Researchers from the University of Manitoba report that whole yellow pea flour can be used as an ingredient to produce low-glycemic foods that may help those with diabetes, according to a new study from the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists.

With incidences of diabetes increasing, ways to manage glycemic responses, or changes in blood sugar levels after eating, are being investigated. Whole yellow pea flour is readily available and inexpensive, which makes it an attractive functional ingredient. Researchers studied 19 healthy men and women, observing their glucose responses before and after eating food products

• Researchers created banana bread, biscotti, and pasta using whole yellow pea flour.
• Each food was prepared using either 100 percent whole yellow pea flour or whole wheat flour as its primary ingredient;
• Boiled yellow peas and white bread were used as positive and negative controls;
• Whole yellow pea flour banana bread and biscotti reduced glycemic responses more than whole wheat bread;
• Whole yellow pea flour biscotti reduced glycemic responses more than whole wheat flour biscotti.

“Whole yellow pea flour can be used as a functional ingredient to produce low-glycemic foods. These findings may be used as a tool for health care practitioners to assist patients in cooking low-glycemic foods that help and prevent and manage type 2 diabetes,” says lead researcher Christopher Marinangeli, MSc RD.

Something weird happened this weekend. It has happened once before, a few weeks back. I have lost my sense of taste. All weekend long now I have been having cravings for food, but when I eat, it doesn’t taste like nothing.

It’s kinda scary actually. Today is the worse of the last two days. My sense of smell seems to be ok, but the minute I put food in my mouth, it taste’s like nothing. There are small bits of taste here and there, but overall, nothing.

Kinda sucks to be hungry and then eat only to be disappointed. Satifying hunger is not just about the physical eating of protiens and vegetables, its about the taste and smell.

Any ideas?

Dr. Suzann de la Monte of the Rhode Island Hospital, along with her colleagues, followed the trends in mortality rates associated with aging, such as diabetes, Alzheimer, Parkinsons, HIV and cerebrovascular disease.

“We have become a ‘nitrosamine generation.’ In essence, we have moved to a diet that is rich in amines and nitrates, which lead to increased nitrosamine production,” de la Monte said in a statement. “We receive increased exposure through the abundant use of nitrate-containing fertilizers for agriculture.”

THeir study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Nitrates can be found in alot of different food products, fertilizers, cured meats, bacon, cheese and even beer and water.

My largest spike was somewhere around 170 just after lunch. I did have some carbs with lunch. I skipped breakfast and usually that makes me spike as my body starts to create sugars to make up for the lack of food.

Don’t get me wrong, staying under 200 is wonderful, I just haven’t been able to do it.

• On days where I think I feel fine, I look down at the monitor and see a high glucose reading and I sigh and want to crawl under a rock
• Stress really does affect glucose levels
• Last week must have been bad…I was hovering around 200 all week
• Spaghetti – BAD (Carbs and sugars from the tomato sauce)
• I had a baguette binge – BAD
• When you have someone special over, you have to tell him what it is before they find it on their own
• I find that the monitor reminds me to be more diligent about taking my meds

Let’s look at the last 9 hours. So i was around 184 this morning, dipped down to 110s and then shot back up to 200 by the end of the day. Ugh.

So I inserted a new sensor today and while I did hesitate for 30 seconds before plunging the needle into my stomach, I did it. Didn’t hurt at all. I thought I would try it behind my upper arm this time, but I would have needed a second pair of hands to do that. So let’s see how things go this week. It’s been a long week..let’s see how alcohol affects my numbers.

NOTE: I’m not drinking alcohol just to test how the machine reads it, I just need a drink! :)

Photo credit: SixUntilMe.com

So I have almost completed my first week on my Continuous Glucouse Monitor System (CGMS). It has been very interesting seeing the trends in the numbers. Overall my numbers have been very high. I take my medications and the numbers mellow out, but spike within hours.

The CGMS involves a transmitter that is placed on my stomach. A receiver takes in readings 24/7. The transmitter is waterproof and is good for 7 days.

I have a habit of not eating regularly. My endocrinologist recommends eating 6 small meals throughout the day. I have never been a breakfast person, but for three weeks I had a yogurt each morning. Good right? Wrong. The yogurt had fruit in it. While the fruit is good for me, the sugars in the fruit causes me to spike. Then I will go at least 6 hours before I will eat lunch. At this point, my body is starving and if I understand, my body starts producing sugar to compensate and then my numbers spike into the upper 200s. Ugh.

It is in the overnight hours that surprise me the most. My numbers spike in the middle of the night. I take 1/2 of my daily meds at around 9pm so I wonder if something is happening in the middle of the night. Is it because my body has no food? I have been trying not to eat within 2 hours of sleeping in an effort to help my weight – but am I doing my body harm in another way?

So it is Saturday just after noon and I haven’t had anything to eat since about 9:30 last night. My numbers are in the upper 200s for sure. Time to eat.

When my levels are that high for a long period of time I feel like crap. According to several online websites, some of the symptoms can be:

• Tiredness
• Increased Urination
• Thirst
• Weight Loss (I wish)
• Moodiness (definitely)
• Numbness or tingling in the hands and feet
• Muscle Cramps

I’m definitely experiencing most of the symptoms above. I made it into work today, but I really just wanted to sleep. I’m guessing that having that Banana’s Foster at Savannah last night and that wonderful Baguette from Cream Pan in Tustin wasn’t the best idea.

So as a Type II Diabetic, I need to take multiple blood sugar readings throughout the day. This means pricking my fingers several times a day. After a few days, you end up with sore fingers!

Well today I’m testing out a new blood sugar monitoring device. I doesn’t take away the finger pricking entirely, but it does reduce it significantly. The device also monitors and records 24/7 for 7 days. This data will allow me to see trends in my glucose levels rather than just reference points. I’m testing the unit out for two weeks.

The device works by placing a sensor on your abdomen or lower back or upper arm. It doesn’t work on blood, it places a sensor into the interstitial fat layer under the skin. You still have to do finger sticking to calibrate a “blood” reading against  the “interstitial fat” reading. Once the unit is calibrated, the transmitter works for 7 days. The system may ask for additional finger stick readings to get a more accurate reading. Over time, the finger sticking will lessen. The sensor is inserted into the skin by a needle that threads a wire sensor under the skin. Since tonight was my first time doing it, it took my 15 minutes to get the strength to needle myself. When the moment came, it wasn’t so bad. Not any worse than when I have to lance my fingertips.

I found a video on YouTube about Continuous Glucose Monitoring…it’s got alot of information.

Now part of the story here is that I went off my meds for 2 months. The first reading with got me the 10.7 was 60 days un-medicated. My second reading, taken 1 month later now had 60 medicated and showed a remarkable difference.

I’m not out of the woods by any means. Testing my daily blood sugars is the bane of my existence. three times a day I need to take readings and that means more pricking and more blood. I’m going to be testing out a new device that will monitor my blood sugar levels for 1 week, 24/7. The device has a transmitter that sends info to a reader constantly. I have to change out the transmitter and insertion point once a week – but that’s better than remember 21 times that I need to do a sugar reading.

More on the monitoring device later…

For the last several weeks I have been trying to reduce my carb intake and focusing more on vegetables and proteins. I have also been remiss and have not been cooking much in the last 30 days. That will have to change. The “In The Kitchen” section on the blog is looking kinda empty these days.

So a small victory for me that I brought my A1C numbers down, but let’s see if we can get it below 6.0 and keep it there!

I realized that I had a few photo’s sitting in my iPhone camera and decided to post them. I wil get a full write up for Hashigo’s up in a few days. I the meantime here is a mix of photos these last few days in December.

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In 2002 I had a “hiccup” and I gave Scott a mild heart incident. Everytime he would get up to walk, go up the stairs, carry something, I would make him tired. For three weeks he ignored it and he thought it was his asthma. When I made things harder for him, he went to his doctor and he was told to go to the ER immediately. Turns out one of my arteries was partially blocked and the docs put in a stent to clear it. Once the stent went in I was pumping again at full steam and Scott had lots of energy.

Several years have gone by and in February 2007 I had more blockage and made things hard for Scott. I didn’t make things slow and gradual, I decided to flutter a bit when he was out walking and gave him a very mild myocardial infarction. Luckily it wasn’t bad and I suffered no damage. I wanted to give Scott a second chance. You see, since 2002 he didn’t make much of a chnage in his diet or exercise. So I got another stent and Scott was up to 100% again.

Since then, Scott made a good effort at the time to change his habits. He changed his diet, sought a personal trainer and tried to lose some of his weight. He was committed to it for about 3 months. He lost the weight but gained it all back and some. He started drinking soda again, though not at much as before, and he started eating fatty foods again. He dropped the trainer and stopped working out.

Almost two years have gone by and I’ll be damned if he is still not treating me and his body right. So I decided to give him a sign. Any activity would cause him to be tired. For the last few months, he has been tired and lethargic. His energy levels are low, he’s even had big insomnia problems.

Last week things got hard for Scott and on Wednesday he decided it wasn’t just fatigue and after testing  the theory by doing some physical activity. By the time he exerted himself, he realized that he felt this feeling before. 

He just about lost it on Wednesday and went into his boss’ office basically in tears in fear that it was back. He contacted his primary doctor and his cardiologist and was told to head to the ER. He went in they hooked the EKG and contacted his cardiologist. Dr. LaMont is on staff at Saddleback Memorial. They gave him some nitro and an aspirin and it was determined after waiting for 4 hours in the ER that he should be admitted and schedule an angioplasty to explore my arteries.  They thought about doing a stress test, but felt that the angioplasty was the best course of action. They scheduled the surgery for the next morning at 7:30am. 

That evening, alone in his hospital room, he cried. He knew he did this. He knew that he didn’t do anything this past year to make me feel better. I know in his soul he wanted to do the right thing, but in reality he didn’t make the good decisions as often as he should have. His friend Tim visited him in the hospital and consoled him. His friend Tim said that it will take small steps to get to a better place. Scott needs to listen to his friend Tim. Tim said he’d help him through it. From what I could sense from Scott’s soul, he was relived and happy that Tim was there for him. 

That night was full of lots of tossing and turning. Nurses came in every 2 hours to take reading on my pressure and took my blood every 4 hours. I guess they were looking for the enzyme I should be releasing if I had some damage. But I knew they wouldn’t find any. At around 0500 they started prepping Scott for surgery. They came up for him at 0700 and brought him to the cath lab. 

They started the exploration of my arteries and they found one of my arteries clogged about 80%. Dr. LaMont said they had to put in some stents to clear the artery. They actually put in three stents. The surgical team joked that the stents would set off metal detectors in the airport. Scott was not amused.

So I now have a total of 5 stents in me. I can’t believe it. Scott owes me big time that I didn’t break out into a full attack. Most people get 1 chance, maybe 2, but 3 times must mean he is doing something right to deserve to stay around. 

In fact, I heard him talking to his friend Tim about how he feels guilty about his lack of attention to me over the last two years. He knows he fucked up and he knows that he will not get another chance. I might not give him another chance. Scott is a good person and I want to root for him. But don’t fuck with me, I’ll do something bad.

Maybe he will actually wake up this time.

The Veggie Grill, yes…I went to a vegetarian restaurant. I was a bit hesitant, but in the interests of health, we went. Tim and I left the office and headed towards UC Irvine for lunch. After having a hard time finding parking in the University Town Center lot, we found something near Trader Joes. 

The Veggie Grill was the first restaurant we saw and decided that was our choice for the day. We walked into a somewhat crowded restaurant (for the after lunch crowd) and looked at the menu. At first glance I saw they had Carne Asada, Chicken…but then I read more carefully. The “chickin” and “steak” are made from specially seasoned and marinated veggie protien blends. The texture of the “chickin” was AMAZING! Taking my first bite, I would never have known it was a veggie sandwich. 

I had the Santa Fe Crispy Chickin’ that had lettuce, tomatoe, red onions, avocado and a southwestern spiced vegan mayo. I also had their red cabbage slaw.

Tim opted for the Grillin’ Chickin’ complete with grill marks on the “chickin’”. The sandwich comes on a wheat roll, avocado, lettuce, tomato, red onion, cilantro pesto and a chipotle ranch sauce. Tim had the Sweet Potato fries, to compare to the Sweet Potato fries we had at The Counter.

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Overall, I will come here again (after NRO month) and try some of their other selections. Go visit this place. They offer outdoor seating and the best thing is – NO SODA! 

The Veggie Grill
4213 Campus Drive
Irvine, CA 92612
949.509-0003
Hours: 11am to 10pm 

Other Locations in El Segundo and soon at the Irvine Spectrum

I love food. There is no doubt about it. But being a diabetic doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy food anymore. What it does mean is that I need to pay closer attention to what I am eating and how much of it I take in. 

I’m hoping that by documenting my health status will help others as well. So look for recipes that are heart conscious or look for tips on how to substitute certain foods with a healthier twist – it will all be here!