Well, this past Friday, Nov. 1, was supposed to be an encouraging day because I had scheduled an A1C re-test, using the second kit in the two-pack that my in-laws gave me for my birthday back in March. (As I’ve said before, the A1C test measures what percentage of your hemoglobin cells have glucose molecules stuck to them, and since those cells live for only three months your results are seen as a three-month view of your blood sugar rather than the one-time reading you get from a simple glucose monitor.) That March test had registered as a 5.3, which was super, super great–but I wasn’t completely sure that it was accurate. Although the brand I had (from Walgreen’s) is pretty well rated, I just didn’t think I could possibly have a score that low. There’s been one time that I hit 5.7, which is the threshold for what is called “pre-diabetes,” the yellow warning zone that comes before the red alert of 6.5 of higher. Once you hit 6.5 you’re considered to have full-blown diabetes. I’ve usually hovered in that 6.0-6.4 range, and as far as I know I’ve never hit 6.5 My doctor told me at one point that he didn’t think I would ever topple over into full-blown diabetes, and I sure hope he’s right.
If you take the at-home test you have to follow the directions very carefully, with time limits for using the monitor after you open the package and a very finely-calibrated amount of blood to collect. I was sure I’d done things properly, but I didn’t take that 5.3 very seriously. Three months later I had to visit my doctor’s office for prescription renewals and so also scheduled an A1C test. These tests are typically sent out to a lab, and they’re done with venous blood—that is, blood collected via a syringe—rather than with a simple finger stick. Venous blood is going to have fewer impurities than blood collected from right under your skin, and of course the lab has more than the couple of drops used in the home test. Still, I thought that the results should surely be 6.0 or under. But it was 6.2. Womp, womp. Did I immediately set my hair on fire? Did I institute drastic limitations on sugar intake? Well, no. I kept making exceptions. After all, I had to taste test those fabulous lemon bars I made for a wedding in August, right? And I had to eat at least a few of those fabulous dark chocolate rye brownies at the Chorale picnic, didn’t I? And that tablespoon of maple syrup in my coffee every morning—surely I could keep indulging in that. (It’s probably more like a heaping tablespoon, as the syrup kind of overflows my spoon.)
Well, since I know you’re panting to know what my test showed on Friday, it was 6.3. Why I thought it was going to be something low I really couldn’t say—idiotic optimism, I guess. At least I hadn’t gone over into the red zone, but I was pretty disappointed. Since that reading was so close to the official reading back in the summer I figured it was probably right. So the setting-hair-on-fire moment is going to happen now and last for the next three months which, coincidentally, is the holiday season. That time of year when you’re required to eat a lot of desserts, candy and other treats—right? Wrong. Here’s what I’m going to do:
First of all, none of this “no refined sugar” beeswax. Sugar is sugar, as I’ve outlined before. Second, no sugar doesn’t mean that I can’t make things that have small amounts of sugar in them; I just can’t add sugar. So I can make my lovely muffin recipes that include freshly-ground whole-wheat flour. They do have some sugar, but I cut that amount in half. As I’m sure I’ve said before, most muffin recipes are more like cupcake recipes anyway. Even if I weren’t watching sugar intake I’d still think the results were too sweet. But if I make a batch of whole-wheat apple-walnut muffins I won’t put any jelly, jam or apple butter on them—just butter. So self-disciplined! Any of those sweet toppings are pretty much pure sugar. But the muffins themselves would have only about 6.5 grams of sugar apiece. (Interesting number, no?) And I made a batch of homemade salad dressing today, this time a cider/maple variant, with one tablespoon of maple syrup in the whole recipe, or about 1/20 of the entire cup-and-a-quarter recipe. So, if I used, say, three tablespoons of dressing on my salad, that would be less than two grams of sugar in that very generous serving. And I’ll drink my excellent coffee without the maple syrup, so I’m starting the day without that 12-16 grams of added sugar.
Thanksgiving comes late this year, so exactly four weeks after Nov. 1, the Day of Destiny, is the holiday. I will definitely eat a small dessert, maybe my famous pumpkin-chocolate timbales. Then I’ll go back to no sugar until the annual chocolate tasting we have at Christmas. And I won’t be drinking any pink eggnog, either at our church’s Christmas party or at the reception for the Cherry Creek Chorale’s Christmas concert. As I often remind myself, I know what it tastes like. I’ll get Jim and Gideon to taste test my chocolate-peppermint cookies, and the orange-almond biscotti, and the Tiny Tim cranberry tarts. I’ll still enjoy making them.
Does all this sound pretty grim? I have to tell you that I’ve had some seriously delicious low-sugar food since Friday, including some pizza I made following the recipe over at Half Baked Harvest: French Onion Mushroom Pizza. Honestly, Jim and I sat there eating our first pieces and just moaning. So many great flavors! (Of course, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly—she has you do some rather fiddly steps, and I used Gouda instead of Fontina, and I used my own pizza crust recipe.) Today I had a toasted leftover homemade waffle (maybe four grams of sugar) with some peanut butter (maybe 4-5 grams of sugar). So my breakfast had less than 10 grams of sugar total, since the coffee just had half-and-half in it. For lunch I had a fabulous salad of diced pear, walnuts, blue cheese, red onion, and lettuce, with the aforementioned cider/maple dressing.containing less than two grams of sugar for the serving I had. I don’t worry about the sugar in the pear, as it’s bound up with all sorts of good things such as fiber and vitamins. At this point, as I sit here writing this, I’ve taken in perhaps 15 grams of sugar, well below the 25-per-day idealistic limit. I’m not sure what we’re having for dinner as my mother-in-law is making it, but I can’t imagine it will be anything with sugar in it. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve eaten, and none of it was sugar-laden. As I’ve said again and again, our palates have been trained to think that everything has to be s-w-e-e-e-e-t. But that’s just not true.
Well, this post has gone very long. I don’t have links to every recipe mentioned above but I’ve included the ones I could find as well as the pizza recipe on the HBH website. Forward into food!
Interesting analysis. I had two pieces of buttered toast, a baked potato with butter, seasoned with a sprinkling of salt and pepper with a dash of onion powder, for breakfast. Water to wash it down, now about to prepare a cup of decaf coffee – black. Lunch will be some split pea soup, supper will be chicken breasts.