Chef Leticia Moreinos Schwartz is encouraging people with diabetes to cook healthier meals at home

Chef Leticia Moreinos Schwartz is best known for her award-winning cookbook called “My Brazilian Kitchen,” but these days she’s more focused on helping people with diabetes lead a healthier lifestyle and cook delicious recipes that not only taste delicious but also keep you healthy. She’s teamed up with MERCK and the American Diabetes Association to lend her voice and hear the struggles that people face during their every day lives living with this disease.

“I have a history with diabetes, my grandfather died from complications of the disease,” explains Chef Leticia Moreinos Schwartz. According to the American Diabetes Association, 11.8% of Hispanics have diagnosed diabetes and those numbers keep going up. This is why it’s so important for Hispanics to look at food differently.

The goal of America’s Diabetes Challenge: Get to Your Goals is to urge people with type 2 diabetes to work with their doctor to set and reach their A1C goal. The A1C is the average blood glucose a person has over 2 to 3 months. The program encourages people to learn if they are at risk of high and low blood glucose, known as hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia and to help them eat healthier to reduce that risk.

“Our goal is to empower the community to take control over type 2 diabetes and also to work with their doctors to reach and set their A1C goal and to learn and understand the risks of low [and high] blood sugar,” she says.  Diabetes is not the type of disease that is one size fits all. It’s so important for people with diabetes to work with their doctors to develop a plan that’s right for them because type 2 diabetes is different for each individual.