I'm similar to housemates in that I eat healthy foods day-to-day. I'm different in that I have type 1 diabetes. Having diabetes complicates meals because eating becomes a balancing act. On one side of the scale, you have food. On the other side, you have insulin. It's a holy war with no end. Body of Christ, amen.
My goal in joining my housemates in healthy eating is not to cleanse, but rather to balance. I wish to gain consistency in blood sugars, balance the scale at a healthy weight, and stabilize hunger to remove peaks and valleys. There are ways to do this and it's just what you've read before (if you're up-to-date on your health research). Consume a diet that is high-veggie, high-fruit, high-fat, and low-carb.
Why high-veggie and high-fruit? These things fill you up and provide you mighty nutrients. ALL GOOD.
Why high-fat? First, fat is a basic building block for many parts of your body. Liver, enzymes, skin, each and every cell wall in your body, and all the necessary hormones floating around. I like my estrogen! Second, a body converts fat to energy, though the chemical process takes longer than converting carbs into energy.
Why low-carb? To remove the swings between high and low blood sugar.
This question is the big one for diabetics. Us diabetics are always trying to watch our sugar. A body processes all carbs -- complex and simple -- into sugar. Sugar gives a body energy! So that's good . . . but sugar causes problems too. (And a body can get energy from other places, like fat.)
Once sugar is in the body, roughly, the sugar sticks to hemoglobin (red blood cells) and floats around in the blood. Too much sugar stiffens the red blood cells and creates a slight chemical imbalance in the body that leads to long-term damage. The carbs / sugar cause spikes in the blood sugar, and then the insulin counters the spikes and sometimes creates lows.
All of this swinging-around sends my emotions and moods into a kerfuffle. I want to be able to create my life, rather than having to react to high and low blood sugar mood-swings.
LOW CARB IT IS. Down with starch. Bugger the flour.
Except it tastes so good . . . .
Fun fact: perusing the internet today, I found out that the first low carb book is 149 years old. William Banting was not a dietician or a doctor -- he was an undertaker. After he lost weight, he wrote a zine (or "small booklet") entitled Letter on Corpulence Addressed to the Public (the first few pages of this PDF appear black). First published in 1863, it went into many editions and continued to be published long after the author's death.
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