My Type 1 Diabetic Journey (part two)

What they told me to eat, and what I really should be eating
It seems so confusing when we are constantly inundated with diet plan after diet plan and rapidly changing nutritional data. This has been happening for eons. The ancient egyptians for example treated diabetes with grains, honey and fruit (all things consisting of sugar and breaking down into sugar)—yikes!

The more carbohydrates you consume, the more your body elicits an insulin response. Remember I said that insulin is needed to open the cell doors to receive glucose circulating through your blood (fat cells). Any excess glucose gets stored as fat. This is actually a more complicated and delicate system than I'm letting on here, I will look for another way to explain it more in detail.

Fat does not make you fat, carbohydrates do. Why do carbohydrates make you fat? Because they promote insulin (fat storing anabolic hormone) secretion. There is a lot more to this process, but basically all carbohydrates are not created equal, and our bodies do not process them the same. So of course through my frustration, I had to start investigating exactly what I was eating, and which part of my diet, my body was rejecting. Naturally I eliminated the processed, chemically laden, toxic foods—you'd be surprised at how many chemicals and toxins are also in the organic foods (we believe are healthy). The more research I do, the more I realize there is very little that we can actually buy from a grocery store that is truly healthy for our bodies. This opens up a whole other discussion on local farming, urban farming and sustainable living, which I fully support. I already encourage friends and family to grow their own food if possible.

Ok, getting back to my nutrition—after thoroughly reading the effects of wheat (namely gluten), starches and whole grains and the many claims that our bodies are not intended to process these foods. See the "Auto Immune Epidemic"

Gluten, a complex of proteins, inspires on immune response which inflames the intestine in at least 83% of people [6], and makes the intestine permeable, allowing gut bacteria and their toxins to enter the body. [7] Gluten triggers anti-wheat antibodies in at least 30% of the population, and auto-antibodies – that is, antibodies that attack human cells – in at least 0.4% of the population. [8] These unlucky folks suffer celiac disease, which devastates the intestine, as well as autoimmune thyroiditis. [9]

I decided to eliminate these foods from my diet, and my family's as well. There have been significant studies done purporting a connection between wheat toxins, sugar, yeast and the big C [read cancer]. So in my fervor to "clean house," I decided to adopt the much raved about "Paleo Diet," simulating our ancient ancestors dietary consumption as much as I can (they didn't have to deal with the toxicity that we do today, but I suppose I would settle for that, over being eaten by a saber tooth tiger). Check out Robb Wolf (the Paleo Guru) to see exactly what I'm getting myself into.