If you’re like me, there are a lot of things that you’ve gone through life without studying. My knowledge of diabetes had come mostly from a couple peripheral acquaintances growing up who had type 1 diabetes (insulin shots, no candy), and an elderly cousin of my mother’s.
When Emerson came home with his diagnosis of prediabetes, I knew that as the chief cook and bottlewasher of this establishment I was going to quickly need to be much more knowledgeable, but oh, where to even start?
In retrospect, I was pretty lucky when we made the switch to low-fat eating almost two decades ago. Years earlier, my mother had researched and experimented during the nine years between my dad’s bypass surgery and his fatal heart attack, and she sent me her books. If I had questions, I called.
However, even getting started learning about prediabetes felt like studying oceanography – in the desert.
Our health-care provider offered a class with a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE), which I immediately called to schedule. It’s an excellent idea, and I thank them very much, but at that time it was six weeks away and they didn’t understand why I would want to attend. I can’t imagine why I wouldn’t. Not only is eating a communal activity, but as I say, I’m the chief cook around here. I had to fight to be included in the session, but in the end I got a seat, too.
The real problem: that six-week time lag. Obviously, we’d need to do some eating before then, and it couldn’t be things like Emerson’s post-diagnosis lunch, which sent his blood glucose soaring above 180.
So, I started out with what I could do immediately, which was to begin reading.
My first stop was Google, and my second was Amazon.com, where I ended up ordering two books: The Quick Start Guide to Pre-diabetes, a Kindle Single by Gretchen Scalpi that I ordered electronically for some immediate info, and Prediabetes for Dummies, by Dr. Alan L. Rubin, which I asked for in print form because I knew we’d need to share it.
The Scalpi book truly was a quick start on educating myself a little about pre-diabetes, and because I was so new to the whole thing – and more than a little freaked out by that point – I probably didn’t get as much from it as I might have. However, I felt truly ready to take on the world of low-carb eating – right until I stood in the pasta aisle at my supermarket trying to do a comparison between white and whole-wheat spaghetti pasta.
Truth be told, I am not a good shopper. However, in this case, I knew I was definitely in over my head. I folded my tent and headed home. I don’t remember what I made for dinner that night, but I’m sure I wasn’t happy about it.