past and also have significant cardiovascular disease in my family. My ratios are different since I am shooting for 1200c/day, however, my carbs are much lower so you could still get some idea from checking out my food logs.

Here are some suggestions my Dr gave me.

Fish at least twice a week!!
Lean protein every meal: (i put several chicken breasts in the crock pot every weekend and then use the meat through out the week, but even low-sodium deli or canned can work)

* White meat chicken and turkey (not fried)
* Fish and shellfish (not fried)
* Egg whites and egg substitutes (whole eggs in limited quantities)
* Lean cuts of beef (round, sirloin, flank, tenderloin, rib/chuck/rump roast, ground round)
* Lean cuts of pork (fresh ham, Canadian bacon, center loin chop, tenderloin)
* Ham
* Veal or lamb chops and roasts
* Lean deli meats
* Tofu or anything soy
* Reduced fat cheeses, Parmesan, Mozzarella, and Ricotta cheese
* Low-fat or fat-free cottage cheese and yogurt (especially greek yogurt like Fage, which can be mixed with any combination of agave nectar, fruit, Kashi high protein/high fiber cereals)
* Skim or 1% milk, soy milk, lactose-free milk
* Morningstar crumbles
* Hummus with vegetables
* Low-carb whole grain bread products like the Sandwich Thins at Costco
* Unsweetened applesauce or sugar-free, fat-free hot cocoa tastes good as a treat sometimes

I try to have 2 low-carb, low-fat protein shakes a day otherwise it is hard to get all my protein in. I like the Muscle Milk by Cytosport that is sold at Costco or Champion Nutrition Pure Whey.

I also frequently add PURE brand unflavored protein Isolate to soups, coffee.. pretty much anything I can. Likewise, I add ground flax seed to most everything, too.

I have found that many South Beach recipes follow this eating plan, so that may be helpful to you as well.

Good luck!