Janet Wilder wrote:
> 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.
>
So true, and one of my doctors said that the experts are leaning toward
multiple types of diabetes versus the standard I and II. He, and others,
seem to think there are as many types of diabetes as there are types of
arthritis.

I can eat potatoes fearlessly in moderation and that's the secret to all
of it, moderation. I'm shooting Lantus (24-hours dose) and Novalog, from
five to eight units 5 to 10 minutes prior to a meal and maintaining my
BG below 100 most of the time. I'm still overweight but working at
trimming off the seventy pounds I put back on after getting out of the
hospital last year. I'm glad he, and you, know what he can eat and what
he shouldn't eat. Keep it up.