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Pasta Horrors
July 3, 2005 04:36 PM
This is a bit personal since it applies to my wife, but it is something I think I should share with you for all of our sakes. The lessons apply to all persons, with or without diabetes.
We have been here many times before in our 20 years of living with her Type 1 (autoimmune, not the fat induced form of) diabetes. And so have we with our son for a bit longer (both are Type 1 diabetics). Protecting their health is the main reason I learned so much about metabolism.
My wife craves pasta once in a while (her family went out to Italian dinners every Sunday and part of it may be psychological; what isn't?).
And we pay the price.
Now pasta is supposed to be good for you, right? Not a chance, according to the research and our own long and troubled experience with it.
She has been on a new insulin regime (Lantus for long acting and Humalog for quick acting insulin --- these are among the new insulin analogues created by altering the amino acid sequence in the insulin molecule and charging three times as much for it). Her blood sugars have been picture perfect, like a role of 100s three times a day and day after day.
Last night she wanted pasta. I warned her and she knows it isn't a good thing to do. But, I am not a dictator and she has her history and tastes. So she had some. A fairly small serving.
Today was a horror. She had to do extra insulin to "cover" her high blood glucose reading in the morning. A lot extra. She had given herself extra insulin with the meal, but it didn't come close to covering the glucose load in the pasta. Recall, it is the glycemic index and the load behind it and pasta is heavy on load and rather high on glycemic index too.
She ended up with an insulin reaction in the supermarket and somehow managed to find her way home in a fog. I got home just in time. She was wandering about the house and trying to test her blood glucose with the meter. She couldn't get it to work. How she got home is hard to understand. She is a good driver and just could not collect her thoughts well enough to understand, since her brain was bonking, that she had to take a glucose tablet to feed her brain.
What a waste and how dangerous, all because of this (to me) strange carbohydrate craving. She could have eaten a dozen donuts and not have had such a serious problem. Then again, she could have made it easy on her and me by having what I had for dinner, a lettuce, bok choy, red cabbage, olives, and salmon salad.
She has sworn, never again. But, like all humans, she has hyperbolic tastes and she will fall again, as she has before. I just hope I am there to fix it when it happens.
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Posted by: outsider
at September 10, 2006 1:03 PM
Good post, Art. Your book will be all the richer from having lived though this daily and applying your knowledge to the experience. The paradox of intelligent people making foolish decisions, even with full knowledge of the inevitable negative consequences (and advice from a personal, live-in life coach!), is an underlying factor in obesity and physical un-fitness.
Posted by: Keith Thomas at July 7, 2005 2:32 PM
I was just curious being a diabetic myself, does your wife eat like you do? or how does a day for her look?
Posted by: Peter H at July 5, 2005 10:00 AM
Diabetics should read "DR BERNSTEINS DIABETES SOLUTION" By DR RICHARD BERNSTEIN( A TYPE 1 DIABETIC WHO REVERSED HIS NEUROPATHY,KIDNEY & EYE
DAMAGE USING A LOW CARB DIET WITH SMALL DOSES OF INSULIN)HE IS 76 YEARS OLD,WORKS 10 HOURS A DAY IN HIS NEW YORK PRACICE & ALSO WORKS OUT IN YHE GYM EVERY DAY
HIS EXPLANATION ABOUT WHAT GOES ON IN THE DIABETES DISEASE PROCESS IS EXCELLENT.
HE USES ONLY 6GMS OF CARBS AT BREAKFAST,
12 GMS AT LUNCH &12 GMS AT SUPPER(EQUIVALENT TO 1
CUP OF GREEN SALAD)PROTEINS PROVIDE THE GLUCOSE
NEEDED BY THE BODY THROUGH A PROCESS CALLED NEOGLUCOGENESIS .THE GLUCOSE PRODUCED IN THIS WAY
IS MADE SLOWLY & THE HENCE THE BLOOD SUGAR DOES NOT RISE TOO MUCH.
HE HAS A WEBSITE :www.diabetes-book.com WHERE A LOT FREE CHAPTERS FROM THE BOOK ARE AVAILABLE.
FROM MY EXPEREIENCE TYPE 2 DIABETICS CAN TAKE MUCH
MORE GREEN LEAFY FIBROUS VEGETABLES THAN DR BERNSTEIN RECOMMENDS & STILL MAINTAIN SUGAR LEVELS OF 100 THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
Posted by: shauket at July 4, 2005 1:03 PM
I should stress that the point of this personal story is that the same thing happens to anyone when they eat pasta. Insulin levels are driven higher and the body tries to burn off the carbs, which at high levels are moderately toxic (glycation). Then your blood sugar crashes and you get irritable, confused, tired, and hungry. A real see saw. Her version just happened in slow time because her insulin is exogenously supplied. In a non-diabetice or even a Type 2, the pancreas has to do all this work.
Posted by: Arthur De Vany at July 4, 2005 10:12 AM
In order: Hone, yes this form of aversive learning is very powerful. It was almost surely one of the ways our ancestors learned to avoid toxins. Her reaction is really to the insulin that she has to inject to cover the carb load from the pasta. So it was an insulin reaction, not a reaction to the food. Strange I know, but this means there is no aversive reaction to the food itself. Too bad, that might cure it.
Roland: It does sound like your child needs more calories. Fidgeting uses a lot of energy. The only way to put more mass on him is to have him be in slightly positive energy balance. So long as he is active the extra energy will go mostly to lean body mass.
Don't agree about the medical system. You do pay, just in a different way. And you don't get to call any of the shots. The politicians do. Moreover, the pace of innovation is curtailed and future benefits are under-weighted.
Mike: good point on the gluten. I am intolerant. Some have outright celiac disease and may not be aware of it. When you or they eat gluten or glyadines their gut becomes permeable and this triggers a leakage of material into the body. This, in turn, triggers an immune response. So, yes the gluten could lead to colitis through this leaky gut process.
Posted by: Arthur De Vany at July 4, 2005 10:08 AM
Art, I'm curious if your wife might have a gluten intollerance as well. I don't have diabetes, but I do have gluten intollerance, and I notice that when I accidently injest gluten containing foods that I can start to get very tired.
I am very certain that a large portion of the US is gluten intollerant but just doesn't realize it yet. Symptoms can range from one small one to many intense ones. Anyway if this doesn't help you perhaps it might help someone else out there.
Thanks,
Mike
PS. I also have an autoimmune related disease called Lymphocytic Colitis (or Microscopic Colitis is the more general term). Supposedly this has found some links to my Gluten Intollerance.
Posted by: Mike at July 4, 2005 9:09 AM
"(Lantus for long acting and Humalog for quick acting insulin --- these are among the new insulin analogues created by altering the amino acid sequence in the insulin molecule and CHARGING THREE TIMES AS MUCH FOR IT). "
This is the downside of a health care system being not regulated by the goverment. Not saying that our example in Austria, where we have compulsory health insurance, is ideal, far from it - believe me, I'm self -employed.
But for unfortunate people who are not to blame for their condition or for accident victims, and also for all the idiots who do not know how to take care of themselves, it surely is a blessing. We don't have to pay for the medication for diabetes 1 - well, not directly, of course I pay it monthly with my obligatory contributions.
Of course society has to pay for it.
I don't know who it was who said something like you can measure a functioning society by looking at the state of their prisons. I guess that goes for health care as well.
Posted by: Roland Reuter at July 4, 2005 3:10 AM
Hi Dr. Vany,
Sorry for this being probably a rather long message, but it''s about diabetes 1 and that's a little complicated.
My son, now aged 10, was diagnosed with it 15 months ago and it took us some time to get the grip on it. My intense interest in health-matters also results from my desire to protect his well-being and arm him with useful knowledge so that he can take care of himself one day.
When I asked you, Dr. deVany, a few months ago how to best feed my boy for he is in desperate need for some weight - he now barely brings 25 kg (55lbs) and your advice was to eliminate starchy/sugary carbs and replace it with veggies and healthy fats we went on the "experiment" for some weeks.
Too my surprise and with lots of seemingly powerful dad-to-son explanations he didn't complain too much, but we did! His blood sugar readings were great but his mood swings increased to unacceptable levels and also his mild dislexic took a turn to the worse.
Our next check-up in hospital confirmed excellent values but his weight was starting to worry us.
I should add that he is a VERY fidgety and active child and beats most of his peers in any sport. Not being able to sit still results form too much energy being produced from the liver and that's putting pressure onto an already disfunctioning pancreas causing an inner imbalance. But that's probably something for the esoteric mind.
Having learned long ago that hospital advice regarding this matter is often bad advice I did NOT put him on a diet recommended by them. Instead I continued giving him zero starchy carbs during the day and served all kinds of carbs (poatoes, brown rice, barely, pasta, polenta, etc.) with some meat/fish in the evening (after the obligatory salad). For some soul food we also let him have the odd small piece of choclolate or ice- cream for dessert. (Soft drinks are never an issue in our house.) The majority of his calories is still coming from veggies and fruits - too much fruit doesn't do much good either though - and meat/fish.
We have been doing that for some three weeks now and his weight started going up. He has to inject marginally more insulin - still only about four times less than all the other children in our diabetic group, but his spirits improved a great deal.
Apparently he can cope with pasta much better than your wife (could it be that our pasta is only made with
drum-wheat but no flour?) but DO NOT give him a doughnut! Douhgnuts have the highest GI and GL along with beer and all that cracker stuff. Even sodas have less. The pasta with adequat olive-oil on it doesn't play havoc with his glucose levels. And if it's whole meal pasta even less.
My assumption based on my hard to come- by researach in the field of diabetes 1 in children - especially hyper-active ones - and based on our own experience is that advice given to adults doesn't necessarily apply for kids. I guess that has to do with the hormonal changes children go through.
For the time being we have no other choice but to continue going the way we do 'cos body weight is a greater immediate issue to him than his three units of more insulin.
Hope I din't bore anybody,...sorry if.
Posted by: Roland Reuter at July 4, 2005 1:50 AM
Hi Art,
When I was young I used to love pork. One day I got really bad food poisoning from eating some bad pork. I didn't eat pork again for about 10 years.
Sometimes if an experience is exceedingly bad and the association is powerful enough, you can be put off even your most prefered food.
Posted by: Hone Watson at July 3, 2005 7:38 PM
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