So, you know I’m on the vegan diet.  The low-fat, low-GI, low-carb, no caffeine, no artificial sweeteners, no nuts, no avocadoes, no olives, vegan diet.  And this has been about a month now and I’ve lost 4 pounds which isn’t bad.  But the disgusting thing is, my hubby who is only part-time on the aforementioned diet, while still maintaining the coke-swilling, chocolate-bar-inhaling, and bacon-and-pizza-eating diet, has lost 5 pounds. 

Undeniable evidence that life is not fair. 

Insulin. 

On a recent trip to my endocrinologist (due to inadequately controlled blood sugar levels) I heard the dreaded word:  insulin.  The long and short of the situation is that I’m running out of ways to get my sugars under control.  I was doing the low carb diet, the meds and the exercise.  Now the doctor has added a 2nd diabetes med (the maximum dosage) and still all is not tickety-boo.  His question to me was:  what do we do if this doesn’t work?  His suggestions:  another drug to add to the first two (causes weight gain) or bedtime insulin.  Whatever urgency I was feeling before has now become major motivation.  Insulin to me is the absolute last resort.  And this is not a fear of the unknown, rather it is a fear of the known.  I had to use insulin when I was pregnant with my younger daughter and it sucks.  Twice-a-day injections in the thigh:  morning and evening.  And the myth that it doesn’t hurt is just that, a myth. 

So, I did what I had to do when the going gets tough - I went to the library.  The book that leapt into my hand that day is a fairly new one (2007) by Dr. Neal Barnard.  In stark contrast to my low carb diet of old, Dr. Barnard advocates a vegan, low-fat, low G.I. diet.  In his well-researched book he very clearly describes what goes on in the cells of people with type 2 diabetes.  Apparently we have little bits of fat in our cells and mitochondria are responsible for eating up this fat.  Unfortunately, we people with type 2 diabetes have fewer mitochondria in our cells, so the fat is not effectively munched up.  The problem arises because it is the fat that causes our cells to become insulin resistant.  Adopting a low fat vegan diet eliminates fat from our daily intake, reduces the fat in our cells, and decreases insulin resistance.  This should result in better blood sugar levels and lower blood pressure.

So I switched.  I have given up my bacon(!!!) and eggs and am now eating oatmeal every morning for breakfast.  My chicken wings have been replaced by tofu dogs and I have waved bye bye to butter, margarine, and even peanut butter (too high in fat and protein).  It’s still early in this new lifestyle (5 days now) but so far it hasn’t been too bad.  I need to eat every few hours, but I feel really good about what I’m putting into my body. 

And my blood sugars?  Well, the first day they were through the roof (one after-meal reading was over 20).  But slowly, they seem to be coming down.  They’re still too high, but my next A1c (3-month blood sugar average) will be the real test.  My last A1c was around 8.6 when ideally it should be less than 7.0.  I have a few months before my next doc appointment to test the effectiveness of this new diet.  In the meantime I’ll be back at the library, looking for vegan cookbooks.

If you’ve enjoyed reading my blog (my general ramblings on life and diabetes), you may want to check out one of my other sites as well - my ramblings on food, (specifically recipes and cookbooks) is at www.ellenloves.com/cookbooks and my ramblings on Vancouver-area restaurants is at www.ellenloves.com/restaurants.

One of the newest additions to my cookbooks site is a weekly post of one (or more) of my favourite recipes.  It’s something that I have cooked during the preceding week and is called my “weekly FILL (food I love lots).”

Hope to see you there!

When the fairy of culinary joy smiles down upon me, this is what she will leave in my fridge:

- homemade homous

- devilled eggs

- fresh veggies and bacon, chive, cheese dip

- freshly made Caesar dressing

- washed and dried romaine, leaf, and butter lettuce

- Belgian-chocolate-smothered-almonds (made with Splenda)

- chicken wings with peanut sauce (they’re yummy cold too)

- cooked low salt bacon

- unsalted butter

- freshly squeezed lemon juice

- aioli or fresh mayo

- hot sauces

- sour cream, full fat yogurt

- low-carb flax muffins

- natural peanut butter made with Valencia peanuts (honest, it’s better)

- edamame

- cheese!

- omega 3 eggs

- olives

- nsa soy milk (please someone make an nsa vanilla flavour)

- diet Pepsi

- decaf ice coffee with cream and Splenda

- tofu

- umeboshi (Japanese pickled plums)

- sweet with heat mustard

- nsa ketchup (a product I’ve raved about in the past)

- mugicha (Japanese barley tea)

- crushed almonds and whey protein for low-carb baking

I wonder if she does dishes too?

It’s hard to believe, but Wednesday June 20, 2007 marks my first anniversary of blogging.

To celebrate the 90 some-odd posts on my life (in general and specific), my family, my friends, my diabetes, my obsession with food and all things tasty, and my overall conviction to have some laughs while still upright, I’d like to invite you all, dear readers, to post some comments.

I know, I know, you don’t really want to post anything because you’re enjoying your anonymity while being a voyeur into my life. But what about if I promise you a chance for some nifty prizes? Or at least an opportunity to be read by tens of people (who can resist that?) Or you could see it as a chance to use up that vast resource of puns you have at your ready disposal. Or just an avenue for congratulating me on sticking to something for a whole year (did I mention I get bored easily?)

The reasons are countless and my gratitude would be fathomless. So please, take a moment to post a nifty little comment. I so want to hear from you.

I love chocolate, especially dark chocolate. Because my chocolate consumption is limited due to the carb factor, I often resort to eating the no sugar added (nsa) chocolate. Unfortunately, the nsa chocolate is sweetened with maltitol. Maltitol is a sugar alcohol (polyol) and it doesn’t like me, nor does it like my guts.

Maltitol-sweetened foods (usually nsa candies and chocolate) do come with a warning that they make cause a laxative effect (or gastric distress, bloating, etc.) if consumed in large quantities. For me, the quantity does not have to be large and in fact, I can suffer after eating quite a small amount of maltitol on an empty stomach.

Without going into the gory details, let’s just say it’s not pretty (definitely not something to share on a first date).

I’ve tried all the major chocolate retailers and producers including Purdy’s, Charlie’s Chocolate Factory, Roger’s, Rocky Mountain Chocolate, Hershey’s, Cadbury, Daniel, and Bernard Callebaut. Every one of them uses maltitol as their sweetener of choice. Apparently, this is due to the fact that maltitol is fairly cheap, it acts similarly to sugar (except for the browning effect), and has been used as the “diabetic” sweetener of choice for years.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who is adversely affected by maltitol and would appreciate having some choices of sweetener in my nsa chocolates and candies. I would love to see one of the major chocolate producers take the lead here and produce and market an alternatively-sweetened chocolate. I’ll be first in line to buy it.

I keep harping on the fact that I’m high maintenance, but the truth is, I’m pretty darn expensive too.

For instance, I’ll pass on the mashed potatoes, but have a lobster tail with my dinner instead.

I had a girlfriend at university who said that if she wasn’t sure what to have when she went out to a restaurant, she’d just pick the most expensive thing on the menu.

It works for me.

This is something I’ve been meaning to write about for a long time now and I’m finally getting off my buns to do something about it. Especially because I have to emphasize lower carb foods, I find I am constantly searching for new and tasty treats to add to my sometimes boring diet.

I am thrilled when I find a new food product that is both delicious and “approved” for my nutritional requirements (remember, I’m high maintenance).

Anyway, I must admit that I do love ketchup. And, ketchup is notoriously high in sugar and therefore carbs. Several months ago, I discovered President’s Choice blue menu ketchup. It’s sweetened with sucralose and has only 1g of carb and 5 calories per tablespoon as opposed to the “favourite brand’s” 5g of carb and 20 calories per tablespoon.

That means I can eat 5 times as much!

I’m sure you’re getting tired of listening to me rant about my blood sugar woes, but believe me I am getting tired of having blood sugar woes. My latest round of “new meds” has not been working for me - except to plunge me low and then send me soaring into the double digits for no apparent reason. My soon-to-be-on-maternity leave GP is understandably pre-occupied and we’ve been fumbling around in the dark trying to “fix” my sugars for months now.

My most recent solution to my sugar problems has been to go off of the offensive new meds until I can see another doctor. I am supposed to see my specialist soon, and this is even more crucial since my GP has no replacement and may not ever return to her practice.

So, to take matters into my own hands and try to get my sugars closer to a state of normalcy, I am returning to my low carb diet. Ugh.

It’s not the food I mind so much, it’s more the prep. Our world is not set up for low carb convenience. Other than protein bars (which are $2 each and according to my daughter, taste like play-doh), low carb snacks are pretty much non-existent. When I think about everything I put in my kids’ lunches, very little qualifies as something I could eat myself.

So it’s back to the kitchen I go to make myself a stockpile of flax and whey protein muffins, hard-boiled eggs, veggie platters and dip, chicken wings, soups, roasted nuts and delectable soy-bean concoctions.

Just to forewarn you, I may be grumpy for the next few days.

This soup is our family’s equivalent of “Grandma’s chicken soup.” It’s wonderful when you have a cold or just need some “comfort in a bowl.” The original recipe is from “Quick and Easy: Enjoy Chinese Cuisine” by Judy Lew.

This recipe serves 4 to 6 people. I generally make a jumbo pot of this soup to feed the whole family plus have leftovers. Also, that way I can use full packages of ingredients like bamboo shoots because I find partial cans often go unused. So feel free to adjust the amounts upwards!

Hot and Sour Soup

4 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup slivered pork (you could also use minced pork or sliced chicken thighs)

1/4 cup slivered bamboo shoots

2 Chinese mushrooms (soaked, rinsed and sliced thin) or fresh Shiitake mushrooms sliced thin

a few cloud ears (tree ears) soaked, rinsed and thinly sliced

1/2 cube tofu sliced into thin strips

1/2 teaspoon white pepper or to taste

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

chili sauce to taste (I use toban djan, guilin chili sauce or chili garlic sauce - any chili sauce that has a deep rich flavour)

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons preserved Szechuan vegetable, chopped

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1. Combine the stock, pork, bamboo shoots, mushrooms and cloud ears. Bring to a boil and cook for at least 5 minutes, stirring to break up the pork.

2. Reduce heat and spoon off any foam/scum on the surface. Soup should look fairly clear.

3. Add tofu and cook gently for a few minutes.

4. Add white pepper, rice vinegar and chili sauce. Add egg and stir to distribute.

5. Stir gently and bring back up to a slow boil. Add preserved vegetable.

6. Taste and adjust seasoning (I find the vinegar evaporates quite quickly so you may need to add more).

7. Add green onions and sesame oil just before serving.

As Rachael says “yum-o!”