A Diabetes Super Food

First off, thanks to everyone who weighed in with their own problems with delayed insulin. As I mentioned, I’ve had numerous conversations with endocrinologists and still have never gotten a good answer as to why it happens — but as you all apparently know as well, it does. And it’s really annoying. Perhaps one of the Sweet Life experts can weigh in on this, but I wonder if the problem is the same if you’re just on shots. By which I mean, is the problem stemming from an issue with my pump infusion set? Am I having problems with “tunneling” — the phenomenon where you start to heal a bit around the cannula, and insulin absorbs differently? Or is the insulin actually spreading out in my body but just not taking action till I start to move — in which case, it wouldn’t make a difference if I were on a pump or not?

In either case, it’s infuriating. But I have found a potential solution — albeit one that I’m not sure most people will want to take me up on: eat cabbage. Like, lots of it. My husband is still out of town and I’m finding that whereas he uses my absences as an excuse to binge on salad bowl-sized servings of pasta, I act out differently — namely, via cabbage and tuna fish. As I mentioned last night, that sounds kind of gross. But both those foods have virtually no effect on your blood sugar — and in the case of the fish, provide a convenient vehicle for eating what would otherwise be a sickening amount of mayonnaise. In my mind, at least, that’s a double win.

But back to the cabbage — arguably the healthier of the two — try this: shred some cabbage and some carrots. Chop up some cilantro, mint, basil and a handful of peanuts. Mix a dressing of rice vinegar, peanut oil, and a touch of sugar and salt. Toss it all together and voila — a delicious, Vietnamese-inspired salad with virtually no carbohydrates. I also find that it takes a fair amount of effort to chew raw cabbage, which means that I often give up the fight well before I actually finish the bowl.

And if you’d rather have a sandwich than a bowl of cruciferous vegetables, I suggest trying Symlin. It slows down the emptying of your stomach, which gives your insulin a bit of a head start to begin acting. Granted, there are still times — like yesterday — where the food wins the race, and also, Symlin does increase your chance of going low. (My suggestion: wait a bit before taking insulin, and do a dual wave.)  But I still think it makes a difference.

Catherine Price

Catherine Price (www.catherine-price.com) was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. She has written for publications including The Best American Science Catherine Price is a professional journalist who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. Her work has been featured in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, Popular Science, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Salon, Slate, Men’s Journal, Health Magazine, The Oprah Magazine, and Outside, among others. A graduate of Yale and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism

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Catherine Price

Catherine Price was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. She has written for publications including The Best American Science Catherine Price is a professional journalist who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. Her work has been featured in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, Popular Science, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Salon, Slate, Men’s Journal, Health Magazine, The Oprah Magazine, and Outside, among others. A graduate of Yale and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism