I’ve been accepted on a clinical trial for a novel treatment for type-2 diabetes which seems ‘promising’. It begins with surgery on 25 July. But first there’s my new friend, a constant blood glucose monitor (CGM).
Yaah no, that’s not me.
I greeted the CGM with excitement, scientific curiosity and dread. That I’m hoping it helps me unlock lifestyle and dietary secrets that improve my health goes without saying.
But do I need a digital parasite shouting “Exercise more!” and “Eliminate carbs!”?
Imagine life without carbs.
No bread, no rice, no pasta. The unsweetened life.
I’ve had the CGM now for six days and (experimenting) triggered three hyperglycaemic episodes: Pringles took me to 18.6 mmo/L one evening and almost 15 hours to stabilise. The thin-crust pizza at the Little Elf’s birthday party (18.2 mmo/L) effected me for 14 hours. An egg salad roll (18.0 mmo/L) kept me elevated for 7.5 hours.
But on the flip side I’ve eaten more meat than usual, oily fish (herring, tuna, mackerel), eggs, lots of vegetables, some carbonated drinks and alcohol. Nil effect.
So the answer is gin and meat?
My dietary life-sentence, a prisoner of my own blood, seems likely to be served in a low-carb detention centre gorging on steak and swilling G&T’s. I mean, yay, right?
Nay.
Skinny unfit men are less likely to die of a heart attack than obese fit men.
Why? Because that diet (eggs, meat, booze) is guaranteed to elevate my already borderline blood pressure and drive me toward the heart problems that eventually prematurely kill two-thirds of diabetics.
But I suspect we (T2Ds) all get to this intersection — we make the easy turn and cut the carbs, compensate with meat — the Atkins Diet, in effect, named after the famous cardiologist who died from a heart attack aged 72 weighing 117kg.
Or not.
Many of the foods I loved during my two-year odyssey as a vegan are now off the list. Just too carby. I wasn’t a reluctant vegan — I don’t particularly like red meat — but I can’t eat fish and birds all day either.
I suspect — and this is just a gut (heh) instinct — that VEGETABLES may be the answer. Lots of veggies in every meal, as close to raw/whole as possible, with a side of lean proteins in the form of fish, fowl or flerd.
flerd = flock+herd
I have also confirmed that mixed nuts are a safe snack. They’re not Pringles, not even my beloved Smith’s, but at least when I’m feeling down I can indulge in some emotional eating and enjoy a mouthful of nuts!
Anyhoo, only six days into my symbiosis with the CGM and looking forward to further insights.
While food is the obvious, key factor to control, increasing exercise is next. And as it happens, I have a package waiting for me at the post office, so I might just get out of this chair and walk there now!