A Diabetes-Friendly Holiday Cooking Guide
DiabetesType 2 Diabetes

How to Cook for Someone With Type 2 Diabetes During the Holidays

How to Cook for Someone With Type 2 Diabetes During the Holidays
Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images
By
Updated on November 11, 2025
by

Holiday meals can be a minefield for people with type 2 diabetes. Overindulging in fat, sugar, salt, and carbs may be a Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition, but it’s anything but healthy for people who have to keep their blood sugar levels and long-term health risks in check.

Planning and preparing these feasts is stressful enough, and that’s before you add in the challenge of cooking for family members with type 2 diabetes. The good news is that you can make smart ingredient swaps and substitutions to make your food more wholesome even while staying firmly within holiday traditions, which should keep all your guests happy and at least a little bit healthier.

The Basics of Cooking for Someone With Type 2 Diabetes

Cooking for someone with type 2 diabetes shouldn’t be too demanding. Contrary to popular belief, there is no single diabetes diet, and experts generally do not recommend adhering to strict eating programs. That means your guests should have some flexibility in their diets, including the freedom to indulge from time to time.

But there are certain fundamentals that are common to every diabetes-friendly diet, including:

  • Make nonstarchy vegetables (such as broccoli, cucumbers, leafy greens such as kale, mushrooms, beets, Brussels sprouts, and carrots) the focus of your meals.
  • Minimize added sugars and refined grains.
  • Choose whole ingredients and minimally processed foods whenever possible.
People with diabetes might also be wise to limit their overall carbohydrate intake, even when opting for healthier sources like fruits and whole grains, and to drink less alcohol (or none at all).

These recommendations aren’t really unique to people with diabetes, “but because someone may have diabetes, the focus becomes that much more important as it helps them manage their blood sugar levels,” says Amy Kimberlain, RDN, CDCES, the founder of Amy’s Nutrition Kitchen in Miami.

Ingredients to Use in Diabetes-Friendly Holiday Cooking

Stock up on these diabetes-friendly ingredients when planning your holiday meals.

Nonstarchy Vegetables

“My top piece of advice is to balance your table by adding more veggie dishes,” says Toby Smithson, RD, CDCES, the founder of Diabetes Every Day, who is based in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Dishes that feature nonstarchy vegetables are your best bet. People with type 2 diabetes can typically eat as many nonstarchy vegetables as they wish, because these veggies are low in both calories and carbohydrates.

The problem, of course, is the winter tendency to bury healthy veggies in ingredients like butter, cream, bacon, and marshmallows. It’s easy to find healthier, lighter recipes for veggies like green beans, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and asparagus.

Carbs: Whole Grains, Fruits, and Starchy Vegetables

The quality and quantity of carbs consumed has a direct effect on blood sugar levels, Kimberlain says. It can be tough to convince a crowd to enjoy a low-carb holiday, so your best bet is to choose the healthiest carbs possible.

Healthy carb options to choose include fruits and vegetables like apples, blueberries, sweet potatoes, corn, pumpkin, and wild rice. Foods made from whole grains (like brown rice, whole-wheat bread, and whole-grain pasta) are also solid bets.

These foods are generally rich in fiber, which helps boost satiety, improve digestion, and manage blood sugar.

For the holidays, that means avoiding white-bread stuffing and potato dishes. You can make stuffings using whole grains like barley, farro, and wild rice. And try exchanging potatoes for more nutritious alternatives like butternut squash, carrots, and turnips.

Lean Protein

Rich meats don’t raise your blood sugar, but they do raise the long-term cardiovascular risks of people with diabetes. Lean-protein foods like fish, skinless chicken and turkey, eggs, beans and lentils, as well as soy (such as tempeh and tofu) are typically low in saturated fat.

You’re in luck at Thanksgiving: Turkey is widely considered a healthy lean meat, especially if you skip the dark meat and pass on the crispy skin.

For Christmas, choose something other than beef rib roast, one of the fattiest parts of the animal. If you really need to make red meat the centerpiece, choose a leaner sirloin or round cut of beef, or go for naturally leaner red meat cuts like pork tenderloin or leg of lamb.

 Even better: You can find festive poultry, fish, and shellfish recipes in Christmas traditions around the world.

Healthy Fats

When eaten in moderation, healthier fat sources like avocado, olive oil, and nuts and seeds can help guests with type 2 diabetes lower their risk of heart disease. These foods offer monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats, which have been shown to reduce LDL ("bad") cholesterol, an important marker for heart health.

Ingredients to Avoid in Diabetes-Friendly Holiday Cooking

Steer clear of these ingredients when making a diabetes-friendly meal. Many can even be substituted with healthier options that don’t skimp on flavor.

Simple Carbs and Sugar

Added sugar, of course, is one of the worst ingredients for people with diabetes, spiking blood sugar without offering nutritional value. The same probably goes for maple syrup and honey, which are often used in holiday recipes, says Smithson. Even small portions of these ingredients, which have almost no fiber, fat, or protein, can cause elevated blood sugar levels.

Granted, some recipes may need some sugar to taste palatable. Cranberry sauce, for example, needs sugar to offset the tartness of the fruit. And yet you can probably cut at least half the amount of sugar the recipe calls for, Smithson says. You can make up for the loss of sweetness by adding in ingredients like vanilla, cinnamon, and orange.

Or consider using alternative sweeteners that are diabetes-friendly. Erythritol, for example, is a sugar alcohol that may not impact blood sugar levels. Just be sure to not overdo it on these sweeteners, as they may cause gas, bloating, and stomachache.

At the same time, it’s not just sugar that people with diabetes should limit or avoid. Any refined carbohydrate source, such as the white flour found in stuffing, piecrusts, and crackers, can have similar health effects.

Animal Fats

Animal-based fats are not off the menu for people with diabetes, but the holidays are an especially good time to think about limiting this food group, because our traditions so often otherwise throw moderation out the window. While low-fat dairy products like plain yogurt can be a wholesome part of a diabetes diet, loading butter, cream, lard, and bacon into your cooking is a sure way to spike salt and saturated fat contents beyond a reasonable level.

Try and think about healthful substitutions and changes: Can olive oil replace butter in your recipe? Does this dish really need bacon?

Dips and Dressings

Salad and veggie platters seem like sure ways to bring nutritious food to the holiday spread, but beware of the dips and dressings you use. The wrong choice can wreck an otherwise healthy vegetable platter by adding extra calories and saturated fat. Thanks to additives like cream and whole milk, 2 tablespoons of veggie dip can pack 120 calories and 11 grams (g) of fat (2.5 g from saturated fat).

 These products are also often surprising sources of hidden sugars.

For this reason, Smithson prefers using Greek yogurt to create homemade veggie dips and dressings — nonfat plain yogurt provides very little fat and very few calories, and mixing dressings at home allows you to control the sugar content, too.

 You can also look for Greek yogurt in store-bought dips and dressings. Oftentimes, guests don’t even notice the switch.

Festive Recipe Ideas to Get You Started

If you’re still at a loss as to how to create a tasty, diabetes-friendly dish for your table, these ideas can help you get working on a healthier holiday menu. These traditional crowd-pleasers all get the thumbs-up from diabetes experts.

1. Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Smithson suggests giving this staple prime real estate on your holiday table. Roasted Brussels sprouts are the rare traditional holiday dish that is already naturally healthy, as long as you don’t choose a recipe with lots of bacon or syrupy sauces. Brussels sprouts are a nonstarchy vegetable, chock-full of vitamins and minerals yet low in carbs and calories.

Cooking could hardly be more straightforward: Simply toss sliced Brussels sprouts with a healthy fat like olive or avocado oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast in the oven at a high temperature. You’ll end up with a crunchy, healthy, and delicious side dish.

2. Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Your guests will probably expect mashed potatoes to sop up their extra gravy. This isn’t a great choice for people with diabetes, as potatoes are pretty much all carbs, and that’s before you add copious amounts of salt, butter, and heavy cream.

Try switching things up with a healthier root vegetable, says Smithson. Sweet potatoes, despite their natural sweetness, have fewer carbs than potatoes, and their flavor means it’s not necessary to add so much fat and salt.

 Keep the skin, which has plenty of fiber and nutrients, and consider using healthier ingredients to punch up the flavor, like olive oil instead of salt, or fresh herbs.

3. Healthier Pumpkin Pie

What are the holidays without pie? Pumpkin pie is actually not a bad choice among pies. Pumpkin is a nutrient-dense vegetable with only a moderate carb content, and canned pumpkin purees have a fair amount of fiber and protein with zero added sugar.

 “Including higher-fiber foods with your meals will help blunt spikes in blood sugar,” Smithson says.

Of course, the classic pumpkin pie recipe also requires a huge portion of refined white sugar. Luckily, the internet is full of healthy pumpkin pie recipes that reduce the added sugar content but adjust the other ingredients so that the texture comes out just right.

4. Low-Sugar Cranberry Sauce

Classic canned cranberry sauce includes a massive amount of added sugar, often in the form of high fructose corn syrup. It’s exactly the type of food that people with diabetes are taught to avoid.

Making your own low-sugar cranberry sauce is easy at home, thankfully. If you’ve never made cranberry sauce, it’s about as simple as it gets: you boil cranberries with water and a sweetener for about 10 minutes, after which the cranberries soften and thicken the sauce. You’ll have the opportunity to replace some or all the sugar with your preferred zero-calorie sweetener. Making your own also gives you the chance to add your own favorite aromatics, like cinnamon stick and orange peel.

5. Simple Green Beans

You’ll definitely want to pass on the green bean casserole, which buries healthy veggies underneath heavy creamed soup and canned fried onions.

Instead, rescue these healthy vegetables and return them to their rightful place as a star of your holiday table. Raw green beans can be simply roasted or quickly boiled to keep them fresh and snappy. From there, you can treat them like a salad, dressing them with olive oil and lemon juice and mixing in healthy bursts of flavor with ingredients like fresh herbs, walnuts, and pomegranate seeds. This easy change can help you keep your holiday meal light, bright, and nutritious.

The Takeaway

  • Preparing a holiday meal that’s both crowd-friendly and suitable for people with type 2 diabetes doesn’t have to be complicated.
  • Make healthy foods like nonstarchy vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean protein the stars of every dish.
  • Smart swaps can help lower the added sugar, sodium, and fat, benefiting everyone at your holiday table.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Tips for Eating Well. American Diabetes Association.
  2. Diabetes Meal Planning. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. May 15, 2024.
  3. Healthy Living with Diabetes. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. October 2023.
  4. Non-Starchy Vegetables for Blood Glucose Control. American Diabetes Association.
  5. Get to Know Carbs. American Diabetes Association.
  6. Understanding Carbs. American Diabetes Association.
  7. Protein Food for Diabetes. American Diabetes Association.
  8. Animal Products: The Saturated Fat. UMass Chan Medical School.
  9. Fats. American Diabetes Association.
  10. What Are Sugar Alcohols? American Diabetes Association. January 27, 2025.
  11. Dairy and Diabetes. Diabetes UK. February 22, 2024.
  12. Types of Fat. The Nutrition Source.
  13. Vegetable Dip, Vegetable. U.S. Department of Agriculture FoodData Central. October 28, 2021.
  14. Spotting Hidden Sugars in Everyday Foods. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. June 17, 2024.
  15. Yogurt, Greek, Plain, Nonfat. U.S. Department of Agriculture FoodData Central. April 1, 2019.
  16. Brussels Sprouts, Raw. U.S. Department of Agriculture FoodData Central. April 18, 2024.
  17. The Pros and Cons of Root Vegetables. Harvard Health Publishing. February 15, 2021.
  18. Pumpkin Pie Mix, Canned. U.S. Department of Agriculture FoodData Central. April 1, 2019.
  19. Homemade vs. Store Bought Cranberry Sauce. Texas A&M AgriLife. November 13, 2019.
Meet Our Experts
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network
Lynn Griger photo

Lynn Grieger, RDN, CDCES

Medical Reviewer

Lynn Grieger is a registered dietitian-nutritionist, certified diabetes care and education specialist, certified personal trainer, and certified health and wellness coach. She completed requirements to become a registered dietitian at Valparaiso University in 1987 and completed a dietetic internship at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Illinois, in 1988. 

Lynn brings her expertise in nutrition, exercise, and behavior change to her work in helping people reach their individual health and fitness goals. In addition to writing for Everyday Health, she has also written for websites and publications like Food and Health Communications, Today's Dietitian, iVillage.com, and Rodale Press. She has a passion for healthy, nutrient-dense, great-tasting food and for being outdoors as much as possible — she can often be found running or hiking, and has completed a marathon in every state.

See full bio
Bedosky-bio

Lauren Bedosky

Author
Lauren Bedosky is an experienced health and fitness writer. She regularly contributes to top websites and publications like Men's Health, Women's Health, MyFitnessPal, SilverSneakers, Runner's World, Experience Life, Prevention, AARP, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare, Livestrong, Fitness, Shape, Family Circle, Healthline, Self, Redbook, and Women's Running.

When she's not writing about health and fitness — her favorite topics being anything related to running and strength training — she's reading up on the latest and greatest news in the field and working on her own health goals.
See full bio
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network