Good food? Bad food?

[Guest guest]

Greetings, friends!

Recently I've been bothered by what appear to be blanket statements

given by one diabetic to another on what not to eat. For example, on

one of my groups, one person advised a new diabetic not to eat

bananas or mangos. On another, someone said that carrots are sweet

and should be avoided. (If these were your words, please don't take

offense - I'm using them as examples...) Further, over the four

years I've been diagnosed, people have reported that grapes make

their sugars spike, or rice, or bread, or potatoes, or some other

food.

In my experience, each person is unique. Your situation - your stress

level, your exercise or inability to exercise, the medications you

are on, your food plan, your need to lose weight or not, even your

own body's reaction to what you eat, is different from the next

person on the list. Personally, bananas, carrots and bread are

staples in my diet - they are affordable, and don't cause me

problems. On the other hand, I have troubles with grapes and rice.

Potatoes are even okay, including mashed potatoes, which even the

medical people I've consulted with are cautious about. But I have to

avoid pretty much all fruit juice, even those with no sugar added,

except to treat a low.

So how does a diabetic know what to avoid or include regularily?

Simple, IMHO. You get a blood sugar monitor, learn how to use it,

then arm yourself with a *lot* of strips. Especially after being

diagnosed first, when you are just learning how to deal with your

disease, test frequently. Some advice I was given was to test at

regular intervals throughout one day - perhaps every two hours - and

chart how your sugar varies at different times. Then when you are

confronted with a food you aren't sure about, you can test two hours

after you've eaten and see how your body has reacted to that food.

Using this method, I've figured out about the foods I've mentioned

above. And I've developed methods of coping with the problems they

present me. For example, I love to eat out. Especially Greek food.

Mainly Greek is okay for me - a balanced meal with protein, carbs,

salad, and often an extra veggie. But they have way too many carbs

for my meal plan, generally both rice and potatoes, plus all the pita

bread (white flour) that you can eat. So I've learned to cope by

asking them to only give me potatoes on the plate, and ignoring the

pita bread unless I'm really hungry or have recently had a low.

Another example: a couple of days ago I ate upstairs with my parents

and some guests, and Mom had a wonderful fruit plate for dessert -

and there were grapes on it. I figured out how much fruit I was still

entitled to, and included a small handful of grapes in what I took.

Then after my meal, I went out for a walk to burn off the extra sugar

and try to stave off a spike. (I do that, too, when I cave and have

some regularily sweetened cake or ice cream or other dessert - I take

care to have only a small amount, of course, and try to work it into

the meal plan for that meal.)

According to the Canadian Diabetic Association, there are no foods

that are absolutely banned for diabetics, not even sugar. The wider

range of food you eat, the better nutrition you are likely to get.

But you need to factor them into your meal plan, going easy or even

avoiding things that you've discovered aren't as effective for your

own individual blood sugar control. And by all means, consult your

doctor, endocrinologist, dietician, diabetic clinic and others on

your diabetic team - they are all good sources of information and

advice. I find that diabetic lists are great sources of advice and

experience, but check out everything before you adopt it as canon for

yourself.

Melisma (going back into hiding, here under her Rock)

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