Again, we were lucky. For years, we’d been reading food labels for fat and sodium content because of my cholesterol and blood pressure. Thinking back to our first – long-ago – dietary makeover, it seemed a natural place to start a new eating regime this time, too.
It took a little getting used to, and we had some missteps along the way, but we started directing our collective gaze – remember, Emerson is the main food shopper at our house, but I write out the list – further down the numbers on each package, and trying to choose items that offered the lowest level of carbohydrates per serving.
Later, after meeting with the dietician, we learned that simply finding the lowest number of total carbohydrates doesn’t tell the entire story, but it’s a good place to begin until you’re ready to start sorting out issues such as soluble and non-soluble fiber, and added sugar. The dietician also taught us about the need to look at the available protein in a product and its importance (but more on that later).
We started looking at the labels of foods in the pantry and refrigerator, and did a little bit of cutting here and there as we felt the situation indicated. And, when the blood glucose reading came back at 160 or even 180, we tried to figure out what had gone wrong and what we could do differently the next time to keep those numbers below 140.
There were some measures we adopted almost immediately, including some that might surprise a few people. Long, long ago my then new husband told me he wanted dessert every night. Over the years, that evolved into something relatively fat-free in front of the TV between 8-9 p.m., frequently washed down with a big glass of milk. Oh, but even fat-free milk has 10 grams of carbohydrates in a one-cup serving. So the approximately pint glasses we’d been enjoying were cut to 8 fluid ounces or less.
Another place that quickly dawned on us as being a potential problem was the morning glass of fruit juice. We both grew up with the idea that a glass of juice is an important part of a healthy breakfast. That first Sunday morning of our new life, however, I decided to check the carbs and serving size on what I was pouring out for my husband.
Even at half a serving, the carbohydrate load seemed pretty heavy to us. Emerson had all but eliminated his morning glass of juice by the time we had our session with the dietician; she pointed out to us that, as tasty as that juice may be, it’s really not much more than a glass of sugar without any redeeming fiber to soften the blow.
A much-better choice, which we have stuck with, is to have some fresh fruit with breakfast, preferably one with a high fiber count to balance off some of the carbs. Today, our refrigerator runs to grapes, plums and nectarines in season.
Not all fruits are created equal, either. Another quick victim of our new regime was the apples with which we used to finish lunch. Well, not entirely. But at 25 grams of carbohydrates in a 3” diameter apple, we decided that was just too many for Emerson to consume. These days, we’re still ending lunch with this fan favorite, but we split it.
Obviously, these are small steps, but I think we felt we were at least doing something and we could certainly find a few things to help drop those blood glucose numbers.