D(KA)-Day

Last day of school for the kids, first day of the rest of my life.

That’s where it all began, just a few months ago. I woke up early to make a dish for my son’s history class’s international lunch buffet. Got out of bed with a headache and a sore stomach, which I attributed to the previous night’s beer consumption. During the food prep and cooking, I had to stop several times to rest on the couch, as the headache had turned to dizziness and the stomach pain grew worse. I made an appointment to see my doctor that afternoon.

After explaining my symptoms and donating some fluid, he tells me my blood sugar is over 200 and that I am most likely diabetic. That explains why, in the previous two months, I’d lost 30 pounds and not been able to quench my thirst, despite downing gallons of water every day. So, my doc gives me a logbook and a script for a glucose meter. He tells me to check my sugar twice a day and come back after the weekend. It's Memorial Day weekend, so I set an appointment to see him the following Tuesday.

I get home and still feel like crap, so I head straight to bed. The only time I get out is to pee every 30 minutes, because I'm still drinking a frickin' ton of water. My wife Courtney is worried that I haven't had any food in two days, so she brings up a bowl of grapes and watermelon. (Was she trying to kill me, or did she just not know any better? I choose to believe the latter). Anyway, two grapes in and I’m puking what looks like buckets of coffee grinds.

I manage to wait until 6 a.m. to wake up my wife and tell her I need to go to the hospital. I am cold, sweaty and breathing really hard and fast. We contemplated calling 911, as we thought I was having a heart attack, but opted to just jump in the car.  

We make it to the emergency room, and they rush me back right away. Thirty minutes later, my breathing is starting to slow down and I begin to believe I may live after all. I'm on insulin and saline. The doctor tells me I am going through Diabetic Ketoacidosis. My blood sugar is 655. I was borderline comatose.

Diabetic crapalapsis? What the fuck is that? I had no idea, but found out later that it's the one thing all diabetics want to avoid. The hospital docs tell me I'm a type 2 and try to educate me on carb counting. Meanwhile I'm getting served a so called "diabetic diet" that consists of apple juice, roasted chicken, green beans, toast, pasta, mashed potatoes and apple sauce. When I look back, I think they too were trying to kill me. This was definitely NOT a “diabetic diet.”

Two days later, I'm released and thrown into my new world … life as a diabetic.

I'm 46 years old. How in the hell did this happen to me? I know my diet is bad and I drink too much beer, but I'm not supposed to get diabetes. Needless to say, I fired my old doctor. You know, the one who sent me home with a glucose meter and no medicine? So, I get a new doctor, and he turns me on to a reading list. He tells me, "Do what you want to do. You can change your diet and your way of thinking, or you can eat whatever you want and offset it with insulin." Courtney orders one of the books off the list, The End of Diabetes, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. I dig in to begin my education. A few pages in and I realize that what the hospital nutritionist was telling me was garbage. What my new doctor and Dr. Fuhrman were saying made a lot more sense.

A little history … in my previous career, I was a chef. I graduated from one of the top culinary schools in the country, spent over 20 years cooking professionally and have a pretty solid knowledge of food and nutrition. So, I took what I learned from my new read and started applying it to my diet. I don't really use recipes, but began basing my meals on ideas I got from the book. Most of Dr. Fuhrman’s stuff is geared toward the seriously overweight and has absolutely no fat. Since, I had “no fat” to spare (insufficient insulin prevents the body from getting glucose from the blood for energy, so the body starts burning fat and muscle), weight loss was clearly not my objective. I was staying away from most fats and live an almost 100% vegan life. Sometimes, I reward myself with some steak, sashimi or hot wings. Three weeks into my diet and I went from taking 70-80 units a day to 20-25. My numbers keep dropping and my average glucose over the last eight weeks is 112. That average includes the 655 reading at the hospital and the first two weeks of 200+ readings.  

So, I'm making all this great food and posting pictures to Facebook, and everyone keeps telling me that I should write a cookbook for diabetics. But, given my attention span, a blog seemed much more attainable. So here we are.

Still with me? I know this is getting a bit long, and it’s probably the longest entry I will ever do on this blog, as writing just isn’t my forte. I just felt like I had to introduce myself and my story.

OK. Here’s another confession. I'm not much of a recipe person. I’m more of a concept and technique guy. So, there won’t be a lot of exact measurements coming. I'm not going to break down exact carbs either. Just know that they’re always part of the creative process. And, of course, I'm not a doctor (and don’t play one on tv), so please don't take anything you read here as medical advice. I just want to share some ideas for tasty, low carb, high nutrition food that is pretty simple to prepare. 

I'm going to start with my morning meal, because it’s my favorite and it just seems  … logical. I eat this stuff every morning. (Courtney calls it my berry glop, but even she admits it is de-lish). Adapted from a recipe in Dr. Fuhrman's book, it’s basically soaked oats with fruit and nuts. Trust me when I tell you, it tastes so much better than it sounds.

I should mention here that there are a few go-to “recipes” that I make on the weekends and just keep on hand. It's just easier and less time consuming for my mornings. These are three of my faves, and together they make up the breakfast berry glop.

Crunchy Nut Mix:

Start with equal parts raw almonds, peanuts, walnuts, cashews and sunflower seeds. Roast each at 250 degrees for 7-10 minutes. Once the nuts have cooled completely, mix and store them in an airtight container. This nutty mix gets used in all kinds of stuff. I sprinkle it on my berries, my salads and even some of my soups. It also makes a great afternoon snack, so I keep a stash in my desk at work. I usually buy 12 oz. packages of each nut in the “healthy section” of my local grocery store, and that lasts me a couple weeks or more.

Power Seed Mix:

This one starts with 12 (or so) ounces of whole chia and/or flax seeds and two sticks of cinnamon. I like to grind all this myself for freshness. (Tip: Invest in a cheap coffee grinder for your spices. You won’t believe the difference in taste.) Grind everything up and throw it in the fridge in a big Ziploc bag. I mainly use this mix at breakfast, but sometimes add it to my salads for an extra punch of energy. Chia and flax are packed with Omega-3 fatty acids and are said to reduce food cravings (win win!). This mix lasts me a month or more.

Soaked Oats:

Oats are high in fiber and proven to reduce cholesterol. Plus, they keep you feeling full all morning. I prefer Bob's Red Mill Organic Steel Cut Oats, but use whatever you have on hand. I also like to use unsweetened organic soy milk, but you could substitute any nondairy milk you prefer. Put about a cup and a half of the dry oats in a container and add the milk to an inch over the oats. Stir, cover and refrigerate (at least overnight). If you think about it, give it a stir after a few hours. This comes out to about 3-4 portions and lasts me that many days. Any longer and it starts to sour, and nobody likes sour oats.

The rest is easy. In the morning, just mix a handful each of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. Throw in a sliced Granny Smith apple (so named after an actual Granny Smith … Google it sometime), a half-cup of soaked oats and about two ounces of your nut mix. Sprinkle with spoonful of power seed mix and stir gently. That's it.

This dish just gets better every time I eat it. People told me that my taste buds would adapt as I got used to not eating sugar and salt, but I’m not sure I believed them at first. I guess that’s just another one of those perks of being diabetic!

Have a happy GD day!