Diabetes Diet #49: Dreams and CGM's

Diabetes Recipes:

Dreams, Imagination, Creativity. These are good words. They are also staples to carry along in life’s backpack to help navigate the twists and turns in the highways and byways. A little dreaming and creativity can make a world of difference when diabetes is part of the scheme. The mix of dreams, imagination, and creativity can fine-tune lateral management of diabetes into masterful balance resulting in a healthy lifestyle.

At 2 recent diabetes conferences, the DESA (Diabetes Exercise and Sports Association) North American meeting in Colorado Springs and the CWD (Children With Diabetes) meeting in Orlando, I witnessed and was inspired by athletes and health professionals whose dreams look to the best future and technology for optimal diabetes care. One of the exciting buzz words they all talked about was CGM, continuous glucose monitoring.

We all know about and (hopefully) use home BG meters to check blood sugars throughout the day and night. The drop of blood on the strip inserted into a meter gives a snapshot reading of where your BG is at that moment. When added up or put on a graph, the points show readings of test results. The diabetes scientists and techies believe that this is not enough, so they have come up with a tool that measures glucose every few minutes, through a sensor inserted under the skin and transmitted to a handheld device for reading. A couple of great things about CGMs are trending and patterns. The trend lines allow you to note how elements of food, insulin, or exercise affect BG levels in real-time and how to make an adjustment to improve your blood sugar. Retrospectively, you can download the data in software on your PC and see the patterns in your readings.

Don’t think you can ditch your handy little 5-second meter. Not yet. Confirmation of any up or down excursions must be done as a backup check since the CGMs are not infallible and they are only a complement to meters at this time. They are relatively new to the diabetes tech tool field and are rather sophisticated, requiring a good working knowledge of managing diabetes. There are several CGM systems on the market presently and more on the way to FDA approval. The health insurance companies are not, as yet, supporting reimbursement. CGMs are part of the imaginative, creative dream of accuracy and state of the art diabetes technology.

I witnessed some of the “diabetes geeks” happily sporting 2 CGMs, insulin pumps and bg meters on their tech belts in order to study and compare products. They are the heroes who set standards and continually explore the possibilities for the entire diabetes community, for us. Cheers to our gurus and mavens! Because of them, we continue to surge forward with the dreams, imagination, and creativity of improved diabetes care.
Whether you are on a CGM, inspired to try one (like me) or are simply getting a little hungry, let’s step into Cyber Kitchen and do some calculating on our own.

Cyber Kitchen Recipes

Nobody really wants to cook in the summertime. But if you are reading this column, chances are pretty good you want to eat well and healthily. This is a little different from what we usually do here at Cyber Kitchen. We are going to run down 10 quick summer meals that are nutritionally balanced, taste great and only take 10 minutes to put together. Each recipe serves 4. I tried to vary tastes and flavors so you can get a little bit of everything. I hope you have fun on the summer culinary express.

Quick 10 Minute Recipes
Sauté 1 cup mixed herbs (parsley, thyme, basil, oregano, chives) and 1 large grated zucchini in ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil. At the same time bring a pot of water to a rapid boil and cook ½ lb angel hair pasta for 5 minutes. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water. Drain pasta and toss with herbs. Add water if necessary. Sprinkle with 2 T. parmesan cheese and serve. You could also serve this room temp as a salad.
Heat ¼ cup olive oil in a large skillet. Add 2 dozen cleaned littleneck clams and 2 dozen mussels. When shells begin to open in a few minutes, add ½ cup white wine, 4 cloves slivered garlic, a pinch of hot pepper flakes, ½ cup parsley leaves, cover and cook for a few minutes until all shells open. Serve in a large bowl. Have some good country Italian bread ready for sopping up juices.
Pound 4 small chicken cutlets very thin. Dredge in cornmeal and fry in an olive oil sprayed pan about 2 minutes per side. Make sandwiches with toasted grain bread spread with light mayonnaise and topped with arugula and sliced local farm tomatoes.
Brown ½ lb. lean ground beef or turkey with 2 minced garlic cloves and ½ a chopped red onion. After 5 minutes add ½ lb. chopped spinach. Stir to wilt. Add 2 eggs, whisk and add 2 T. grated parmesan cheese
Lightly steam asparagus, or green beans. Drain and rinse 1 15-oz can chickpeas. Arrange on platter with 1 can good tuna, 2 sliced hard boiled eggs, sliced tomatoes and cucumber, small black olives.
Make a quick taco salad. Toss salad greens, sliced avocado, sliced tomato, chopped red onion, corn kernels from 2 ears, 1 small can drained black beans. Toss with olive oil, juice from fresh limes and garnish with grated cheddar or jack cheese, crumbled tortilla chips and cilantro leaves.
Serve canned sardines on triscuits spread with a little mustard and hot sauce. Rich in Omega3 fatty acids.
Try a pasta omelet or frittata. Coarsely cut 4 cups leftover spaghetti or angel hair. Sauté in 1 T. olive oil with 2 cloves chopped garlic. Form a round cake and press down. Turn and mix in 4 eggs and ¼ cup parmesan, stirring into pasta. Press down to cook for a minute r 2 and turn to brown other side.
Rub 1 lb. thin pork chops with 1 T. olive oil and press with dry sage or thyme. Broil or grill 3 minutes per side and drizzle with best quality balsamic vinegar. Serve.
My favorite easy summer lunch or supper: grilled mozzarella-tomato-basil sandwich. Slice some good country bread, brush lightly with olive oil on 1 side. Lay 1 slice fresh mozzarella on oil. Top with thinly sliced homegrown tomatoes, fresh herb garden basil leaves. Repeat. Top with another slice oiled bread and broil in toaster oven until brown and cheese melts. Yum!