Diabetics have a love/hate relationship with food. For many of us it’s a life/death relationship as well. Once you get that diagnosis you will never look at food the same way–or you shouldn’t, if you want to live long and prosper.
Those of us who have Type 2 can often, if the diagnosis comes early enough, keep our blood glucose levels under control by carefully choosing what we eat, and by making sure we get some kind of exercise every day, without taking any of the various medications available. That does, however, mean that one’s dietary restrictions will almost certainly impinge upon one’s social life and other interpersonal connections.
I managed with diet-and-exercise for about four years after the diagnosis. Unfortunately, for most of that time span I worked for someone whose culture places a very high regard on food and eating, and who could not or would not understand what I needed to do to stay healthy. I could not “just try” the greasy, sugary stuff that appeared on the office tables during parties. I could not have regular soft drinks. And I could not go to the staff Christmas party that was to be held at a restaurant whose set menu for large groups involved large servings of grease and sugar. (Well, let me amend that–I could certainly have gone to the restaurant, but I couldn’t have eaten anything there, and I didn’t particularly want to contribute $30 to sit and drink coffee while everyone else got to eat.)
It was an unresolvable impediment to my relationship with my boss, and neither of us ever found common ground. I did my best to explain, but I was left with the impression that she thought I was being stubbornly unreasonable. Ah well. Water under the bridge.
It’s been eleven years now since I got the bad news and I’ve progressed through various oral medications and am now 
on insulin. That does not bother me. In fact, it’s so much easier to deal with that I’ve found my dietary choices actually expanding just a bit. I don’t have to drink vile tasting diet soda any more. Granted, I can only have one small cup full of regular soda (the kind that’s sweetened with sugar, for reasons I’ll discuss in a moment) but I grew up in an era where a 6-ounce bottle of soda was considered one serving so I’m fine with that. By the way, should any of you be in the same situation, I can wholeheartedly recommend the book Using Insulin. It explains everything.
Being on insulin often means weight gain. Your body isn’t flushing out calories through the kidneys any more and is actually able to use more of what you consume, and guess what happens next. I have gained a bit of weight and am now making a very concerted effort to reverse that. As part of the effort I am turning much more of an eagle eye on the content of the foods I consume.
The first thing I did was eliminate to the fullest extent possible anything that contains high fructose corn syrup. I know there’s no absolute proof that it’s harmful to health, but (despite what a Del Monte representative told me when I complained about the change in the ingredients in their ketchup) it is an unnatural product, and if there’s anything we denizens of the USA in the 21st century ought to get through our heads, it’s that the more we try to fool mother nature the worse off we are.
The second thing I did was to do my best to increase the amount of dietary fiber I consumed each day. That wasn’t anywhere near as difficult as was getting rid of HFCS. Besides consuming more fruit, vegetables and whole grains I added fiber supplements, and have seen quite a few benefits already. My blood sugar is under much better control and I am using noticeably less insulin than I did even a month ago. And yes, I’m losing weight. Who knew it could be this simple?
What got me to thinking about this? I went grocery shopping today. Since I was a kid I’ve preferred the taste of Miracle Whip over mayonnaise, but of course eliminating HFCS from my diet meant no more genuine Miracle Whip on my sandwiches. I found that the Ralphs and Vons store-brand analogues did not contain HFCS so I was happy. Today I picked up a jar at Ralphs and found they’d changed the ingredients. Growl. I had also been buying Del Monte ketchup because it did not have HFCS (did have regular corn syrup) but they changed ingredients too. Now I buy Ralphs store brand “organic” ketchup. I have had to find different brands of pickle relish, salad dressings (hooray for Newman’s Own!) and other condiments. Many’s the processed food item I’ve had to talk my husband into putting back on the shelf. I stopped buying coffee creamer (just as well, it was mostly chemicals anyway–now I use considerably less half-and-half in my coffee). I now carry my reading glasses in my purse so I can give those ingredients a focused fish eye.
Is all this food-picking quixotic? I don’t think so. If more of us refuse to buy chemical glop and choose instead to buy the less-processed, less-chemical foods, the food companies will eventually take notice of what sells and what does not. So far, it seems that the companies that make store-brand products have not found it unprofitable to use the more natural ingredients that the big agribiz companies have replaced with chemical glop. I do see that Pepsi and Coke are dallying in the sugar-sweetened-beverage market a bit beyond Passover season, so there’s hope.
As a diabetic I will need to be careful about what I put in my mouth for the rest of my life. As a consumer, I’d like to think I’d be doing the same no matter what.
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Out of the blue, he said “And be sure to vote for Romney.” It had nothing to do with the conversation, and nothing to do with the business of the store. And of course even if the cashier disagreed, he could only stand there and offer no opinion.
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Wile E. and Me
Coyotes. Somehow the famous Warner cartoons and the Disney movies make them seem cute and funny and appealing. When they’re prowling through your back yard at two in the morning, they’re downright toxic. And scary. And looking to make a meal out of any critter they happen to find.
I don’t think I’d care too much if a coyote chowed down on one of the possums that come around, and I’m sure the raccoons could easily kick them some coyote butt (and I know I would not want to hear THAT going on) but the appeal for them in our yard is the small family of feral cats we’ve been taking care of for about a year now. I like those cats. I do not want to think of them being coyote chow.
At least one of the cats thinks the same way, because the other night I heard a scuffle and a yip and by the time I got to the window the mangy coyote was headed out the driveway at top speed. In the morning we found small blood drops on the pavement. I think one of our cats smacked not-so-Wile-E a good one across the chops, and more power to her if that’s what happened, but she’s not always going to be so lucky.
So our goal is to keep those lousy canines from getting into the yard in the first place regardless of how tasty it smells. We’re still not sure how they’re getting in. Probably over the wall between our house and our neighbor’s, which is wood on their side and stone on ours, or over the short chain link gate in the side yard. I did see a coyote slinking down the neighbor’s driveway once, and they have no barrier between driveway and back yard. We have a metal gate on our driveway, but I don’t think they are going over, under, or through it because we would hear it rattle. I didn’t see how the coyote got out of the driveway that night, nor did I hear the gate, so I’m guessing it went over the wall onto our front porch and out that way. Which means it knew the way and might have come in that way as well. They evolved to be stealthy.
So, after a little internet research, we decided on the least expensive deterrent: Locally Produced Large Male Carnivore Coyote Repellent. Yes, it’s what you think it is: The two resident males peed in a spray bottle and then went out and anointed all the possible coyote entrance routes. We figured this would not bother the cats because they’re familiar with the way our two resident male carnivores smell, and that turned out to be correct.
Then I bought some battery powered LED motion detector lights on closeout at Home Depot. The idea is to affix them to places where they’ll be more or less protected from the elements but still aimed to get into the eyes of marauding canines. Haven’t done that yet, still debating the best placement. I think probably on the wall of the garage, somewhere on the front porch and perhaps on the side wall of the house.
An article I read recently recommends “coyote hazing,” which means making plenty of noise and waving your hands around and generally giving the coyote the idea that he wants to be somewhere else. (No mention of whether yelling BEEP BEEP would make a difference.) I did try that, but at 2am I didn’t want to go full-out or the neighbors would be reporting me as a nuisance. For the first time in my life I’m considering buying a BB pistol. I don’t want to kill the coyotes (and I don’t want a real gun in the house) but it would be very satisfying indeed to be able to zing one of ‘em on the ass as it trots off up the street.
Since we started spraying the Repellent around, we have not had any more nocturnal prowling, scuffling or yipping. Whether this is because the Repellent work or because the mangy beasts are off eating someone else’s critters, I don’t know. I’m just happy not to be waked up by sinister Canis latrans in the middle of the night.
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