By Guest Blogger on April 19, 2010

A Sweet Life

Jessica Apple & husband, Mike

By Jessica Apple

In 2008, while pregnant with my third child, I felt unusually tired. I reasoned that taking care of my two sons and growing a third was more than my body could handle. But then I noticed something else—my exhaustion peaked just after meal times. If I ate pizza, pasta, or a bagel, not only did I feel drowsy, but I felt like I had weights attached to my body. Every movement was sluggish, almost impossible. I couldn’t keep up with my daily routine, and my kids were spending time in front of the TV instead of with me. I went from one doctor to the next and did one blood test after another. I finally received a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes from an endocrinologist at a clinic for high-risk pregnancies.

Not sure what type 1 diabetes is? Here’s a primer: Type 1 diabetes (also known as juvenile diabetes) is an autoimmune disease which leads to the destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Insulin is a hormone whose most important job is to carry nutrients, particularly sugar, from the blood into the body’s cells. Since the sugar molecule is too big to enter the cells by itself, insulin helps it. When a cell does not see insulin, sugar cannot get into it, the cell gets no energy, and it starves. In order to survive, type 1 diabetics must inject themselves with insulin.

If you think that sounds like a lot for a pregnant woman to process, you’re right. But it wasn’t as complicated for me as you might guess. While I was a newly-diagnosed diabetic, I was not at all new to diabetes. In fact, I knew the disease very well, since my husband, Mike, had been diagnosed with type 1 just six years earlier. (Note: this is a highly unusual coincidence). As much as I thought I knew the in’s and out’s of managing type 1 diabetes, however, I only truly understood what Mike was going through when I felt it in my own body. In my own struggle to try to find the correct balance between food intake and the amount of insulin injected, I experienced what I’d been observing with Mike for six years—the blood sugar highs that make you so groggy you can barely function, and the terrifying lows—the sweaty, shaking, almost-passing-out lows.

Type 1 diabetes definitely takes the (sugar-free) cake when it comes to diseases or conditions that can make a person conscious of food intake. It’s not an illness that necessitates 100% avoidance of certain things, but rather it’s a disease of (imprecise) calculations. The bottom line with type 1 diabetes is that you can’t eat without calculating (or guessing) how much insulin you need to give your body. And the more sugar and carbohydrates you eat, the more insulin you need. When you eat protein and vegetables, you need very little insulin. For me, understanding this was the key to getting my diabetes under control. Mike and I talked about this constantly. In fact, we talked about diabetes constantly. Diabetes had taken over our bodies, and it was threatening to take over our household too. Instead of letting diabetes depress us, Mike and I decided to take charge of our health as best we could. We began to incorporate more raw food into our diet. We never sat down to eat without vegetables on the table. We began to see improvements in our blood sugar control right away. And as we worked together and cheered each other on, we saw how well we managed as a team. So we decided to go one step further, and we created a website called ASweetLife, so we could reach out to others in the diabetic community. Rather than think about diabetes in the negative sense of an illness, we’ve come to think of it as our lifestyle.

As part of this lifestyle I’ve almost completely stopped eating refined carbohydrates and sweet foods. Instead, I eat nuts, vegetables, small amounts of whole grain carbohydrates, and lots of my favorite – avocados. I’ve found that my insulin requirements have dropped, and the more controlled my blood sugar is, the better I feel. My skin is clearer, too. And despite not getting a lot of sleep, I still have energy.

Rather than feel sorry for myself about all of the things I can’t really eat because of diabetes, I’ve decided not to have a negative attitude. I focus on all of the things I can eat. In fact, I actually get excited about fresh, green vegetables. They are not something I have to force myself to eat, but something I really want. Salad with fresh spinach leaves, pomegranate seeds, and almonds – not spaghetti – is a meal. Brazil nuts, not toast with butter, is a snack. And I’ve come to realize that by eating a healthy diabetic diet, I am actually doing exactly what I should have been doing for myself all along. (What we should all be doing for ourselves). The greener and cleaner my diet becomes, the better I feel.

There is no cure for type 1 diabetes, but eating right is certainly the best way to keep insulin requirements to a minimum. Mike and I know that diabetes is a very serious and frightening disease, but we also know that life with diabetes can be manageable. It can even be sweet.

Below is one of my favorite recipes.

Oven Roasted Acorn Squash

You really can’t go wrong with acorn squash since it’s naturally sweet and delicious. We’ve seen so many acorn squash recipes that call for the addition of brown sugar or maple syrup, but it doesn’t need sweeteners to enhance its flavor. Our recipe is one the simplest and healthiest ways to eat acorn squash.

Ingredients:
2-3 acorn squash, quartered and seeds removed
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt to taste (optional)

Preparation:
Combine the olive oil and the squash in a bowl so the squash is completely coated with oil.
Place the squash in a baking dish skin side down. Preheat oven to 450 and place the squash in the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the squash is brown and soft.
Salt and serve.

Serves 4-6

Carbohydrates per serving: 25g

Jessica’s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the diabetes correspondent for The Faster Times. For more information, visit ASweetLife, where she serves as editor-in-chief.

 

 

   
 

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