New Drug Regimen

[AFTT47]

I've been systematically getting rid of sugary products in my pantries and freezers ever since my diagnosis. This has been a bonanza for my housemaid, who has carried home a full shopping bag of these items each week. Last week she took away all the barbecue sauces and frozen, barbecued chicken in the freezer. Tomorrow I'll tell her to take home all the frozen Chinese dinners and some condiments whose main ingredients is sugar. I recently purchased sugar-free honey and chili sauce to use in some of my recipes.

Remember that blood sugar can be heightened by ANY carbs, not just sugary stuff. Too much bread or pasta can give you just as much trouble so you have to watch those too.

That was my demon. I used to eat little but pasta and go through a party-size bag of potato chips in 3 days. I didn't eat candy. My sweet tooth vanished 30 years ago.

I made a major change in my diet and lost 150 pounds in 18 months (350 to 200). My A1C went from 8.2 to 5.5. I am officially in remission (diabetes) after three tests after going off blood-sugar drugs. It is definitely doable.

Be especially wary of potatoes and rice. When you put a potato in your mouth and chew it, it combines with your saliva and the result is pure glucose. Sweet potatoes have a reduced problem. If you must have some potatoes, make it sweet potatoes. Same thing with rice. White rice has the exact same problem. Other types of rice are better (or more accurately, not as bad). Best to avoid rice altogether. Whole-wheat pasta and bread is much better than the white variety.

The most important thing I can offer is that dietary change is difficult at first but after a time, you wonder what the big deal was. It becomes easy. You actually develop an aversion to going back. That's the way it worked out for me, anyway.

Best of luck to everyone who makes an effort to affect those aspects of their health they have the power to control.