Number 74; September 1, 2004

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This newsletter keeps you up-to-date with new articles, Web pages, and books that I have written about diabetes.

• I list and link most of these on my at Diabetes Directory and in the site’s menu.

• From time to time Diabetes Update may also include links to other Web pages of special interest.

My recent contributions are:

• GlucoMON
  It’s not often that I review products for people with diabetes. I just can’t get excited about many of them.

  But the GlucoMON is special. There is nothing like it for keeping in touch with the glucose readings on somebody else’s monitor. That somebody else is usually a child, but anyone who can check their blood can use this device.

  The GlucoMON is more like a cell phone than anything else. But the key, says founder and CEO Kevin McMahon, is not that it is wireless, but that it is automatic.

  The article originally appeared in the August 2004 issue of Diabetes Health and is reprinted with permission on my site at www.mendosa.com/glucomon.htm.

Book Reviews:

• Diabetes: An Emotional Journey
  The book I am reviewing this month is so beautiful, so emotional, so different that I’m tempted to say that it’s very unique. It is certainly unique, one of a kind. Grammatically, nothing can be “very unique,” a phrase I never use, but Diabetes: An Emotional Journey comes close.

  This beautifully hand-bound and illustrated hardcover book is a labor of the love of a mother, Renea Jo Zosel, for her daughter, Elizabeth, now 7, who was diagnosed with diabetes at age 2. Part memoir, part poetry, part letters to her daughter, this book is all about the emotional roller coaster that having a child with diabetes is.

  At $24.95 the book is not cheap, but neither is diabetes. Anyway, the author will donate a portion from the sale of each book to organizations dedicated to curing childhood diseases. The book is available from Amazon.com or directly from the publisher, Zay Publishing Company.

 

 

 

• The Low GI Diet
  This month the Australian publisher Hodder will bring out what promises to be the most important book dieting book yet. While not about diabetes per se, dieting is a major concern of about 80 percent of us.

  The lead author is nutrition Professor Jennie-Brand Miller of Australia’s University of Sydney. Jennie, with whom I have worked closely for the past decade, is the world’s leading expert on the glycemic index.

  Her latest book, The Low GI Diet: Lose Weight with Smart Carbs, is the 14th in the New Glucose Revolution series. Jennie and I co-authored one of these last year, What Makes My Blood Glucose Go Up…And Down? Marlowe & Co. in New York (and Hodder in Australia) published it for $9.95. Amazon lists the U.S. edition.

  I just got a copy of the new book and haven’t had a chance to read through it carefully. But even at first glance I’m clear that it will work for us if anything does.

  The diet is a complete lifestyle program centered on a 12-week Action Plan. It gives you all the information you need to start losing body fat. It is easy to follow and full of tips on how to prevent gaining that weight back.

  The first part I turned to was at the back, Part 5, “The GI Table.” It is an extended and reorganized version of the “Revised International Table of Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL) Values,” originally published in the July 2002 issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and reproduced with Jennie’s authorization on my site. This new version, which presents the foods in alphabetical order and adds those that are very low GI because they have no carbohydrates, is much easier to use. The new list includes comments on whether the particular food is acceptable or not.

  Hodder will publish this 353-page soft cover book in Australia and New Zealand for the recommended retail price of AUS$34.95 (about $24.72 in USD). While it’s definitely worth the money, for two or three reasons I recommend that Americans wait.

  The first is that people at Marlowe & Company in New York, which has published the other New Glucose Revolution books, tell me that they are bringing out an American edition in January. Having edited one of the books in this series, I know that there are myriad differences between our terminology and the foods we eat and those Down Under.

  Secondly, the Marlowe edition will have a lower price. They expect that it will list for $15.95.

  You can also count on Marlowe using a more attractive cover. Maybe Australians go for hot pink on sand, but it just won’t sell here.

Announcements:

• Why This Issue is So Short
  The reason why this issue of Diabetes Update has so few items is that I have been all too busy moving. While I would rather be working on this newsletter than unpacking boxes, that is part of the price I had to pay to move from Aptos, California, to Boulder, Colorado, where we are 25 miles north of Denver.

  I have, of course, lots of little issues to deal with and they are keeping my days far too busy. Still I am making time to take a walk almost every morning, something that I didn’t do so regularly in Aptos. This city has a huge network of wonderful walking trails, and I am determined to explore all of them eventually.

  The move is a good time for all sorts of changes in my live, not just changing my name to David. I am in love with Boulder and think I will be much healthier and happier here than in Aptos.

  So I am slowly unpacking and getting back to normal. That’s why this issue of the newsletter is shorter than normal.

• HTML Format
  I send out Diabetes Update e-mail in HTML format, which all Web browsers and most modern e-mail programs can display. HTML has live links to all the sites named in the text so that with a simple click of a mouse you can connect to the site you have just been reading about.

• My Guarantee
  This newsletter is free and will never include advertising. Nor will I ever sell, rent, or trade your e-mail address to anyone.

Archives:

I now send out Diabetes Update once a month. Previous issues are online:

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© Copyright 2004 David Mendosa. All Rights Reserved.

David Mendosa: formerly known as Rick Mendosa
A Writer on the Web: www.mendosa.com
E-mail: mendosa@mendosa.com

Office: 993 E. Moorhead Circle Suite 2F, Boulder, CO 80305