We had leftover duck breast and potato dauphinoise from a dinner party, so I ate the same high-carb meal three nights in a row. I even went as far as adding a dash of cranberry jam which is in essence pure sugar. Here’s a breakdown of the glucose-releasing agents, which also included the carb-rich vegetables…
Read more
For some time, I’ve had a love affair with pork scratchings. They’re carb-free, high in calories, and absolutely delicious. That makes it easy to eat more than just a handful and rather have the whole bag. It might also explain why I don’t lose weight, even though I eat low-carb, follow the 16:8 diet, and…
Read more
If you have type 1 diabetes, finding ketones in your blood or urine can be a reason for concern. Ketones, also called ketone bodies, appear as the body switches from burning glucose to burning fat for energy. It can happen because you enter ketosis, a harmless state where you run out of stored glucose and…
Read more
When you inject insulin, it’s tempting to hit the same sweet spot. Mine is lower abdomen, right-hand side, which I’ve abused for a long time. You need to be careful because repeatedly hitting the same injection site can cause lipodystrophy. In this condition, fat either builds up or breaks down under the skin. The result…
Read more
There’s a joke amongst people with diabetes. It goes: Don’t use your index fingers to draw blood, you’ll need them to read braille. It’s implied that you’ll at some point lose your eyesight to the diabetic retinopathy or macular degeneration that can develop as a complication of diabetes. It’s gallows humor at its best. As…
Read more
My first read of the year was A big fat crisis by RAND scientist and medical doctor Deborah Cohen. Written in 2013, the same issues still rule supreme as little has changed in how we deal with the obesity epidemic. Cohen points to two core reasons why our waistlines keep expanding. The first is human nature and…
Read more
For the first time in years, I wasn’t drunk on New Year’s Eve. Instead, I was in bed with a fever, reading Calvin and Hobbes. I’ve got covid-19. Again. Perhaps it’s not that strange. I work in a bar with an international clientele, so you could compare it to spending your days in a busy…
Read more
There’s an old Confucian teaching, hara hachi bu, which instructs people to eat until they’re eighty percent full. It’s still practiced in Okinawa, the Japanese island with one of the world’s highest proportions of centenarians. The average BMI in Okinawa lies between 18 and 22. It’s significantly lower than in the US, where the BMI for…
Read more
Back at work again on the weekends, I’ve noticed something interesting. When I get stressed my blood sugar spikes. I work in an Irish pub, and like most places in the hospitality industry, we’re understaffed, which makes work a bit more stressful than it used to be. Waiting a few minutes extra for a beer…
Read more
Your insulin requirements change due to many things, so from time to time, it’s important to do a basal test to check that your long-acting insulin is set right. In my case, my insulin needs have changed a few times. First, when I exited the honeymoon, then when I started exercising, and when I stopped.…
Read more
Recent Comments