Spring Break is almost over and, while many college kids are off doing something fun and exciting, us older students are at home cleaning house, dealing with kids, making meals, grocery shopping, doing homework and all the other mundane things that come with having families. Since it is sort of a vacation week I’ve been a bit lax in the eating department. While I wish I could say it’s been a delicious break to eat foods that I don’t normally eat it hasn’t. It’s been a roller coaster ride from hell. And not a fun roller coaster ride either!

     Here’s how my week has been going.

     I worked Saturday night into Sunday morning (I work the night shift). As usual I brought my own low carb supper but ended up snacking on some treats sent in by a patients family. “Healthy” cookies made with oats and raisins. Didn’t end up eating before going to sleep. For lunch I had a sandwich (more healthy whole wheat, sliced chicken and lettuce) and some chips. Hey, it was vacation week. Time to have some fun! Turned out to not be such a smart idea when several hours later my vision started to go and the shakes kicked in. Since I have a seizure disorder my first thought was it’s the beginning of a seizure since they often start this way. When several minutes passed without things getting worse I decided it was time to check my blood sugar. It was a whole whopping 59. Yes, my delish sandwich caused me to crash and burn!

     Several days later I got a sandwich from a local restaurant. Turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Not a healthy sandwich but it was only a small one. Very tastey but my blood sugar crashed again. I felt it coming on when the heart palpitations kicked in.

     Think I was smart enough to pass on the high carb crap? Well think again. My next roller coaster ride was a day later compliments of a lousy piece of store bought cake. Sure it was an 8 inch round cake cut into 12 pieces. Tiny, little pieces that couldn’t possibly do any harm right? After all aren’t you suppose to be able to eat foods like this in moderation? One tiny piece is certainly being moderate considering the rest of what I ate all day was healthy. Wrong! I started feeling terrible shortly after eating that small piece of cake. Over an hour later and I still felt like shit. Yes I did say shit because saying that I felt lousy doesn’t do any justice to how bad I was feeling. When the feeling didn’t let up I checked my blood sugar level. It was a whopping 159. I can’t imagine what it was before that point but it must have been much higher.

     So why share these stories? Well, because sometimes we do things that aren’t exactly good for us and that’s normal. Hopefully you figure out what does and doesn’t work for you and then keep doing what works. Another reason to share is to illustrate the point that low carb eating isn’t only for weight loss. I’ve heard the stories over and over again about how bad low carb diets are for your health or you should only do low carb for limited periods of time before problems start up. Those are just myths that need to be busted. Low carb eating helps with lots of different metabolic issues including:

• PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)
• epilepsy
• insulin resistance
• diabetes (prediabetic, gestational diabetes as well as type 1 and type 2)
• reactive hypoglycemia
• endometriosis

     People who follow a low carb or even a paleo type diet find that their health greatly improves. Weight loss is a bonus. How about you? Following a low carb diet for some reason other than weight loss? Leave a comment and let others know why you eat this way.

I’ve added a few new features to the blog. In the lower right hand corner of each post you will see a small icon with Print PDF written next to it. If you click on this button it will open a screen that shows the post, allows you to alter it by changing the font size or removing the image and allows you to print it off. This will allow you to print off any recipes you may want to try.

Due to a huge number of spam posts that are constantly being sent in lately I’ve started using a new plugin to catch and prevent them from being posted. If you are commenting and your posts aren’t getting through please let me know. I’m hoping that reader comments won’t get deleted when the spammers get weeded out.

For those who would like to comment I’ve enabled to site to use CommentLuv. If you choose to register then you will be able to pick a post from the last 10 you’ve posted to your blog and CommentLuv will include a link.

I added in a new page under the Resources, Tips and Tools page. It has a list of some of my favorite low carb products and books . Many of the low carb products listed can often be found at your local grocery store or health food store. But, in case you can’t locate them, I’ve included links to take you to the various sites where I buy mine.

Now on to the stories that I’ve read over this past week that blow my mind, give me a headache and make my eyes bleed!

Poor Paula Dean! Now that she’s come out with the fact that she is a type 2 diabetic it seems the blogosphere is on fire with stories about her. I think things would have been different if she didn’t share this info in one breath and in another tell us she’s now being compensated to be a spokesperson for an expensive drug. Yet it seems that it’s business as usual when it comes to her cooking show.  Someone even started posting a list of her recipes that she’s been making on her Paula’s Home Cooking show since her announcement: Check them out at Daily Deen. Somethings just never change.

Here’s another great one: Dreamfield’s pasta company has launched a new program to spread awareness of type 2 diabetes and recognize those “DFF’s” (diabetic friends forever instead of BFF’s or best friends forever) who help others with the disease. Of course part of the program is to help educate type 2′s: 
“on the value of making smart health and wellness choices like exercising more and incorporating better-for-you food options — like Dreamfields high-fiber/low-digestible carb pasta — whenever possible. “

If you really want to be a DFF then tell your friends, family and loved ones that even eating Dreamfield’s pasta -whenever possible – is not going to help them control their blood sugar levels. There is no guarantee that this pasta has a lower glycemic index in diabetics so you could be thinking your getting 5 digestible carbs but actually end up with much more. Their own testing procedure pagestates that the people they test the glycemic index of their product were excluded if they had any metabolic conditions with impaired carbohydrate metabolism (diabetes). Hmmmm….your selling this product to diabetics yet you haven’t tested it on diabetics to determine if they breakdown this carb based product the same way as those who are not impaired? Personally, if you want to eat pasta go for the regular stuff. At least your already anticipating the higher carb count and plan for it in your diet. With Dreamfield’s you think according to their claims that you are getting 5 grams of carbs but could end up with far more with the consequence being a huge spike in blood sugar that you never planned for.

Finally, I’ll end on a story that actually doesn’t make me want to bang my head on the desk. Check out this type 1 diabetic telling it like it is – it’s not the butter, burgers, eggs or bacon that hurts diabetics. It’s the pasta, bread, flour and sugar that’s the main cause.

Recently read a story that makes you shake your head and want to scream. Leave a comment and share it with other readers.

If this were the $100,000 pyramid game show I would say Paula Deen and you would answer butter!

With Paula Deen’s supposedly about to reveal that she has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes on the Today show this coming tuesday the only thing people seem to be able to talk about is her love of butter. All the news stories can seem to focus on is the butter and cream in her recipes. This is certainly the cause of the problem they claim. Yet how many of them even notice the amount of carbs used in a majority of her recipes. Dessert recipes don’t just call for sugar. They use granulated sugar, confectioners sugar brown sugar and even corn syrup….all in the same recipe! 

Main stream media doesn’t seem to notice that. It’s only the butter and fat that they can focus on. Yet what is the one thing that causes blood sugars to rise? That would be the carbohydrates in her recipes and not the fat.

But isn’t fat evil? Shouldn’t we try to eliminate as much of it as possible from our diets so we can be healthy and then the number of people who have diabetes will go down?

No (unless it’s transfats). Fat is an important part of your diet. Without going into a huge amount of detail fat protects your internal organs, it helps to insulate your body and protect against temperature extremes. Fat makes up part of the membrane that surrounds every cell in your body. Fat provides two essential fatty acids that are needed by the body for normal growth and development especially the brain! Some vitamins (A, D, E and K) can’t be absorbed by the body unless there is fat present. And, one reason that is never talked about, fat is used to produce ketone bodies which is the main energy source for both the heart and brain. It is the energy source that is preferred over glucose (which is obtained when carbs are broken down). Plus fats don’t raise your blood sugar level while carbs do.

Whether or not Paula is a type 2 diabetic remains to be seen. They will tell you it’s the butter that’s to blame. I say it’s all the rolls and biscuits she put the butter on that’s the real cause.

Have you read anything about this story? Have you tried any of her carbolicious recipes? Do you worry about the butter or the biscuits?

Just a few interesting news stories that came out this past week that make my eyes bleed and give me a headache.

     Seems McDonald’s has joined up with Weight Watchers. Several of their meals will now carry the Weight Watchers logo on them. Right now this is only happening in some of the New Zealand fast food chains. I’m sure, if all goes well, we will be seeing more of this sort of thing everywhere.

     So what meals are now worthy of the low fat loving Weight Watchers logo? Good question! How about the Fillet-O-Fish (18 grams fat and 38 grams of carbs), the Chicken Nuggets (29 grams fat and 30 grams carbs) and the Sweet Chili Seared Chicken Wrap (18.8 grams fat and an estimated 31 grams carbs – couldn’t find it listed in their nutrition info chart). Granted, since Weight Watchers uses a points system to help you with your food choices, each of these items will only cost you 6.5 points.

     I understand that sometimes fast food may be your only option at that time but why not slap their logo on something a bit “healthier” – meaning lower in WW points. The cheeseburger would only cost you 3 Weight Watchers points. Hey, you could even eat two of them and they would have less points than the food items that will carry their logo. Try a premium ceasar salad with grilled chicken for 3 points or splurge and go for the southwest salad with grilled chicken for 6 points.

     This is a big win for McDonalds. Now there’s no need to think about what your eating as long as their a logo from a famous weight loss company on it. That means that the food is healthy right?

And on to the next story:

“Cut your portions, cut your risk”

     That’s the new tag line being used in a series of ads that are being put up in New York subways. The photos show a variety of images that are suppose to scare you into healthier habits. They also include various food pictures (burgers, drinks, etc) which show that portion sizes have increased over the years and are the cause of obesity. Yes, they are right. Portions sizes have increased dramatically but that’s not the only reason why obesity rates have gone up. I could rant on this forever but decided that I’d rather show my favorite ad of the bunch.

     That’s right. Only over weight diabetics end up with amputated legs and it’s because they drank bigger portions of soft drinks. Hate to tell them but diabetes may be linked to obesity but there are plenty of thin diabetics out there and their numbers are increasing too! Many diabetics are probably looking at this ad and scratching their heads because they switched over to sugar free soda years ago and are still having trouble losing weight. Hmm…probably from eating all those healthy whole grains no doubt.

     Has scaring people into changing their habits ever worked? Instead of showing the dark side of things why not go for positive images instead? After all type 2 diabetes, and avoiding leg amputations, can be prevented by eating a healthier diet. You would be amazed at how many people don’t even realize that this is possible. Maybe you should be telling them that instead….just a thought.

Story #3 and the one that absolutely drives me insane:

     Since we are worried about preventing type 2 diabetes we should head on over and check out this story at US News to see which diets they have ranked as “the best”.  Thank goodness they have cut through all the claims and so they can tell us which diets are best for diabetics. Too bad the 19 experts ranked the diets by using the governments recommended daily allowence for fat, protein, carbohydrates and salt. Great….I get the feeling this isn’t going to work out well.

     Winners for top diabetic diets included the Biggest Loser diet (50% of calories from carbs), DASH diet (45 to 60% calories from carbs), Mayo Clinic diet (45 to 60% calories from carbs),  and the Ornish Diet (also 45 to 60% calories from carbs). Thank goodness that getting 45 to 60% of your calories from carbs will help diabetics stay healthy!  NOT.

     How about diets that actually will help diabetics? Ones that are lower in carbs so blood sugar levels are better controlled. Where did they end up in the rankings?

     The South Beach diet came in at #20 and the experts concluded that there is no good evidence that this diet can help prevent or control diabetes. Why? Gasp….”It doesn’t provide enough carbs in any phase, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines”. As my daughters would say: OMG. After all we all know you should have plenty of carbs in your diet so your blood sugar levels can spike up high (said with a heavy dose of sarcasm).

     The Paleo diet came in at #24. Again, the experts weigh in with this bit of info: “By shunning dairy and grains, you’re at risk of missing out on a lot of nutrients”. Hey, wait a minute. Don’t vegetarians and vegans shun whole food groups? Yes they do! Yet the experts think that the vegan diet, with it’s 45 to 65% of calories coming from carbs, is so fabulous that it came in at #3 on the diabetic diet list and vegetarian diets came in at #4. If only the paleo diet didn’t cut carbs to 23% of the governments recommended amounts perhaps it would have ranked higher. Just think of all the diabetics that will have better blood sugar control by eating fewer carbs. The government certainly wouldn’t want that!

     And the one diet that I think just about everyone refers back to when they want to point out all that is “evil” in low carb dieting: the Atkins diet. The Atkins diet was tied with the South Beach diet at #20. Again another horrible diet for diabetics whose bodies CAN’T process carbs correctly because the Atkins diet doesn’t provided ENOUGH carbs to reach their recommended 45 to 65% that we should be eating. As Susan Powter, low fat diet guru, would say: STOP THE INSANITY!!!!!  I need some Tylenol….this list is giving me a headache.

     But wait! It’s not all doom and gloom out there. Check out this newstory:

     “The Fall River Fitness Challenge is sponsoring a support group for people who are currently on or are considering following a low-carbohydrate diet, either to lose weight or to stabilize or prevent medical conditions such as diabetes.”

     This peer to peer support group is starting up in Fall River, Massachusetts and is being run by a clinical psychologist. The weekly meetings are being held at, wait for it, the Diabetes Association located at 170 Pleasant Street. YES! Now that’s one news story that didn’t make me want to bang my head on the desk over and over again.

How about you? Seen any news stories lately that make you want to scream? Share a link in the comment section below.