Month: August 2015

Everything in Moderation Will NOT Cause Diabetes

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Okay, so I was sucked into part 2 of Sunday Night’s report on the Paleo diet again last night. If you’ve been living under a rock, reporter Mike Willessee undertook the Paleo diet for 10 weeks with the help of My Kitchen Rules judge and chef Pete Evans (I’ll call him Paleo Pete from here on in).

Admittedly watching the program last night, I was able to learn a little more about this diet. Basically, there are two sources of energy that the human body can use for fuel: carbohydrates and fat. I hear from a lot of people with diabetes who live and advocate for a Low Carb, High Fat (LHCF) diet. I completely respect that, and I’m sure that your body could be fuelled by fat. I myself have seen some merits in reducing “unnecessary” carbs and sugars in my diet, such as bread on my dinner plate and high sugar snacks such as muesli bars or breakfast cereals. But I do still eat carbs. I don’t feel that I could realistically cut them out completely and still be a happy man. But I completely respect those that do make that choice.

I just can’t fathom how Paleo Pete was quick to dismiss healthy, nutritious foods such as Dairy, Legumes and Grains. I also didn’t appreciate the way he referred to all of these carbohydrates as sugar, which is NOT true. And I can’t fathom how you could expect a human being to live without coffee!.

He went as far as suggesting that a diet of “everything in moderation” would cause type 2 diabetes among a string of other threatening diseases. Paleo Pete, you know absolutely NOTHING about diabetes. Don’t make an empty threat on the base of a common stigma. As my Twitter friend Lala brought to my attention, he even suggested that people who follow the Paleo diet are all exclusively healthy.

Paleo Pete is a chef. He is not qualified to provide nutrition or dietary advice. As one Twitter user commented, being around food doesn’t qualify you to provide nutritional advice. It would be like having a passenger fly an aeroplane. The Dieticians Association of Australia is qualified. LISTEN to them.

Paleo Pete also makes a lot of money off of Paleo. He has a series of cookbooks and other money making products that I don’t really care about. It’s a bit hard to take his claims of “speaking the truth” and “never feeling better” seriously.

As I said last week, Paleo Pete also works for the television network that aired this story. He is a judge on cooking show My Kitchen Rules. So is this story just a convenient case of networks keeping their talent happy?

At the end of his 10 week challenge, reporter Mike Willessee said that Paleo had opened his eyes to some of the his food choices. I feel exactly the same way, particularly after watching the similarly themed That Sugar Film earlier this year. What Mike Willessee neglected to mention was whether he’d stick with Paleo or not. I suspect his view would be similar to mine. There are some aspects that I’d take away from Paleo, but I won’t be rushing to clear out the cupboards and fridges of anything even remotely delicious.

I’m finally on Facebook, and I’d really appreciate it if you would like my page: facebook.com/type1writes.

A Letter To My 17 Year Old Classmates

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To My 17 Year Old Classmates,

While you were getting ready to buy your first bottle of alcohol, I was getting ready to buy my first blood glucose meter.

While you were nervous about getting past the bouncer, I was nervous about getting past my first insulin injection.

While you were applying for your proof of age card, I was applying for my National Diabetes Services Scheme card.

While you were busy planning your next wild night out, I was busy planning my next diabetes appointment.

While you were surviving from 4 cans of Red Bull a day, I was surviving from 4 insulin injections a day.

While you were in a state of extreme drunkenness, I was in a state of extreme ketoacidosis.

While you were in hospital getting your stomach pumped, I was in hospital getting insulin pumped.

While you were procrastinating on your uni assignments, I was desperately trying to get an extension from my hospital bed.

While you were out there partying, my blood sugar levels were out there having a party of their own.

While you were getting a 2am hangover feed from McDonald’s, I was getting a 2am hypo feed from my jelly bean tin.

While you felt wrecked after partying all night, I felt wrecked from dealing with diabetes all night.

While you were getting through a hangover, I was getting through a hypo.

While you were boasting about how many beers you’d had, I was boasting about how many good blood glucose readings I’d had.

While you were counting the number of jello shots you’d downed, I was counting the number of carbs that I’d downed.

While you had been abusing your body for a while, I was a fairly sensible kid.

While you were the one that deserved this more than me, I was the one that got diabetes instead.

And while I wouldn’t wish diabetes on you or anyone else, it would be nice to see you treat your healthy body with a little more respect.

Your classmate always,

Frank

What’s the Point of Telling Me About Diabetes “Epidemics?”

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What’s the point of telling me that more people are getting diabetes? Do you want me to feel guilty for this? Do you want me to take the blame for this? Do you want me to go out and tell people to stop getting diabetes? Do you want me to jump in my time machine and stop diabetes from happening?

What’s the point of telling me that I’m going to live a life of suffering? Do you want me to lose motivation to get out of bed in the morning? Do you want me to stop looking after myself? Do you want me to give up on all of my hopes and dreams? Do you want me to stop living as normal a life as I can? Do you want me to stop trying to be healthy and happy?

What’s the point of telling me that I’m going to develop diabetes complications? Do you want me to be scared awake from a terrible nightmare? Do you want me to chant these negative affirmations over and over in the morning? Do you want me to be too scared to walk out of the house? Do you want me to be too scared to cross the street?

What’s the point of telling me that my diabetes is costing the government money? Do you want me to feel ashamed of the disease that I live with? Do you want me to feel sorry for the politician that can’t go on holiday next year? Do you want me to stop testing my blood sugar levels? Do you want me to stop taking the insulin that keeps me alive and breathing?

I already have diabetes. I already live with diabetes day in, day out. And that’s not going to change anytime soon. I certainly didn’t ask for diabetes. And I certainly didn’t do anything to deserve my diabetes.

But I’m stuck with diabetes for the rest of my life. And so are the millions of other people out there in the world, with ALL types of diabetes. And while these messages may benefit the rest of the non diabetic population of the world, they do absolutely nothing for the people who have to live and breathe with this miserable disease every single day of their lives.

There are human bodies, human thoughts, human faces and human feelings behind this disease. Why not empower them?

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One of those “top of the world” moments on the rooftop of Parliament House in July.

I’m Skeptical of Diets That Cut Out Food Groups

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I was sucked into a story on Sunday Night this week about the Paleo diet. The paleo, or ‘caveman’ diet, seems to be the latest fad at the moment. It’s a diet that My Kitchen Rules judge Pete Evans is well known for. And on Sunday Night this week, one of the program’s reporters took on a 10 week challenge to see if it lived up to it’s promise of ‘changing’ lives.

Paleo is a premise that sounds great on paper – fresh, natural, unprocessed foods. It might be easy if I had the whole day to spare to prepare a fresh meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And it might even be fun if I had the time and the money to go shopping around for fresh, organic ingredients. And if I didn’t have to get up and go to work every day, committing to this diet might actually sound realistic.

I do try to include as much fresh foods in my diet as possible. I have a piece of fruit for morning tea every day. I’ve given up cordial and soft drinks for water ever since I’ve had diabetes. I have hard boiled eggs, tuna and nuts with my lunch regularly. And I usually have veggies or salad on the side of my dinner plate.

But I am pretty skeptical of diets that cut out entire food groups. I try not to overload on carbs with my meals, but I honestly don’t know where my energy would come from without them. Whenever I go without carbs at breakfast, my stomach ends up growling all morning. I love that Burgen bread exists, and that I can still pack a quick, diabetes friendly sandwich for lunch in the morning. I’d hate to think of all the extra time I’d have to spend making something extravagent to fit in with this diet. And as for dairy, I love my cheese. I love my milky coffees. I love my desserts. And I don’t know where my calcium and strong bones would be without it.

I also have diabetes. Diabetes means that my diet choices are already restricted. It means that I do need to think carefully about every food choice that I make. It means that I do need to have particular foods in moderation for the sake of my blood sugar levels. And I’ll be damned if I want to begin cutting out food groups and making my life even more miserable. I’ll be damned if I want to give up that piece of chocolate or slice of cake. Being able to have those treats makes me feel human. It motivates me to go keep going with my diabetes management.

Another thing I found interesting about this Paleo story was that the reporter undertaking this challenge had a fairly unhealthy diet to start with. He had a few health scares earlier this year, and lived off of Coca Cola and junk food at home. So of course a major diet overhaul would produce extremely impressive results on him, compared to say, a reasonably healthy person like me.

And don’t forget that people like Pete Evans, who was involved in this report, are making money off of this Paleo fad. Through things like cookbooks, guides and 10 week transformations. Coincidentally, he also works for the network who aired this report. So take it with a grain of salt. I, on the other hand, am giving you my honest, unqualified opinion that I wasn’t paid to write about.

You can read more about the Sunday Night report on the Paleo diet here.

A Rare Sighting of Diabetes In The Wild

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I have a love hate relationship with books. I used to be the most enthusiastic reader in my school days. I would wake up early in the morning just to squeeze in half an hour of reading before school. I would eagerly participate in the Premier’s Summer Reading Challenge, proudly logging hours and hours of reading. I would have competitions with my friends at school to see who could finish the new Harry Potter book first. I can even remember my year 3 teacher telling me off once because I was finishing the classroom books too quickly! And, I remember eagerly convincing my Mum and Dad to take me to buy the final A Series of Unfortunate Events book on the day it was released.

I’ve well and truly lost my passion for reading over the years, and I kind of feel guilty for it. My Mum and my sister laugh at me everytime they see me pick up a new book, knowing that I’ll set it down after a day and let it gather dust. Sure, I still read about the things that interest me. I collect a lot of reference books on technology, marketing, diabetes and diet. I read a lot of newsletters, magazines, news articles and diabetes blogs. But I guess I’ve lost that passion for reading something from start to finish. I’ve lost that motivation for sticking with something through. And I guess I just don’t see the point of reading books anymore.

I was book hunting on Saturday morning at the massive Save the Children Book Sale at UWA. My arms were filled with bargain books about – take a deep breath – diabetes. As I was standing there, leaning over those book tables crowded with people, a woman asked me where I had found the diabetes books I was holding. I pointed her over to the correct table, and she went on her way.

Normally, I would have ended it there. But that day, I felt hesitant. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to follow her. I wasn’t even sure if she wanted to talk to me. But then again, she already had spoken to me. I wanted to help her. I wanted to make sure that she didn’t pick up the books that I had found too medical or too technical to read. And so, I did the craziest thing and decided to chase after this rare sighting of diabetes in the wild.

As we stood there, talking books, we eventually went on to talk about our connections to diabetes. Turns out we both attended the same diabetes clinic, we both knew the same endocrinologist and we had both been diagnosed in the last couple of years. Pretty cool! I was a type 1, while she was a LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults), or slow onset type 1 diabetic. I was a typical young adult, while she was an older and less common example of type 1 diabetes. She also volunteered at the new Telethon Type 1 Diabetes Family Centre here in Perth, which was quite fascinating to hear about.

After having that conversation, I finally realised that what I am reading at the moment is a big deal. What I am reading does count for something, even if it’s not done from the first to the last page of a book. It doesn’t matter if I’m only reading a chapter out of a book, an article from a magazine or a post off of a blog. What counts is that I have an interest, even if it’s not an interest by choice. An interest that brought two complete strangers together on Saturday. An interest that offered me 5 minutes of great, and hopefully useful conversation. A conversation that helped me to feel a little more grounded and a little further away from the diabetes wild that I live in.

And that’s reason enough for me to keep reading.

If you’re in Perth and looking for some bargain books, the Save The Children Book Sale is on at UWA until Wednesday.