prediabetes

[petaltothemetal]

We got results back from my daughter's blood and urine tests last week and she is both prediabetic and severely anemic. Symptoms: overweight, tired all the time, moody, craves (and sneaks!) sweets and starches. I've suspected as much for several years now, although previous tests found nothing. The good news is now she may understand (in her heart, never verbally!) that my refusal to buy sugar, flour and pasta for years was good for her. When I caved in to pressure and started bringing such foods home, she promptly got worse - and thus we "found something" on the tests!

Part of the bad news is I felt pressured to put her on hormones and blood sugar regulating drugs. She says she HATES fruits and vegetables. She, my mom, the doctor, the nurse and the pharmacist are all pushing red meat. I wish someone would push spinach, lentils, almonds and cashews for a change! They all have iron without affecting blood sugar, too.

I promptly gave away the noodles and flour I had in the house, which made her mad at me. I comforted myself in the knowledge that these very same foods, which I resisted quite well on the July and August challenges, were calling my name all last week. I don't need them, either. If she gets better, everyone will think it's because of the drugs, not because there's no sugar and starch at home.

I made apple and "pumpkin" (out of carrot juice) pies today. The apple has no added sweetener and the pumpkin has half the amount called for in the recipe. I'm not sure how to handle the pasta craving. I'm happy with a zucchini based spaghetti or lasagne, but she won't go near it.

We haven't actually FOUGHT - no yelling - but there has been tension for several years and it has gotten worse since the diagnosis. I am depressed about it but feel like maybe the best thing I can do is get back on the November challenge even though I don't have a lot of computer time anymore (because the support was good for me, and other people had similar issues at home). Part of me feels like I should dig in and force the issue and part of me wants to just quietly make a few compromise foods for her and hope the tension goes away.

I've been divorced and broke for most of her life and she's thought of me as no fun for years. Food to her is just one more way I'm no fun.

I don't know what I hope to gain by posting. Maybe some comments from other moms who have been there? Maybe just a load off my chest?

[petaltothemetal]

I noticed no one answered so I re-read my post again. Boy, I sounded like I was feeling mighty sorry for myself. I wouldn't answer me, either! :D

[Christiana]

You don't really sound like you're having a pity party, but if you were, I say it wouldn't matter. I'm most definitely NOT a mum, but as I try to understand how my parents might feel in different situations, I'd say that this is somewhat tough on you. Meat isn't gonna do anything to help her, and you are an awesome mum for throwing out the yucky stuff. :D How old is your dd?

[HolyGuacamole]

Hey, you're allowed to vent.
I don't have any experience with what you're going through but I have a teen aged daughter too, so I can commiserate with you there... ;)

I'm sorry you're going through this.

The only thing I can say is that for me, and for my family, I would take bad health advice and put it where it belongs - in the garbage.

Sounds like you're up against a lot of opposition, which totally sucks. I think you should just go ahead and do what you have to do to get your daughter healthy in the way you know is best, regardless of the the pressure to do otherwise.

Courage.


Sending hugs. :)

[Stina]

Aw! No, I don't think you were being negative, just processing and I'm glad this is a good place for that.

I'm curious how old your dotie is now?

Do you have some kind of spiritual practice to renew yourself in?

[Emma-Liza]

petal--wonder if you can get her involved in her own healing, so she can have "ownership" of her own health...you're a good eating role model, I know. Best to you in this!

[saxmaam]

How old is your daughter?

[gingincal]

I like to "tempt" my SAD family with yummy smoothies (with as much green food as possible without giving away that they're healthy) whenever possible. Since she "hates" fruits, why not add cacao powder to hers? ;)

Smoothies seem like they're naughty but they're not! Every little bit of good nutrition I can manage to get into my darlings is cause for celebration.
Best of luck with your challenge.

[juliebove]

What makes you think lentils won't affect blood sugar? Even spinach can affect blood sugar *if* you eat a ton of it. Anything with carbs in it does have that potential. Lentils do have some protein and protein also affects blood sugar but to a lesser degree. Not that I'm necessarily knocking lentils. They do have fiber in them and fiber is very important in handling blood sugar issues.

Perhaps it is not necessary for your daughter to go on a diabetes med at this point. Diet and exercise are key to controlling blood sugar issues. If that alone is not enough (and sometimes it isn't), then med and/or insulin may be needed. It's likely that the med they would first start her on is Metformin (Glucophage). This med helps to overcome insulin resistance and is purported to offer protection to the heart. It will not necessarily lower blood sugar in and of itself. It works along with diet and exercise.

Keep in mind that fruit is not necessarily the best thing for people with blood sugar issues, especially in the beginning. Many people find that going on a somewhat extreme low carb route until the blood sugar is knocked down where it is in a normal range can help a lot. This doesn't always work and I am one for which it does not. I have to make sure to eat enough carbs, but not too many carbs. And the amount of carbs a person can eat will vary. There is no one size fits all here. And keep in mind I refer only to those of us with blood sugar issues.

I hate fruit. Always have. Most dieticians actually like to hear this when it comes to diabetes. I have full blown diabetes. The reason fruit is worked into the diet plan is that most people like it. I do eat some occasionally. I know that there are some things like blueberries that offer great things nutritionally. But I also think that blueberries are one of the most vile foods on the face of this earth. So I take supplements. I have also had to use iron supplements on occasion. I am sometimes anemic, sometimes not. When I am, I find supplements are the only way for me. No foods seem to help.

Now veggies are another matter. I love most of them. Can't eat some of them due to gastroparesis. That's nerve damage caused by the diabetes. And something your daughter could be looking forward to if she doesn't keep her blood sugar under control.

However, my husband and daughter don't necessarily like veggies. My daughter LOVES canned green beans and black olives. She would happily eat those at every meal. She also likes some raw veggies and now at age 10 will eat salad. She likes to get her own salad from a salad bar.

So in terms of getting vegetables into them, I have to be creative. I don't want to expound too much on that here because this is a raw vegan board and they are not raw vegans. But vegetables can be finely pureed and put into sauces, soups, patties, and loaves with other things.

As for the pasta, there is no reason for her not to eat it (once her blood sugar has become stable), but... She will have to use portion control and you may have to use a different kind of pasta. Like whole wheat or soybean. And by adding plenty of vegetables to the pasta you can stretch it out so that her tummy gets filled but she is eating less carbs. I find that green beans mix quite well with pasta, but then my daughter does love them. If your daughter really hates them you may have more of a problem on your hands. But if she is willing to eat a red sauce, you can easily add in some carrot, celery, onion, red pepper and mushrooms, blending the sauce well. I have served such a sauce to plenty of kids and while they would normally turn up their noses at such veggies, happily ate the sauce. You can also make lasagna using one less layer of noodles and adding in a layer of zucchini or eggplant.

You could also make a pasta salad, adding in a ton of cut up raw vegetables. My daughter recently found a recipe for this and wanted it. I can't say that she ate ALL of the vegetables, but she did eat some.

Here are some things that have helped with my daughter. Having her help to grow the vegetables. We use Earthboxes. I have her pick out the plants she wants and she helps with the planting, watering and tending. Of course with winter coming on, this might not be an option where you live. But perhaps you could try a few herbs in the kitchen. Then she could grow basil and use it in a pasta sauce. People tend to want to eat what they have grown.


Having her go grocery shopping with me. She hates doing this usually, but... I let her pick the store where we shop and I let her pick the foods that we buy. Of course there are plenty of exceptions. There are some things that never come into our house. Like high fructose corn syrup and transfats. And we have food allergies so we have to be mindful of that. We always start in the produce section where she gets to answer the questions of "Which vegetables do you want?" And "Which fruits do you want?" Two things I always buy are baby carrots and sliced apples. She loves both of these and will willingly eat them in her lunch, pretty much every day. She also likes a mix of apples and grapes. I would not push the fruit so much with your daughter though, unless perhaps it is berries. They tend to be lower in carbs per cup than some other fruits like peaches and oranges.

My daughter sometimes finds some odd things in the produce department. Like white eggplant. I had fun with that one trying to find a recipe. Alas, we didn't like the recipe I came up with.

Going through cookbooks is another thing that my daughter has recently discovered to do. I have her pick a recipe she wants to make or one that she wants me to make. If it is not suitable for our diet, I try to find some substitutions I can make so it is doable. We rarely ever make desserts though. I have made a few raw things, but most of the time we do not have desserts with our meals. This is the way I was raised and this is what she is used to. So she never asks for them. We might do something extra for a holiday or if I have a lot of fruit to use up from one of our trees or something.

I don't know how old your daughter is. With mine, there have been times when it was easier for me to get her to do what I want and other times when she just won't, no matter what. I have always been very careful with her diet though, explaining why I feel it is not good to eat certain things and why it is better to eat other things. The current topic is organic foods. She can not understand why people would even grow or sell non-organic foods.

[Ilse W.]

How about your check out this link and watch the youtube trailer for the dvd

http://www.rawfor30days.com/EmailNewsletter1_TheBestDiabetesDiet.html

[petaltothemetal]

Thanks to all who answered and to Julie who has diabetes and also a veggie-disliking daughter! Mine is 17.

This has been a bad week so I haven't been online. The Metformin turns out to have been a VERY bad choice of pills for her, although I understand tonight after looking online why her doctor did it. It's commonly prescribed to women with "female troubles" like pcos and menstrual problems who also have blood sugar issues. My dd was one of 25% (I found out later) who vomits from it... and her reaction was so bad we stopped the pills and THREE DAYS LATER she was still vomiting and I took her to the ER over the weekend for 4000 ml of iv's. She can't keep much of anything down at all and now she's been off the meds for a week. Her latest round of tests shows she's still grossly anemic, too, and her first doctor didn't answer the phone calls I made asking for help... then her nurse suggested I find another doctor and I wasn't even been mean or panicky. So I called around and haven't found any new doctors available until November 4th. She may end up back in urgent care or the ER.

Yes, Julie, I ask her if she wants to shop with me and also ask her what she wants me to make. She's beginning to resign herself to the fact that her problem is real and maybe I'm not just a paranoid health freak. Right now my biggest concern is getting her to drink anything at all... she doesn't want to because of the vomiting. I'm not thrilled about it, but she is drinking Hansen's diet ginger ale a little. I have been trying to get her to drink very watered down juices but she's not interested. I also bought her raw kombucha, which she likes, but she says she can't keep it down, either. So I made some broth (not raw, but I thought she'd drink it), some ginger herbal tea, some stomach soother tea, and am now pondering what else to serve. I am really hoping she will get past this scary part soon and something good will come of this.

Sergei Boutenko was a diabetic kid who got teased for being fat and eventually he became quite healthy, athletic and handsome on raw. Although he admits the transition was hard on him, he said in his book Fresh that he believes it saved his life.

[rawstrength]

petaltothemetal - maybe when your daughter is feeling better, you could give her my email address ezo@comcast.net ? It might help to have a raw teen penpal.

[juliebove]

I can relate to the vomiting. When I was about 15 I had some sort of stomach thing and couldn't keep anything down at all. I projectile vomited purple grape juice. To this day I can't stand juice of any kind, especially grape. It just reminds me of that. Perhaps water is the best thing for her at this point in time. Or maybe a bit of soda and broth. Good luck!

[RawKnitster]

Thanks for posting about you and your daughter's trouble. I hope you are finding solutions. I can relate as I have a 15 year old daughter. She supports my raw diet as being good for me, but not for her. It's a constant struggle getting good food into her. She wouldn't eat a salad to save her life. Raw vegetable...? Not a chance. Some fruits are okay, I make sure they are always available. I've actually paid her to try some of my raw recipes. Of course, she didn't like them, but really, I think it's more about resisting my ways as she wants to find her own way.

Going to the store with her is a always a challenge for both of us. Her working me over to buy cookies, coke, etc. I usually end up compromising. It's better for us to have an open channel to talk about her food choices than her tuning me out completely.

I've found a few ways to get veggies in her diet. One of them is stir fry. I chop a rainbow assortment of veggies, including lots of shredded cabbage, and stir fry them very lightly (barely heated through) in a tablespoon of olive or coconut oil. Then I add in an equal amount of cooked rice or noodles and stir in a sauce, usually a tamari or shoyu flavored with ginger and garlic. She loves it! I got the shredded cabbage idea from a very frugal neighbor that uses it as filler in pasta dishes to reduce the amount of pasta she eats.

I don't know if any of this relates to your situation or is of any help to you. Just know your not alone in this struggle. Our girls are at that difficult age when they want to be adults but can't. They are under a lot of stress at school. They still love us and need us, but don't want to be us, or be totally controlled by us. I pray you and your daughter are able to find a solution for her before it becomes full blown diatetes. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our girls would go raw, too! I'm waiting patiently.