Day 4 - to carb or not to carb, that is the question

Day 4 - To carb or not to carb. Today let’s blog about what we eat. And perhaps what we don’t eat. Some believe a low carb diet is important in diabetes management, while others believe carbs are fine as long as they are counted and bolused for. Which side of the fence do you fall on? What kind of things do you eat for meals and snacks? What foods do you deem bolus-worthy? What other foodie wisdom would you like to share?


I grew up with my parents giving me the mantra of 'all things in moderation'. So I could have sweets - at birthday parties. And I could definitely have chocolate - when treating a low, or before PE or swimming. I guess I never really missed out on anything because I did have everything, just not all the time.


...Well, that was when I was young enough for my parents to have the overall say in what I ate. Cue age 18 when I went onto MDIs (yes, I stuck it out on 2 injections a day for 15.5 years) and all of that went to pot. Mainly I ate all kinds of cake, chocolate, sweets etc - the things my parents and I had always kept a close eye on, that I could now eat freely as I could bolus for them.


Nowadays I have calmed down somewhat and I would like to think I am back to having a fairly balanced diet. My plate at any given meal will usually have some form of carb in it (cereal, bread for breakfast; potatoes, pasta, rice etc for the others) although I am making a conscious effort at the moment to make sure the carb part of my plate is the smallest (aka eat more salad!)

There are only two or three things I really avoid, and this is because through experience I have found that my body does not handle them very well - but again, I WILL eat them if I choose to. Pizza is one of them; I adore the stuff, but it plays havoc with my glucose levels. So I generally won't have it, unless I'm going out for a meal or something and we choose to. The other thing I won't really have is sweets: pure, sugary, jelly type sweets. They rocket me up and drop me back down again. Pasta can be difficult, but sometimes I can manage it.


I am a firm believer in that as long as you are happy with the way you manage it, then carbs are a definite go-go. Because we people with diabetes? We are totally individual. What works for one of us does not work for the next person. Me personally, I'm going to look into going onto a low-carb diet for a while, just to see how I find it. It's just an experiment for now.