Some general principles for eating when you have metabolic syndrome are.
Avoid processed carbohydrates and saturated fats. This also means switching to unsweetened versions of foods like yoghurt and peanut butter and learning to look at ingredient lists for that hidden sugar!
Be mindful of your total calorie consumption – start to record your bodyweight at the same time every day and take an average for the week. If your weekly average weight is increasing week on week then you need to moderately reduce your total calories.
Try to consume foods containing things like curcumin (turmeric and other spices) and capsicum (chili) that have proven benefits for metabolic syndrome.
Eat complex carbohydrates like oats, brown rice and sweet potato as these will help you feel full for longer and do not increase your blood sugar as much as simple carbohydrates like white bread or pasta.
A note about drinks: in general, you should try not to drink any carbohydrates as they are absorbed very quickly when consumed as a beverage and can cause a large spike in blood sugar. Stick to either water (which you should be drinking plenty of anyway), black coffee or unsweetened tea (including regular tea and herbal teas) – all of which have health benefits!
Turmeric tea:
Curcumin has proven benefits including being an anti-inflammatory and helping control blood sugar levels. Turmeric is a great source of curcumin and this delicious tea is a convenient way to get a high dose of curcumin!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup turmeric powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup water
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
5 tablespoons coconut oil
Instructions for making the paste:
Heat the water, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper in a saucepan over a medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for about 6-7 minutes. Add the coconut oil, let it cool, and store the paste in a jar in the fridge.
To make the tea, take a saucepan and add a teaspoon of paste to a cup of milk, nut milk, oat milk (or your other favourite milk alternative!) and heat it up gently. If this is too strong for you, adjust how much paste you add to the milk. If you need to make the tea sweeter use a natural non calorific sweetener like stevia but be careful not to overuse sweeteners.
Banana and oat pancakes:
When you try these pancakes, you will probably not believe they are healthy and contain no refined carbohydrates! They are also super-fast to make and easy to clean up after.
Place the following ingredients into a blender: one large ripe banana, 30g of uncooked oats, one egg and a teaspoon of baking powder.
Put the lid on the blender and blend until smooth.
Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a non-stick pan to a medium/low heat.
Pour around two tablespoons of the pancake mix from the blender into the pan and cook for around 1 min, then flip and cook on the other side.
Repeat to use up all of the batter.
Serve with fresh berries and unsweetened yogurt.