Leeds dietician shares diabetic recipe advice as she challenges misconceptions

Primary care dietician Ellouise Simpson, who is of Jamaican heritage, wants to help people to find ways to still enjoy much-loved cultural dishes while also managing their diabetes safely. She hopes her Instagram account – @DietitianEllouise – can get the word out to members of BAME communities who might not attend clinics or come into contact with ethnic dieticians usually.

“There needs to be more clinicians from multicultural backgrounds,” she said. “What we bring to the table is not something that you will not be taught at university. Universities do what they can – you may have some lectures on cultural meals but it's just not the same as the lived experience.

“We need to be doing things a bit differently too. Right now, we offer clinics and we find that there are not many patients from different backgrounds attending. I question why I don’t get South Asian or black patients when the rates are so much higher in these communities while they’re thinking, ‘why am I going to see someone who doesn’t understand my food?’”

In her time as a dietician, Ellouise said she has found that people often perceive food from places such as the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia as unhealthy. She said: “Within these communities, people also perceive their own foods as unhealthy. This could be a combination of the information that they have read online or from healthcare professionals they have seen.

"I always tell my patients, friends and family that our food is really healthy.”

One particular dish that many people think of as being unhealthy is curry, due to its fat content. Part of Ellouise’s job is to help people to understand what’s on their plate and how they can adapt recipes. She said: “While there is a cultural hand-me-down from your mum or nan on how to make a curry, it’s a matter of sitting down and thinking ‘how can I still eat my curry but make it a bit healthier?”

To reduce fat content, the 40-year old suggests changing the cut of the meat or using a combination of cuts. She also recommends looking at small changes such as cutting down the amount of ghee or butter or reducing the size or quantity of chapatis served alongside the meal.

Ellouise also finds that if developing diabetes is the norm within a community, people will undermine the severity of the disease and often refer to diabetes as “having a little bit of sugar”. She added: “I don’t want the narrative to be that ethnic people don't take diabetes seriously. It’s to do with their understanding, what they are taught about diabetes and what their community thinks of diabetes.”

She recognises that it is often only when people are on the verge of needing insulin, that they begin to take it more seriously. “By that point, we are reaching uncontrollable biochemistries that we would like to reduce,” she said. “Let’s try and provide that knowledge way before that point.”

As well as using Instagram to share advice, she has a blog where she regularly shares recipes including Jamaican ackee and saltfish recipe for diabetics.