Food ideas for a food hamper for a diabetic

[Pluvia]

I have a distant relative in his 50s and with moderate learning difficulties. He lived all his life with his mum and she kept an eye on his diabetes (Type 2) when he was diagnosed with it about a decade ago. She died 18 months ago and I and other family members helped him settle in sheltered accommodation. Earlier this year he was hospitalised with out-of-control diabetes and is now on insulin but not taking it as regularly as he should. Also not, because of his learning difficulty, able to count carbs particularly accurately.

He has asked me to do a food shop for him in lieu of a Christmas present and has sent me a list heavily weighted to frozen pizzas, oven chips, chocolate ice cream and biscuits. I live 330 miles away, I barely know him, he is not my responsibility and I can't answer any questions about his condition because I just don't know.

Any thoughts, please, on the healthiest kind of highly processed food that he might appreciate? (Is there such a thing?) I can put some slightly healthier suggestions to him and see if he finds them acceptable — but because of his learning disability he tends to say yes to everything. Things like nuts and fancy cheeses are off the menu: he has dental issues and he is strictly bland mainstream in his taste.

Difficult really as his diabetes is not in control and too much of pretty much anything is not going to be good. Presumably he'll not portion control either.

I eat no sugar and low carb so there are not many supermarket options straight from the shelf. I'm not on any medication or insulin though so what I get might not be suitable for him

Things I have had are curry, especially butter chicken but I'd only have a couple of spoons of brown rice with it not a full portion. There are low carb wraps you can get and the brown thins are reasonably low. I tend to mainly eat protein, dairy and veg and limited fruit with some limited wholegrain carbs but he's not going to go for that is he?

Such a difficult one OP. I think this is a case of just trying to do no further harm as you are not going to fix the situation with a one off shop for him.

Frozen battered fish or scampi isn't too bad and things like chicken in a light batter (tempura type) are again not too bad but I'd make a sugar free lemon sauce with that.

Burgers are reasonable, the bun isn't great but I would use a wholewheat thin instead. A few onion rings instead of chips.

I've made a pizza using a low carb wrap.

As I say, personally I mostly cook from scratch, but in a bind these are options I'd pick up.

It's very kind of you to give the problem so much thought. I'm happy to buy frozen burgers and fish in batter/ fish fingers, which he can probably grill for himself. I'll need to check that he has a grill. Perhaps I can weight the delivery towards easily-prepared protein.

To be honest I don't think he's going to change his diet radically and any attempts I make to get him to eat a little more healthily will be a drop in the bucket. I suspect he's a regular at the local chippie/ takeaways. He does get support from the local diabetes service but he is largely non-verbal, doesn't read or write well and doesn't necessarily process what people say to him accurately. I think we sadly have to accept that he is one of those people whom it's almost impossible to help.

I've made a pizza using a low carb wrap.

Reminds me of the time I found a pizzeria on an otherwise rather deserted stretch of the west coast road in Portugal. I was on a cycling holiday. We went in, desperate for a gooey, stodgy pizza. The German owner bought us 'pizzas' made of a thin tortilla wrap sprinkled with a meagre portion of cheese and some fresh tomato slices and flashed under the grill. To say we weren't thrilled would be an understatement.

It's lovely that you are doing your best to help. It's a case of just trying to not make it worse 😊

Ii can imagine your pizza disappointment. I make up for a lack of base with plenty of cheese and other toppings.

I'm not out the woods with my diabetes yet, but with careful diet I've managed to get my blood sugars to normal and if I keep that up for 6 months they'll declare that I've reversed mine. No medication involved either.

But I'm a pretty stubborn person of normal brain capacity so I get the potential impact to my health in a way he's possibly not able to grasp and he could be equally stubborn in wanting what he wants.

That's so tricky OP.

My MIL was diagnosed with T2 diabetes in her 70s and was ever so careful with her food.
Sadly, she went on to be diagnosed with dementia and all her rules went out of the window.

We tried to be careful with her shopping but when faced with raging anger that she didn't get the chocolate, cakes , biscuits and sweets that she desperately craved , along with abusive phone calls about our 'cruelty,' we decided to give her some leeway.

I say all this as it sounds like your relative also lacks capacity to understand why he can't have chips or sausage rolls , for example.

I'd be disinclined to buy no added sugar/sugar free options as these types of products, generally, contain ingredients like sorbitol, etc... which, if eaten in large quantities, cause diahorrea.

If your relative usually buys his own food and chooses diabetes unfriendly options then there's not much you can do.

If you don't want to feel that you're directly adding to his own food abuse then try and find some lower carb/sugar options like other PPs mentioned, fish, chicken in tempura.
Chicken in a sourdough crumb.
A small , plain Christmas cake.
Tea and coffee.
A small plain Pannatone ( lovely toasted!)
Skin on potato wedges ... even better if sweet potato.
St Dalfour jams and marmalades. No added sugar and no nasties either. Most supermarkets sell these.
Jacob's high fibre crackers.
Cheese. Some lovely Christmas cheeses around now.

Good luck OP.

Plain porridge sachets are OK too. Steel cut oats are better but you'll have no chance on that score.

No added sugar peanut butter, I have whole earth.

Would he do himself a microwave baked potato? Fill with a tub of sandwich filling or cheese and coleslaw?

I suppose I could put sandwich filling and jam and porridge sachets in as part of a Christmas hamper, so thank you. Whether he'd use them I don't know. I'm going to have to ask him what cooking facilities he has. I'm presuming an oven because he does oven chips. I'm now thinking that lots of highly processed protein — burgers, fish fingers, breaded chicken — would probably be the way to go. There's no point in buying him lovely cheese, he's more a mild cheddar man if he eats cheese at all.

@AllAroundMyCat, you probably have a better idea of the situation than most. Throw dementia into anything and it makes it worse...