A Carb or Starve Situation

If you only have a few minutes to read something about diabetes today, I suggest you skip over my blog and go directly to this article, Is Sugar Toxic? If you have more than a few minutes, please enjoy reading why sometimes, many times, most of the time, I feel like a giant failure.

The thing that takes up most of my time is parenting (100%).  And then comes diabetes work/ASweetLife(80%) and diabetes care (40%).  When you throw in pets, errands, and the occasional need to sleep… you can probably understand why I get overwhelmed, why there’s a punchy tone in my blog today, and why I’m overusing commas (the need to pause!).  On days like today, I am a mess.  I don’t just mean I’m a mess because I haven’t put in my contact lenses for months, or worn any makeup since last summer, or even because little birds are swooping by my head almost mistaking my hair for a nest.  I’m a mess because my toddler has been up every 30 minutes for the last two nights.  He’s congested and coughing.  I caught his cold.  My husband has hay fever and has been sneezing every 20 seconds.  My older sons have vacation from school.  The dog has an eye infection.  And the refrigerator is totally empty.  I was so hungry a little while ago that I felt like I didn’t have the strength to go grocery shopping without eating something first.  And after opening and closing the refrigerator and the pantry a number of times, I came to the conclusion that I was going to eat carbs.  There was absolutely nothing else in the house.  I had no choice! It was truly a carb-or-starve situation. So I ate some granola.  Now my blood sugar is high and I feel much worse than I did when I was starving, and as I said before, I feel like a failure.

At times like this, I find it consoling to play a game called: At least I didn’t eat that! For example: I ate granola, but at least I didn’t eat Resse’s peanut butter cups.  Or, I ate a bowl of pasta for dinner, but at least I didn’t eat ice cream for dessert.  Or, at a party last night I ate pretzels, chips, and chocolate covered almonds, but at least I didn’t wash them down with vodka.

I don’t find myself in this situation very often.  I put a lot of thought into what I eat.  And the same goes for the recipes we publish on ASweetLife.  Now, I know there are many ways to manage diabetes and not everyone believes in restricting their diet.  That said, I firmly believe that dietary restrictions are key to keeping blood sugar levels under control.  Anyway… since it’s my job to read about diabetes, I’ve been taking notes recently on “diabetic-friendly” recipes I come across on other websites.  To say the least, I think there are some really bad recipes/advice out there.  I don’t mean bad because they taste bad.  I mean bad because they aren’t the kinds of food I think people with diabetes should be encouraged to eat.  Since I’m on this subject, now seems as good a time as any for me to play a game called: At least I didn’t publish that!

Check this out: The hugely popular food site, The Kitchn posted a Q and A last week.  A reader, Carol, requested a suggestion for a preparing a diabetic friendly dish to serve her boyfriend’s aunt at a celebratory brunch.  The editor at The Kitchn recommended Crispy Turnovers with Apple, Bacon, and Caramelized Onions because, hey, they don’t have any sugar.  But guess what they do have? Two sheets of frozen puff pastry, apple, and onions!  Now, if you suspect, as I did, that frozen pastry puff  has not just flour, but sugar, too, as one of its ingredients, meaning that the turnovers do in fact have sugar, you might start clicking around to confirm your suspicion.  And then you might find this page on The Kitchn which lists the ingredients of Trader Joe’s frozen puff pastry: flour, butter, salt, sugar (I knew it!), and water.  At least it doesn’t have hydrogenated oil.  And really, the main point here should be that this isn’t a dessert recipe!  It would be one thing if this were a low sugar dessert.  But it’s a puff pastry main course for a diabetic.

Dear Carol, I know you didn’t ask me, but I suggest this for your brunch: Asparagus and Smoked Salmon Frittata. Or Baked Eggs.

Phew, I’m slowly beginning to feel better about myself, and my blood sugar is coming down.  Apparently ranting burns carbs.   If you still haven’t read this article, go do it now!

Jessica Apple

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 has continued to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets).

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Jessica Apple

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)