Friday 7 December 2007

Pic of the day: Be careful to not overfeed the animal! This is the relation I have to my body too.

Blood sweet blood

As expected, my doctor found nothing wrong with my blood sugar. I could have told him as much, rather than get up at oh oh dirty in the morning to take first one bus and then another to get to their office, and then each and every time surprise the lab folks with my presence. Never mind that I had an appointment each and every time.

The thing is, normally my blood sugar is fairly high because normally I have just eaten carbs. I do this more or less continually through the day. I wake up and eat breakfast, then go to work and eat breakfast again, then I eat lunch. After lunch I snack a bit over the rest of the workday, before I go home and eat. I eat like a sparrow: All the time. (Except when I sleep. Or I sincerely hope so. If I ever take up sleepwalking, I will probably set my course for the fridge.)

The reason is of course that I can only eat trace amounts of fat without getting ill. It is OK to eat normal foods such as bread and milk even though they contain some fat, it is not an allergy. But if I eat food with much fat (even if it doesn't feel like fat, such as cakes) I get violently ill. Likewise if I eat large meals of foods that contain some but not much fat. It seems to be the absolute quantity of fat over a given time, not the concentration.

Since carbohydrates only contain half as much energy as fat, I eat nearly twice as much. I could have eaten protein instead, and it also makes me less hungry, but protein foods are mostly expensive, unappetizing (dead animals / fishes) and create more toxic waste products for my kidneys to stress with. Carbs break down nicely to CO2 and H2O.

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Both of my parents had age-related diabetes (diabetes 2), and I am pretty sure my mother was already treated for it when she was my age (49). But I don't have a trace of it. The doctor shelved the diabetes for now. The thing is that I hadn't eaten in 12 hours, so of course there was no extra sugar in my blood. Well, evidently there is in people with diabetes and even pre-diabetes. I have no idea how they do that, though I suppose glucose is released from the liver just like it is when you are working. The doctor did not even bother to give me the syrup test, evidently if you mop up all the excess sugar in 12 hours you are declared healthy and the whole thing is shelved.

I wonder how that will work, because normally I don't go 12 hours without eating. So normally my blood is sweet at all times, I guess. Then again this may be the human condition. In any case, my mother lived to near 78 with not only diabetes but cancer as well, and my father is still moving about at around 80. (Unless someone has forgotten to inform me otherwise.) Of course, they were working hard, which may have something to do with their longevity. Or there may be a genetic component (hope hope).

My doctor mentioned today again that my blood fat tests (months ago) were also very good. This was after I regained most of my lost weight, but still eating only tiny amounts of fat. Unfortunately I failed to get the exact numbers. I shall have to insist on that if I take a new such test. Which I probably will if I live long enough. I'm not sure how long is "long enough" though. Probably until something scares me up again. I don't want to sound ungrateful that I owe my good health in part to an unknown illness, but... well, it is a strange situation.