The Restaurant for People with Diabetes

A New Life

Pat's mother found it hard to cook differently and start exercising. She vacillated between not eating and having low blood glucose, then eating too much and going high. And it upset Pat to see her mother, a great cook, eating foods she didn't like.

Pat knew she had to help, but her work schedule limited her. "I was a hard-core corporate woman," she says. "I was hoping Mom would figure it out, but she wasn't getting the hang of it. Someone needed to jump in before she got really sick. She was suffering. I didn't know what to do, but I was determined to figure it out."

Pat tackled her mother's diabetes just as she would solve a problem at work. She started by conducting research. She talked to people, attended meetings, and sought information from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American Heart Association (AHA).

Her initial idea was to purchase mail-order diabetic foods for her mother. "I thought all I needed to do was order special food and add water," she says. "Instead, when I looked for diabetic food, I saw recipes -- the same food everyone else eats! Then I read that diabetic cooking is just food that's prepared healthfully. It's whole grain carbs, low fat, and low salt."