Diabetes and the Holidays

Seems to me that the holidays come earlier and earlier each year.  Halloween wasn’t even over when stores were preparing for Christmas, however that’s when diabetics are challenged greatest.  From Halloween to New Year’s we are constantly being bombarded with “the good stuff”.

What is this good stuff…candy, cake, baked goods and NONE are diabetic friendly.  For me it started a few days before Halloween.  I started seeing bags of candy stacking up for the trick or treaters and held firm on my willpower.  Made it way past Halloween without having a problem.  So many of us have these challenges with sweets and they are going to intensify in the next few weeks.

Here are a few suggestions I’ve tried:

- Drink lots of water when you get the urge for sweets – I guess drowning will keep you from eating sugar

- Eat a salad (but avoid the dressing) – I like this one, now I don’t get my snack and it’s tasteless

- Take a walk – This may actually help, get your mind off of the snack into a new atmosphere.  Then when you come home you’ll be in a different mindset.

- Eat a low glycemic treat like Granola Gourmet bars – ok here is one that does work for me.

Dealing with food challenges is going to become a bigger issue in the next 6 weeks.  Be honest with yourself, hiding your treat does not help your problem.

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general informational purposes only. Granola Gourmet does not treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any disease, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Blood Sugar Spikes

I’ve been hearing a lot of people with concerns about Carbs.  They are afraid to eat too many carbs which they feel would either impact their overall diet or their blood sugar.  It is interesting to talk to these people that have been working on losing weight or maintaining their health.  Rarely do they mention that they are concerned about impacting their blood sugar.

Of course you’d be interested in that if you were a person with diabetes or hypoglycemia, however even if you are healthy and do not have any blood sugar issues consider this.  Blood sugar spikes cause excess insulin production in your body.  How can this happen to healthy people?  Have you come home from eating Chinese food only to be hungry in a couple of hours?  This is what I call “The Chinese Food Syndrome”!

Rice and noodles are starches that convert to sugar quickly in your body.  So fast in fact that your body rushes to your aid by overproducing insulin.  Insulin makes you hungry.  Excess insulin is sent to the liver where it is converted to fat.  It is also the cause for reduced energy levels, so that at 2PM you feel like you need an energy boost.

Do yourself a favor, focus more on the Glycemic Index or Impact of food.  Don’t just look at the carb count!

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general informational purposes only. Granola Gourmet does not treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any disease, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Back on track

If you read my last column, you know that last week I had a low blood sugar episode.  For those of you who have had a problem like this you’ll know that it can be traumatic.  My sugar dropped to 60 and my need for sugar actually woke me at 3AM.

While this may seem unusual to you if you haven’t had this problem before, let me assure you that when my blood sugar drops to 100 and I’m awake I focus on food as my number 1 priority.  So, you can imagine that when I woke up I did not need to test my blood sugar to know I needed to get the number up.

Immediately I went to the kitchen searching for juice.  We were out…doesn’t it figure that the one time I’m in need it’s gone!  I did the next best thing, I drank milk.  Then I found the strawberry jam, peanut butter, granola bars and pasta.  I can’t tell you how much of anything I ate but I definitely overdid it.

My excuse is simple it was 3AM I was still asleep and acting on instinct (not that I needed an excuse).  My sugar rose to 219 in 1 hour and I was ok.  Actually I was stuffed.  I skipped breakfast that day and am back on track today.

How do you handle low blood sugar episodes?

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general informational purposes only. Granola Gourmet does not treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any disease, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Too Much of a Good Thing…

The other night I was doing great.  For those of you who don’t know me, I am a type 2 diabetic and have been for 15 years.  Over the years I’ve managed my diabetes with various pills and injections.  About 3 years ago, I opted to discontinue the pills and give my organs a rest from the potential issues associated with using pills.

Today I use insulin.  I’ve gotten so comfortable that I sometimes take it for granted that I am using the right amount of insulin.  The other night I ate well, had a few carbs with dinner and a Granola Bar for dessert.

At bedtime I took my usual amount of insulin and added a few units so that my number in the morning would come in a little below 130.  At 3AM I woke up and was famished.  My sugar was 60 and I was crashing.  Quickly I drank some milk and began pigging out.  Normally I think of nothing but food when my blood sugar hits 100, so you can understand that I ate anything that didn’t move at 3AM.

My sugar started bouncing back and I was OK.  In fact at 4AM my sugar was 219.   This is the 3rd time in 15 years I’ve had a low sugar incident.  Too much insulin and then too much food, but all I can say is things like this happen, we manage our diabetes with all the information we have and still we can have problems, if you’ve ever had an issue like this let us know how you handled it.

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general informational purposes only. Granola Gourmet does not treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any disease, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Dieting Tips for Diabetics

Here are some tips that may help you understand why weight loss in Diabetics is an issue.

Diabetes is a metabolic problem.  A low calorie restrictive diet is giving a lot less to a diabetic than a non-diabetic.  This will likely not provide adequate nutrition due to the limit on food intake and the stress of diabetes on getting adequate nutrition.

Several problems make weight loss difficult for Diabetics.  Blood sugar spikes lead to excess insulin production, the liver converts it to triglycerides that become fat on the body.

Diabetics need to eat more smaller meals, due to inefficient metabolism.  Nutrients are often not processed properly and so diabetics do not gain optimal nutrition from their meals.

Diabetics cannot process high glycemic foods efficiently and diabetics usually eat too many carbohydrates.   This creates a vicious cycle of excess insulin production and excess Cortisol (a hormone that raises blood sugar levels).

Tips for managing your diet:

1.      Eat every 2 ½ – 4 hours, either a meal or snack.

2.      Do not skip meals or snacks.

3.      If you eat before the 2 ½ hour interval is reached, start a new 2 ½ hour interval from the time you cheated and ate too soon.

4.      Eat a little protein with every meal.

5.      Limit high glycemic foods.

6.      Consider fats are fattening.

The key point is the “interval.”  Eat on schedule.  You are not being asked to “not eat”, instead you are only being asked to “wait”.

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general informational purposes only. Granola Gourmet does not treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any disease, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

20% of us have Blood Sugar Problems

I am constantly reminded just how many people have blood sugar problems.  Just yesterday I was at Whole Foods in Santa Monica sampling our Granola Bars and it seemed like I talked about Blood Sugar Issues with people more than I have in a while.

While Diabetes is rampant and very problematic for people, Hypoglycemia is also a very big problem.  It seems to me that Hypoglycemic people have a problem because they produce insulin as appropriate and then keep producing insulin after they no longer need it causing their blood sugar to continue to drop.  This may be in response to eating food that causes blood sugar to rise rapidly or to spike.

Hypoglycemia is much more dangerous than spikes in your blood sugar.  Lack of sugar in the blood can cause you to pass out and become comatose quite quickly.  You can also go into a coma if you have Diabetes, however with Hypoglycemia that can happen very quickly.

You’ll know you are having a low blood sugar episode if you experience any of these symptoms: you are uncontrollably sweating or shaking, you have palpitations, you feel cold and clammy there are a number of other symptoms for this problem, so read up on this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoglycemia

For me, I know my sugar is dropping when I get uncontrollably hungry.  I focus on food and block the world out until my sugar is normal again.  If you are concerned about this problem check with your doctor.  Learn about Low Glycemic foods and how your control can be improved with them.

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general informational purposes only. Granola Gourmet does not treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any disease, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Eating Right on a Budget

Just because you have diabetes and are spending more money on yourself to manage your health doesn’t mean you can’t make up the difference by managing your diet.  Today we’ve been programmed to eat out, it’s fast, it’s easy, it’s not usually very healthy.  Not only do your options limit you to fatty, salty, carb loaded foods, you are probably spending between $7 and $20 for that meal.

One safe change is to eat home or take breakfast or lunch from home.  Starbucks makes great coffee, but there is almost nothing on their menu that is either healthy or cheap.  I recently looked at their 20 drinks with under 200 calories and about fell off my chair!  When a restaurant puts out brochure like this you have to think about how many calories and how much money you are wasting.

Keep your choices simple.  A cup of coffee or tea has almost no calories but start getting fancy and suddenly a Nonfat Carmel Macchiato will hit you with 170 calories and 1 gram of fat.  Not to mention the cost.  Go ahead add that Blueberry Oat Bar to snack on.  It’s one of the healthier treats that they sell with a hefty 390 calories and 15 grams of fat.

Drink the coffee, pass on the cookies & cakes.  Eat at home more and focus on low glycemic meals that you prepare with less fat.  Saving money means putting a little extra effort in to purchase and prepare your own meals.  You’ll find better ingredients and save money!

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general informational purposes only. Granola Gourmet does not treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any disease, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Let US eat cake!

Managing your diabetes requires a balance between your desires, your needs and your doctors recommendations.  I say recommendations because not everyone I’ve talked with says they follow the doctors recommendations to the letter.  In fact when it comes to diet, no matter what your doctor says it is up to you to act.

Diet is the one thing you will make sacrifices with when really focusing on the control of your diabetes.  For me over 15 years, I’ve made major changes…yet I still crave snacks and the occasional Twinkie :)   So how do I get past these cravings?  It is not easy.  Most of the time I can.  I’ll grab a Granola Gourmet bar because they satisfy me without spiking my sugar.  Other times I give in.  Recently I attended a wedding and was going for the sugar free baked goods, they looked fabulous.  The taste left much to be desired, so I took a piece of cake.  Managing to eat only one piece and stopping there was the win for me.

Now I’m back on track and not feeling deprived.  I’ve managed to pass through the danger of binging on sweets while fitting with the crowd and enjoying the party.

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general informational purposes only. Granola Gourmet does not treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any disease, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Most Nutritionists are worthless!

I’ve avoided talking to a nutritionist for years.  I guess it’s just that I’ve not been helped at all by them.  Maybe it’s just that they look at the food pyramid and are stuck in the 1950′s or that they try to convert the valuable information that exists today into some simple formula but key information I need is missing.

Last week I addressed a Diabetes support group.  There was also a nutritionist that addressed the group who embarrassed herself by focusing on carb counting.  Yes it’s true carb counting is possible today because of better labeling on food, however it is not the holy grail.  It is important to keep your carb quantity under control, however it’s much more important to focus on the Glycemic Index of the foods you eat.

If in counting carbs you eat food that converts to sugar quickly than you are stressing your body.  When you have too much sugar in your blood your body needs to produce too much insulin.  Insulin makes you hungry.  Too much insulin in your blood and you gain weight.  Not enough insulin and your blood sugar spikes.

How do you manage? Knowing this problem is one step to focusing on food that digests and converts to sugar slowly.  Learn about the Glycemic Index and look for food choices that are low or super low on the index!

Ask your endocrinologist to refer you to a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE). They can work with you on your diet as a person with diabetes or pre-diabetes.

 

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general informational purposes only. Granola Gourmet does not treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any disease, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Insulin the Miracle Cure

No matter if you are a type 1 or type 2 Diabetic, or if you have Gestational Diabetes, Insulin is the miracle cure.  Sure there are many different types of pills that you can take to manage your Diabetes, but none matter if there is no Insulin present.

When I was originally diagnosed with sugar readings over 4 times normal, I knew nothing about Insulin and all the different treatment options available.  My Dr. put me on Insulin and right away my blood glucose readings were under control within a week.  It was amazing and today I am grateful that in 1921 scientists at the University of Toronto discovered insulin.

In 1923 when insulin production began the lives of millions of people were changed.  We finally had a treatment which enabled us to live longer and improved the quality of our lives.  The life expectancy of a person with diabetes increased from 1 year to years.  I think that many of us take for granted the scientific research and investments made that have impacted the lives of people with diabetes.

Frankly, I’m glad we can take it for granted but we need to remember that since 20% of our population is either diabetic or at risk this is a problem we must face head on!

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general informational purposes only. Granola Gourmet does not treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any disease, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.