When the culinary world and the world of healthcare come together, the result is diets are being developed. Numerous diets have been created over decades and new ones keep evolving. If you are a person with diabetes, you are most likely among those interested in this topic, due to a well-known fact that diets play a major role in diabetes management. People are different and so are diets. Some diets are purely based on science and some turn to ancestral roots, trying to combine modern science and historical people’s traits and habits in search of solutions for various health related issues.

Alkaline diet is one of such diets. The idea behind it goes back, to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, whose diet consisted mostly of fresh fruit, vegetables, tubers, and roots. Supporters of the alkaline diet that is rooted in the research of Claude Bernard – a biologist, who studied the effects of the kidneys in controlling the body fluids acidity, believe that our typical modern diet upsets the acid-base balance in the body and makes our blood more acidic. It’s believed that an acidic diet leads to a loss of magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium from the body and the alkaline diet can help to restore the balance and prevent the loss of minerals that are so important to maintain an overall well-balanced diet and therefore, keep diabetes under control.

Besides, it is also believed that alkaline diet can improve a number of health conditions that may be caused by an excess of acid in the body, including cancer, back pain, headaches, ovarian cysts, and even common cold and flu. Additionally, researchers suggest that alkaline diet has an ability to prevent kidney stones and slow down bone and muscle mass loss, reducing the risk of osteoporosis, which is common in people with diabetes.

So, what can you eat on alkaline diet and what foods to avoid? Foods that are considered acidic and therefore are not part of alkaline diet include breads, meat, white grains such as white rice, ocean fish, sugar, sweeteners, corn oil, butter, margarine, cashew nuts, peanuts, processed foods, alcohol, coffee, black tea, and soft drinks.

Foods that should be on your table if you want to try alkaline diet, include most fruits and vegetables, soy products, such as tofu, soy beans, miso, and tempeh, lentils and beans, almonds and Brazilian nuts, unsweetened milk and yogurt, spices and herbs (except salt, nutmeg, and mustard), herbal teas, certain whole grains, like amaranth, millet, and quinoa, and fats, including avocados, olive oil, and seeds, such as caraway, pumpkin, sesame, flax, and sunflower seeds.

Although this diet is certainly on the more restrictive side, you can still enjoy quite a variety of dishes on your table. Here are some of our favorite dishes that fit into alkaline diet, just make sure to avoid using salt.

Lentils with Carrots and Onions

Lentils with onions and carrots is a wonderful diabetic-friendly side dish that goes well with any meat entrée, as well as with fresh salads. It is quick and easy to cook too.

Red Cabbage Salad

A healthy mix of vegetables combined with a savory dressing, can earn this diabetic-friendly salad a well-deserved place on your dinner table.

Summer Fruit Salad with Yogurt

This diabetic-friendly fruit salad with yogurt can easily become your family favorite. It’s super easy to make and it fits great with virtually every dish in the summer.

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Cabbage, Apple, and Carrot Salad

You can eat this light and juicy diabetic-friendly salad with no risk of gaining extra weight. The mix of soy sauce and olive oil give this salad a unique and interesting taste.

Vegetable Salad with Fried Pumpkin

The fried pumpkin gives a new flavor to a simple diabetic-friendly vegetable salad, making its taste very original.

Carrots and Celery Salad

A simple, easy to make, and absolutely diabetes-friendly salad that is good for dinner any time of year.