Disturbing news from the NY Daily News this morning: Diabetes takes grim toll on New York. "New Yorkers are dying from diabetes at an alarming rate despite city efforts to stem the disease." Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden "blamed bad habits, like overeating, not exercising and smoking as major culprits, as well as a failure to control cholesterol and blood pressure."

"Diana Berger, a Brooklyn diabetic and city expert on the subject, said one of the biggest obstacles to controlling diabetes is stress."

How, with the stress of the holiday season rapidly approaching, and the many meals involved in our celebrations, do we begin to turn this news around?

Well, to begin with, there's no need to stress about finding delicious diabetic holiday recipes for the upcoming Thanksgiving meal. The New York Public Library offers an array of cookbooks, written specifically for people with diabetes. For some mouth watering recipes everyone will love, check out The Diabetes Holiday Cookbook: Year Round Cooking For People With Diabetes and 1001 Delicious Desserts For People With Diabetes and because there's never enough time in the day, Mr. Food's Quick & Easy Diabetic Cooking: Over 150 Recipes Everybody Will Love may just leave you with enough time to actually enjoy the holidays.

Of course, the current economic times may be contributing to stress levels of NYC residents and in turn our diabetes rate, a small consolation may be that diabetic meals can be prepared on a budget, check out Diabetes Meals On $7 A Day - Or Less: How To Plan Healthy Menus Without Breaking The Bank.

If you still have a few hours to go before you can make it to the library, click on over to the information on diabetic diets offered by MedlinePlus.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. In this website you'll find an array of useful links to help you plan diabetic meals.

November is American Diabetes Month, let's plan to spend the rest of the month eating healthy meals and creating good news for a change.