Move over Nick Jonas, these days Crystal Bowersox is definitely the hottest musician with an insulin pump. In fact, she’s the hottest musician around – period. I don’t just love Bowersox because she has type 1 diabetes. I love her voice, her style, and her charm. I’m looking forward to this week’s American Idol, so I can see the clips from her hometown Ohio visit. For me, watching American Idol is kind of like a hometown visit. I live in Tel Aviv now, and haven’t been back to Houston, my hometown, for many years. But when I’m watching Idol, I immediately revert back to my 12-year-old Texan self. The only real difference is that 12-year-old me snacks on Chips Ahoy and M&M’s, while grown-up diabetic me snacks on cheese and cucumbers. I suppose another difference would be that 12-year-old me might think Casey James is cute. Grown-up me definitely does not. In fact, I don’t get him at all. How is he still on the show after that horrific Huey Lewis performance?
On a different subject: I enjoyed reading so many of the D-Blog week posts. I wish I’d been organized and free enough to participate. I found Scott Strumello’s post on To Carb or Not to Carb especially interesting because it addresses an issue that I never really consider: protein raises blood sugar. Scott writes, “nutritional components, especially proteins, do in fact also raise blood glucose levels. The main difference is that while a piece of bread will show up in your blood glucose test results within a matter of minutes, protein usually takes anywhere from 6 to 8 hours before hitting your blood glucose.”
So often I find myself trying to figure out why my blood sugar is high, even though I haven’t eaten a thing for hours, or when I’ve eaten only protein and a salad. Now I have a new variable to consider. Protein. And actually this brings to mind a DiabetesDaily interview I read the other day with Dr. Bernstein in which Dr. Bernstein says, “The blood sugar is not just dependent on the amount of carbs and the amount of protein, but also on the bulk, the physical bulk of what you’re putting in your gut. When you stretch your gut you raise your blood sugar if you’re diabetic.”
I think, my friends, that I cannot really handle the issue of gut stretching. That is where I draw the line. If you would like to tell me how you bolus for gut stretching, I’d love to hear.
And now I’ll close with some very cute news: Little Adam took his first steps yesterday!
