I spent 90 minutes with a nurse today who has a strong educational background in diabetic nutrition and treatment. I must say, I got an education today.
One of the first things she said was that there is no such thing as a diabetic diet. She also said to avoid "diabetic" food, candies, nutritional supplements, and the like; the companies who make these foods are ripping consumers off. Any benefits derived from consuming these products do not offset the additional cost levied on them as a "specialty" product. Not only is the flavor not as good, but it may contain ingredients that could be more harmful to the body than the absence of the other ingredient you're trying to avoid in the first place.
She also showed me the nutritional label that is printed on every food product packaged and sold in our supermarkets. I learned that when the label says "Total Carbohydrates 12 g, whatever it says the sugar grams are part of the total carbohydrates; it is not a separate ingredient to be counted by itself. In other words, the label is not showing 12 carbohydrates AND whatever sugar grams. What she said made sense once I took a good look at the label and realized that under "Total Carbohydrates" are other ingredients immediately underneath it, but they're indented a little to the right. That means that the label is listing the breakdown of the contents of the carbohydrates. I had no idea. That was an eye opener.
There is one food I need to avoid: imitation cheese. It's not considered a dairy or protein product ... it's considered a fat. There is no nutritional benefit to consuming processed imitation cheese.
I told the nurse the news article I read on the FoxNews.com site about people dropping the Atkins diet and adding breads back to their meals. The nurse explained why: our bodies need proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. When we go on a diet that extremely limits any one of these three things, we end up hurting ourselves. Many people on the Atkins diet consumed far more protein than they should; too much protein will damage the kidneys. Our kidneys process the proteins in our body. We need carbohydrates for energy. Many people on the Atkins diet are finding out that they don't have the energy they used to because they're cutting out or cutting down on the carbohydrates their body needs every day. Everything in moderation ... we should avoid all diets that tell us "you can't eat this, you can't eat that ..."
She gave me several charts comparing foods from different fast food restaurants. She showed me how a whopper with cheese (no fries) from Burger King had more calories, carbs, protein, and fat than a two-piece original recipe meal (chicken, mashed potatoes w/gravy, cole slaw) from Kentucky Fried Chicken. I didn't tell her I used to have the Monster Burger from Hardee's often until I found out it contained over 1100 calories. That cured my craving! I've noticed they're no longer selling the sandwich; I wonder why?
I've still got more to learn, but I feel I've taken a step in the right direction. The thing that's bothering me more than anything else right now is that I can't seem to keep my blood sugar down once I go to bed. If I take my blood sugar, then sleep for at least eight hours, my blood sugar will go up almost 100 points. The nurse said it sounded like my liver may be releasing glucose into my blood during the night, and I might need to take meds to have it stop that. I was instructed to keep a diary for a few days, then fax it to my doctor. Then he can determine whether or not to adjust my diabetic meds. Only time will tell.
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