Diabetes Alert Day

Today, March 27, is the American Diabetes Association Alert Day. I have no faith in the American Diabetes Association because it promotes an unhealthy (high carb!) way of eating for diabetics. The "food pyramid" way of eating—low fat and high carb—is NOT good for diabetics. (I've blogged about that here and here and here.) The ADA should alert diabetics about the dangers of eating high carb. It doesn't.

Eating a high carb meal shoots up the blood sugar (blood glucose) level. I'm aware of what food affects my blood sugar levels because I sometimes check my blood sugar at least twice a day with my glucometer—and more often if I've eaten something that I don't usually eat. I also check after I've eaten something new. There are several different glucometer kits available, but my kit that looks like this:

The kit consists of a meter, a clicker-thingie that contains a disposable lancet, and some testing strips. Here's a close-up of a strip and its container:

You insert the strip into the meter. When it's ready, it displays a picture of a strip to tell you it's ready for you to add a drop of blood to the strip's end. 

You get the blood from your finger. The trick is to prick the side of your finger tip and not the pad. Pricking the pad, which has a lot more nerves, hurts. Using the side of the pad doesn't hurt.

You only need a small drop of blood. The clicker has an adjustable feature to let you dial it to a depth that works best for you. On this clicker, I'm a 2. Then you press the button (the blue thing on the side of my clicker) and it automatically pricks. Touch the strip to the drop of blood, and you get your reading in a few seconds.

This reading—118—is actually pretty good for me. It was taken about three hours since I had breakfast. (In early February, my readings were usually over 200.) Normal fasting blood sugar is from 70 to 100. I'm still working—by low carbing, taking prandin before meals, and avoiding any food that contains wheat—to get my blood sugar down. 

Also, thanks to low-carbing and wheat-avoidance, I've lost weight. Getting weight down by at least 10 pounds is supposed to improve blood sugar levels. I've lost over 10 pounds so far, but but I still have a way to go. I don't count calories (mainly a waste of time, according to Gary Taubes) or eat low fat (which, despite all the hype, doesn't help much with weight loss unless you starve yourself).

The neat thing about this meter is that it will average blood sugar in increments of 7, 14, and 30 days. In early February, my average was over 200. By February 9, I'd gotten the week's average down to 195. Today, my averages are 137 (7 days), 146 (14 days), and 153 (month).

I'm getting better, no thanks to the American Diabetes Association and their misinformation. 

Just wanted to alert you about the ADA.

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