Jen's Diabetes Blog - December 2006 

30th December 2006

Christmas & New Year festivities = bad sugar levels!?

Woah!  Christmas is finally over after all the hype, the shops full of shoppers and the crazy food eating that accompanies it!

Alissa tells me that she has had the worst levels for the past two weeks as wherever she's been, everyone is eating the WRONG types of food.  It's just carbs, carbs, and more carbs.  Plenty of sugar, white flour and cream too!

We look with envy at the vegetarians who at least have an acceptible alternative carved out for them, in terms of what you should eat over the Christmas period.

Despite our best efforts, the three puddings that our family had made for our Christmas day meal were all high sugar, chocolate filled, and had plenty of fat in as well - I think that there has to be a better way of providing healthy food that isn't at the cost of singling Alissa out for any "special" attention! (See Christmas Recipes - updated Jan 2007)

I notice that Anthony Worral-Thompson has a new diabetes cookbook coming out shortly (Jan 2007) - which, although aimed primarily at adults with Type 2, may well have some useful offerings and recipes for all diabetics.

Next year I feel that we should really work hard to make more of an effort - but I think that both Alissa and myself have determined to learn more about nutrition and healthy eating over the next few months.

28th December 2006

Low GI Diet?

We've just bought a low GI diet recipe book and I picked up some of Elizabeth David's cookbooks including one on French Provincial cooking.  I'm convinced that we can create our own diet which can use a mixture of the old style cooking and the new healthier eating - I don't want to end up eating just tofu and sesame seeds and missing out on some of the more traditional foods!

Today we enjoyed shopping for some simple vegetables and creating our own freshly made soup - at half the cost of the Covent Garden soup boxes (which we love!) we've also had the pleasure of making it ourselves (and using the blender to smooth it a little). 

I'm surprised by what I've learnt so far from reading about the low GI foods - it should help us formulate some healthier meal options over the next few weeks. 

One of the most useful items was the difference between a "normal" plate of food and a low GI diet plate - the latter should have half vegetables, a quarter protein and a quarter carboydrates.  The more traditional diet has just one quarter of vegetables and a full half of carbohydrates.

Although not one to get on the band wagon of the latest diet - I do think that there are some useful things to be learnt from understanding the glycemic index of foods, to help manage blood sugar levels in a better way and reduce those feelings of illness that result from high levels or hyperglycemia.