Eat Well / Thanksgiving desserts for diabetics
Yes, dessert can stay on the table. A lighter pumpkin pie and an apple-cranberry oat crisp both carry well under half the added sugar of the classic versions, and a single portion of either fits inside one meal's carbohydrate and sugar line for a guest with diabetes.
Here is the same portion, two ways. These numbers come from a Thanksgiving cookbook built around the holiday classics, compared dish for dish against a traditional recipe at the identical serving size.
| Dessert, same portion | Added sugar | Net carbs | Saturated fat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lighter pumpkin pie, 1/12 slice | 5.6 g | 20.8 g | 2.2 g |
| Classic pumpkin pie, 1/12 slice | 12.5 g | 26.2 g | 3.3 g |
| Apple-cranberry oat crisp, 1/2 cup | 1.9 g | 28.4 g | 1.8 g |
| Classic apple crisp, 1/2 cup | 24.3 g | 47.1 g | 6.1 g |
A Thanksgiving cookbook built for diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease together works every plate against one meal's worth of limits, not a dessert-only rule. The book's lines for one meal with diabetes are 45 grams of net carbohydrate, 6 grams of added sugar, 7 grams of saturated fat, and at least 3 grams of fiber. Dessert is one part of that whole plate, alongside turkey, stuffing, mash, gravy and cranberry sauce.
The book's classic plate for a guest with diabetes, turkey, a quarter cup of stuffing, a third of a cup of mash, gravy, cranberry sauce and a sliver of pie, comes to about 31 grams of net carbohydrate and 5 grams of added sugar for the whole plate. That leaves room under both lines, which is the point: the portion is sized to the meal, not just to the dessert.
Because the portion, not the recipe, is what has to change. A sliver of the lighter pumpkin pie (1/32 of the pie) carries about 7.8 grams of net carbohydrate and 2.1 grams of added sugar on its own. Added to the rest of a Thanksgiving plate, the whole meal still lands at about 24 grams of net carbohydrate and 3 grams of added sugar, comfortably under the 45-gram and 6-gram lines.
The crisp works the same way at its own portion. A quarter cup, served in place of the pie on the same plate, brings the whole meal to about 30 grams of net carbohydrate and 1.9 grams of added sugar. The book puts it simply: pick the pie or the crisp, and either plate fits.
Mostly saturated fat, not sugar. A plate carrying both a sliver of pie and a quarter cup of crisp alongside turkey, stuffing, mash and salad comes to about 4.9 grams of saturated fat, just over the 4.5-gram line that applies when a guest also has heart disease. Dropping to one dessert brings it back under every line at once, which is why the book offers a choice rather than both.
Both recipes, worked out for the whole table
Thanksgiving Without the Second-Guessing has the lighter pumpkin pie, the apple-cranberry crisp, and a plate worked out for every guest with diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease. $29.99 $9.99, a Thanksgiving deal, with one month of MedMenu Pro, free.
Want a look before you buy? The free sampler has the full menu and one complete recipe from the book, the potato and cauliflower mash.
Get the free samplerGeneral information based on published guidelines. Your care team sets personal targets.
Yes, in a portion sized to the rest of the meal. A sliver of a lighter pumpkin pie has about 2 grams of added sugar, and a quarter cup of a lighter apple-cranberry crisp has about 1 gram. Either one keeps the whole plate under a 6-gram added sugar line for the meal.
A classic pumpkin pie runs about 12.5 grams of added sugar per slice (1/12 of a 9-inch pie). A lighter version made with less sugar and fat-free evaporated milk comes to about 5.6 grams for the same slice, and less again at a smaller portion.
Between the two in this comparison, the apple-cranberry oat crisp is lower in added sugar: about 1.9 grams per half cup, against about 24.3 grams in a classic apple crisp at the same portion, because it is sweetened with a single tablespoon of brown sugar for the whole dish.
Not on the same plate, mostly because of saturated fat, not sugar. A Thanksgiving book built for diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease offers one dessert per plate: a sliver of pie, or a quarter cup of crisp, and either fits the meal.
Both desserts also fit a guest with high blood pressure or heart disease, because the plates in this book are checked against all three conditions at once, not one at a time.