by Bill Whitney

Created on: February 25, 2008

Diabetes can kill you and can be a miserable disease to live with if you don't keep it under control and are not constantly conscious about what you do and how it will affect your diabetes. If you do what you are supposed to do you can have a relatively normal life with diabetes, especially if you have Type II or adult onset diabetes. This can usually be controlled with proper diet, exercise, and oral medication. If you have Type I diabetes you have to deal with the injection of insulin everyday. It can be controlled too but it is more difficult. I have heard of a few cases where it has been reversed to the point where you don't have to inject insulin anymore .

Controlling diabetes is not really that hard but you have to be constantly aware of what you are doing and eating. There are definitely certain foods that you should avoid but it is not as much what you eat as it is how much you eat. You can have little bits of desserts and the like but you can't have half a pie or two or three pieces of German Chocolate Cake. You should eat more fish and poultry and have it broiled or grilled instead of fried. Oh yes you can have a steak now and then but instead of a 20 steak have a four ounce fillet with vegetables and a good salad instead of french fries. Most restaurants will substitute an extra salad for potatoes if you ask. Or get some sliced tomatoes or a bowl of cottage cheese Again it is more about how much you eat than what you eat.

When I first found out that I had Type II diabetes, I went to some classes on how to deal with the disease which included diet and exercise and nutrition. My nutritionist told us, "if you simply must have a hot fudge brownie delight sundae, go ahead and have it and enjoy it, Just plan on walking ten miles afterward to burn off all that sugar and calories.

It is very important to have a good glucose meter and check your sugar level regularly. I lie to keep a record of my readings and most of the meters now days can be hooked up to the computer to keep a log of your sugars. If you eat something new that you don't know how it will affect your sugar, wait about two hours and take a reading and record it so you know what and how different food affect your readings. Discuss these readings with your doctor and if you have questions, don't be afraid to ask. The only dumb question is one that you don't ask when you want to know about something.

Controlling diabetes is teamwork type of deal and there are several important members of the team.

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