h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The blood test that I took in late September showedf my blood sugar levels to be 108 -- 3 points above the level that my doctor considers wise. Not high enough to be dangerous yet, but a sign of growing insulin resistance. 70% of those with blood sugar between 106 and 125 develop diabetes within ten years, according to some sources.

I don't want that to happen to me. Trouble is, my life has been a long series of downward motion where food is concerned. The one-pot-meal recipes that I rely on are invariably designed to provide three or four servings. Let's take a standard recipe designed to contain rice and meat and vegetables. It calls for a cup of rice. Well, that's what I used to use, but as the years went by and my weight inched up, I gradually reduced the rice -- first to 3/4 of a cup, then to 1/2 of a cup, and ultimately to 1/4 of a cup plus one tablespoon. At this stage, there's barely enough rice there to qualify as a rice dish. But, okay, from here on in, I'll trim away that one tablespoon extra and only use 1/4 cup. The same with recipes that want pasta of any kind [I no longer use spaghetti, because it's too hard to measure in a measuring cup]. I'll be down
to 1/4 of a cup for a recipe that will give me three meals.

Breakfast has been hard to change because I have a hard and fast rule about not doing any cooking for it. It's cold cereal, some dried fruit, a banana, milk, and coffee. Actually, bananas went through the shrinking routine. I would take a banana and cut it off at the
six-inch mark. Then I cut it off at the 5-inch mark. Most recently I've been cutting it off at the 4 and 1/2 inch mark. It seemed wasteful to waste the rest of the banana, but it won't last until the next day anyway.

But now the banana will be jettisoned entirely. A hard-boiled egg or a little grilled chicken and a small salad will be substituted. That eliminates 30 or 40 calories and maybe 20 grams of carb. I'm also dropping the cold cereal that has 42 grams of carbs and 17 grams of sugar in every 3/4-cup serving [not that I eat more than 1/8 cup
of the cereal] for cereals that have 25 grams of carbs and 6 grams of sugar for the same volume. I figure that I can trim 17 calories from a bowl of cereal at every breakfast that I eat. The banana/egg substitution probably involves no change in total calories, but the protein should slow down the digestion of the carbs in the cereal and skim milk.

Then there's the fresh fruit I eat with half a cup of yogurt when I take my last pill in the evening [that pill *must* be taken with food]. From now on, it's half a piece of fruit *or* the half cup of yogurt, but not both. A few peanuts will accompany whichever choice
I have, to slow down digestion of those few remaining carbs....

Already have type II diabetes myself.

It was very strange the day I was first placed on the watch list after a fasting blood test, simultaneously feeling hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic.

It wasn't till a bit over a year later the diagnosis was confirmed when I ended up in the hospital with an endocrine storm problem that included secondary adrenal and thyroid storm trouble, the latter producing tinnitus (ringing in the ears) so severe I literally couldn't blink my eyes, let alone make any other kind of movement, without setting it off.

The initial crisis was apparently brought on by a >hypo<glycemic (low blood sugar) problem aggravated by a lactic acidosis problem, not an excess blood sugar problem. (Excess blood sugar will make it difficult to stay awake and alert, but sleep will usually resolve it.)

I appreciate what you're saying about the changes you're making in your diet, reminds me strongly of going through a similar phase myself.

It wouldn't hurt if you were to get an Accu-Chek blood sugar meter and monitor on waking, 1/2 hr before and 1 hr after meals, relating this to how you're feeling at the time, (energetic, drowsy, uneasy, etc.).

Especially be alert though for low blood sugar problems, if your Accu-Chek reading drops below or near 80, you should immediately take some kind of readily absorbable and available sweet, fruit juice, hard candy, and a modest serving of some kind of slow release carbohydrate, pastry, french fries, porridge.

They reccomend substituting vegetables (other than carbohydrate rich items like beets or potatoes) for sweet fruits.

If you want something that merely supplies bulk without calories, you might try psyllium fiber, which can be prepared like a breakfast cereal (texture and flavor, taken plain, similar to cream of wheat), though its usually taken a teaspoon at a time in preparations like metamucil.

Another option for reducing carbs from cereal grains is to go with hi bran or all bran cereal grains preparations, most of the essential B-vitamins being found in the bran, which otherwise contains little but fiber.

Wheat germ is lower in starch, higher in sugar than wheat endosperm, and is extremely rich in vitamin E and fiber.

You might ask your doctor about enrolling in a diabetes education course.

This sounds very radical. Are you sure that reducing portions a little more will really have the desired effect? Should you be looking perhaps more at what you are eating rather than the amounts?

Diabetes type II* is serious and potentially life threatening.

When I was initially placed on the watch list, I wish I'd been better warned on what to expect (if)/when the crisis came, a no nonsense, call 911, crisis situation.

paulh's description of his dietary contortions reminds me strongly of my own during the period before I had an actual crisis.

I had a second crisis, again requiring hospitalization about six weeks after the first.

The entire term of the crisis, both occasions, was 11 days.

I've been stable on medication since the second crisis, Sep 2012.

That one also began with a >hypo<glycemic event. (Dangerously low blood sugar.)

I'd been using diet to control the problem as paulh describes, some 7 years or so before the first crisis.




*Diabetes type II is the late onset type that usually strikes people over fifty, but with no set age of onset.

Diabetes type I is the kind that kills juveniles before they pass puberty without treatment.

I have type 2 diabetes, treated with insulin & metformin.

My blood sugar levels at my six-monthly checkup have been near perfect for the last two years and I eat A LOT.

I'm on a diet - I always have been but this one's more a lifestyle change. I go to a slimming club and their plan really suits me because you can eat A LOT on it. The basic principle is you can eat as much as you want of things like pasta, rice, potatoes, lean fish & meat, eggs, some vegetarian products, beans & pulses, fat-free yogurts, plus most fruit and vegetables. You limit the amount of dairy so you can have, eg, a measured amount of of skimmed milk or hard cheese a day; you also limit products like bread & cereal so again just have a measured portion. Every meal has to be at least one third fruit & veg (but not the starchy ones like potatoes, peas, sweetcorn, etc). There's even an allowance which lets you to have treats daily, like chocolate, crisps, alcohol, or sauces, gravy, whatever, only up to around 300 calories but it does help if you're struggling with "being on a diet".

The key is satiety. You're never hungry so it's easier to stick to the plan.

In the last 2½ years I've lost 2½ stone. I no longer suffer from what used to be daily indigestion. Not to put too fine a point on it, my entire digestive system functions a lot better these days*. Admittedly, the weight loss has stalled over the last year, but that's partly due to me falling off plan on a regular basis & eating high fat, low-value carb foods like sausage rolls or cakes! I am starting to realise I'll probably have to exert a small amount of portion control if I want to lose the other 2½ stone that needs to go, but I do currently eat big platefuls so that shouldn't be too much of a hardship.

This system works so well for me that even when I fall off plan & eat too much rubbish, my morning blood sugar level never gets anywhere near where it used to on a standard day.

Deb


* saves on toilet roll!

"This sounds very radical. Are you sure that reducing portions a little more will really have the desired effect? Should you be looking perhaps more at what you are eating rather than the amounts?" [TC]

I've eliminated everything unsafe. It's taken decades, but I no longer consume donuts, soft drinks, transfats, full-fat hamburger, beef hot dogs, French fries. Ergo looking at *what* I eat leaves me with nothing I can cut. Whatever is left is safe. Amounts are the only wiggle room that's left.

I've exercised for 60 minutes a day for several years, but now I'm going for 75 minutes. That extra exercise should prevent my weight loss from involving loss of lean muscle. Just fat. But if I don't lose enough weight, I will have to advance to 90 minutes. That's every day. It means that that much time won't be available for other things. I'm retired, and hope to fit it in. The tricky part will come in January an February when ice covers the ground everywhere. Even walking will be unsafe in most areas.

This was a warning, like a lighthouse beacon that warns of rocky reefs ahead.