To carb or not to carb?

The challenge question:

Thursday 5/13 - 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 suppose I fall in the middle. Carbohydrates are certainly something to be limited if you wish to reduce the amount of insulin you inject. I've followed the low-carb way of eating off and on and I do have a lot of energy when I am eating low carb. It's expensive, though, and I usually end up freaking out and eating carbs after a week or so. More often, I just eat what I want and bolus to cover it. Life is too short.

That being said, I do have some simple rules:

(1) I can eat what I want, as long as I record it in my food diary and make the effort to look up the carbs.

(2) If I am going to drink soda (and I have a love/hate relationship with it for various reasons), it has to be diet.

(3) Whenever possible, eat food and not foodstuff. You know the difference. If it comes in a box, sits on a shelf or contains any ingredients you can't realistically find in your kitchen, it ain't food.


The final foodie wisdom I will share with you non-existent readers (yes, I'm talking about... you!), is to read and listen to author Michael Pollan. He does an excellent job of explaining food and agricultural issues and is practical (and realistic). I've read almost all of his books and would highly recommend them.

Because of him, we (a) have belonged to a CSA - community sustained agriculture - in which we support a local farmer and her family by buying all of our needed produce and eggs (fertilized AND really cage free!) from her; (b) haven't purchased bread in over two years because we make all of it ourselves in a whopping 5 minutes or so of work per day; and (c) make such "oddities" as our own, homemade corned beef, soups, etc.