George Shirley wrote:
> Janet: I've been a diabetic for about 17 years and on insulin for most
> of that period. I watch my carbs pretty carefully and try to eat
> healthy. We eat multi-grain bread, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, etc.
> and I seem to do better on it. The advantages of whole grains, in
> addition to all the minerals and vitamins that refining takes out of
> grain, is that it has a little more fiber and, more importantly in my
> case, it takes longer to digest. Thus slowing the immediate impact of
> eating the carbs. If I eat white rice, my blood glucose levels go
> straight up almost immediately, brown rice the BG levels rise slowly and
> my insulin can take care of it.
>
> Here's a URL that may help:
>
> http://www.cspinet.org/nah/wwheat.html
>
> This is only my experience and I can't speak for others.

George,

I appreciate your suggestions. DH has been diabetic for over 20 years.
We eat to his meter. Rice, be it brown, white or wild, will send that
meter reading way up. We avoid all forms of rice and if we must have
some, it's never more than 1/4 cup of cooked rice and he gives himself
an adequate bolus from his pump.

I went to a diabetes fair this weekend and spoke with a dietitian. It
appears that some people will benefit from the bit of fiber in brown
rice and whole wheat and others (like my DH won't) He does pretty well
with controlled portions of potato because of the longer "chain" of
carbohydrates. Some others don't do as well.

I think it is incumbent upon every diabetic to be aware of each
different food they eat. This can be accomplished by using their
glucometer one, two and even three hours post-prandial (after meals).
It's unfortunate that many doctors don't send their patients to diabetes
educators to learn how to control their disease. They hand them a
one-size-fits-all piece of paper from the ADA and give them a scrip for
pills and the admonition to "watch their intake of sweets"

It's a shameful part of our health care system, but it seems to be the
prevalent way the disease is treated.

--
Janet Wilder
Bad spelling. Bad punctuation
Good Friends. Good Life