Ohio StateUniversity Extension - Dining with Diabetes Program

Ohio State University Extension, in partnership with community health professionals, offers a program to help individuals learn to better manage their diabetes through knowledge of healthy food choices, healthy versions of familiar foods that are quick and easy to prepare, portion control, self-management
techniques, and strategies for healthy meal planning.

Dining with Diabetes is both a cooking school and a nutrition education program for people with diabetes and their family members or caregivers. The three-class series includes discussion, tasting of healthy delicious foods, and demonstrations. Topics include carbohydrates and sweeteners,
fats and sodium, and vitamins and minerals. The classes are taught by a Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Educator and Registered Dietitian or Certified Diabetes Educator. A reunion class is held several months later as a follow-up to the series, and program participants are asked to share their
 behavior changes through a program evaluation.

Dining with Diabetes reaches more than 2,000 Ohioans annually and has helped individuals lower their blood sugar levels, lose weight, and increase physical activity. Comments from participants include: “You take a complicated subject and make it easy,” “I always learn something new every time
I come to class,” and “There’s no one to tell new diabetics what they need to know. Dining with Diabetes is definitely needed—it fills that void.”

For additional information about Dining with Diabetes, contact your local OSU Extension office or Monadine Mattey at mattey.1@osu.edu