{"id":5909,"date":"2010-03-16T08:59:36","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T12:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=5909"},"modified":"2015-12-31T04:15:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-31T09:15:19","slug":"one-lucky-duck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=5909","title":{"rendered":"One Lucky Duck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the early days of my relationship with my husband \u2013 back when he was still trying to figure out how best to deal with my bad moods when I had high blood sugar \u2013 he used to call me a \u201clucky duck.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

Me: \u201cMy blood sugar is 257 and won\u2019t come down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Him: \u201cWho\u2019s a lucky duck?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sarma Melngailis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His logic, he later explained, was that by being sarcastic he was being supportive. I wasted no time \u2013 or expletives \u2013 telling him this was unhelpful, and he\u2019s since switched to empathetic hugs. After that, I never really connected lucky ducks to diabetes until I heard about\u00a0One Lucky Duck<\/a>, an online boutique founded by Sarma Melngailis, author of the raw, vegan cookbook\u00a0Living Raw Food<\/a>. <\/em>Melngailis, a French Culinary Institute and Wharton School of Business grad, has a singular goal for her restaurant, books and business: \u201cto present raw food to the public in a fun, sexy and accessible way.\u201d Her logo for this endeavor is a duck.<\/p>\n

In case you haven\u2019t spent much time in Berkeley, CA, here\u2019s the idea behind raw food:\u00a0 it\u2019s made from plant-based ingredients that are never heated above 118 degrees F.\u00a0 This, says its advocates, preserves the food\u2019s enzymes, vitamins and minerals \u2013 making it healthier and more digestible than traditional cooked food. As if the whole \u201cunheated\u201d concept weren\u2019t enough, many raw food establishments also are vegan, meaning they don\u2019t use any animal products at all. Spend any time at all reading raw, vegan menus, and you will be impressed by the many ways nuts can be forced to masquerade as cheese.<\/p>\n

If you write much about diabetes, it\u2019s only a matter of time before someone\u2019s going to mention raw food to you. Occasionally these comments are idiotic \u2013 I have to refrain from delivering a lecture on immunology each time someone suggests that if I just stopped eating chicken soup, my Type 1 diabetes would be cured. But still, I\u2019ve become curious as to whether raw food \u2013 vegan or not \u2013 might be a useful eating style for all types of diabetes. \u00a0Most people\u2019s diets could be improved by adding broccoli; the question \u00a0is whether it\u2019s possible to make raw vegetables taste like anything more than a crudite platter. So when I got the chance to sample the tasting menu at Melngailis\u2019s restaurant, Pure Food and Wine<\/a>,\u00a0 I snapped it up.<\/p>\n

To my delight, Pure Food and Wine is not a gathering spot for granola-eaters. (Or, at least not granola-eaters who wear Birkenstocks and are morally opposed to bathing.) Instead, Melngailis has created a candle-lit, plush dining room tucked into Manhattan\u2019s tony Gramercy Park. A quietly attentive staff bustles around in black-and-white-striped aprons, serving food and happily educating patrons on the details of biodynamic wine. That\u2019s right: \u00a0in contrast to the stereotype of yerba-matte-swigging purists, there\u2019s\u00a0 a cocktail menu and wine list.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My meal began with a crispy papaya salad, topped with a sesame lime dressing, tomatoes and micro cilantro \u2013 young, tiny shoots that pack more of a punch than the full-grown herb. The papaya was shredded into thin noodles and, like the traditional Thai papaya salads on which it was based,\u00a0 the dressing carried a kick. My second course, a curried celeriac bisque, packed similar heat \u2013 though the spiciness was tempered by the celeriac\u2019s sweetness and a sprinkling of ruby-red pomegranate seeds on top. As I took my first sip, I realized something that should have been obvious, but surprised me nonetheless: not heating your food above 118 degrees means that it\u2019s never really served hot. My soup, while not cold, hovered somewhere around the temperature of a cup of coffee left on your desk for a half hour.<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019m not a fan of spicy foods, I was more impressed by the third course, a sweet corn enchilada served with a shredded carrot and jicama salad on top of tomatillo sauce, accompanied by a half an avocado and the evening\u2019s first nut cheese, made from ground up cashews. The enchilada, served slightly warm, was delicious \u2013 beautifully plated and rich in flavor. I could tell by the sweetness that it was far from a diabetic \u201cfree-food,\u201d but compared to a normal enchilada\u2019s tortilla (not to mention the accompanying rice and beans), it was a big step up. My final savory course was even better:\u00a0 a succulent Portobello mushroom served with pine nuts, spinach, cherry tomatoes, black olives and a smoked paprika aioli, its ingredients artfully layered into a three-level tower. From a diabetic standpoint, this dish was possibly the best –the blend of flavors created a multi-textured taste so satisfying that there was no need for sweetness or starch. Even if I were able to make my own insulin, I would order this again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Allow me to pause before dessert \u2013 an important line in the sand for anyone with a dysfunctional pancreas. At this point in the evening, I was beginning to believe the hype: from what I\u2019d eaten, it seemed that gourmet raw food did indeed hold promise for people with diabetes. This had nothing to do with enzymes \u2013 a claim that I have not fully investigated \u2013 but rather with one simple fact: most carbohydrate-laden vegetables need to be cooked. Who\u2019s going to eat a raw butternut squash? When does your stomach crave an uncooked potato? Serving only foods that can be rendered edible by low heat cut out most of the starchy vegetables that wreak havoc on blood sugar. In that sense, a dinner at Pure Food and Wine makes a great diabetic choice.\u00a0 But I would have to order a la carte, because the tasting menu includes dessert.<\/p>\n

Say what you will about agave syrup and its low glycemic index: eat enough sweet stuff, and eventually, my friends, you pay the price. \u00a0So you can imagine what happened when, probably because of a miscommunication between me and the waiter, I ended up with not just the \u201cTrio of Dark Chocolate Coated Indian-Spiced Treats\u201d (a chocolate cardamom coconut ice cream cone, pistachio gelato ice cream sandwich, and\u00a0 a chai tea creamiscle) but also the Chocolate Passion Fruit Tart (passion fruit curd with fresh raspberries, framboise pearls, vanilla cream and chocolate cacao\u00a0 nib ice cream).<\/p>\n

Whoops. Making things worse was the fact that, while some people might not have great things to say about lukewarm soup, the desserts were objectively delicious (an especially impressive feat given the lack of dairy). I particularly loved the passion fruit tart \u2013 simultaneously tangy and sweet, with a wonderful blend between vanilla, fruit and chocolate.\u00a0 It had a mixture of flavors and textures that is actually making my mouth water as I type.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After the meal, I decided to walk back home \u2013 about 70 blocks \u2013 in hopes that some physical activity might counteract the effects of my passion fruit indiscretions. And indeed, when I arrived home nearly an hour later, I was shocked to find that, despite some very conservative bolusing on my part, my blood sugar was hovering below 100. Could it be true? Was raw food actually the holy grail of blood sugar control?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it is not. I woke up later that night to find that my blood sugar, after staying steady for an impressive amount of time, skyrocketed to the low 300s and took several hours more to get back under control. This situation would no doubt have been better if I\u2019d said no to the chocolate trio \u2013 an approach that, should I return to Pure Food and Wine, I\u2019ll be sure to try. But that night, I\u2019d gone for broke. My desserts might have had low glycemic indexes, but that didn\u2019t change the fact that they were sweet.<\/p>\n

For those who can\u2019t visit Pure Food and Wine firsthand, you can order some of One Lucky Duck\u2019s snacks on their website.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Catherine Price<\/strong>\u00a0is a regular contributor to ASweetLife, she writes the blog\u00a0The Reluctant Diabetic<\/a><\/em>
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