Gran loves to tell anyone who will listen stories about her home cooking ideas. She tells the story about Granddad being a test subject for all the new dishes she experimented with when she first started cooking years and years ago, when her cooking was just no good. Grandfather never seemed to notice if it was not tasty. He’d sit and eat everything just like it was the best food he ever had. He would compliment her on her dishes. He knew she was working on these dishes because he was diabetic. Gran says she decided she would do whatever she could to keep him as healthy as possible. My Grandfather says he likes the way she does the natural thing. He is all for organic cooking and natural home cooking. Gran says it took a while to get good at cooking but when she got on the right track, everybody benefited. That’s why she insisted on her kids coming over every Sunday for dinner. She knew it not only helped them financially since they were just starting out in life, but it helped her learn what was good and what was not, since leftovers to her meant she needed to re-work a dish.
If you are being diagnosed with diabetes, as sad as it is you can rest a sure that you are definitely not alone. In America itself there are over 17 million people diagnosed with having diabetes. Each day there are about 2,200 new people being diagnosed with diabetes. You may be wondering what does is mean, will I be able to be normal, and will I need to spend all my money on diabetic supplies? Having diabetes just means that the hormone in your body called insulin is not doing its job good enough. Insulin is needed to properly use the food that you eat for energy. Most of the food that you eat is broken down into glucose and other simple sugars. Usually when new food or glucose is entered into the blood stream, your body releases insulin from the pancreas, and puts the glucose into your cells to use as fuel. If you are lacking insulin, or if your insulin is unable to function properly, the newly arrived glucose cannot be stored and will remain in your blood stream. Your blood glucose levels, which are also referred to, as blood sugar levels will then get raised. These abnormally high levels when left untreated can eventually cause damage to your eyes, heart, nerves and kidneys.
When I was really young and really bored, I’d climb up on the kitchen counter and rifle through the kitchen cabinets. I wasn’t really looking for anything. I just wanted something to distract myself for a while. If my parents were keeping their diabetes testing supplies up there, I’d break them open and make little men out of the test strips and pretend the testing monitors were alien spacecraft designed to look like insects. Yes, I was perfectly aware that glucose monitors do not look like insect-like alien spacecraft, but I had an overactive mind and imagination. I was building men out of diabetes test strips for crying out loud. The best part was when I took them with me into the bathroom and I threw them in the tub and poured shampoo all over them. I pretend it was acid and then poured water over them to explain why they shriveled up or otherwise died. When my parents found out, they’d lecture not only about climbing around on the kitchen counters, but about not going through their testing kits and then my mother always gave me one last lecture about not wasting shampoo. Not that I ever learned anything from it.
In my biology class last semester we did all sorts of different experiments. One experiment used microfill test strips. Another involved creating our own ecosystem within a two-liter coke bottle. Probably the worst lab that we did was the fetal pig dissection. I tried to tell my lab partner that since pigs were not kosher, that I could not do the lab, but she was not buying that excuse. Oh well, I guess it was worth a try! My teacher always had creative and inventive ways to demonstrate things in a way that students were interested. It is always nice when a teacher goes out of his way to make learning fun. I just read an article about a guy who swings from the ceiling and blows things up to make his points, and that his lectures are some of the most downloaded things on iTunes U. I think that is really awesome, that his lectures are so entertaining that people go out of their way to watch them. They are not even in his class. Anyway, getting back to my biology class, one of my favorite things that my teacher did was write songs to help us remember his lessons.
My approach to my diabetes and my health has undergone a drastic change. I went to visit a natural doctor for the first time. I guess their big thing is that they like to understand the causes underneath whatever problems you have and then they offer treatment to address the problem at its source. Ever since then I've been so fascinated lately with trying to determine the causes of type 2 diabetes. I didn't feel like I was making much progress with my current doctor and so I thought I would try someone entirely different. I feel so enlightened since the visit now! Prior to that I'd only look at the symptoms without really realizing what I may be doing to contribute to the problem. Now my interest has moved beyond the diabetes as a singular issue. I think it's really important for everyone to try and examine the underlying causes of whatever ailment they have. I think most people just look at the symptoms and don't stop to think about what they're eating, drinking or doing everyday that could be harming them. A lot of people don't think about the level of stress they're under or the fact that they might not like their jobs. They might be going through an emotionally challenging time and not realize how that's affecting their health either. I feel so much more empowered now since making all of these realizations. I'm starting to discover how exciting the field of health can really be!
When Miss Bessie was younger, my Grandma told me, she was as skinny as a rail. She could and did eat anything she wanted. She loved going out to eat, and was never caught without a candy bar or two, and she loved colas. Grandma says as Miss Bessie grew up, she seemed to lose her energy and started putting on lots of weight. She was told she had developed diabetes. She had to start taking care of herself and needed to loose the weight. She learned how to eat right and had to gather glucose blood test supplies, things her doctor told her she would need. Of course, Grandma says, it was not easy for Miss Bessie to adjust because she was in denial about having diabetes. She just wanted her happy go lucky lifestyle back. It’s a good thing that my Grandmother had already gone through adjusting to living with diabetes, because my Grandfather had been told he had diabetes, and was in denial a while himself. He says if it wasn’t for Grandma, he probably wouldn’t be around these 30 years later. She took charge of his life and insisted that he exercise, eat right and not give her any trouble about doing it, either!