Listing the pet peeves of someone living with diabetes
As a Registered Dietitian I have enough pet peeves regarding nutrition to fill a thousand pages.
But since Marianne and Jay won’t give me that kind of space, and because it is National Diabetes Month, I will only discuss the pet peeves I share with other diabetics who live with the illness on a day-to-day basis.
Personally, I group ignorance and unsolicited advice together. It seems that those with the least knowledge about diabetes are always the ones to ask such questions as: “Are you supposed to eat that?” or “I thought diabetics weren’t supposed to eat sugar?” or “How about a piece of fruit instead of that chocolate cake?”
My favorite was the patient who told me his MD said he shouldn’t eat baby carrots, fruit, carbohydrates or milk.
The sad part was that as a RD and veteran Type 1 Diabetic I had to bring up every resource I could find to prove the MD wrong. I work with all kinds of medical professionals and still hear, “should you be eating that?”
People, there is NO reason we cannot enjoy a piece of birthday cake or a slice of bread or an occasional alcoholic beverage.
I know that much of what people say is out of concern, but if you don’t have the latest and greatest factual medical information, I bet the person with diabetes does.
If a doctor is telling you that “sugar is poison,” please refer to the above.
Another pet peeve is listening to the horror stories about someone’s friend’s cousin’s aunt who is a double amputee on kidney dialysis. Continue reading →