Sh*t Cyclist Say

Couldn't resist posting, one of the funniest videos I've seen in a while...

Disgusted by Paula Deen

As most of you have read by now Paula Deen will be a spokesman for Novo Nordisk to promote their type 2 diabetic drug.  In my view this alliance and Paula Deen's development of the disease represents everything that is wrong with both the American health system and the obesity issue in America.  Paula Deen should in no way be viewed as a role model for people with type 2 diabetes, she should rather be viewed as the poster person for EXACTLY HOW NOT TO EAT.

I took a quick look at her top recipes on foodtv.com, I've listed the high fat, high carb ingredients in the top 3 recipes:

• Chicken & Rice Casserole - 1 can condensed cream of celery soup (220 calories, 13.6 g fat, 21.4 g carbohydrates), 1 cup mayonnaise (916 calories, 78.5 g fat, 56.2 g carbohydrates),  for a total of 1,136 calories, 92.1 g fat and 77.6 g carbohydrates.
• Lady & Sons Chicken Pot Pie - 1 quart heavy cream (3,284 calories, 352 g fat, 24 g carbohydrates), 1/3 cup butter (542 calories, 61.3 g fat, < 1 g carbohydrates), 2/3 cup all purpose flour (309 calories, < 1 g fat, 64.6 g carbohydrates), 4 sheets frozen puff pastry (1.036 calories, 71.6 g fat, 84.8 g carbohydrates) for a total of 5,171 calories, 484.9 g fat and 173.4 g carbohydrates
• Chicken & Dumplings - 1 can condensed cream of celery soup (220 calories, 13.6 g fat, 21.4 g carbohydrates), 2 cups all purpose flour (910 calories, 2.4 g fat, 191 g carbohydrates) for a total of 1,130 calories, 16 g fat and 212.4 g carbohdyrates

Even in moderation the foods above should be avoided at all costs; the human body simply should not process foods that dense in calories, fat or carbohydrates.  And to keep it simple I didn't break down the difference between good and bad fats above or include the level of sodium in each dish.  Fat tastes good, no question about it, but after years of eating clean the mere sight of the nutritional content above makes me nausesus.

Rather than promoting someone whose cooking habits and lifestyle no doubt led to the development of a lifestyle disease shouldn't we celebrate people like Jamie Oliver or studying the glycemic index of foods like Michael Montignac suggested?  Paula Deen is addressing the problem after something has happened rather than making a chance prior to the problem happening.  Think about what would happen if you didn't change the oil in your car's engine until after your engine seized.  That would be a tad more expensive than the $40 oil change and your local shop, right?  That's exactly what Novo Nordisk is suggesting by using Paula Deen as a spokesmen.  We need to get ahead of the problem and change eating habits, not address the consequences once we are too far downstream.
 

Ooozing Insulin

So this may be my grossest blog post of all time...

Upon my return trip from Thailand (full bolus food report forthcoming) my blood sugars were unsurprisingly wacky.  A 12 hour time change and 30 hours of travel to make it home can send a person's metabolism totally out of whack, even if they have no issues to speak of.  So for a type 1 diabetic extensive travel often comes with some blood sugar management issues.

However, when I got back from Thailand my blood sugars were all over the map.  My bs didn't want to be consistent, cropping up at weird times and staying stagnant for a short period of time after a meal until a big spike occurred.  I assumed it was just my body getting used to a different eating schedule and planned to suffer through for a couple days.

On one of my last boluses before changing my infusion set I began to think something other than the time change was affecting me. The long trip had my stomach in knots and a wacky sleep pattern had me not very hungry.  So for my first 2 days back in the States I was living on toast and chicken soup.  For dinner on Wednesday night I had 2 pieces of whole wheat toast and a can of Campbell's Chicken & Stars soup - we're talking a total of no more than 80 grams of carbohdyrates.  Even though I took in 7.5 untis of insulin for that meal my blood sugar spiked to 308 about an hour and 1/2 after my meal.  I had around 7 units of insulin left in my pump so it was time for a change anyway.

When I removed my infusion set and was rewinding my pump I suddenly felt a ton of wetness on the side of my stomach.  When I looked down there was something that looked like water around the injection area.  I then ran my hand over it and it smelt like insulin - hmm odd I thought.  I ran my finger over my infusion old infusion site and some more insulin seemed to pop out.  So then like any curious person would do I squeezed the old infusion site and the hole gushed insulin - I'd say at least 10 units!

Disgusting! As I changed my infusion site insulin was freaking leaking out of my body, doesn't it know it's supposed to stay in there!  I checked out the old cannula and it was crimped at the end - something that seems to be happening way more often with my Animas sets than my old Medtronic sets.  At least I finally have an answer for where all the unused insulin goes when your site is crimped, it comes out the other end...