Counting Carbs

On Thursday afternoon I had my first consultation at the Diabetes/Endocrinology Center in Scarborough. Nick came with me, to make sure I paid attention to the dietary recommendations, and because he’s really the better cook between the two of us, so we thought it important that he be there to know what I should be eating. There were only two other women in the class with us. Both were rather large women, and had they not been in a gestational diabetes class, I would not have realized that they were six months pregnant. Neither had a discernable baby bump. One of the women came to the class late, scraping the bottom of a cup of chili from Wendy’s.

The class was much more informative than either Nick or I were expecting. The instructors gave very specific guidelines as to how many grams of carbohydrates can be consumed at each meal (45gm) and snack (15gm). I was also given a glucose testing meter, and have been instructed to check my blood four times per day. Testing my blood consists of pricking my finger with a tiny needle, called a lancet, then placing the blood drop on a small plastic receptor strip that is inserted into a glucose meter. I check my blood upon waking (the fasting level) and two hours after every meal. My first reading, two hours after my usual breakfast of whole grain cereal and soy milk, was too high. Every other reading of the past four days so far has been normal.

I stopped eating cereal, and replaced it with a breakfast of yogurt and frozen blueberries, and a fried egg and cheese on a sprouted wheat English muffin. Delicious and filling, and seems to keep my post-breakfast levels lower. The meal plan they recommend is really not so different from what I usually eat—I just have to watch my carbohydrate intake, and limit sweets. Last night for dinner, I made whole wheat penne with chicken, broccoli, and parmesan, and two hours later for dessert had an organic ice cream bar dipped in chocolate with almonds. Both are perfectly acceptable on the meal plan. Neither spiked my blood sugar levels. The trick is to count carbs and space out meals and snacks every two to three hours so that my blood sugar never has a chance to dip too low or get too high.

I’m feeling less guilty about how this happened. I realize now it’s less a problem of my diet than the fact that my body simply isn’t producing enough insulin during this period of pregnancy. The placenta blocks the absorption of insulin into the bloodstream, meaning there is more glucose traveling through my blood, and not getting into my cells, where it belongs. All I can do to counteract that fact is watch my intake of carbohydrates, so my glucose levels don’t get too high, and exercise more to burn off whatever extra glucose is leftover. Between counting carbs and walking more (I walked for two hours yesterday while doing errands), I think I’ll get this under control.