Food Therapy

I want to share with you what I’m learning. Please know that I do not judge what others are doing. There is no ‘one’ right answer, we all have a path that we need to find and follow. Please take what you like, and leave the rest. I hope not to offend anyone. I do hope there will be pieces you will be able to use. I will be posting about our journey with this. I think this is how I need to express myself. It is interesting how we think we know what our mission in life is and a 2X4 blasts you over the head and your direction changes.

When we arrived home from the hosp. I was reading every thing they handed to me, I was online to all the diabetes groups I knew of and found others that were not as mainstream. One week after diagnosis I realized I had not called my dear friend Tara (strange things happen to the brain when your child is dx) What a support..That evening she sent some info on alternative ways to deal with diabetes. On Friday I read the few links she had sent... Hmm. I thought, there are people controlling their D thru diet, some can go off of insulin, and some have it drastically reduced. (The first few weeks we were home, Tyler was on quite a bit of insulin).

Several days later she arrive at my home with meals and books. Books she had researched and ordered for me. There were two books from the Loy family, one from the mom and the other from her two boys who both have diabetes. The other was from Dr. Richard Bernstein. (All three books really helped to fill a need) Dr. Bernstein has had diabetes for over 60 years and became a Dr. to teach others about what he has learned. Please enjoy his book if you are inclined, it gave me a whole new perspective. Being a nutritionist, I have worked with diabetics, but this time it was different, what I knew about diet needed tweaking. Actually, it became aligned with my recent thoughts about food in general. He recommends a low carb ( major reductions of grains) diet. Yes, his diet is restrictive, but when you read information, you take what applies to you. I found his studies fascinating. The correlation between diet and insulin demand, even in people like him whose pancreas does not function any more ( due to the wrong diet for so many years). He was able to help many people who were willing to follow his plan.

I wanted to learn more. So out come my books that I refer to all the time (I'll post some of them later) One book that I did grab was a book about glycemic index, how foods effect one's b/g level. As I read deeper, I began to think. Yes, the the GI is a good starting point, but some of those low GI grains send my b/g flying, no I am not diabetic. I realized that food sensitivities cause your body to react differently.

Food is not one size fits all. Our bodies react uniquely. Okay I thought, if my body has a sensitivity then inflammation occurs at a cellular level....... auto-immune diseases are inflammation based.

With all this said, Tyler and I began to observe how food effected his blood sugar. The ones he is sensitive to express themselves in difficulty in to control his b/g levels. That is exactly where we are in our journey.... When I make or prepare certain foods, his b/g stays in normal range. In other words he usually needs no insulin after eating certain meals. We are learning the foods that cause a fluctuation and foods that keep it calm. We like calm, he feels good.

My goal is to delve deeper into how to nourish Tyler's (including the whole family)body so it will perform at its best. My prayer is that this becomes the 'norm' for him and he will be able to take what we have learned into his adult life.