Our blood glucose still tends to peak at about 73 minutes after the first bite of our meal, if we have diabetes. But the peak comes much sooner for other people. And, of course, their peak isn’t nearly as high.

In my article “New Time to Test Glucose Levels” here two and one-half years ago I suggested that on the basis of two studies the peak was generally 72 or 74 minutes after the first bite. So when I saw new reports from a research group headed by Professor Jennie Brand-Miller, I got confused. Dr. Brand-Miller is professor of human nutrition at Australia’s University of Sydney and the world’s leading expert on the glycemic index.
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Those of us who have diabetes pay a physical cost for it that we know all too well. But many of us aren’t aware of the social cost that we pay for being overweight, which usually accompanies our diabetes.

Fat prejudice is even more subtle than our society’s racial and gender biases and those against and gays and lesbians. Our most recent prejudice, of course, is that against those of the Muslim faith from the Middle East, and that prejudice is anything but subtle. Now, however, social scientists know how to measure fat prejudice.
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Nuts and seeds are an important part of the diet of all of us who have diabetes. But unless we are too thin, we don’t want to make them too important.

A few people with diabetes are too thin. For them I have long recommended that they eat a lot of nuts and seeds.

The rest of us need to eat them in moderation, because they have a lot of fat. And fat is the most caloric dense of all the macro-nutrients. Compared to carbohydrate and protein, which provide us with 4 calories per gram, fat is more than twice as calorie dense. Fat has 9 calories per gram. So eating a lot of fat is the easiest way to get fat.
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Vitamin D testing has been in the news lately. But the mainstream press covered only the bad news. You would have to read the medical press to learn about better choices.

The country’s largest medical laboratory, Quest Diagnostics, just sent out thousands of letter to doctors who ordered Vitamin D tests for their patients. The letters say that results of their Vitamin D tests during the past two years are “questionable.” Quest’s screw up could mean that thousands of people aren’t taking vitamin D supplements when they should.

Testing our levels of vitamin D has surged recently because of studies suggesting that too little can raise the risk of all sorts of complications. More and more recent studies link a vitamin D deficiency to diabetes. Other studies link it to bone weakness, cancer, heart attacks, and other illnesses.
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i-SENS Inc. is coming to the United States. It should mean better and less expensive blood glucose meters and strips for all of us who have diabetes. But it may also be confusing.

Just don’t confuse this big Korean company with iSense Corp., in Wilsonville, Oregon. That start-up company is developing a minimally-invasive continuous blood glucose monitor.

i-SENS is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of blood glucose meters. Their manufacturing facilities in Korea have production capacity on the order of one billion strips per year. That’s in the same league as the big four brands, LifeScan, Accu-Chek, Bayer, and Abbott.
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A study in the January issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is the first one ever to examine how walking by itself can help us keep the weight off for the long term. Since almost all of us with type 2 diabetes struggle with our weight, this is a key part of controlling it.

Walking may or may not be more beneficial for us that other forms of physical activity. That’s not what the study was about. Rather, for most people walking is the least expensive and most readily available way to get the exercise that we all need.

The study monitored almost 5,000 men and women for 15 years. Walking works.
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The most comprehensive study ever about those sweeteners that don’t have any calories just appeared as the lead “original research communication” in the January 2009 issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It is really good news for anyone with diabetes who is trying to lose weight or maintain weight loss.

This study changed my mind about using non-caloric sweeteners. A little more than a year ago I wrote here that, “The classic 1969 experiment by Stylianos Nicolaïdis showed that merely tasting a sweet substance – whether it is sugar or a non-caloric sweetener – causes rats to secrete insulin.” The problem with that is that more circulating insulin can make us hungry so that we will probably eat more.
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Researchers finally know why people with diabetes are more likely to get Alzheimer’s disease. That alone would be big news. The huge news is that we now know what we have to do to break the link.

Did you miss the growing number of reports in the past few years about how those of us who have diabetes are more likely to get Alzheimer’s as we age? I can understand, because until last year I ignored the evidence myself. We have enough on our plate already without worrying about a possible complication many years down the road that until now nobody knew how to prevent anyway.
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