After my diagnosis last August, while waiting the 3 months it took to get an appointment with the highly-rated Park Avenue endocrinologist, I decided to begin educating myself about diabetes self-management. From the beginning, the things I heard from the hospital's diabetes educators and read in pamphlets from the ADA didn't make sense. Eat plenty of carbs, but learn to cover them with insulin. What? If carbs are the problem, why not eat fewer of them? At this point, I was fortunate to come across Dr. Bernstein's book. His theory, in a nutshell, is that the way to achieve normal (non-diabetic) blood sugars is to cut down drastically on carbohydrates. Terrified by all I had read about diabetic complications, I decided to give it a try. Close to 6 months into it, I can report that it is not for the faint of heart. You really do give up most everything you love. But the payoff? In my case, relatively stable and predictable blood sugars. And the more closely you follow the diet guidelines, the better the results. (disclaimer: I haven't had an A1c test since October, at which point it was 6.1. It will be interesting to see what my March number is.)
So anyway, returning to the purported subject of this entry, there is a silver lining of sorts. After you cut out bread, pasta, cereal, fruit, etc., and go through the "what's left to eat?" phase, you begin to get creative. Here are a few things I almost never ate pre-D that I've added to my diet.
Avocados - I always thought they were "too fattening". The good news is that, when you cut out carbs, you can eat pretty much anything else you want without gaining weight.
Nuts - Yes, I know they have some carbs, but they're also full of healthy fat.
Cheese - My current favorite is dill havarti. Great with a slice of avocado on a . . .
WASA fiber rye crispbread - the only breadlike substance permitted by Dr. B. At first I thought they were dry and tasteless, but now I'd rather have them than bread.
Eggs - scrambled eggs with sauteed kale or other veggies, topped with cheese, makes the best breakfast in the world.
Better than Bouillion concentrate - Before diabetes, my favorite afternoon snack was a grande skim latte from Starbucks, a nice shot of caffeine along with about 20 grams of fast acting carbs. I've replaced that with a cup of chicken, beef or beef mixed with chili base broth, and discovered that just having a hot drink is about 75 % of what I'm looking for. I do miss those lattes, though.
Cream - Yikes. You might as well sell your soul to the devil as admit that you ingest heavy cream. But a little goes a long way in a cup of coffee.
Sliced deli turkey - I did eat this before diabetes, but now I eat A LOT of it.
Leafy greens - Great sauteed and mixed into eggs. My current favorite, as mentioned above, is kale.
Olive oil - I was one of those people who tried to saute things in a half teaspoon of diet margarine. Using actual oil tastes better and makes the frying pan easier to clean.
Canned tuna, salmon, sardines, etc. - A great lunch accompanied by a big salad.
Blue cheese dressing - another of those "it's too fattening" items. These days I have a spoonful on the salad mentioned above.
Celery - something I always actively disliked. Great sauteed in eggs or dipped in blue cheese dressing.
Ricotta cheese - I'm not sure of Dr. Bernstein's position on ricotta, but I find that a small bowl of it topped with chopped nuts has a negligible effect on my blood sugar.
Much to my surprise, I'd actually rather eat these things than a big bowl of sugary cereal or a dish of pasta. Most days, anyway.
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