From WestIslandDiabetesAssociation

The Canadian Diabetes Association guidelines suggests a blood glucose of 10.0 mmol/L (180 mg/dl) or less 2 hours after a meal (this target should be 8.0 mmol/L or less if you are not reaching your A1C target of 7.0 or less). Reaching this target after breakfast may be difficult because often this meal contains food with a high glycemic index. Examples of high glycemic index foods are: white bread, white bagel, Cheerios, Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies. Alternative low glycemic index choices would be 100% stone ground whole wheat bread, heavy mixed grain bread, pumpernickel, All BranTM, Bran Buds with PsylliumTM and Oat BranTM. More information about glycemic index and reference charts are found at http://www.carbs-information.com/glycemic-index.htm.

It is important to make sure that your breakfast is balanced and contains some protein and (good) fat to help slow down the absorption of the carbs and provide proper nutrition. Some suggestions are low fat yogurt, peanut butter, almonds, egg and cheese. For more information consult your dietitian.

Some authorities are suggesting to bolus about 20-25 minutes before eating breakfast as this would give the rapid acting insulin some time to start acting as blood glucose rises from these easily digested carbs. 

From FatCatAnna

Last night we got together with friends that we don't see too often.  We were celebrating a few birthdays, so I being the dessert maker, made up a nice treat.  Only one person in the group is a diabetic (D) like myself, and I saw their eyes bulge out when they saw what I had made, and I could see their nonD wife giving me the evil eye, as if I was going to kill her hubby due to sugar overdose! He's on insulin by the way, so he can "cheat" from time to time like I/we D's do from time to time.

As I was sitting around the table sharing appetizers and chatting up with the guys on all the latest news.  I started to realise that I was wishing I was sitting with all my D friends that I've made contact with over the past year.  I only started to socialise in D forums recently, and have found them to be a God send for when I'm feeling down or see someone asking for help.  I  was having an inner struggle inside of myself with feeling the way I was last night.  The one thing  I realised, everything with that evening was revolving around all the good food that we were eating.  Not that this hasn't happened before, I  mean food is part of the "social" thing.  We had awesome brushetta, orange slices made up with sugar, olive oil and whole black peppers (really GOOD - here's a low sugar version I found) to share and the main course was pasta sauce and meatballs with penne - eccellente!  

The only little glitch, I was having to calculate how many carbs in the back of my mind for all the foods/drinks I was cramming into my body and how long to bolus my insulin so my blood sugars wouldn't spike like crazy.  I felt sort of a bit strange, telling some of my friends about the carb count in pasta, and my other Dfriend giving me that evil eye of "why are you telling them this?".  I guess I just can't shut up about diabetes sometimes - is that bad?

I was wishing at that pointin time that I was surrounded by my diabetic friends that would "get me" (can you hear me Danny?).  The ones that know what to do with carb/insulin ratio (my Dfriend doesn't really care - despite my giving him a few books).  I was having little thoughts in my head, still listening into my friends of course, but thinking that if we were all diabetic, we'd be sharing some of our  stories about diabetes.   I've never felt this way before at a get together with nondiabetic friends, and as you can see, it's sort of shocked me to be thinking this way.

So, my question to you, have you ever experienced this feeling before?  I'm thinking because I'm more in tune with my diabetes now then I ever was, that this was the reason for why I felt this way.

From FatCatAnna

Well, this past weekend was a blast from the past.  I haven't stayed up until the wee hours of the morning in a very long time.  I had jokingly said to my friends, after we met up in a bar to watch a band - "let's go and continue the party at your place until 3:00 a.m.".  They looked at me abit odd and went along with it. 

One of my friends, Richard and his finance Suzanne were visiting Montreal from Vancouver, B.C.  Richard just before going on holidays was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.  He had alot of questions for me - which I hopefully answered as best as I could.  The main thing I told him was, get his weight down, eat healthy, exercise, check his blood sugars daily and hopefully he'll avoid the type of diabetes I have - where he'll be hooked on insulin for the remainder of his life. 

So, of course, we got the munchies later. Out came the chips, etc.  and I started to show them the carb count on the package of the "healthy" corn chips full of "fibre".  A ploy I told them just to make you feel less guilty of what you are ramming into your bodies.   We then decided, all of us, to test our blood sugars.  Never in my life have I done this with a bunch of friends.  It was such a blast!  Of course, they were all in good ranges for non diabetics - phew.  I was actually getting low at the time - due to giving a wee bit too much insulin earlier (hate snacking - it throws me off).  So, they all panicked with getting cake out, and other foods for me.  Once again, teacher mode took over in me, despite my low blood sugar while I explained the difference between how certain foods entered your body to control your low blood sugar faster.  Of course, I had my Dex4's with me - and took a few of those to bring my BG's up.

All I can say is, luckily no one had sore fingers after that night/morning - as we tested quite a few times - the vampire Edward was out that night (yes - Twilight along with Blood Ties came into the conversation - vampires are the "in thing" at the moment). 

Anyway, the party continued onto the next day, and if I could only have video recorded my friend Sylvie with her impersonation of Edward (see prevous blog - you'll understand why I mentioned his name) - as he wonders how my blood sugars are doing - she just cracked me up!!!  It was a wonderful way to end a great weekend with friends that can laugh along with me and my life as a legal drug user! 

NB: We didn't get to noddy nod land until 4:00 a.m.  We were Born To Be Wild!!!!

From FatCatAnna

As we all know, sugar has no nutritional value.  It makes food taste good, who can't deny that?  I know I can't.  I'm a diabetic, and I still use sugar in my coffee. Granted, I make myself feel better by saying "I use raw sugar" - but let's face facts - it's sugar - 10g of carb for a teaspoon of sugar!  Many people who eat sugar laiden food are not eating healthy food (are Twinkies healthy - they taste so good?) and of course there are the calories that are involved in high sugar. Which results in high calories and if we don't burn those off - well - you know where it ends up (I'm looking down at my belly here as I type this out - yikes).

I came across a Good Morning America episode today - that was informing the viewers about sugar consumption in the American population (though I think this applies all over).  Did you know that the average person a day consumes .... 21 teaspoons of sugar a day?  The American Heart Association (AHA) is recommending that we reduce that amount of sugar consumption by a third - to only 7 ½ teaspoons a day. 

Also, what was amazing - was when the doctor being interviewed (Doctor Johnson)  said that a single can of pop drink contains 10 to 12 teaspoons of sugar!  Ouch!  I mean I know they are high in sugar - who hasn't consumed a Coke when they need to fix a hypo (I have) - but there is that much sugar in just a can of pop floors me.   He continued to point out that boys (do girls not consume as much I wonder?) from the ages of 14-18 consume on average 35 teaspoons of sugar a day.

Reducing the amount of sugar we consume will of course help reduce our chances of having heart attacks, strokes and of course diabetes.  They are all related in many ways to our love of sugar in our diets.

I know that my parents many years ago decided to cut out excess sugar from their diets.  I'm not sure if it was because of my being a diabetic - but they have managed to wean themselves off of it in their tea and coffee and they also don't eat many sweet things.  Being of British descent - where we are known for bad  teeth (though have been told that's due to the bad dentistry at the time) - that's quite something else.  They are both in excellent health and they are in the 70's - so perhaps cutting out sugar has helped them - along with healthy eating.  I am hoping I can say the same thing when I reach their age - as I'm sure we all feel the same way.

To view the video - as well as read up abit more about our consumption of sugar - go to this link.

From FatCatAnna

Well, as most of you know - I love to cook, I love to eat (my excuse is my clothing has to keep on fitting me - who wants baggy pants around their lower buttucks?).  I took out this great book from the library and have been lucky enough to renew it twice - but now it's due back - as it's a new publication.

The reason I took out the book was due to it saying that it had recipes that are low in carbs.  I've been watching my carb intake more carefully since going onto the pump and reeducating myself in my eating habits.  Not that they've really changed - I still tend to eat more veggies then carbs when I sit down for my main meal.  According to this book, a diabetic should plan their meal to be 1/2 veggies on the plate, then the remaining 1/2 should be 1/2 starch and 1/2 protein.  So, I'm right on track with that.

Majority of the recipes in this book tend to be low carb - under 20g per serving - some lower (I like to eat meals under 30g of carb).  The occassional recipe is abit higher then what I would normally eat (e.g. 56g) - but again -  the serving size of the dish is for 4 people - I tend to eat a smaller amount - so when you factor that in - the carb count isn't that overwhelming.

Even better, at the back of the book it has a great explanation of the different types of diabetes, written in a form that I can understand (too technical makes my brain freeze up).  It goes into detail on how food works on our blood sugars as well as weight maintenance.  There is a daily food and health tracker along with a great meal plan for one week that you can follow if you want.

The main thing though - is the recipes are based on the CDA/ADA food exchange regime (I hate to say "diet") that most of us follow.  It shows each recipes with the nutritional breakdown - something I've become more aware of as I've gotten older and wiser .  Compared to the 2 cookbooks I've bought over the past 40 years of being diabetic - this recipe book IMHO is the best one yet - with very easy to follow instructions - ways to change the recipe to suit your taste buds - and little tid bits of information on each page.

The only thing with book that I wrote to Reader's Digest about (the publisher of the book) - is for some diabetics like myself - who weigh our food in order to get a more accurate carb count - this wasn't shown.  Just the regular "each serving provides".  That is fine - but if I eyeball that serving size portion wrong - I can end up taking too much insulin - and then having a hypo - rare for me - but it could happen to others that are like myself - counting their carbs.

I know the one recipe I really want to try out is a light rye bread recipe - that is only 15 g per slice.  I love rye bread - so this will be one of the many pages I'll be photocopying before I take the book back to the library (am currently trying to see if a friend of mine that works for Reader's Digest can purchase the book for me at a discounted rate - crossing my fingers here).

So, if you want a good cookbook to check out - diabetic or nondiabetic - you will be very surprised if you think we eat a bland and boring diet (Spiced Stir Fried Duck looks amazing - quack, quack).  The recipes in this book are something that you might find at a posh little restaurant - without all the fuss of some recipe books I've come across.  Click on this link to find out how to order it or check for it at your local library which is where I found my copy.