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diabetes supplement

Diabetes Update: Pelikan Sun

March 1, 2005

By David Mendosa


Crystal Mill, Colorado

Crystal Mill, Colorado
Photo by Sam Toscano

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:

  • Birds for Better Blood Glucose Testing
    I had a lot of fun writing the fanciful headline for this article. But the subject of the article, the work being done by Pelikan Technologies in Palo Alto, California, is both serious and extremely promising.

    This company has developed the electronically-controlled Pelikan Sun lancing system, which we would usually spell as Pelican in English. That’s one of the birds. The other bird is their acquisition, Albatros(s), which developed the GlucoSens blood glucose meter. Together these two companies have developed a promising combination.

A recent contribution by someone else is:

Research Notes:

  • Drugs That May Affect Blood Glucose Levels
    One of the questions I get the most often is about drugs that affect blood glucose levels. Some drugs can cause hypoglycemia and others cause hyperglycemia. Others have an effect, although less severe.

    Stephen Freed’s appendix in Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution is what I turn to most often to answer that question. But even though I have written for print for more than half a century, I am now more of an Internet person. So I asked Stephen if I could host his list on my site. His reply was even better. Stephen now host the list on his Diabetes in Control.com site. It’s better because he can keep it up-to-date there. The list is a PDF at Drugs That May Affect Blood Glucose Levels.

  • Acidic Foods
    A subscriber asked me a good question about the update last month to my article on Acidic Foods,
    Just read your vinegar piece. If lemons work as well, why not make a tri-daily glass of lemonade with a squeezed 1/4 or 1/2 lemon, a bit of Splenda, and water? Would that work as well as the thrice a day salad with vinaigrette?
    Since I didn’t know what to reply, I asked Dr. Carol S. Johnston. She is a professor of nutrition at Arizona State University in Mesa, Arizona, and the lead author of research reported in Diabetes Care that confirms vinegar can reduce blood glucose and may also help us to lose weight. She replied:
    I don’t believe that lemon juice would work as well as vinegar, since it is not rich in acetic acid. It’s the acetic acid — not the ‘acid’ — that is likely the active ingredient. But I have not tested lemon juice so I cannot know for sure. Many who have emailed me consume a lemon juice-vinegar drink (combined) — but the efficacy of the lemon juice (I believe) is unknown.

Book Review:

    Forget-It Cookbook

    A Cookbook to Forget

  • Slow Cooking
    When a publicist wrote me in February about a “new book [that] gives people with diabetes 550 slow cooker recipes to create with ease,” I jumped at the chance, in part because I have recently got back into cooking with a Crock-Pot.

    Our usual breakfast is McCann’s steel-cut Irish oatmeal. Marian Burros, the food critic for The New York Times, reviewed oatmeals on January 5 and rated McCann’s tops. I love this breakfast. But it took too much time to prepare. Standing at the stove and stirring for almost 30 minutes was too much.

    Times reader Alan Bressler of Billings, Montana, came to our rescue with his letter of January 12 with a simple but brilliant suggestion. He wrote:

    We, too, like McCann’s steel-cut Irish oatmeal. Our simple preparation is to mix all ingredients the night before in a small crockpot. Use a timer on the outlet and cook for four hours before eating time. The results are fantastic, and the oatmeal is waiting as you enter the kitchen in the morning.
    We bought a little timer right away. Initially, the results weren’t good. Our 3.5-quart Crock-Pot was too big for a two-person serving of oatmeal. So be bought a 1.5-quart Crock-Pot, and indeed the results were fantastic. I even wrote Alan a thank you letter.

    Simply, grease the bottom inch or two of the Crock-Pot with a teaspoon of butter (recommended by the Crock Pot book, but actually optional). Dump in 1/2 cup McCann’s steel-cut Irish oatmeal, 2 cups water, some raisins or any other dried fruit, and a pinch of salt. In the morning serve with sweetener, cinnamon, and milk, half and half, or soymilk. There’s no better breakfast.

    There are, however, better slow cooker cookbooks than the one I just got, Fix-It and Forget-It Diabetic Cookbook, by Phyllis Pellman Good with American Diabetes Association (Good Books, Intercourse, Pennsylvania, 2005, 284 pages, $15.95). This cookbook has a large collection of recipes from contributors. None of them look particularly tempting. It is the quality not the quantity of cookbook recipes that counts. Neither does the book offer any slow cooker tips, like how to convert recipes that weren’t prepared with the slow cooker in mind.

    A slow cooker cookbook is certainly a good idea. But there are several excellent ones like those offered at Amazon.com. The Web also has several excellent sites on the subject.

Announcements:

  • 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:
    1. Is and will remain free.
    2. Nor will I ever sell, rent, or trade your e-mail address to anyone.
    3. I will link sources of information.
    4. I will disclose any conflict of interest.
    5. If and when I learn of any errors of fact, I will correct them.

Archives:

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

  1. Diabetes Update Number 1: Diabetes Genes of December 10, 2000
  2. Diabetes Update Number 2: DiabetesWATCH of December 18, 2000
  3. Diabetes Update Number 3: Starlix of January 3, 2001
  4. Diabetes Update Number 4: Native Seeds/SEARCH, Tepary Beans of January 17, 2001
  5. Diabetes Update Number 5: Insulin Makes You Fat of January 31, 2001
  6. Diabetes Update Number 6: Available and Unavailable Carbohydrates of February 15, 2001
  7. Diabetes Update Number 7: Dates of March 1, 2001
  8. Diabetes Update Number 8: Quackwatch of March 15, 2001
  9. Diabetes Update Number 9: The Cost of Insulin of March 30, 2001
  10. Diabetes Update Number 10: Sof-Tact Meter of April 2, 2001
  11. Diabetes Update Number 11: iControlDiabetes of April 16, 2001
  12. Diabetes Update Number 12: Cinnamon, Tagatose of May 2, 2001
  13. Diabetes Update Number 13: Glycemic Index of May 15, 2001
  14. Diabetes Update Number 14: Eat Your Carrots! of May 31, 2001
  15. Diabetes Update Number 15: Glycemic Load of June 21, 2001
  16. Diabetes Update Number 16: Homocysteine of July 2, 2001
  17. Diabetes Update Number 17: Chana Dal Tips of July 15, 2001
  18. Diabetes Update Number 18: Lag Time in AlternativeLand of August 2, 2001
  19. Diabetes Update Number 19: Fiber of August 15, 2001
  20. Diabetes Update Number 20: How Diabetes Works of August 30, 2001
  21. Diabetes Update Number 21: Insulin Resistance of September 14, 2001
  22. Diabetes Update Number 22: Trans Fats, Honey, CU of October 1, 2001
  23. Diabetes Update Number 23: Pedometer Power of October 15, 2001
  24. Diabetes Update Number 24: Is Glycerin a Carbohydrate? of October 31, 2001
  25. Diabetes Update Number 25: Kill the Meter to Save It of November 15, 2001
  26. Diabetes Update Number 26: Protein, Fat, and the GI of December 1, 2001
  27. Diabetes Update Number 27: Insulin Index of December 14, 2001
  28. Diabetes Update Number 28: Fructose of January 4, 2002
  29. Diabetes Update Number 29: Aspirin of January 14, 2002
  30. Diabetes Update Number 30: Stevia of January 31, 2002
  31. Diabetes Update Number 31: Gretchen Becker’s Book of February 19, 2002
  32. Diabetes Update Number 32: The UKPDS of March 4, 2002
  33. Diabetes Update Number 33: Financial Aid of March 18, 2002
  34. Diabetes Update Number 34: Pre-Diabetes of April 1, 2002
  35. Diabetes Update Number 35: More Glycemic Indexes of April 15, 2002
  36. Diabetes Update Number 36: Gila Monsters of April 30, 2002
  37. Diabetes Update Number 37: Is INGAP a Cure? of May 15, 2002
  38. Diabetes Update Number 38: Native American Diabetes of June 3, 2002
  39. Diabetes Update Number 39: FDA Diabetes of June 19, 2002
  40. Diabetes Update Number 40: Diabetes Support Groups of July 1, 2002
  41. Diabetes Update Number 41: New GI and GL Table of July 15, 2002
  42. Diabetes Update Number 42: Diabetes Sight of August 1, 2002
  43. Diabetes Update Number 43: DrugDigest of August 18, 2002
  44. Diabetes Update Number 44: Hanuman Garden of September 3, 2002
  45. Diabetes Update Number 45: Guidelines of September 16, 2002
  46. Diabetes Update Number 46: Trans Fat of October 4, 2002
  47. Diabetes Update Number 47: Nutrition.Gov of October 16, 2002
  48. Diabetes Update Number 48: Our Hearts of October 31, 2002
  49. Diabetes Update Number 49: Our Kidneys of November 15, 2002
  50. Diabetes Update Number 50: A1C<7 of December 2, 2002
  51. Diabetes Update Number 51: Diabetes Searches with Google of December 16, 2002
  52. Diabetes Update Number 52: e-Patients of January 2, 2003
  53. Diabetes Update Number 53: Email News of January 16, 2003
  54. Diabetes Update Number 54: Third Generation Meters of January 31, 2003
  55. Diabetes Update Number 55: Hypoglycemic Supplies of February 14, 2003
  56. Diabetes Update Number 56: Food Police of March 1, 2003
  57. Diabetes Update Number 57: Vitamins of April 1, 2003
  58. Diabetes Update Number 58: Lancets of May 1, 2003
  59. Diabetes Update Number 59: Accurate Meters of June 1, 2003
  60. Diabetes Update Number 60: Chromium of July 1, 2003
  61. Diabetes Update Number 61: Traveling of August 1, 2003
  62. Diabetes Update Number 62: My Book of September 1, 2003
  63. Diabetes Update Number 63: Hot Tubs of October 1, 2003
  64. Diabetes Update Number 64: Home A1C Testing of November 1, 2003
  65. Diabetes Update Number 65: Detemir of December 1, 2003
  66. Diabetes Update Number 66: Erectile Dysfunction of January 1, 2004
  67. Diabetes Update Number 67: Acidic Foods of February 1, 2004
  68. Diabetes Update Number 68: Net Carbs of March 1, 2004
  69. Diabetes Update Number 69: Glycemic Index of April 1, 2004
  70. Diabetes Update Number 70: Dreamfields Pasta of May 1, 2004
  71. Diabetes Update Number 71: Cholesterol of June 1, 2004
  72. Diabetes Update Number 72: Meter News of July 1, 2004
  73. Diabetes Update Number 73: Pill Splitting of August 1, 2004
  74. Diabetes Update Number 74: GlucoMON of September 1, 2004
  75. Diabetes Update Number 75: Coding of October 1, 2004
  76. Diabetes Update Number 76: Sleep Apnea of November 1, 2004
  77. Diabetes Update Number 77: Keynote Address of December 1, 2004
  78. Diabetes Update Number 78: Mangosteen of January 1, 2005
  79. Diabetes Update Number 79: Noninvasive of February 1, 2005

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