Letters to the Editor
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Insulin and weight gain and diet
Have to agree with County Girl here on most points. Over the last 35 years I have had dealings with many type 1 diabetics and they are rarely overweight. Type 2 diabetes, now that is a different matter. The Type 2 diabetic is not dependent on insulin, but is managed with oral hypoglycaemics (drugs) and diet. One of the main CAUSES of Type 2 is obesity--when you make your body so big, your pancreas cannot produce enough insulin, though it does not entirely shut down production as in Type 1.
For Type 1, the point of insulin pumps and frequent testing should not be to allow the diabetic to eat all kinds of sugar-laden crap ad lib, though occasionally they may want to eat a piece of wedding cake, or something, which they should be able to do without becoming comatose.
Effective management of Type 1 means eating regularly on schedule and eating a diet that provides adequate nutrition without concentrated carbohydrates, like sodas that contain 11 teaspoons of sugar in one 20 ounce drink. It means not eating a whole pack of cookies at once, etc.
In fact it would do all of us, diabetic or non diabetic, no harm at all to adhere to a 2000 calorie American Diabetic Association diet.
A quick answer to a post above regarding the cost of healthy eating. I don't think it is necessary to go to expensive or distant stores for special foods. The key to healthy diet is to buy basic ingredients, preferably fresh, cook standard recipes for your culture, ethicity, or preferred cuisine, and eat regularly scheduled meals--breakfast, lunch, dinner.
Avoid extra high fat and sugar items like cheese cake and full-strength Ccoca Cola except as occasional treats. As a general principle avoid supermarket processed and prepared food as they are generally high in sugar and fats. They also cost more than preparing your own food.
Avoid fast foods and takeout for the same reason, or if you must eat out, pick your spot. Half a block from my house is a Mexican tienda or supermercado that has a cafeteria corner that serves dinner daily. The Mexican family that owns the place eats this food, and you can often see up to about 20 of them (a few in-laws, cousins, grand-dads etc. and the numbers soon add up) all sat down together eating their daily dinner around 5:30 p.m., so you can say this is as close to home-cooked food as you will get--and a full dinner inclusive of tortillas and fresh salsa is $6.42 including tax. This type of take-out is OK, but try to avoid anything with a national brand because they will always try to tweak their recipes (it seems to me) for maximum profitability by stacking them with cheap fats and sugars.
Even for the diabetic, it is never the individual meal that does you in. A single Coca Cola will not kill you or destroy your teeth--(you will need up to whole case for that!) but your regular eating habits, the things that you repeat over and over and over will make or break your health in the long run.
Hence you might as well get used to drinking unsweetened ice tea right now. It is incredibly cheap to make and all you need to do is drop some tea bags in a pitcher of cold water, place in fridge and wait one hour to drink.
You also need to watch out for consumption of alcoholic beverages. For some reason these do not have nutritional information labeling, but rest assured that there are plenty of calories in beer, alcohol is a carbohydrate, and a small beer is about 150 calories which is about the same as a serving of chocolate fudge pudding.
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Written by a novelist?
Then there's a good chance the piece is fiction.
At best, we can expect inaccurate data, overdramatization and hyperbole, not to mention the glossy, glib Salon style that seems to permeate the entire site (as if it's all written by one person).
If you're going to run pieces like this, please, get a medical person who knows what she/he is talking about.
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SELF has big article on diabulimia this month
http://www.self.com/livingwell/articles/2007/10/1022diabulimia
This article cover everything and actually tells you where to go for help. Pass on to as many people as possible. This topic is still widely unknown, or people who do know don't know where to get help.