Let’s pretend you are preparing for a hurricane, and you’re taking stock of our pantry. What do you find? Chips, crackers, granola bars…and marshmallow Peeps. Now, while those might sound like classic hurricane snacks, they’re not exactly the dream team for managing blood sugar or your health.

If you have diabetes or prediabetes, keeping your blood sugar under control is a top priority, especially during the stress of a storm. Carbohydrates, like the ones in the current pantry stash, break down into sugar and will cause your blood sugar to rise. But not all carbohydrates are created equal. When we choose carbohydrates, we want to choose complex carbohydrates that pack in more nutrients, are higher in fiber, and digest more slowly. Examples of complex carbohydrates are beans, lentils, peas, corn, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and brown rice.

On the other hand, sugary foods such as candy, soft drinks and other sugary drinks, cookies, syrups, and refined breakfast cereals quickly raise blood

sugar, have empty calories, and lack fiber. Check out this carbohydrate choice continuum to help you choose the best carbohydrate.

Make Your Pantry Blood Sugar Friendly

To balance your hurricane stash, stock up on foods that help keep your blood sugar steady. A simple meal guideline is to fill half your plate or bowl with non-starchy vegetables, ¼ with lean protein, and ¼ with a healthy carbohydrate. This way of eating can help keep your blood sugar in check. If you have a carbohydrate as a snack, consider adding another food group, such as a lean protein, a healthy fat, or a non-starchy vegetable to help slow the rise in blood sugar. If the chips and crackers are made of whole grain and the granola bars have protein and fiber, you are doing even better. The marshmallow Peeps?  Keep them on hand to treat a low blood sugar emergency—start with 2 1/2 bunnies to hop you back to normal!

Smart Pantry Staples for Balanced Meals

Here are some diabetes-friendly, shelf-stable foods to round out your hurricane pantry:

Canned non-starchy vegetables: Tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, green beans, artichoke hearts, spinach, asparagus; vegetable soup with a mix of non-starchy vegetables with or without meat

Lean Protein options (unless there are ingredients added, these foods don’t have carbohydrates and would raise your blood sugar minimally if at all): Canned tuna, chicken, and or salmon (or the packets) or canned shrimp or sardines, claims, oysters, lump crab meat -you might have some gourmet meals ahead!

Canned options with both carbohydrate and protein and slow-down-the-blood-sugar fiber: beans, such as garbanzos, pintos, black beans, navy beans, and soups such as black bean soup, lentil soup, black-eye pea, vegetarian chili

Healthy fats: nut butters, nuts, and seeds, such as pumpkin, sunflower, or chia seeds; canned olives

Foods that are good for you but do have carbohydrates that would increase your blood sugar:

• Whole grains (have more minerals and fiber than refined grains): Bran cereals, quick-oats, air popped popcorn, brown rice cakes, precooked packages of brown rice or quinoa
• Canned fruit or fruit cups in water or in its on juice
• Unsweetened applesauce
• Canned starchy vegetables (good for you, but will raise your blood sugar): Corn, peas, sweet potatoes (without syrup)

Shelf-stable milk (if it is cow’s milk or soy milk or sweetened milk, it would raise your blood sugar), nonfat dried milk, or powdered protein (check

for one lower in sugar)

What could you make with these options?

Some ideas include:

• Tuna and crackers
• Black bean, corn, tomato salad
• Peanut butter on rice cakes
• Bean salad with kidney beans, black beans, white beans, green beans, and olive oil and vinegar
• Rice pudding with cinnamon, precooked packaged rice, and shelf-stable milk or protein powder
• Canned spinach and artichokes with onion and garlic powders and a Parmesan cheese packet + tuna or white beans
• Black olives, green beans, and diced tomatoes topped with slivered almonds

To learn more about carbohydrates and meals for diabetes, check out “Carbohydrate Counting: Meals for Diabetes”. With smart diabetes management and hurricane prep, your forecast will likely include better blood sugar control and a sunny future, even if the weather outside doesn’t cooperate.

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