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A Portion of Your Purchase Fights Diabetes!

Archive for March, 2008

Why my blood is so sweet?

Monday, March 31st, 2008

For most people, (13 out of every 14 people) blood sugar issues are non-existent. They live their normal lives not concerned if they can or can’t eat sweets, carbs or other foods and drinks.

At 31 my body stopped working. To be more specific, it was really my pancreas. I had a sudden and noticeable issue. Within 2 weeks I had the following symptoms:

  • an unquenchable thirst (drinking 1+ gallons per day)
  • extreme weight loss (20 lbs. in 2 weeks without changing my eating habits)
  • constantly needing to pee
  • blurred vision after a while
  • sleep, I’d nap at 2pm and wake up in the morning

Now I know that these are classic symptoms of Diabetes, but not then. In fact I kept putting off a Dr. visit not thinking that there was really a problem.

Finally, I went to my HMO when I fell asleep while driving home in the afternoon. Thank goodness for the speed bumps which woke me up. I figured I must be low on blood sugar so ate a candy bar. When I arrived at the HMO and told my GP this he decided not to check my blood sugar until I was fasting the next day. At the time a 30 second test would have shown my sugar was 3 times normal.

So why was my blood so sweet? My Pancreas seized. Insulin production became very limited and since insulin is required to unlock the door to the fat cells for sugar to convert to fat I had a problem.

I’ll post some other time about the HMO problems I had at the time, but if you have any of these problems and can see a specialist I’d highly recommend it. My family Dr. is great, but an Endocrinologist specializes in Diabetes. I’m lucky enough to have one that is also a Type-1 Diabetic. That makes a difference too.

How did you determine you were diabetic?

The CRAP they put in our food!

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it ANY MORE. I went to the Natural Food Expo representing my company Granola Gourmet last week. We attend these shows looking for innovative ways to improve our products quality. With an eager eye, I was looking for more ways to reduce the glycemic impact of the Granola Gourmet Granola Bars.

Already we know that Granola Gourmet Bars have a low impact on blood sugar but there are always things you can do to improve. We looked at many other snack bars and read the ingredients and tasted them. Many of them we tasted and spit out once we got the texture and flavor and found them unremarkable (so I won’t comment).

SOOO many of them use Brown Rice Syrup for sweetening and to keep the product together. Not educated on the product we went to see a manufacturer of the syrup and discussed the benefits of using the product. The man I spoke to was a knowledgeable scientist (that’s what interested me so much in the first place). He said the product was a great product for diabetics.

I even found a bar that used it and claims it is also good for diabetics. So, I thought I was safe to test the product. WRONG!!! My blood sugar shot up quickly and in a controlled situation I was able to conclude that this product was not good for me. I looked on line and found a posting at Wikipedia. I was shocked by this quote:

“Brown rice syrup is not suitable for consumption by diabetics, as the glucose and maltose cause rapid rise in blood-sugar.”

Read it for yourself at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rice_syrup

Bottom line, if you are going to take a chance on a new food product do your homework. Try it under a controlled situation and don’t trust anyone but your own blood sugar readings. Your results may be different than mine or that of other diabetics.

Managing Diabetes with Diet and Exercise

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

One of every 14 people has Diabetes. One in every 5 has Pre-Diabetes. With numbers like this it is likely that Diabetes impacts you or someone you know. As a diabetic for the past 15 years I have been thought the ups and downs of managing this problem.Two things impact my blood sugar – Diet and Exercise. Funny you hear people talk about D&E for weight loss and physical fitness too. Today, let’s look at how similar D&E issues are for both diabetics and the people that love them J

Diabetics need to walk. Moving helps your metabolism operate more efficiently…
Healthy people need to walk. Moving helps maintain a strong heart and overall fitness…funny, that’s also important for diabetics.

Diabetics need to cut back on sugar and foods that convert to sugar quickly in the body. Pasta and bread are no no’s for diabetics; cake and candy are off the list as well.
Healthy people are cutting back on sugar, pastas and bread too. Insulin levels rise with these foods causing them to convert to fat faster than other foods. Who needs the love handles anyway?

Diabetics need love. Keeps the stress down and reduces glucose control problems.
Who doesn’t need love? Seems like we are all looking for love there must be some benefit for healthy people too.

Conclusion, healthy people or those that aspire to be healthy need to eat and exercise just like diabetics do. It’s not that Diet and Exercise is a unique issue for health and especially for diabetics, it’s that most people just aren’t focusing on these issues enough. The tide is turning, more and more of us are focusing on Diet and Exercise, are you one of us?

Diet and Exercise

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

One of every 14 people has Diabetes. One in every 5 has Pre-Diabetes. With numbers like this it is likely that Diabetes impacts you or someone you know. As a diabetic for the past 15 years I have been thought the ups and downs of managing this problem.

Two things impact my blood sugar–Diet and Exercise. Funny you hear people talk about D&E for weight loss and physical fitness too. Today, let’s look at how similar D&E issues are for both diabetics and the people that love them J

Diabetics need to walk. Moving helps your metabolism operate more efficiently…
Healthy people need to walk. Moving helps maintain a strong heart and overall fitness…funny, that’s also important for diabetics.

Diabetics need to cut back on sugar and foods that convert to sugar quickly in the body. Pasta and bread are no no’s for diabetics; cake and candy are off the list as well.

Healthy people are cutting back on sugar, pastas and bread too. Insulin levels rise with these foods causing them to convert to fat faster than other foods. Who needs the love handles anyway?

Diabetics need love. Keeps the stress down and reduces glucose control problems.

Who doesn’t need love? Seems like we are all looking for love there must be some benefit for healthy people too.

Conclusion, healthy people or those that aspire to be healthy need to eat and exercise just like diabetics do. It’s not that Diet and Exercise is a unique issue for health and especially for diabetics, it’s that most people just aren’t focusing on these issues enough. The tide is turning, more and more of us are focusing on Diet and Exercise, are you one of us?

One in Five of us have Blood Sugar Issues!

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

At 31 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (adult onset). Until that time 15 years ago I never even knew what diabetes was. Now diabetes is a well known problem and it is very likely that you or someone you know has it. Over 20 million people in this country have diabetes and about 1/3 of them don’t even know it.

That means that 1 out of every 14 people in this country have diabetes! Every day, everywhere you go we are there.

Some of the challenges I faced were more difficult than others but the main one was trying to maintain my “normal” life and not impact my family’s habits. After 15 years, I can say there is no way to maintain your health without impacting your families eating habits.

The very most important thing you can do is watch what you eat. When I say watch, I mean be religious about taking your sugar readings when you eat something that you do not know how your body will react with.

Reading the labels is not enough, and if you are suspicious about an ingredient than take your blood sugar reading more religiously if you eat it. I have found that the “net carb” counts are not accurate for me.

Sugar alcohol in my body acts just like sugar, so this trick is something that is probably fine for some people but when I test my sugar after treating myself to that “sugar free” chocolate I find my numbers raise well over 200 and that proves to me that this is not a safe treat.

Look to see if there are studies or Glycemic Index numbers for the foods you eat. And measure your blood sugar whenever you treat yourself. Diabetes is very manageable if you and your family are on top of it.