Vaguely Vegan - Ditching Diabetes

So, it's now the week before my MOT at Harefield Hospital and I have just started recording my blood glucose results to take with me; I am hoping to see a change on the last time I did this.  For those of you who like numbers, consider these figures below.  

This first of set of glucose readings are my average results over a week, on my 'old/normal' diet.  

Before Breakfast: 8.8

2hrs After: 12.6 

Before Lunch: 9.5 

2 hrs After: 16.2 

Before Dinner: 10.1

2 hrs After: 15.4 

Bed Time: 13.2

The fasting glucose reading should be about 5 and healthy seems to be under 8, although if you are Diabetes Type Two, then up to 8.5 is acceptable.  You can see, they were all awful.

The second set of results are the average results over a week, after three weeks of being vegan - yes, the first two weeks were a bit hit and miss, but that was me getting used to things.

Before Breakfast: 5

2hrs After: 8.5

Before Lunch: 8

2 hrs After:14.3

Before Dinner: 8.2

2 hrs After: 10.8

Bed Time: 7.4

The lunch time spike happens six hours after I take my steroids (DAMN YOU PREDNISOLONE!).  I am not sure that I will ever be able to correct that, because I have to take the stuff, like it or not.  Back to yesterday's post; this is the point I tell myself that I like the drug as it supports my lungs - even if it makes my face puffy.

Anyway, just to prove that I am not completely barking mad and that this was not an idea I randomly plucked out the sky, here's a link to watch that explains the thinking behind my experiment - courtesy of a friend who messaged the video to me yesterday.  

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/Clip/10320937/correlation-between-meat-and-diabetes#.U7Mg1LbjYQ8.facebook

It was not this film which made me consider a dietary change, but I didn't want to bore you all to death with some of the things I have been reading.  In a nutshell; in some large-group studies it has been noted that people on high saturated fat diets (meats and dairy - not just meat as suggested in the video), who were already insulin resistant were more prone to Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Kidney Disease.  I have all four; I ate meat and dairy products.  The people in the studies, who were placed on a plant-based diet, managed a significant improvement in their blood glucose results.  I am seeing an improvement in mine; I'll have to wait until next Thursday to see if the other results have improved - or not.

It's an American clip so that means it may not be what your doctor over here in Blighty would prescribe.  I am also not suggesting anyone changes their diet!  You have to eat what is right for your body, but I am fast coming round to the idea that as far as food is concerned, one size does not fit all, but I'll come back to that another day.

April Austerity - Fallout 2

I really don't like cheap meat.  It's not just the taste, it's everything about the stuff.  It's not just an issue with animal welfare either.  The whole farming and food industry seems completely arse-about-face.  I do think all animals deserve a first rate quality of life, but especially so if they are ending up on our dinner plates - kindness costs little.  

Yes, I am an omnivore; I come from an Aussie family.  When mum was growing up on a farm, the animals had space, they roamed and dispatching one for dinner wasn't anywhere as inhumane as the intensive farming, shove it in a van, drive it 10hrs down the road and kill it routine that we have these days.  Slaughter on site? Would that be feasible in the UK?  or at least with in a short distance of the animal's 'home', so it doesn't have to suffer that stress and indignity.  Hmmmm.

After the animal has been dispatched, have you considered how we consume the meat?  There is no surprise that we are putting on weight and heading for a disaster zone in the UK.  The protein portion seems to have swapped places with the veg on our plates.  We used to eat predominantly veg, with a meat side.  Now you're lucky if you can see the vegetables using a microscope.  A portion of meat is the size and thickness of the palm of your hand - most omnis eat 2-3x this suggested allocation.  On my shoddy April diet, my meat intake spilled over into many, many meals, because of *that soup.  Normally, I eat meat/fish twice a week - although that's going to be harder with the whole soya/lentil/bean/dairy issue...  

So, a quick recap: bad farming, and an huge increase in protein and a drop in vegetable consumption is where we are at the moment.  Then...If you wander into any supermarket, 85% of the food on sale on there is just not food.  Ok, Ok, you can shove it in your mouth, chew on it and it'll taste great and fill a hole.  Who doesn't like a big, fat, greasy pizza?  But what is it doing to your insides?    Are you eating that, and the chocolates, crisps and cheese covered toast everyday?  Everything seems to be processed, packaged up, sent to another company, reprocessed and repacked and turned into something so alien from its original shape, colour, taste and texture that the original plant, or animal wouldn't recognise itself.  Cheese Strings?  I'm sorry, but WTF??!!  Do I eat them, or do I tie my shoes up with them?  I try very hard not to buy things in packets.  The crisps, biscuits, cakes, prepared meals etc etc are all gone - those ginger nuts with unpronounceable additives put me off.

On top of that, I am fast coming around to the idea that there is absolutely not one right diet for everyone.  I have friends who are wheat intolerant, lactose intolerant, glucose intolerant, meat averse, animal product averse, and a whole gamut of other intolerance/allergies/dislikes.  I personally can not go near grapefruit or pomegranate (no, I can't just pick bits off - what about the juice?).  I also  can't eat undercooked meat, any shellfish, undercooked egg (mayo, hollandaise sauce etc), soya (I don't tend to worry if there is a scratch of it in the packet, but don't offer me it in any bulk version (tofu, tempeh, soy, soya, miso).  I'm not supposed to eat from buffets (how long has it been sat there?), or have cold food which I have not prepared - no salads at restaurants, or at friends' houses - it's ok, I do trust you all enough to wash a lettuce leaf...and seeing as my food life is confusing enough, I tend to ignore the 'no salad' rule, based on using my eyes, knowledge of the establishment and a good old fashioned sniff-test!  I'm not supposed to have any pro-biotic stuff either.  Oh and now I remember, mushrooms only occasionally as they (like the soy) can set off gout attacks. Ouch.

So where does this leave me?  Trying to balance my wallet against the thought that I really should only be supporting organic farm produce.  I'm vaguely toying with the idea of going vegan for a couple of months - I bet most of you didn't see that coming.  It may give my body a chance to resettle the blood sugar question (there is some evidence for that).  I'm also fairly certain that the veggie/vegan friends will be rooting for the animal welfare side of things.    But then again, I am pretty certain that my transplant team will have a fit, if I decided to do this permanently.  I can't eat soya and I have to keep my consumption of 'staple' vegan foods down: beans, peas and lentils all contain Phosphorous, which can quicken my kidney damage (I only have 35% function left).  I also then have a lot of expensive cat food in the freezer (salmon!) - Harvey will be delighted :p

I think that ultimately, I'd have to keep the butter (Transplants at Harefield are not usually given margarine) for baking.  I'll probably have to have either fish or meat twice a week and I can see myself being told to maintain eggs.  However it pans out, I'd like to reduce my 'footfall' in terms of my agricultural/animal impact.

Watch this space.

The Drugs do Work - Part 1 - The Immune Suppressant

My medication regime has become more complicated as the years have gone by.  When I left Harefield in March 1989 I was on Cyclosporin.  This was the only drug I took for two years.  Yes, just that.  This was my immune-suppressant drugs.  If you have a transplant you have to take these drugs for life.  

• Yes, for life.  
• No, your body doesn't adapt to the donor organs.  
• Yes, my heart and lungs will always be foreign bodies that my immune system will try to obliterate.  
• Yes, the drugs are horrific, but they are better than the alternative.  Dying.

My Current Immune-Suppressant 

This drug is called Prograf (alternatively Tacrolimus).  I tend to call this Tac; I think a lot of us do!  I take 1mg in the morning and 1mg in the evening.  The tablet is about the size of a Tic-Tac.   This is the drug that stops my system killing off my donor organs and I have to say, I was rather skeptical that something so small was the thing that stood between me and some sort of coronary apocalypse, but it seems to do its job.  

The thing is (there's always a thing), I was advised not to eat for two hours before hand, and for an hour after taking it.   If you take your tablet at 10 am/pm, then that means no food, no orange juice, no big glasses of milk, no coke; they are all too calorific. I get away with tea and coffee, with a dash of milk and no sugar.  Oh yes, and no alcohol in these hours either.

Then there are the blood tests, which are done by 10am - usually. You can't take your medication before the blood test.  If you take your tablet at 10am and 10pm, it really means you can never have an early night.  I cheat.  I take it at 6am and 6pm (and have adopted a complicated method of wiggling my medication round to the correct time, for blood tests when I dock in at Harefield).  Unfortunately this 6am/6pm regime means  I never have a lie in that is not interrupted.

Side effects of this drug are absolutely charming and for the sake of brevity, I have included only the ones with which I suffer on and off:

• Blurred vision
• Constipation
• Cataracts
• Chest Tightness
• Cough
• Depression
• Diarrhoea
• Distension of the stomach
• Falls
• Feeling full (stomach)
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Hair overgrowth
• Hair loss
• High cholesterol
• Itching
• Joint pain
• Loss of appetite
• Mental Health problems
• Mood changes
• Muscle cramps
• Oedema
• Over-sensitvity to light
• Temperature intolerance
• Thirst
• Tinnitus
• Unexplained bruising
• Weakness
• Weight gain
• Weight loss

A lot of transplants seem to be on two immune suppressant drugs at a time.  I have only ever managed one at a time, because of horrific reactions.  When I took Azathioprine (Imuran) I developed welts and I became Neutropenic.  The Cyclosporin (Sandimunn and Neoral) wrecked my kidneys and Myfortic/MMF left me suicidal - not particularly clever, considering I fought so long to stay alive!