Well, they do say that you live and learn. And I have to agree wholeheartedly. The learning process isn't without it's frustrations though, and sometimes it would be all too easy to throw our hands in the air, stamp our feet and state "we just can't do this". But, liking a challenge as we do, we are not going to take that approach!
It's proving to be quite an 'interesting' period at the moment, this experimenting with food choices to control blood glucose. The phrase 'live by the meter' is something we are saying to one another... a lot! You see, things we start off by happily considering to be nice 'healthy' choices (mostly because, setting aside B.G. concerns, they are!) appear to be the cause of some fairly hefty short-term spikes in a way we definitely do NOT want.
Bananas are a case in point. We both like them, and we thought they were a pretty good idea on a thin slice of home-made wholemeal toast, for breakfast,... Er, but not for my darling lovely hubby, it seems. Porridge (which we thought would be worse) is actually much, much better for him.
Rice, even a very small portion, was also a bad move so we threw out the remaining white rice in the pot and will try brown at some point. Likewise, pasta has been exchanged for wholemeal and will be tried out... sparingly, and with much vegetable padding.
Some experiments are a tremendous success though. Last night's leek & potato soup with added kale (try it - it's lovely), and a beautiful side salad of chopped tomatoes, red onions, basil, walnuts and nectarine chunks (which I've just had again for a lovely lunch) was brilliant and barely gave him more than a smallish blip in B.G. readings.
We've had some really helpful tips too from the nutritionally minded, with a special mention going to FattyMcFatPants
So, things are progressing and we WILL get a better understanding. Soon, I hope. Onwards ever...
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3 comments:
Sounds like you're doing great finding things that will work for you! Regarding pasta, there's a great product called Dreamfields that's made using a wheat protein that the human body can't digest. Five effective grams of carb per serving, and it truly tastes like real pasta. Just use it as a side dish, because like sugar alcohols it can cause some gas etc. if you have too much of it.
It all sounds complicated! Good luck to both you and your husband. I do think that it is very good that you two are working out what is healthy and not healthy, and not relying just on medicine or "winging it", which sadly is what some people do.
Good for you on working through each food and seeing which one is good for your blood sugar and which are not. I agree with "me" - it does sound complicated!
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