World Diabetes Day - if you don’t have diabetes

A healthy breakfast, whether you have diabetes or not!

Imagine you have to carry a small thermometer around with you all the time. You have to keep the readings on the thermometer within a tiny range of readings, say 3.9 to 10. You do this by applying either ice or a flame to the thermometer. If you don’t manage to do it, there will be consequences. Hopefully a small one ­– like you feel off-colour for half an hour – or a much bigger one – like you fall into a coma and die.

Welcome to the world of a person with diabetes. It’s not all just avoiding sugar and fainting at dramatically convenient moments, you know.

The reading of 3.9 to 10.0 is the target blood sugar readings for anyone who can’t process carbohydrates into their blood stream properly due to an uncooperative pancreas. That’s basically what diabetes is – your pancreas failing to regulate your blood sugars efficiently. If you don’t have diabetes, you can keep your blood sugar between  the healthy  person score of 4 and 7 effortlessly. You don’t need to prick and poke yourself to check your readings. You don’t need to carry the equivalent of that small thermometer around with you all day.

Today is World Diabetes Day and this year marks a special anniversary for me – my Silver Jubilee as a person with diabetes. I was diagnosed shortly before Christmas 1997 and I recall the dietician’s kindly concern at the unfortunate timing.

Because, you see, food is the flame that makes your readings surge past 10.0 and that’s why a dietician gets involved. Your medication – insulin or tablets - is what makes your readings drop down again and that’s where your diabetic nursing team step in.

But I’m not here to tell those of you who have diabetes about all this. It’s like teaching Granny to suck eggs and we already know that an egg is an excellent low-sugar high protein snack.

No, this blog is for those of you who don’t have diabetes. You are the lucky ones who never have to check the labels for unexpected sugar in the ingredients list and who can still cheer themselves up after a bad day with a family-sized bar of Galaxy.

Here are a few ways you can help your friends, family and colleagues who have diabetes and help yourself at the same time too.

 A Nag. Not too attractive, is it?

Should you be eating that?

People with diabetes are not supposed to eat sugar. It does not mean you will never be allowed to have a pudding ever again. The occasional slice of cake or square of chocolate is still allowed, especially after meals when your tummy is full of fat and fibre which will slow down the absorption of sugar. More on this later. 

People with diabetes know what they can and cannot have. Leaving them out when offering the biscuit tin around  is not kind. Watching every morsel they put into their mouth and berating them for it is not helpful. If they seem to be working their way through an entire tub of Celebrations, maybe ask if something is up but otherwise, nagging is not helpful.

Lower? Or higher?

So what happens if the blood sugar moves out of the magic zone of 3.9 to 10.

If it falls too low, it’s hypoglycaemia – low blood sugar – and has to be raised as quickly as possible. Even people without diabetes know what it is to feel weak and woozy if they haven’t eaten for a while but it’s more serious if you have diabetes as you could fall into a coma and die. If you come across someone having a hypo, the best thing you can do is offer them something sweet to eat or drink. Yes, giving someone with diabetes sugar, you weren’t expecting that, were you?

If it goes too high, it’s hyperglycaemia and this is how many people with diabetes come to be diagnosed. Too much sugar circulating in your blood will make you tired, thirsty and wee a lot. You need medication to take your blood sugar back down. Having high blood sugar for too often and for too long could lead to blindness, kidney failure and yes, you could fall into a coma and die.

Are you seeing a pattern here? The repetition of ‘fall into a coma and die’ is one of my abiding post-diagnosis memories (It was the 1990s; diabetic care has moved on a lot since then and continues to do so) I’m pleased to report that if you look after yourself sensibly, it should never happen.  

Double D – Drunk with Diabetes

Alcohol makes anyone’s blood sugar drop. This is one of the reasons kebab shops exist. It’s easy, and a little bit desirable on your friend’s part, to forget they have diabetes once they’ve had a drink or two.

 This is where you can help out by keeping an eye on them, make sure they drink sensibly, keep them mindful of their blood sugar and give them a fun-size Snickers if they need it. Subtly double-check what’s going on if they seem to be ‘just sleeping it off’. They might be but then again, they might not.

This thin line between being a bit tipsy and seriously ill might explain why your diabetic friend does not want that extra pint. Don’t force it on them.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

The perfect diabetic diet avoids sugar most of the time and that’s also the perfect diet for everyone else. Sugar is bad for us. Even Davina McCall says so.

Eat more fruit and veg. Choose slow-release carbs like wholemeal bread and pasta over their processed white versions. Don’t add sugar to tea, coffee, cereal or porridge. Avoid low-fat processed foods because they have been stuffed with sugar to compensate for the lack of fat. Read the labels on food – less than 5g per 100g is good, more than 22g per 100g is very very bad.

Keeping blood sugar on an even keel throughout the day is desirable for everyone. No more afternoons slumps. No need to reach for that afternoon doughnut. No more energy drinks.

Recent thinking suggests you can slow down how quickly food affects your blood sugar through a few simple changes – having a savoury breakfast, adding extra olive oil to your pasta, having some peanut butter with your banana, going for a walk after you’ve eaten. You can see more on this by checking out the work of Jessie Inchauspé and Tim Spector

You might have noticed I haven’t distinguished between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. That’s because there is still a stigma associated with diabetes, even more so with Type 2. What about that joke about how people get it from eating too much sugar? It’s completely unscientific and untrue but is an effective shorthand for how something sickly sweet is not good for you.

There are all sorts of reasons people develop pre-diabetes and diabetes that is entirely beyond their control. You wouldn’t kick away the crutch of someone who broke their leg for being clumsy, would you?