A nutritious diet is important for everyone. We all need to eat well, combining whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, proteins and calcium. If you eat nothing BUT ice cream, your health is going to be a wreck - whether you're diabetic or not.
Sarah is not on a DIET.
Sarah has diabetes, and that means that her body doesn't produce the insulin it needs to convert the glucose in foods into energy and stored glucagon. So, when she eats, she just needs to manually replace that missed insulin. It's basically as simple as that! Sure, some foods affect her blood sugar levels more than others. Sure, sometimes we have to get pretty creative in delivering her insulin. Sure, if her blood sugar goes too high or too low she can get sick or need medical assistance. But the only reason this is necessary is because her body isn't taking care of the problem, and no matter how hard we try, we cannot replace the body's natural process.
And just to make the point. The very worst things that could happen to someone with type 1 diabetes, a severe hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or a severe hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) could just as easily happen if she eats a bowlful of fruit, carrots, or pasta than if she eats a bowl of ice cream.
Are ice cream, cookies, cakes, and other goodies difficult to deal with? Sometimes. But not as difficult as breakfast cereal, or a banana. Fatty foods take longer to raise her blood sugar, which gives us more time to correct an impending high blood sugar. Whereas a large banana might raise her blood sugar much faster than the insulin she took can regulate it.
So I'd urge everyone, every single one of you who made it this far - share this information. Pass it on. Pass on what you know about type 1 diabetes. We will never stop the misconceptions if we don't band together and share the knowledge.
THANK YOU MICHELLE - pass it on, I will!!
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