American Diabetes Association (ADA)

I've been reading a bunch of stuff out there about Gestational Diabetes, and I have to say that most of the slim books that *are* available for consumers are pretty much the same as the pamphlets one gets from the Diabetes Educators. This one, at least, has a little bit about what to expect in labor and delivery, though I wouldn't spend the $10 to get it from ADA. Unfortunately, one of the things it says is "Be sure to discuss both vaginal birth and cesarian delivery with your obstetrician show more months before your baby is born, so you will know what to expect." My experience is that might work with a midwife, or in Wyoming, but my experience getting straightforward information from a variety of care providers early on (other than, 'at X weeks we'll decide when you're going to have the baby' was... ahem... fruitless; my partners suspect this is a way to avoid being seen as promising anything).

(One of the problems with gestational diabetes is that all the normal pregnancy books pretty much do an ABEND when it comes to GD, saying "this applies as long as you don't have conditions like X, Y, and Gestational Diabetes" and then leaving you hanging, while the books and pamphlets about GD tell you that if your sugars are well-controlled, you can probably have a mostly normal birth, talk to your obstetrician. Again leaving you hanging. Which puts a GD mom in the uncomfortable position of having little to no information about what to expect.)

One worrying thing about this publication is that it claims that one hour after eating, a Blood Glucose test should show less than 120, which is not currently the standard from the medical information I've received and the medical articles I've read; this could be a typo, or an overly-stringent recommendation. It also claims that women on insulin should test 7 times a day, which is a recommendation that I've seen only in Lois Jovanovic's work (Jovanovic contributed to this work; I have dark suspicions about her understanding of what is reasonable in time and supply cost for testing-- 50 test strips run about $25-$50 if not covered by insurance).

On the other hand, the book was the only source, other than Kmom's consumer site, to clearly state that the postpartum 'testing for diabetes' one is supposed to have is another one of those miserable Glucose Tolerance Tests, rather than the fasting blood glucose, Hemoglobin A1C, or other simple test and only mildly annoying test you might have received as a previously fat woman being checked for diabetes. (Fat women, I've found, are disproportionally suspected of and tested for diabetes automatically, while my male friends who have weight issues and turned out to have diabetes often had to present to the their doctor complaining that they suspect diabetes before being tested.)

Compared with Lois Jovanovic's older book: Managing Your Gestational Diabetes: A Guide for You and Your Baby's Good Health, by Lois Jovanovic-Peterson, M.D., this is the preferred resource. (Yes, I know I'm prejudiced. Every time I experienced some really intrusive testing or stringent protocol in my GD pregnancy, further investigation showed that it was a protocol suggested by Jovanovic.) But again, I would say it's not worth BUYING it yourself; ask your public library if they have it, or can interlibrary loan it for you. Certainly, don't bother contacting the American Diabetes Association asking for more or other information about GD; they simply don't have it or don't want to distribute it. This the best you'll get out of them, and it IS good background reading, especially if you don't have access to or the patience for reading medical journals.

However, along with this book, I would suggest spending some time looking at Kmom's Gestational Diabetes pages: http://www.plus-size-pregnancy.org/gd/gd_index.html

On the other hand, if you read the food suggestions in books like What to Expect when You're Expecting and/or What to eat when you're expecting and would like some more food guidance, this is probably also a comforting place to start. I can't tell you much about the information here, except that it's based on the food exchange program (I'm no diet fan or dietician). Obviously paying close attention to a diabetes nutritionist with experience with GD is key.

In the current OB climate, it seems there's less support for doing your own research and reading around before following your doctor/hospital's dictates on what must be done. If that's what you feel comfortable with, that's fine. I believe that American Diabetes Association's Gestational Diabetes: What to Expect actually will help you follow your doctor's guidelines. (Note: of special interest is the section on post-partum birth control; this book is the one resource that at least explains clearly *why* they want to talk to you about BC, because some methods of BC are considered less useful in patients who have a tendency toward diabetes mellitus II, which includes all women who have had gestational diabetes.)

If you're a maverick that is skeptical or even cynical about what OBs might say, you may want to get this book to get an idea of the general concensus; it's probably the best consumer resource on the topic, even though it's only 100 pages.

If you're just nervous and like to read up on what's going on in order to feel comfortable, this is DEFINITELY the book to go with; it's calm, relatively supportive, and reassuring, as well as having good information. You may actually want to spend the $10 to have a copy. show less

The New Family Cookbook for People with Diabetes was produced by the American Diabetes Association and the American Dietetic Association, so you know these recipes are going to be good for everyone. It's a pretty enough book with good internal layout and more than 400 recipes spread across 13 chapters. Each recipe comes with full nutrient information and exchange values given per serving. In recipes that use high sodium, the sodium count is in bold and marked with black arrow. The show more introduction provides a good explanation of how to use this book as well as a general overview of the food pyramid. The appendix supplies a bunch of exchange lists for meal planning and there are two indexes. Two. One for recipes and one more general. You have no idea how much a good index pleases me and to have two of them ... well, I might be in love.


Yes, yes. But what does it taste like? Pretty good. Only two recipes of the seven I attempted yielded disappointing results. The potato soup (page 106) was very watery and bland. It's a high sodium dish and yet I thought it could use more salt. Thickening the soup with a little cornstarch and refrigerating it overnight helped some, but the soup still lacked the creamy-potato-y-chive-y goodness I was seeking. The pumpkin soup (page 107) was less disappointing. It had a better consistency and, while a little bland, was easily doctored by adding extra gloves and ginger.

The other five dishes were perfect: We had "New Potato and Green Bean Salad" with grilled marinated steak for dinner one night and it stole the show. The vegetables were perfectly cooked, the dijon-cider vinaigrette gave everything a wonderful tang and counterbalanced the crumbled blue cheese quite nicely.

"Stuffed Peppers with Ground Lamb" (page 214) was a wonderful autumn supper. The recipe isn't much different from my mother's tried-and-true, but the use of lamb instead of beef gives the dish a whole new edge. I served the peppers with mashed potatoes, garlicky green beans, and extra tomato sauce ... it was a complete nostalgia meal. All I needed to were a pair of footie pajamas and I could have been eight years old and eating Saturday night supper at my mother's table.

"Heartland Stuffed Peppers" (page 268) use turkey instead of beef and rice as well as corn kernels in the filling. They are much spicier the lamb peppers and made me think of pizza (could be the mozzarella cheese). Made with an assortment of red and yellow peppers, they are very colorful on the plate and make a mouth happy. At this rate, I may never go back to my mother's recipe.

I admit the low fat fried chicken recipe from Cook's Illustrated's Best Light Recipe is tastier, but "Low Fat Oven-Fried Chicken" (page 260) is faster and easier to prepare. More healthful, too. It makes a good simple supper when paired with a nice garden salad and some fresh corn on the cob.

A bowl of "Spinach with Bacon and Mushrooms" (page 337) would make a nice bed for grilled salmon (minus the bacon) or a simple dinner if paired with some hearty bread and a dash or two of hot pepper sauce. If you like bacon as much as I do, you will probably want to double up it as two crumbled slices is a little skimpy. This dish goes together very quickly and all the flavors combine most deliciously in the pan. This recipe makes 4 side dish servings -- about 2 main dish -- and is on my repeat list.

"Moussaka with Lamb" (page 218) is my favorite recipe out of this collection. It's everything I want in a moussaka and 100% eggplant free. It is a bit time consuming to prepare, but well worth the effort. The servings are very generous and could easily be stretched to serve 6 rather than 4. I would recommend using Greek yogurt, if available, for the extra tang it gives the faux béchamel. Truly, I would make this every week -- it is that good.

The New Family Cookbook for People with Diabetes is one of my favorite cookbooks and, one of these days, I intend to get my hot hands on a copy of my own. It is that good. show less

This large (nearly 500 pages) book covers pretty much all aspects of diabetes- diet, insulin, other meds, types of diabetes, complications, mental health, sexual health, and legal issues. It doesn’t cover most of it in great depth- if you’re looking for a deep discussion of diet and carb counting, for instance, you’ll want to seek out a book devoted just to that. But for a newcomer to diabetes, whether the reader is the diabetic or a family member, it’s a great starting place because show more it has such a wide scope. Not all sections will be pertinent to a reader, since it covers children and adults, hiring discrimination, sports, dealing with school etc but any diabetic will find a lot that does pertain to them. It’s written in a non-textbook style and easy to understand by non-medical personnel. While it didn’t tell me anything really new, I wish it had been available 28 years ago when I developed diabetes! show less

I found this at a library book sale. I'm not diabetic but I've found that recipes for diabetics are also usually lower sodium.

There's a cooking 101 section at the beginning with some helpful tips. The recipes are loosely arranged into categories such as breakfast, appetizers, chicken/poultry, pork/beef, desserts, etc. I identified a good number of them that I would like to try and a few that I marked as "secondary" to try--meaning possibly I'll get to them in the future.