Yet another lesson in label reading!!

For about a week and a half, my blood sugars had been in the 150s when they are usually in the 120s to 1teens. So, I was a bit confused. I thought I'd been doing pretty good, but I had been eating some whole wheat bread, so I cut that out completely. And, it did not help. Hmmmm...

Then, 2 days ago, I got a total surprise. It was my diet drink. I don't know what made me think to read the label (boredom, perhaps) on my Diet Orange Crush, but imagine my surprise at its number one ingredient.... high fructose corn syrup.

WHAT??? That's killer carbs from Hell!!!!  How did that get in my diet drink?? It's the only diet drink I have ever seen that has calories, let alone carbs. And, oh, did it have carbs. 4 per serving. And, how many servings? 2 per bottle, that's how many. So, for one bottle, I could have eaten 1/2 a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Or, 1/4 cup of frozen yogurt. Now, considering that I usually drink about 4 bottles a day, and you begin to see where my elevated blood sugars came to be. Siiiigh.

I have to admit thinking that it was such a great drink, because it didn't taste like diet at all. Yeah, well, guess I know why now!!! So, I switched to drinking Diet Sunkist, which is almost as tasty (and carb/calorie free, as a diet drink should be), and suddenly, my blood sugars are much better! So, even if common sense says that I should be safe eating something, I will rely on label reading from here on out!!!

As a side note, I have found a great diabetic magazine in "Diabetic Living". It has some great articles on everything from side effects of common meds, new research, recipes, new meters, etc. I have definitely sent in my check for my subscription and made a couple of recipes from it already!

I also found a lousy magazine called "Diabetes Self Management." It had a 4 page article on whether or not diet drinks are linked to diabetes that basically concluded "we don't know" and an article written by a type 1 diabetic that basically implied everyone with Type 2 was fat, slovenly and brought it on themselves and everyone who had type 1 hates type 2s and wishes no one would help us. Hey, that's the way to handle a disease, folks, turn the 2 types of people that have it against each other. Helpful!!! So, needless to say, my one free issue to that one is the only issue I'll be reading. It was truly just a craptastic useless magazine. Oh, well, at least it was free.

NYC with Diabetes... Easy Going!!!

Well, Springtime in New York is the best time for Diabetics!! Holy cow, it has been super easy to "be good" here. First of all, the walking.... you walk everywhere here and exercise is like the anti-diabetes. It lowers your blood sugars. So, I've walked probably 5 miles or so each day.

Then, you add in Vitamin D. Recent studies have shown that Diabetics have very low levels of Vitamin D. They think that may cause lower abilities to correctly process sugars/insulin. So, I'm out in the sun on the double decker bus and walking and getting my Vitamin D!

Then, you add the food. Okay, sure... I've passed 200 bakeries and thought about throwing a temper tantrum in front of a cheesecake place today. But, with all the other food here... bread can kiss my tushie!!!  In Chinatown, I brought a super cold, freshly cut up mango that was literally so perfectly ripe it dripped juice all over me (worth every shirt stain). The street vendors have kebabs, shwarma, kosher dogs, etc. Every street corner has a fresh fruit/veggie stand. Healthy food is everywhere!!!

The funniest thing has been trying to find Diet sodas that I like. I am addicted to fizzy drinks (although drinking much less of them than I used to), but I hate the taste of diet cola. So, I usually drink either diet orange soda or diet root beer. I couldn't find either one here for the first day. But, found a 2 liter of Diet Sunkist, so I've lugged that back to the room and am going to town on it!!!

On a side note, the absolutely GORGEOUS and perfectly, wonderfully functional meter case I had made on Etsy is doing a GREAT job and has garnered many a compliment. So, good to know!

Even after erratic sleep on the way up here, and meals at odd times yesterday, my blood sugar was only 130 this morning! I was very pleased!  I will be interested to see what it is tomorrow. I had several pieces of fruit today. And, even though it is healthy sugar, it's sugar none-the-less. So, we shall see.

On yet another side note... Mom has been eating almost healthy while we are here. She is diabetic and is so non-compliant it is not even funny. But, she did only eat half of her bagel this morning and has drank all diet drinks! Probably because I am the one who ordered them, but hey... whatever works. Right?!

Well, off to take a shower, take some glucophage and take a nap. LOL!!!