Diabetic Chewers

I'm probably headed that way. Runs very heavily in my family (Dad, Granddad, Cousin, etc) and I don't eat as well as I should.

My heart goes out to you. It's a bitch of a thing to deal with. The good news is, it IS very combat-able given enough willpower.

I was given the news a couple of days before Haloween 2007...Thanks for that one Doc. I have managed to drop some weight and not change my lifestyle too radically. My diet on the other hand is new and different. I thought it would be hard to give up soft drinks but it turned out better than I thought it would. A couple of headaches from caffine withdrawl but nothing else. I have learned to appreciate fruits and vegetables again. I try to exercise more. In the end I found it was not the worst thing that could have happened to me and it may just help me last a little longer on this big blue marble.

Alan, while I'm not diabetic, I do know of a couple of people who have battled with it. The one thing I can tell you is to just please, change your lifestyle and do what your doctors tell you to do. I'm not sure how different it is for everyone, but if a piece of cake caused your blood level to spike that high, it sounds like you're one of the ones who has to be careful with absolutely everything you eat.

My stepdad's niece died at age 27 from juvenile diabetes, which I know is very different than adult onset diabetes. She was never careful - never. Not just with food, but she also drank alot, and was also a drug user. She went blind at the age of 26, and was dead by 27. Also, my mom is a retired nurse, and she's seen patients who wound up with some serious problems by just not taking care of themselves.

Have you ever seen that nut on the internet who calls herself "Winter Rose" - she's like a ren-faire freak, and a lot of the "Cyberweirdos" sites like Encyclopedia Dramatica follow her doings because she's just so delusional. Anyway, the one thing that's not funny about her is that she's diabetic, and she always indulges in sweets, frappacinos, pizza, etc., and winds up in the hospital every single time (she posts about this stuff). She just never gets that you have to be careful as hell with everything you eat, how you monitor your blood sugar, etc.

I wish you luck with it - and I know you can do it. Think of all the health benefits you'll have, the movies you'll still be able to see, if you can use your willpower. Good luck!

Except for very, very rare occasions, I gave up soft drinks years ago.

And that really had more to do with me realizing, diabetes aside, just how fucking HORRIBLE all the excess sugar in my diet made me feel.

My biggest problem at this point is cholesterol. I've been a cheeseburger fiend since a young child, and only in the past few years have I tried to actually start watching to any degree what I eat.

My metabolism kept me pretty slim and fit up until college (used to work out a lot as well). But once the fat started appearing, I was forced to examine the sad truth that I actually can't eat however much shit everyday and get away with it.

That's just not true at all. It takes more time and discipline to eat healthy, but it's certainly not more expensive.

Just to add to Lisa's post:

Both my father and my father-in-law are diabetics. My father, to his credit, did the whole 'lifestyle change' thing and has gotten to the point where he no longer needs injections (he occasionally takes pills, I believe). My father-in-law, on the other hand, is in terrible physical shape. He did NOTHING to change his lifestyle and he's paying the price for it now. He's blind, obese, and suffering from various medical issues that are at least partially to blame on his diabetes.

Good luck to all of you that suffer from this.

I was diagnosed in early 2007, but I'm terrible about it. I've been taking my medicine lately, but I'm drinking a pepsi right now. I suck.

Yup. I spend $200 a week on groceries compared to $300 a week before, and I only spend the $200 because my girlfriend prefers the premade protein shakes to the powder that you mix. Otherwise that'd be an extra $30-40/week off groceries right there.

I went to college in a very depressed area (at that time - this was the 80s, not sure about now) in Central PA, and you'd be amazed at these poor unhealthy, morbidly obese people who were on welfare and didn't have two nickels to rub together. And why? Because if you have only $20 to buy food for a family of five for a week, what are you going to spend it on? Fruits and vegetables being priced by the pound and weighing a lot to begin with won't work for someone with $20. Not when you can pay up to $10 here for a good sized salad. And I'd see people buying these giant, $3 cans of generic brand macaroni and cheese - honestly, they were gallon sized. So for a family who doesn't know where their next meal after that is going to come from, what are you going to spend that $20 on?

As for NY, it's still expensive around here, but it has balanced out from back then. Healthy and organic food has gone more mainstream, so it's not as pricey as it was.

EDIT: Found this, if it helps: Healthy Cooking for Diabetics

Well, you could switch to a filter instead of bottled water and save a shit-ton there.

Or, you could go to the tap, which is essentially equally good for you.

Even a Brita filter and a pitcher would help. But the "attach to the faucet" filters are good, and pretty cheap now.

I've found that once you stir in a bag of Kool-Aid mix you can't taste the difference between bottled and tap. Why waste your money?

I still don't understand why a healthy diet is necessarily more expensive than an unhealthy diet. I'm sure certain items are more expensive, but first of all, you'll more than offset the pricier single items when you cut out stuff you never needed to begin with - yummy soda, bottled water, delicious cake, decadent chocolate bars, rich and creamy ice cream, etc. Plus there's the whole issue of cost effectiveness - A batch of "healthy" ingredients will yield a lower cost per meal. Frozen entrees are like $5 a pop (I don't know exactly because I never eat that shit), but that's $5 for a single meal. So if you buy five of them for the week, that's $25. On the other hand, raw ingredients may cost more per item, but they yield more servings. For that same $25 you might get seven or eight meals instead of five. That adds up.

I've had diabetes for nearly 18 years now, but I manage to keep my sugar levels on a normal level (around 95) by excercising (running) and eating relatively healthy food. I cook my own food pretty much all the time, which, at least here, definitely is cheaper than buying TV dinners. And it tastes so much better.

I still eat (way too much) candy, but then I try to counter it with more insulin and more exercise. It seems to be working, so I try not to feel too bad about it.

I don't think there are any shortcuts. If you want to get better, you have to start working on it. Once you get in to it, it really isn't that much of a problem. Anything that reduces the risk of messing up the eyes or feet is more than worth it.

Eating healthier also calls for eating realistic portions. That helps to cut down on costs as well.

Yup. I can stretch a $10 sack of chicken breasts, $2 sack of brown rice, and $10 worth of frozen vegetables into about 6 days worth of lunches and dinners. Had to do it too many times before. It sucked eating the same thing over and over for a while, but it worked.

Jexxon, if I'm cooking for myself don't I need to buy pots and pans??? And spices? Plus zomg exercise means a gym membership and running shoes, those don't grow on trees! Much cheaper to eat ready-made food. It's not like its' killing me...

Plus, healthier foods are coming down in price now that people are demanding it. I know that the example I used about my old college town was the way it was years ago. And while the healthy stuff is still pretty pricey here, it's come way down, and is pretty much equal to the crappy stuff in dollar amounts. For example, I love shopping for organic stuff now that the prices have dropped, but for a few years, I'd have to go to different stores for my fruits and veggies, because they were still really high. But now those have come down in price as well, so in the last few years, it's gotten a lot easier to eat better.

You can also get frozen veggies that are perfectly healthy, and cost less than the fresh stuff. Timing is important, too. Don't buy fruits and veggies that are out of season, and wait until AFTER Halloween to stock up on fun-size snickers and kit-kats.

From what I've seen, most grocery stores in my area have really expanded their healthy food areas in the past few years; hell, the store down the road from me has expanded their area from a back wall display into a full two aisles of content. More and more people are competing for your health food dollar, and the prices have fallen a bit because of this competition.

Here's a tip: tap water taste crap, but put it in a bottle, glass preferably, and a few hours later the taste will be the exact same as filtered water.

The thing about filters is that unless you change it regularly, you'll eventually end up with water with more contaminants in it than what you'd think tap water is.

I switched a year ago, and I wouldn't go back, unless my local water becomes garbage.

Also: Costco.

Costco is evil, though.

The big advantage of diabetes is that it has the funniest name of any major disease.

Ahem, LUPUS.

Wilford Brimley would like to know what you mean by that.

Also: LYME DISEASE. Goes great with Tequila Syndrome. Plus, it only attacks the weak.

Even places like Wal-Mart (despite what one's personal feelings about Wal-Mart may be, this is just an example) have expanded to include an organic section.

On the less bleak side of "Diabetics I Have Known", I used to work with a guy who was overweight, drank, ate badly and then, Boom! Diabetes. But he took it to heart immediately - gave up the booze, ate what his doctors told him, and looked about a million times better in no time at all. Lost weight, he looked much much healthier, felt better. It can be done.

Also: GONORREAH. It only attacks the tall.

Also: Exploding Head Syndrome.

Even more also: Genital Retraction Syndrome.

Here's where I yell at you fucking soda drinkers. When I see an adult with a goddamn soda/cola/pop/whatever your geographic colloquialism, I want to smack them. It's one of the only foodstuffs I can think of that is SCREAMING at you how not good it is for you. You feel bad after drinking it, there is nothing natural in the ingredients, it's garbage top to bottom. Knock it off. Pour some club soda into a third full glass of juice or something.

Be careful mocking Mr. Brimley.

Good luck to the diabetics out there. My mother developed it a few years ago as a senior citizen, but she's coping well with a better diet and pills, no injections necessary. I had a roommate whose boyfriend had lived with childhood-onset kind all his life; kept himself in great physical shape, but always had the device on his hip and had to monitor/test/etc. on a regular basis. I was always impressed with his discipline, having not much at all myself. Thank goodness I don't have a sweet tooth, but my salt-n-fat tooth is a cruel bitch goddess. My heart goes out to you guys.

Oh, yeah, those are really bad for you. When I was a little kid, this woman who was a good friend of my mom's was a diabetic, and she took really good care of herself. I heard her say something about it to my mom, and I asked her what diabetes was. And she explained (as best as she could to a 10 year old) that it was a disease that made you get really sick if you ate certain things, like candy, cake, pizza, etc. And I remember that the "no more candy and cake" didn't really bother me, but I freaked when she mentioned the pizza. I was thinking, "No more pizza? Dude, how do you live?"

Brown rice?

You don't have to check the carbs with brown rice as much as you would with white, because it's a lower glycemic index (GI) carb than white rice. Obviously, you don't want to go eat a big-ass bowl of it (and I'm not a big carb advocate anyway except for on heavy workout days), but you can be a little looser with it than a higher-GI carb.

Ricist.

I have issues with crashing blood sugar sometimes, I'll feel fine and then I start to sweat like crazy and I get so weak I can barely walk. My mom says I might be hypoglycemic

Reading this thread has scared the hell outta me.

I think I'm destined for diabetes if I don't cut it out.

As far as the soda thing goes, about a year ago I switched over to sparkling water with fruit "essence." No sugar, no calories, and I can get twelve 1 liter bottles for ten bucks and change (I recycle). With soda I crave the fizz more than the sugar - Sprite was my drink of choice, so there was no caffeine involved - and it's been a good trade for me. I'm not diabetic and I don't need to lose weight, it was just part of me becoming more aware of the ridiculous amount of sugar I could consume in a day.