Two news articles recently caught my attention, and I so wish I was back at the clinic in San Diego so I could talk to my patients and fellow health care professionals about what's going on.
Instead, I'll blog about it, and maybe you'll even comment on it, which seems like a fair compromise.
First, the scuttlebutt. Paula Deen, the queen of Southern home cooking, confessed that she had diabetes Type 2. Not only was she diagnosed with diabetes, but she's now the spokesperson for non-insulin medication.
Apparently, according to this New York Times article, there's been a lot of debate, and even anger, in the U.S. over her diagnosis.
I've watched her show a couple times while I was, ironically enough, working out at the gym. Normally I'd never torture myself by watching a cooking show while working out, but she's such a charismatic woman, it was more for the entertainment factor than actual desire to eat the food. Her food looked so decadent that I knew I'd never actually prepare any of the meals.
Even as a healthcare professional, it never occurred to me that Paula was at risk for developing diabetes I was just enjoying watching the show, not analyzing signs for diabetes. I guess, though, sitting here thinking about it, if you had asked me what I thought about her health, maybe I would have mentioned that she should have her cholesterol levels checked given the amount of high-fat food she prepares.
We do have an obesity epidemic in the U.S.,and Paula's food, if you actually prepared and ate it, is quite laden with fat and calories. The thing is, with food, it's all about moderation.
What I've observed about living here is though most Peruvian lunches come with a side of rice and potatoes, the portion sizes are moderate. Same with dessert and drinks. People eat a small breakfast sandwich of cheese, ham and bread with fruit juice when they wake up, a moderately portioned lunch of protein and carbs at 1pm, and a small dinner of yogurt or soup or fruit salad at 9pm, sometimes with dessert around 6pm. (See a previous entry for more.)
I had heard that the prevalence rate of diabetes in Peru was high. But according to the International Diabetes Foundation, the 2010 national prevalence rate of diabetes in Peru is 5.6% (ranked as 135th of 223 countries). In the U.S., it's 12.3% (ranked as 29th of 223 countries).
I'm not so concerned about Paula's diagnosis. She was diagnosed three years ago, and I hope she's educated herself on how to self-manage her diabetes. It takes a lot of time and discipline to manage diabetes, or any chronic illness for that matter, but it's doable.
The thing that makes me uncomfortable is that she's partnered with a pharmaceutical company. These companies overprice their medical supplies, including medication, glucometers, syringes, and more. Do they really need a celebrity hawking their high-priced products?
The good news is that many pharmaceutical companies, though I honestly can't remember if Novo Nordisk is one of them, offer no-cost medication for low- and no-income people with chronic health conditions. That was one of the programs I volunteered to work on before I actually stared working for the clinic in San Diego. It's a bit of an application process, but one of my friends who volunteered there manage to streamline it and several of our homeless patients received a three- month to year-supply of free medications.*
That aside, what I think would benefit people the most who watch Paula's show is a segment on what proper serving sizes actually are, as well as how many calories and what percentage of fat, among other nutritional values, are in each of her dishes. That, simply put, is education. Free education. It wouldn't take her production team much time to figure out the nutritional value and post it with each segment, alone with the recipe and values on her website.
At
the risk of sounding like a jackass, this is obvious, at least
for me. If you think of water as flushing out toxins, then wouldn't it
seem natural that it would flush out extra sugar in your blood, too?
Back in the U.S., every time I eat too much birthday cake at one of my many work celebrations and then start to feel sick with sugar overload, I
would drink a lot of water, go to the bathroom to urinate all the sugar out, and feel so much healthier.
It's the same principle with alcohol, which is basically sugar. You can avoid getting drunk if you drink 1-2 glasses of water per alcoholic drink. You just end up helping your kidneys flush the alcohol out of your blood stream. Admittedly, you end up having to run to the bathroom a lot, but, at least for me, I'd rather that and enjoy a couple drinks with friends than get drunk and sick the rest of the night.
I started telling
my clients to do the same when they had too much sugar, and it always seemed to work for them. I also advocated drinking 8 glasses of water to flush out toxins and keep hydrated.
Today I'll leave you with a new recipe. I haven't prepared this yet myself since I don't have a blender, but one day soon I will. I was on the bus a couple days ago when I noticed this guy handing out a small pamphlet called Jugoterapia, (Juice Therapy), for just a sol, so I picked one up to check it out. I love learning about natural remedies for chronic conditions.
The recipe is in Spanish, but I've translated it, which you'll find at the end of the page. Personally I can't stand tuna, which is not the fish but instead a Peruvian fruit that I've never seen in the U.S. before. I think the cactus would be a better tasting alternative and more widely available in the U.S., especially in the border states.
Enjoy!
Jugos para Personas con Diabetes
Jugo de Tuna, Limon, Ajo y Sabila
Ingredientes:
3 limones
1 nopal o tuna
media taza de agua purificada
2 dientes de ajo
1 pedacito de sabila fresca
Preparacion: Lava los limones, el nopal y la sabila, quitale a esta las espinitas de las orillas.
Extrae el jugo de los limones. Pela los ajos. Licua todos los ingredientes perfectamente. Sirvelo en 1 vaso y tomalo inmediatamente para aprovechar sus propriedades.
Nota: Esta jugo se toma durante 1 semana, descansas 8 dias y vuelvas a tomarlo una semana mas.
Propriedades del jugo: Este jugo es excelente para controlar y reducir el nivel de azucar en la sangre, por la sabia mezcla de todos sus ingredientes.
Juices for People with Diabetes
Juice Tuna, Lemon, Garlic and Aloe
Ingredients:
- 3 lemons
- 1 nopal or tuna
- half a cup of purified water
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 piece of fresh aloe
Preparation: Wash the lemons, cactus and aloe, remove the spines from the cactus.
Extract the juice from the lemons. Peel the garlic. Blend all ingredients well. Serve in a glass and drink it immediately to take advantage of its properties.
Note: Drink this juice 1 week, rest 8 days, and then continue to drink another week.
Juice properties: This juice is excellent for controlling and reducing the level of sugar in the blood, by the judicious mix of all ingredients.
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*My friend who runs the Patient Assistance Program at St. Vincent de Paul Village has this to say about his program: Thanks Jackie!!!!! It's super
cool of you to mention Patient Assistance in your blog :) From Jan 2011
to Dec 2011 our clinic received a little over a million dollars in free
medications!!!!!!!!!! A large percentage of these drugs were
diabetes medications. Most of these medications are so expensive that
with out these programs our patients would pay a very high price for
them, or not buy them at all.
I am so proud of Ruben and all the volunteers who worked on this program--way to rock it!!
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