When Jennifer Shun’s 12-year-old daughter Mia was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, everything shifted. For the Rancho Santa Fe mother of two, food was a big part of their family and she had always loved to cook.
“No parent wants to hear that their child has a lifetime disease. It’s really hard and it really rocks your world,” Shun said. “When I came home from the hospital after her diagnosis, I realized everything I knew about cooking and feeding her had to change.”
“For Good Measure” by Jennifer Shun
(Jennifer Shun)
Shun devoted her time to researching and reworking every recipe in her kitchen arsenal, just for her daughter. She tested and found success in healthy and delicious meals and started a blog to help the community at large, a network that included nonprofits she supported such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Taking Control of Your Diabetes.
The blog, and years worth of recipes, became the catalyst for her new cookbook “For Good Measure: A Diabetic Cookbook,” which will be released on Dec. 5. The cookbook includes over 80 “flavor-forward, modern” recipes, from on-the go-snacks to simple suppers and desserts. A key feature of the cookbook is the inclusion of very specific nutrition information allowing people to meal plan or dose insulin.
The pecan pancakes from “For Good Measure”.
(Jennifer Shun)
One thing Shun had noticed about health cookbooks was that specialty diet cookbooks were often beautiful to look at while the ones dedicated to diabetes were relegated to a “sad little shelf.” She felt a calling to make her cookbook a beautiful offering for the 37 million Americans who live with diabetes. When the first copies arrived last week from her publisher Mango Publishing, she felt she had achieved that goal: “It’s gorgeous,” she said. Encinitas photographer Lindsy Richards captured the local California landscapes featured in the book while every dish was photographed by Shun in her own Rancho Santa Fe kitchen.
Every dish was eaten there too, she notes.
While everyone approaches diabetes from a different perspective, her recipes focus on meals that are lower in carbs (“healthy, well-selected carbs”) and higher in fiber, taking out all of the unnecessary sweeteners. Each dish is also packed with an enormous amount of flavor: “We’re foodies…we don’t do bland,” Shun said.
Some of that flavorful food that is actually really good for your blood sugar includes dishes like pecan pancakes, cornbread muffins with maple butter, roasted eggplant with tzatziki, Margharita cauliflower crust pizza, and slow-cooked Moroccan chicken with saffron cauliflower rice.
Rancho Santa Fe’s Chino Farms was a partner on the book—Shun was at the farm nearly every two days getting farm-fresh and delicious vegetables and fruits.
The Margherita cauliflower crust pizza from “For Good Measure”
(Jennifer Shun)
In addition to the great food and its artistic look, the cookbook also featuring a foreword from Cheryl Anderson, PhD, dean of the UC San Diego’s School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science.
“A healthy diet is an essential part of managing diabetes and can help prevent complications associated with the condition. In ‘For Good Measure’…recipes are creative and allow us to explore new cuisines and flavors, while learning new techniques, appealing to both novice and expert cooks alike,” said Anderson in a news release. “This book makes an important contribution to promoting health for people with diabetes or for those wanting to prevent diabetes, reduce the risk of heart disease, improve overall health and live longer, healthier lives.”
Mia is now a senior at Cornell University and while home for Thanksgiving break got a peek at the cookbook she served as the inspiration for. Shun said she looked through the book and remarked “Oh, I love this!” and “I remember this!” with every flip of a page. Her hands-down favorite recipe is the chocolate peanut butter shortbread, a treat so delicious she put the book down and said “Mom, let’s go make it.”
For Shun, she hopes the book will resonate with everyone who picks it up—in sharing her personal story she hopes to help others get over that initial hurdle of a life-changing diagnosis and more easily navigate the disease.
“This book is a food-based way to manage and prevent diabetes. There is a way, this is to show a way that works,” Shun said. “I’m hoping to inspire people living with diabetes through healthy foods created from natural, simple ingredients that don’t have to be bland or boring.”
Until the Dec. 5 release, you can pre-order the book on Amazon . Find more on the book at forgoodmeasure.com.
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