There is no need for your diabetic dinner to be tasteless just because it is low in fat, sugar and salt. Most herbs and spices are low in fat, sugar and salt. Herbs and spices are gift to the diabetic as they add wonderful zest and depth to a meal without escalating the fat, sugar or salt content.

Herbs and spices are all purchased without difficulty at supermarkets and can be stored in your pantry for when required. However, care does need to be taken to check the sodium/salt content when using purchased spice mixes. While herbs grown fresh give the most flavour, dried herbs are just as useful and much easier to keep. Fresh herbs are added at the end of the meal just before serving while the dried herbs are added earlier in the cooking process.

Three more ingredients that are outstanding to add to a diabetic dinner that increase the taste but do not impact the healthfulness of the dinner are garlic, lemon and ginger. These are all packed with taste without the added fat, salt or sugar. Add fresh garlic and ginger to your weekly shopping list. Garlic can be kept with your onions in the pantry and ginger either in your fruit bowl or in the freezer. Just grate what you require from the ginger root. Lemon juice added to a meal adds freshness and some acid to balance the other flavours.

If you keep a stock of herbs and spices in your store cupboard along with some garlic, lemon and ginger then these are all the extra ingredients you need to make a diabetic dinner full of flavour. Forget the salt and sugar!

If you like to experiment with your food preparation then just go for it, adding herbs and spices to your dinners until you find the blends that make your taste buds sing.

If you are following recipes then they always include herbs and spices. I find the following work best:

To sweeten up a meal try: sweet basil, cinnamon, chives, coriander, and sweet paprika.

To spice up a meal try: cayenne pepper, black pepper, chilli powder, black mustard seeds.

For Chinese cooking try: five spice, star anise, fresh cilantro, ginger, garlic, lemon, Sichuan peppercorn.

For Mediterranean cooking try: bay leaves, lemon juice, rosemary, saffron, oregano, marjoram, basil, parsley, thyme and sage.

If you like Indian flavours without the heat try: cumin, coriander, turmeric, garam masala, ginger, garlic, yellow mustard seeds, fenugreek, cardamom and mint.

For Mexican meals try: chilli powder, cumin, oregano and as much fresh chilli as you need to make it the heat you prefer