I always said, you only crave as much fat, sugar or salt as to which you are accustomed.
I read the other day, one should not consume unnatural amounts of fat. For example, you would never eat the amount of corn to give you the amount of corn oil you consume as a corn oil user. The author's point was to avoid certain kinds of oil; canola and corn, etc were not recommended but olive oil was. I didn't read enough to know how that works, but I guess olive oil is more abundant if you eat olives than corn oil if you eat corn. Anyway, it got me to thinking more about fat. I have resisted the idea of eliminating fat and have refused to watch my own fat intake, though I don't try to increase it either. But I have noticed it's effects. I like the idea of no ADDED fat. This tends to condemn my coconut oil. Perhaps I should get it all from coconuts. In fact, I have always been a peanut and nut fiend. Perhaps this is how I became diabetic. All I ever ate was traditional bread and peanut butter, practically my whole life. And when I get raw nuts (or cooked for that matter), I always simply cannot control my intake. I just gorge too much on them. Especially cashews and brazils. I was never so strongly attracted to almonds, but apparently I eat way too many of those also. So I think I eat too much fat even, that is NOT ADDED. Like, I add too many nuts. So this got me to thinking, perhaps the reason I have always tended to high sugar levels during the morning hours is the heavy grazing on nuts and peanut butter the evening before. In any case, I know it is true my habit of consuming lots of fat in the evening has definately been as consistent as the high sugar tendency in the morning. And twice now, since starting this blog, I have clearly experienced the night and day difference drinking milk and cream and so forth has made. It has made all the difference.
The idea is based on the logic that fat inhibits sugar absorption when you eat but then inhibits insulin later on in the bloodstream. So if I am burning sugar by exercising right after I eat anyway, I should be able to avoid sugar spiking without the help of fat - especially if I be a proper Stoppola Mehantia (stop eating precisely when I've had enough) and also limit my meal durations as I should.
So I could go pretty much fat free (no added fat except maybe what is in my Tuscan dressing, and no peanut butter and a lot less nut, not to mention no oil on my popcorn and no butter period) and observe what it does to my sugar tendency in the a.m.
But I do not mean to make rules here. Instead of saying I'll do this and I'll do that, I am going to go after the spirit of this thing: try to eat fresh and simple. Like today's breakfast. And generally don't depend on nuts. Perhaps a rule to eat them only before noon would be good.
Stop on time. And I intend to record on my daily postings the time duration of each meal from now on. No meal should take more than 20 minutes for a recovering diabetic, I believe.
Already, after this morning's perfect breakfast, I really felt the spirit of my old dad's ways. You know, dad used to eat everything by itself. No Added Anything. Except salt. He never put anything on his bread, his potato, his wheat, his meat, his broccoli. When it came to fat, he drank his cream straight, ate his fat cottage cheese plain, his nippy cheese alone (he never even had cheese in one hand and bread in the other; whatever he was eating was all he was eating; he ate his different foods that comprised his meal in series), and ate grease from the roast beef pan with a spoon. Oh, there were exceptions: I remember he liked mayonaise on his fresh tomatoes sometimes.
So I woke up last night briefly and was hungry for green beans for some reason. In the morning, I was still. So I had them for breakfast. I didn't need fat. I didn't need extra yeast. I had a perfect meal and I did not spoil it by having a little desert to absorb my momentum (I have a tendency to completely ruin a perfect meal because after enjoying such a perfect meal I want to keep on enjoying for a little while because the enjoyment was so intense during the perfection so I eat something else that a) doesn't go with what I had and b) is too much). I can really do this whole get better thing if I really toughen up against temptation to eat a little of this or that sometimes, and eat fresh, plain and simple.
Brewer's yeast is key here, apparently. I never knew about it or used it much before, but they say it is high in protein, B vitamins and chromium, which is key to diabetic health. And eating it straight, I don' t need to research or wonder how much to use - I eat enough and stop. I find, after using it the last 2 or 3 meals, that it doesn't take much yeast before you're done.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do about cooked beans and millet. I know it would be more effective if I just sprouted them and ate them all raw. But I don't know about the beans. Oh well. Cooked beans aren't bad as long as you only eat half a can at a time. I know I ate too much steamed millet yesterday (or was it the day before?).
Strictly speaking, this means I should simplify my juice too, if not eliminate it. But I'm not strict. But I am serious.
I had better say something about some potential confusion here. My dad never ate things together, let alone mixed together. I talk about appetite, eating simple and in the spirit of how he ate. I do not mean I will not mix things a bit. I do not mean I will not eat two things together. Eventually, I may end up as a purist in his ways, but right now, I do not think it is necessary. Dad used to always assert that it was bad to mix in something else to make a food supposed to be good for you more palatable. My silent argument always was, I do not need to add another food; I enjoy the food alone well enough, but there is yet another completely unique flavor I crave that comes only from mixing the two. So don't be confused if I tout my dad's philosophies and integrity yet do things a little differently. He ate a lot of animal fat and not much raw vegetable compared to me. And I intend to do a special post summarizing my favorite food combinations.
One more note: This morning I happened to notice my sugar began to rise at the same time I started thinking I maybe had had enough, appetite-wise. So Stop whenever you first feel either one. Then you won't have to run so much - but you still can if you want. Running and wrestling are much more fun when you aren't stuffed like a backpack and all sugared out.
