When I go shopping, I now check every label for carbohydrate counts. I have to. I try to keep my total carbs (per meal) at 30 grams or less - not an easy task. 30 grams equals 2 carb "choices", in the diabetes world. I'm allowed a maximum of 4 (so far), but the less I have, the better my blood sugar is.
Have you ever read a nutrition label? Some of the things I see absolutely scare the piss out of me. Some foods have more than 50 carbs - PER SERVING. When you see a box that says "total serving size: 6"... you do the math. Jesus Q. Christ. Seriously!!!
Here's a great example below. Remember those Thin Mints cookies that everyone loves when Girl Scout cookie time rolls around? The label for that box of Thin Mints is below:
Everyone always concentrates on the fat and the calories inside of a serving size of cookies; people are under the mistaken impression that this is what the problem is as far as Americans being overweight. I'm here to tell you that this isn't it. This isn't what has caused my weight gain - at least, I have a good feeling that that's not the reason. Let me explain further:
According to this label, a serving size of Thin Mints is 4 cookies. Yep, that's it - four lousy cookies. Do you know ANYONE that stops at four Thin Mints? Nope, I didn't think you did. Now, note the serving total - seven. That's 7 servings of 4 cookies each. At 160 calories a serving, you're looking at... yep, a gutbomb. But it gets even worse. There's 8 grams of fat in a SERVING of cookies. Yep, those four cookies again. Each cookie - EACH ONE - has 2 grams of FAT in it. Saturated fat, at that.
Still sound appetizing? Read on.
The carbohydrates are what's going to REALLY kill me (and you, too, over time). A serving size - remember, FOUR cookies - has 22 carb grams. "That's not that bad," you're thinking, probably. But for a diabetic, it's a rotten trade-off of valuable carbs that they can spend somewhere else. One carb "choice" equals 15 grams, remember. I can only have 4 carb choices per meal (and by my OWN standards, I try to stay under 2). Do you really think I'm going to spend nearly 1.5 of my carb choices on four lousy Thin Mints?
Yeah. I didn't think so, either.
Now, keep in mind - how many people do you know that can stop at four Thin Mints? I'll bet not many. Maybe six? How about eight? That's 44 carbs they just ingested into their bodies. Not to mention the hamburger WITH a bun (lots of carbs in bread), French fries, maybe a green salad because someone told them it was "healthy"....
It's no freaking wonder that diabetes is becoming the new epidemic in America.
Watch the commercials on television some time. The commercials for food are astounding - it's pushed every second to third advertisement, something to eat, as if you didn't have more than enough already. Let's take another example. Everyone's seen the new commercial for KFC's "Chicken Little" sandwich, right? Looks great on TV. And it's chicken, right? How unhealthy could it really be?
Nutrition information taken directly from KFC's own website states that the Chicken Little sandwich has 320 calories, okay; not too terrible. Until you consider that 170 of those calories - over FIFTY PERCENT! - come from fat. Yep, that's right - fat. Eff-ay-tee. Nice, huh? Now let's bring the carbs into it; oooo, 35 carbs. THIRTY....FIVE. That's already over my personal 2 choice limit. And it's hardly worth the effort - it's nothing but sandwich roll and greasy breading. Do I want to spend my carbs on THIS? Remember, a diabetic doesn't get much. If I DID spend my carbs on this, I sure couldn't have anything else. Forget fries - THEY'RE 35 carbs. Some things at KFC are so packed full of carbs, grease and sugar that it should be criminal. Like pot pies? At KFC, their chicken pot pie is SEVENTY-FIVE carbs. That's right - 75. That's more carbs than ANYONE should be eating in one meal. Or even two meals, for that matter.
And it all adds up, ladies and gentlemen. Some people eat over a thousand carbs a day. Certainly I was one of them. Is it any wonder my blood sugar was in the stratosphere?
The American food industry is LYING to the public. I see more and more evidence of that as I go on and navigate my way through this new diagnosis. They're lying to the mindless sheep, and the sheep are swallowing it because they don't know any better. They WANT you to concentrate on calories and fat and buy all of their useless weight loss remedies, because they DON'T want you to know that carbs and overdoses of sugar are killing you, slowly, in the form of diabetes - and later, diabetes complications.
What's more important? Having that cookie, or having your foot intact?
I've woken up. I'm watching everything that goes into my stupid mouth - counting every carb and being damned grateful that I'm now armed with the information that I need to make healthier choices. I've lost nearly 25 pounds in a month. I'm becoming more and more toned. I have MUCH more energy and can do more things. I'm not as tired or stressed out anymore. I don't snap at people. And I'm going to the gym faithfully, three times a week, because exercise lowers my sugar levels. It's good for me, and I FEEL good. Maybe for the first time in years.
Please, people - wake up. It's the carbs that are making us fat, tired, exhausted, unable to cope. I promise you. I spent years, decades, wondering what the fuck was wrong with me and listening to the programmed voices telling me that I had to eat low-fat this and high-energy that and only eat 100 calories of this, that and the other.
Guess what - this fat ass (which is quickly getting toned and shapely!!!) eats as much bacon as I like. Steak, too. And chicken. I chomp on string cheese and pickles all day long. And I've lost nearly 25 pounds. Does that sound like a diet to you? Maybe it is - but it's a reasonable one that doesn't include 75 freaking carbs in one tiny, inferior Sysco-made pot pie from KFC, now is it.
I think it's safe to say that my outlook has changed, heh.
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