Jessica Apple grew up in Houston. She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and continues to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets).
Jessica’s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, The Southern Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, Tablet Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the diabetes correspondent for The Faster Times. In 2009 she and her husband, both type 1 diabetics, founded A Sweet Life, where she serves as editor-in-chief. Jessica loves spending time with her sons, cooking with her husband, playing with her cats, reading, biking, drinking coffee, and whenever possible, taking a nap.
Follow Jessica on Twitter (@jessapple)
But the last thing anyone wants to do is dress up as a freaking glucose meter. Or worse, a CGM that beeps all through the party. And then... you can't dress up as a syringe or everyone will think you're a prick. You know what happened to me last time I wore my paper mache metformin costume?
Rather than telling patients they’re wrong, I try to give them the tools to make good decisions about their health. Guilt is not a motivator. And we tend to overlook baby steps. It’s not realistic to tell a patient to change their entire diet overnight. But asking a patient to cut out one thing, sodas, for example, can make a big impact on overall health.
I don’t feel better or worse about having diabetes because, collectively, we’re making a lot of noise this month, and I don’t know if we’re getting through to anyone who doesn’t already know and care about diabetes. But the more I think about it, the more I begin to understand what these awareness months are really about.
Since like underwear, an insulin pump is constantly worn close to the body, Isherwood believes the way it looks, feels and is carried should reflect its intimate nature. "It's my belief that pump accessories should be more at home in an underwear drawer than a medicine cabinet," she says.
I love black cats, pumpkins, and kids in adorable costumes, but I hate Halloween. As the parent of a child with food allergies, it is truly a terrifying holiday. I know that some parents of children with diabetes feel the same way. Because... how do you keep your child safe when sugar and allergens are everywhere?
Everyone is better off with a mouthful of vampire teeth than a mouthful of sugar. To make Halloween shopping a little easier, we've put together a list for you of 8 perfect Halloween treats that aren't candy.
We've long been fans of vegetables for breakfast, but making a salad for breakfast is not necessarily quick. Slicing a few cucumbers lengthwise, however, takes no time at all. Cucumbers are surprisingly refreshing and might just jump start your day.
I knew if were to wake up one morning and stop eating everything I loved, I'd be hungry and cranky. So, I gave up carbs gradually and turned into a low carber with ease. Here are the steps that helped me. If you are considering a low carb diet, I hope they'll help you, too.
Mike and I sometimes laugh about the fact that when we started this magazine in 2009, we had some worries that we wouldn’t be able to drum up enough content to sustain it. Turns out, there is so much to write about life with diabetes we can’t come even close to covering it all with our small team.
Last month, the journal Nature published a study that showed consuming non-caloric artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose, is associated with glucose intolerance – a condition leading to higher-than-normal blood glucose levels.
