Although Vanderbilt asked us to start carb counting in the hospital, we didn't start using them to measure insulin until we returned for more training. That's when we got the carb ratios our school nurse was expecting. Low carb diets sometimes help people with type 2 diabetes because they still make insulin. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that kills the insulin producing islet cells in the pancreas. No amount of dieting will ever make them work again. Andrew needs insulin whether he eats a regular meal or a low carb one. A healthy pancreas automatically matches insulin to food intake. We get to be Andrew's pancreas. We read labels to find the number of carbs in everything he eats. Currently, he takes 1 unit of insulin for every 12g of carbs that he eats at breakfast, 1 unit for every 18g of carbs he eats at lunch, and 1 unit for every 17g of carbs he eats at dinner. He can eat anything except liquid sugar like sodas, juice, or pancake syrup as long as he counts the carbs. That makes every meal a math problem where we measure serving sizes & carbs. Andrew already has some pretty good fraction skills! For example, he knows that a serving size of Honey Nut Cheerios is 3/4 of a cup and has total carbohydrates of 22g. He likes more than that, so he eats 2 servings, which is 1 1/2 cups and 44g. He measures his cereal with a 1/2 cup measuring cup & takes 3 scoops. Milk also has carbs. He usually pours about a cup into the bowl, but about half gets left behind, so we only count 6g for the milk. That's 50g, which is 4.15u of insulin if eaten at breakfast, but only 2.80 if eaten at lunch. His body is more sensitive to insulin at different times of day that typically have different activity levels. Then we add or subtract insulin based on what his blood sugar was before the meal. My kitchen has changed quite a bit since Andrew's diagnosis, with many of the changes being quite comical. One new rule: No trash with labels gets thrown away until after the meal & all carbs have been counted!
P.S. A must have for carb counters: The Calorie King Calorie Fat & Carbohydrate Counter
so maybe this explains why when my fil visited us in FL he did eat dessert. I made a conscious decision to have fruit available for him and then he ate cake which shocked me because it seemed reckless for an elderly obese man with diabetes to eat
ReplyDeleteIs he type 1 or type 2 & is he on insulin or medication? Andrew is also still growing so the dieticians actually fussed at us for trying to control Andrew's diet too much at first. They told us to go home & order pizza! Weight control is important too though. It's hard for diabetics to lose weight because they have to eat when they exercise to keep from going low.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't know... he was overweight before he developed diabetes and I don't think he's exercised in 20 yrs
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