How to cook for a diabetic without making the other guests suffer I'm looking to host a big dinner and want to make it as diabetic-friendly as possible. I'm also looking to not make special diabetic-friendly dishes that only 1 person gets. I want to make meals that everyone can have. 

I'm aware that I need to keep the sugar in the cabinet and try to reduce the starchy foods I make to a minimum, but are there other ingredients to avoid?

That said, I'm specifically in need of a substitute for pasta that will go well with marinara sauce. It would be a plus if the substitute was good with alfredo sauce. I grew up in a BIG Italian family so the idea of a meal without pasta is almost heresy. With this in mind I'm not very familiar with more diabetic-friendly options that keep sugars and carbohydrates low.

I also want to serve mashed potatoes but wounder if there are other veggies I can mash to come up with something like mash potatoes but less starchy considering the diabetic facts? 

Are there any techniques commonly used to make dishes with a lower hypoglycemic index? I've seen things like a bed of veggies instead of pasta but I'm not sure if everyone would like that.

Thanks.
I think the best solution is to avoid pre-mixing or pre-saucing anything. If you bring out a big bowl of pasta tossed (or topped) with sauce, the only way to get sauce is to eat pasta. Imagine instead you bring out:


a big bowl of pasta, perhaps tossed with a little oil to keep it from sticking
a bowl of brown rice
marinara sauce
alfredo sauce
olive-oil-grilled veggies (cauliflower, carrots, eggplant...)
grilled lean meat (chicken breast?)
mashed potatoes
a nice loaf of bread
a big green salad


Some people can have pasta and sauce. Some people can have meat and sauce. Some people can declare marinara sauce to be as close to a vegetable as they want, while others can eat veggies with rice or pasta and ignore the meat. If your alfredo is vegetarian and your marinara is vegan, you're covering a great deal of ground - diabetic, non-gluten, vegetarian, vegan - with one feast.

Personally I would avoid gluten-free pasta, or any kind of substitutions that are supposed to resemble something else. In a big dinner, you want to make it easy for people to know whether to avoid something or eat it. You also don't want people saying things like "ew, no, this is the fake pasta, please pass me the good stuff!" and making the person with a special diet feel bad.