Diabetes and eating; let's talk about it.

The author of this article is a diabetic. Diabetics reading this article might like to know that. Some of you may disagree with what is written here while others may agree wholeheartedly. Regardless of which side you come down on, readers should find the article interesting.

Let's begin by stating that diabetes can be a devastating disease and I don't think there is any question about that. Left untreated it will take your life. The author's father was diagnosed with diabetes in the 1950's and it claimed his life within ten years of the diagnosis. It should also be noted that the life of the author's paternal grandmother was lost to diabetes. So there's some background, but what is the purpose?

For all of you diabetics that are reading this, I want you to consider how lucky you are. No, you're not lucky because you have diabetes, you're lucky because if you had to be a diabetic, now is a better time to be a diabetic than ever before. The internet is full of information on diabetes and you can go from one diabetic blog to another and you will find three common themes, lose weight, exercise and eat correctly. It's the eat correctly part that we are going to discuss.

Having been a junk food addict prior to becoming a diabetic, the author thought those days were over. Now the author is certainly not advocating eating wrong, but at the same time telling you how lucky you are that,today, there is Sweet 'N Low, Equal and Splenda. These artificial sugar free sweeteners have revolutionized foods for diabetics, something that was not around 50 years ago. Can you imagine walking into you favorite eating establishment 5o years ago and after eating a well proportioned meal, finishing it off with a slice of your favorite pie? Sugar free that is! No way! But you can today!

Look, becoming a diabetic today is not the end of the world. For many people it will do something for them that they were never willing to do before and that is, eat right. A good diabetic eating strategy is to eat several small meals all day long. The theory behind this is to keep you blood sugar levels, well, level. Try this; breakfast at 8AM, a snack at 10AM, lunch at NOON, a snack at 2-3PM, dinner at 5-6PM and a snack before bed. Did you get enough to eat? Did it seem like all you did was eat all day? It's almost funny isn't it? But this is the way you should do it. And you know what happens as a result? You lose weight! Let's back up for a minute. What were the three common themes? Lose weight, exercise and eat correctly. Well, eating correctly kind of takes care of weight loss, so all that is left is the exercise. That is up to you.

So to all you diabetics out there, good health to you.