I was at a Nutritionists in Industry seminar on Thursday – the focus of the day was mainly diabetes.  It was a fab day – thanks to the organisers.  One group of the British population that are particularly at risk from diabetes is our South Asian community.  Azmina Govindji, a renowned dietitian that has appeared in the media many times representing nutrition and dietetics and who has done an incredible amount of work to improve the communication of food related health information, told us about several pieces of work relating to improving diet within this group particularly focusing on reducing risk of diabetes.

Some years ago Azmina was involved in producing nutrition tables for a range of Asian traditional recipes to help dietitians working with the Asian community to analyse food intakes.  The recipes that were used have been turned into a nutrition resource by the Ismaili Centre.  It is fantastic.  Not only are the recipes authentic recipes that look delicious for anyone whether South Asian or just a fan of that region’s incredible cuisine but, as they have been nutritionally analysed, they come with traffic light labelling and suggestions of how to make some of the more indulgent recipes more in line with health recommendations.

The on-line resource has been highly praised from Asian communities around the world and I would like to share it:

http://www.theismaili.org/cms/697/About-the-Nutrition-Centre

Delve in for amazing recipes. If you are Asian yourself, look for your favourite recipes to find out whether you should be eating them a bit less often or how you might make them better for you.

Pulses are widely used in many Asian cuisines and pulses are such a good source of nutrients and fibre, they are thought to be very helpful in reducing the risk of diabetes but in standard British cooking they are sadly not used as much as they could be.  However, South Asian food is hugely popular among non-Asian Brits – so if you like curries, look up some dishes with pulses in and kill two birds with one stone.  Head to:

http://www.theismaili.org/cms/1499/Pump-up-the-pulses-to-control-diabetes

Have fun and get cooking – fill your kitchen with the spicy smell of some amazing recipes.  I am sure there will be a few recipes that won’t have found their way into cookbooks that you have sitting on your kitchen shelves.

If you try any of the recipes I would love for you to let me know what you think and how they turned out.