Open Minds Expand Horizons

Last week, I wrote about the relationship to food that most of us have because, as best I can tell, people (like me) diagnosed with diabetes struggle -- a lot -- with that relationship. I know that more than twenty thousand people in the world die every day from hunger-related causes. And I don't want to be a whiner. But it sometimes gets tiresome thinking and re-thinking and over-thinking food the way I choose to do.

I say "choose to do" because many of us (diabetic or not) certainly don't do so. Vegans who aren't diabetic also need to pay close attention when eating outside their own kitchens. People with allergies, ulcers, lactose intolerance, or problems with gluten tend to monitor their diets, as well, if they want to avoid the immediate negative repercussions of ignoring their conditions. But people with diabetes live in a magical fog where they can eat whatever they want without necessarily experiencing an instantaneous punishment. So, like a dog eyeing a platter of chicken on a picnic table, we regularly arm wrestle our decisions and sometimes make bad ones.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you already know I'm pretty serious about managing my diabetes. I'm not a saint. I'm not a rule follower by nature. And I'm definitely not a scaredy cat. But I want to live as long and as well as  possible. I want to travel and work and play and enjoy the time I have remaining. And I don't want to spend it in a hospital bed while the rest of the world goes on without me.

But sometimes while I'm busy doing the right thing, I get a pleasant surprise. I've started eating more like a vegetarian lately. I'm still eating the occasional egg and a fair amount of yogurt and cheese in an effort to make sure I get enough protein until I get the hang of it all. But about 75% of my daily diet has now changed and I almost never feel nostalgic for the meats I'm not eating. All this change, though, has opened my mind to considering options I didn't know I have. Like this week, for example.

Breakfast matters to me. It jumpstarts my day in a positive direction, soaks up my coffee so I don't get the jitters, and gives me something to do with my mouth while I'm reading the morning paper. So I like "delicious" and "satisfying" and "variation" to make it a pleasant experience. But my new dietary regimen scratched some of my faves off the list, giving me the space to come up with new ones. This is good because I have a tendency to get stuck in ruts if I'm not forced out of them.

Making sure I'm getting enough protein has me reading labels more rigorously again and looking up carb grams online. One unexpected result has been the realization that I can have bagels. This is not a minor matter. I've spent a lot of time living in south Florida during my life and I learned a long time ago to appreciate a good bagel, but when I was diagnosed with diabetes eight years ago, I took one look at the 49 grams of carb in a wholewheat bagel, decided half a bagel would never be enough, and wrote them off -- permanently. No kidding. Hadn't eaten a bagel for eight years. Until taking another look at the label this week, that is.

Eating an increasingly vegetarian diet has meant getting a better understanding of how dietary fiber works. I'm eating more beans and corn now (for the protein) and combined with the whole grains and salads I've always eaten, my fiber level is now high enough to bring down my blood glucose. So I've begun to subtract the fiber content of my food from the carb grams to get a better read on what to expect my BG level to be after I eat.

The 8 grams of fiber in a whole wheat bagel, for example, subtracted from the carb grams leaves 41 grams of carb. So I can spread the bagel with some honey pecan soft cream cheese and add some sliced strawberries for a tasty, beautiful, and healthy breakfast with a total of 54 grams of carb and 13 grams of protein. Change can be luv-leee.