Picnic Foods for Heart Patients and Diebetics

Heart patients and those with diabetes are often invited to picnics and cook outs during the summer. Those who cook the dishes, which are passed during these events, usually forget our special diets. Please do not forget us. Here are some ideas for your next event.

With so many people now on special diets, it might be hard to plan dishes for those among us who are on them. The heart diet is low salt, low fat and low cholesterol while the diabetic people limit sugar and those foods which break down to sugar.

When cooking the meats, please remember that many prepared sauces have high levels of sodium. Instead of slathering all of the chicken or beef with this sauce, sprinkle a few pieces of meat with Ms. Dash instead. The same with the burgers sprinkle them with a no salt seasoning, this way when we add mustard or ketchup we are not over loading on the salt content. Too much sodium is bad for everyone so it is best to try and limit is where ever you can.

The flavored chips are usually loaded with salt, so grab a few bags. It is best to purchase a flavored bag, a plain bag, and a plain bag with low salt. Mix the two bags of plain chips together and no one will be the wiser.

To make a heart healthy chip dip take a packet of Lipton French Onion soup mix and mix it with twice the amount of low fat sour cream. Trust me if no one sees you do this, no one will even taste the difference. We can use this dip on top of hamburgers rather than a slice of cheese, which has a quarter of the amount of salt adults, should eat a day.

When making potato or macaroni salads use low fat mayo instead of salad dressing. This is a great alternative. Items such as olives, pickles, mustard, and eggs, which really make salads of this type, taste delicious, are loaded with salt so please limit these things. Did you know that you can also lower the sodium content of pickles and olives by rinsing them off in cold water before you put them in the salad?

Cakes, other sweets, and pies are picnic staples but a better alternative is a nice fruit salad made with fresh fruit. If you use the canned variety, be sure to rinse of the items before you toss them in a bowl. Use low fat cool whip instead of regular cool whip. Another great alternative is to use jell-o. You can serve it plain or mix fruit in there.