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#731 Bold Beginnings: Food Choices

Podcast Episodes

The Juicebox Podcast is from the writer of the popular diabetes parenting blog Arden's Day and the award winning parenting memoir, 'Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal: Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Dad'. Hosted by Scott Benner, the show features intimate conversations of living and parenting with type I diabetes.

#731 Bold Beginnings: Food Choices

Scott Benner

Bold Beginnings will answer the questions that most people have after a type 1 diabetes diagnosis.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon MusicGoogle Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio PublicAmazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 731 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today we have another edition of the bull beginning series, a series that began back on episode 702 With honeymooning, and then it went to 706 adult diagnosis 711 terminology Part One 712 terminology part two, Episode 715 bold beginnings fear of insulin, Episode 719, the 1515 rule episode 723 long acting insulin episode 727 target range, and on today's episode, Jenny Smith and I will discuss food choices. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. If you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, please consider going to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash use Box join the registry take the survey when you complete the survey which will take fewer than 10 minutes, you'll be helping people with type one T one D exchange.org Ford slash juice box

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod makers of the Omni pod dash and the Omni pod five, you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod Dash. And here's how you can find out on the pod.com Ford slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored today by Dexcom. And the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor, head over to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box to find out if you're eligible for a free 10 day trial of the Dexcom G six. When you use my links, you're supporting the show. Hi, Jenny. And welcome back to the bold beginnings. I can't pretend that we didn't just record another episode. I'm sorry. Nevermind. Scott, it's very lovely to see you again. And I just finished one we're moving into food choices. So there's a ton of feedback here from people, I really enough that I'm not certain we're gonna get through it, but we'll give it a shot. And I'm going to start the conversation based on based on the conversation that I had, just recently with a young person in their 20s with type one diabetes, and just we're talking about all kinds of stuff. And in the middle of it. She said having diabetes, diabetes really messes up food for you. She's like it just you start looking at it, like what is that going to do? And you know, is this or you know, maybe I won't eat that because of what it's going to do or it doesn't feel worth it to me to fight with this for three hours. She said she never thought about food like that prior to diabetes and right, it's a fair statement. So let's dive right in. Because there's a ton here. This person says that grocery shopping seemed incredibly difficult at the beginning. And it was also emotional. She said they were trying to eliminate some of the kind of quote unquote, not good for you foods that my daughter was getting. But then she saw me crying as we went down the aisles. Wow, that sounds like really in the beginning. Because you're feeling I'm gonna guess not a therapist, Jenny. But that's a sense of loss. Right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:41
It is. And there's a sense of loss. I think in many things that because food is food is a major part of diabetes management. It is because food is also a basic necessity of life. We have to eat, we can't just say well, I've got affects this. So I'm just going to just not do that anymore, right. But we have to eat food. So what you've been used to doing may need to change. Now, you know, one step into that is was what you were doing? Not the greatest, or was it not as healthy anyway? And could you start to see some of these changes once you mentally get over all of the hard stuff that it takes to navigate through all these thoughts. It can you start to see this as a well gosh, as a family, we could clean this up. We could be doing this versus that and it would be better for all of us. Right? But it is it's it's hard.

Scott Benner 4:51
And not everyone's going to take that path either. You know, and I will tell you that some people see it as a challenge to like I'll just because we have died videos now doesn't mean I'm gonna You can't change me. I'm gonna figure this out, right? It's funny because I'm somewhere mixed into that idea, I'll probably figure it out as we're talking. This first and biggest worry I had was limitations of food. What in the world was I going to feed my kid? Because she only really ate a few things to begin with. Yeah. And those things all had carbs.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:27
And that's where then you work with that, because so much has changed with the child's life to begin with. That that's not a starting place for being like, well, you're just gonna eat broccoli today? Because that's so much better for you than whatever it was the child. No, no, that ain't that's not appropriate. But it's then learning Well, the 10 things that your kid does eat. figure those out, yeah, eventually move

Scott Benner 5:54
on. The same person said that they then had an appointment with a dietician a number of days later, where the dietitian lifted the fear by just saying, Hey, listen, you can eat what you want, but you have to cover it with insulin. But then they didn't give them the rest of the information, which is, you know, what this whole thing is about, right? Like is, you know, 10 carbs, this and 10 carbs that might not hit the same, right? So they went from, oh, my God, there's nothing my kid can eat to Oh, doesn't matter, they can eat anything to then realizing we don't seem to be very good at Bolus thing for them. Right? Then Then they ran into that idea of like, well, well, this must be what it is. Now, this next person says I was confused about the different views between low carb and like a regular diet. And I didn't, I didn't realize that you could use insulin skillfully. And still, and still have a great day one, see. And we do that now. But there still are times that we might not want a bunch of insulin on board. So we eat appropriately around that. Correct. So that's, that's a really thoughtful, that's the, that's somebody who's been through it already, and figured it out, you know, or has

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:06
kept enough, even in a shorter period of time, has kept enough notes, or has done some trend analysis, or looked enough at what is going in and has seen. But when we do this, this works out pretty well. We've got it figured out whether it you know, is an apple or fruit snacks. They've figured it out, right? But then comes in, you know, the other types of things. And they say, well, these are the variables, I think it would be easier if we just have less overall insulin, maybe we could go this route for this type of setting. And it works better for us. Great. That's it's probably adding a good amount of variety anyway, which is healthy in your nutrition intake overall to begin with

Scott Benner 7:52
this next person's point I agree with completely. So, you know, they talked about, you know, I'd never thought about glycemic index and foods before this obviously said the podcast helped her think about it. But that she did make some pretty what she thought were obvious decisions on some things. And she puts a little list here, but I'll tell you for certain little things, like if you have pancake syrup in the house, get a sugar free one. Like that's me just like Why are you punishing yourself for right? You know, like, like, first of all, I don't know if you've ever really thought about it, but you start squirting that syrup on everything. By the time you're done. You have a half a cup of it in there, you're basically drinking 40 carbs of sugar, you know, at a know so

Unknown Speaker 8:35
much more. Much more. But yes,

Scott Benner 8:39
so so if you're gonna have pain, so Okay, fair enough. I still want to have pancakes, have pancakes, use the sugar free syrup. It makes it easier on you. Do you have to know? I mean, there are people listening this podcast who think this podcast is about the idea that you can eat whatever you want. I mean, I think the podcast is about understanding how insulin works, but fair enough. So but yeah, that kind of thing. Or, here's a super easy one. No one's ever going to tell you make sure you're buying bread that has no high fructose corn syrup. Super easy decision to make makes things much, much simpler.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:14
And if you go a step further, get sprouted grain bread. So much easier glycemic li than even the typical white breads that might say they're organic with no added corn syrup or whatever. But the more the more unprocessed something is, the better you're going to find your glycemic kind of, you know, outcome

Scott Benner 9:37
if you're a person who absolutely has to have soda and I have to admit, I don't understand that. I don't ever drink soda really. But aren't that I went out to lunch the other day and we're like, can we have two unsweetened iced teas and she goes we're out of unsweetened iced tea and I was like supply chain issues. And we were both like we'll have a Diet Coke and at a meal where I I probably would have drank a couple of iced teas. I did not get through the Diet Coke. It just it's not for me. But if you have to have soda, God bless, drink diet soda, and then you don't have to worry about that thing. Like, there are simple places where just for health in general for that if you don't have diabetes, you could be cutting out sugar. And, and at the same time, it just makes this whole thing easier, especially in the beginning. There's still times when people send me graphs and I'm like, Look, do yourself a favor, eat a simpler diet for a couple of days while you're figuring this out. Like you don't know what you're doing. And on top of that, you're trying to Bolus for Lucky Charms, like you know. Yeah, that's like, that's, that's an angel level decision you're trying to make here. And you just started yesterday, you know, right. Yeah, that kind of an idea. You okay with that you? Like I'm not saying to restrict your diet, I'm saying.

Okay, let's head together to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. The first thing we'll do is brace ourselves because there's a photo of me there. And it's not. I mean, it's not pleasant. It's the best picture I could take. I don't know what to tell you. Anyway, I apologize. On the pod. They're makers of the AMI pod five. It's the first tubeless automated insulin delivery system. It's an algorithm based system. It's probably what you've been waiting for on the pod five is the first and only tubeless automated insulin delivery system to integrate with the Dexcom G six. It is now available for people with type one diabetes ages six years and older. Featuring smart adjust technology. The pod adjusts insulin delivery based on your customized targeted glucose helping to protect against high and lows, day and night. Where do you find out about this Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. Now if you're not in the market, for an algorithm based system, you might want to take a look at the Omni pod dash and you may be eligible for a test drive a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash, you can also learn this add on the pod.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast scroll down to the big purple box and start reading. After that you fill in a tiniest bit of information, and you're on your way. So whether you're looking for the Omni pod five, or the Omni pod dash, you want to go to my link Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. there everything is well explained and easy to understand. A tubeless insulin pump is within your grasp, head over there. Now. When you're done, I'd keep going right to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box. Now here's the good news about this next calm.com forward slash I'm typing I'm sorry, Ford slash juice box. Here's what you're gonna get there are Moreover, not get a photo of me. So it's a nice relaxing and calm experience. No pictures of Scott. Instead what you're gonna get is the breakdown about the Dexcom GS six, you're going to learn about zero finger sticks, glucose readings that are right on your smart device, customizable alerts and alarms and how to get started right now with the Dexcom G six. You can make better diabetes treatment and diabetes management decisions with zero finger sticks and no calibrations. The Dexcom G six lets you see your glucose numbers with just a quick glance at your smart device and receiver get alerted when your glucose levels are headed high or low and share your data with up to 10 followers. And the Dexcom G six is covered by most insurance plans. There's details surrounding all of what I've just said. But those details are@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox you don't want to I mean listen. You don't have to listen to me, right you can do whatever you want. My daughter has been wearing an omni pod since she was four and she's 18. She's been wearing a Dexcom since I don't know she was six or seven. And she's 18. These items are at the core of our decision making process, moment to moment, hour to hour day to day with type one diabetes. And you know what, they could probably help you a lot with type two diabetes as well. dexcom.com forward slash juice box on the pod.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. I am contractually obligated to say that for full safety and risk information about the Omni pod Plus Free Trial terms and conditions you can visit omnipod.com forward slash juicebox. I'm going to get you back to Jenny now who by the way works at integrated diabetes.com In case you're interested in working with her like I'm not saying to restrict your diet I'm saying

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:52
make make potentially wiser decisions and Dorsey what you're doing Are you constantly having problems No matter what you're trying, maybe you're at the level of getting the majority of stuff. But there are a few things where like the maple syrup, or the regular sodas or you can't get over drinking juice. Okay, we know what I mean juice is recommended for a low blood sugar treatment. Don't drink juice. Just drink juice, eat the fruit don't drink the juice.

Scott Benner 15:23
I grew up in a house where nobody understood nutrition and orange juice was seen as healthy as hell. Yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:30
I'm sure it was yeah, you know, better than soda from an from a from, I guess nutrient quality, especially if you're getting the not from concentrate, whatever. Okay.

Scott Benner 15:43
That is not a good marketing line. It's better than soda that does not breed. But in all of your foods. I mean, I'm telling you right now, no high fructose corn syrup. If you just cut that out of the things you're buying huge deal, if you can. I know. Listen, it's time consuming. But it's try to stay away from things in bags or boxes. These things have preservatives in them that make them more difficult to Bolus for. I made my own potato chips last weekend, which took hours but I found relaxing people made fun of me, but that's okay. And you should see how much less impact that had on Arden's blood sugar versus any kind of potato chip that would come out of a bag.

Unknown Speaker 16:28
And you would because you know what you did to them. It was a rough

Scott Benner 16:31
was soft on it. That's what it was like that. There's nothing else in it. I mean, except for whatever they sprayed on those potatoes before we bought them.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:39
Oh, you didn't buy organic potatoes.

Scott Benner 16:42
I don't know if I did or not. I was just for the situation teasing.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:46
Well, you know, who knows the organic versus non organic? Who knows what floats through the air? And

Scott Benner 16:52
I'm sure there's a way to get around that distinction already here. Yes. A lot of statements here about my first food shopping was completely overwhelming. We weren't carb counting. And we had to work in 15 grams of carb portions, oh, poor person was not carb counting. So they were eating either 1530 4560 That's a lot.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:15
And that would be more of like a sliding scale kind of concept of this many carbs. Take this much insulin. And that's all then use this correction if your blood sugar's in this range.

Scott Benner 17:27
And then the end of her statement, I've seen online a million times and heard from people in general, which was That was way too much food for my kid. My kid wasn't eating 30 carbs at a sitting they were a little but they wanted more than 15. And now they're forced feeding. They're telling the kid you got to finish this because we Bolus for it, which is not a good start to your life. That's for sure.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:48
Not at all. I mean, uh, you know that that's really old. I mean, that's, that's really what I learned. And that was really old, old school education. I mean, I could remember when I was taught, I was so excited when I was taught to read a food label. And I could cover carbs with insulin better. I was so excited about that, because it just, I don't know, it widened up things. I still wasn't the grocery shopper. I mean, it was still my mom. But I don't know, it just made a difference.

Scott Benner 18:20
This person said that they ran home from the hospital throughout everything with sugar in it based on no no information at all from anyone just thought that was the right thing to do. And then it took them months to realize that this stuff still had carbs in it. And it probably didn't matter one way or the other. People said I wish someone would have told me the best cards to carry with me. That's a good Yeah, yeah. Because I do. Do you ever see, like, here's one that floors me right? Chocolates not good. A good treatment to stop a low with right? Not at all. It's still a fat, but people do that all the time. Right? Like so you want simple sugar that's absorbed easily through your body. Think about like if you ever had that emergency gel, they tell you to rub it in the cheeks, inside of your cheeks. So juice works really well. A lot of people

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:09
another really good one are the honey sticks. Okay, especially if you're someone who really doesn't want to do all of the processed Color Fill candies and that kind of thing. The long skinny honey sticks work really well. I've seen a lot of people comment about and I've done it myself when I've had like lack of something in a purse is just the sugar packets at a restaurant. Yeah, they work. Awesome. Dump it under your tongue. It dissolves right away and it is quick. It works.

Scott Benner 19:39
I remember having to do that with Arden one time. And she was like, you know and I said well just pour it on your tongue and I was like melted in your spit. Hold it in your mouth for a little while before you swish it around. You know, get it make sure you get on all your teeth so we can end up with it. But that's also a great Good example, if you're giving people sugar overnight, you might start seeing you might start surveys. Yeah, dental problems. And I've had a dentist on actually, his episode will be out pretty soon. So by the time this is out, it'll probably have been out where he said, you know, look, I'm not telling you to jump up in the moonlight and brush your teeth. He's like, but have water by the bedside. And when you're done, just swish it around your mouth and clear your mouth. That would be a big deal to do that. Yep. Okay, so best cards to carry around simple sugars that were quickly.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:31
I wanted to say simple sugar too, if people are looking at labels, the simplest, like most most easily digested carbohydrate is is is glucose, right? Which is why we have glucose tablets. But glucose is dextrose. So on candy labels, if you're looking for a candy, look for glucose, or dextrose, within the first three ingredients, and then you've got something that's going to work really quick,

Scott Benner 20:58
okay. And then after that, I think find what works for you, too. Right. And and let me say this, just don't think that because you open the package, you have to eat them all. You know, if you have a little single serving, like, I don't know, gummy package, and there's 10 pieces in there, five of them might fix your low blood sugar, you know, don't feel weird about throwing the other five away or twisting it up for later or something like that. You don't have to eat them all because you opened it up, which is the thing that people fall into all the time. All right, now's the time. Let's say hold on a second. This person actually made your point earlier that this might be a good time to make a sweeping change in how you eat. If you if you looked up and saw that your diets not a healthy one, it's a good, it's a good excuse to do something about it. So that was yours.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 21:48
And as you said earlier to you know, the least processed or the less processing of food most often means the food is is clean, if you will, right. There's not a lot that's been added to it, whether it's corn syrup, or all of the additives that they keep to preserve it on the store shelves mean the best places to shop and the grocery store. It's around the perimeter. You've got your fresh produce lots and lots of non starchy great vegetables, healthy fruits, you've got your protein sources, it's it's the aisles that are the danger zone.

Scott Benner 22:27
I know. I've seen it. I've seen it before they're there. The grocery store is actually set up. Just the way Jenny said like, look at it one day, they you know, they concentrate kind of the crappy food internally. Yeah, it's interesting. Here's one, what were the free snacks, I wish somebody would have given me a list of free snacks. And that's a funny statement to me. Because, because it's not always free. Right? Like, you know, I understand the concept like a like a cheese stick might be considered or a Slim Jim or something like that, you know if you're but if your blood sugar's I don't know, 120 and having a cheese stick, you know, doesn't have carbs in it. Okay, I get your point, maybe you don't need insulin for it right away. But if you really listen to the podcast, and if you've lived with diabetes for a while, you start realizing that, you know, the fat and the cheese could slow down your digestion, which could push up your blood sugar, or you could eat meat that later would be broken down and stored as glucose that there's nothing that's like legitimately free. I don't think

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:36
Iceberg lettuce. There you go. Okay. I mean, unless you literally eat the entire head of iceberg lettuce. And I'm not saying that that doesn't have carbs in it. It does. But I mean, Iceberg lettuce, and many of the greens will have very limited if any impact blood sugar wise, right? I mean, on a whole big dinner size plate size spinach salad. I might add to what I'm kind of swag calculating on that. Maybe five extra grams for all of the greens that are there. Really, the rest of the stuff that you add on top of that is what needs counting all of those other nonstarchy you know, bell peppers and onions and mushrooms and cucumbers. They have carbs in them. They were I mean the concept of free again is kind of an old concept. It kind of is like that 1530 45 grams per meal and you take this amount of insulin. I got to know free foods as as a newly diagnosed as my aunt and uncle would bring to family gatherings big vegetable trees, because Jedi could eat those foods for free. And man did I eat them? I'm quite sure if I had a CGM. My mom would have been like man we got a dose for cucumber.

Scott Benner 25:03
Garden goes on kicks for sheets, tons of carrots. And we believe we Bolus for the carrots like

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:08
oh yeah, Carrots are one of the curvier, non starchy type of vegetables. Definitely,

Scott Benner 25:13
the point is this is that in the beginning, you might not know what you're doing, you might have your Basal too high. And so you don't notice things like this. But as you start to get your settings, right, understand diabetes more, you're going to start seeing the impacts of those so called free foods. Now, don't get me wrong, if you've got a four year old and they want a snack six times a day, I take your point, and you should definitely find those ideas. You know, a little piece of cheese is definitely going to be less of a hassle for you blood sugar wise than given them an orange slice.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:47
And for a four year old from a standpoint of portion, the cheese stick or the Slim Jim or you piece of you know, grilled chicken or a boiled egg or whatever it may be, it's probably couldn't have pretty little to no impact whatsoever in the portion that that child is eating, versus the adult who's like, Well, I'm just going to eat a big ol six ounce chicken breast because there aren't any carbs in it. Wow, that's not going to work out so well.

Scott Benner 26:14
And that makes me think too, if you do have a toddler or a kid who's running around all the time, there may be an amount of, of carbs they can take in throughout the day that will look free. Because they were going to go low, and you're just kind of counterbalancing it before you see it.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:33
Yeah, you kind of bolstering with little snips in between. And that's often the way that toddlers eat too. Right? Little bit here a little bit there. They may eat two strawberries, they might eat, you know, a bite of cheese, they might that's just what they do,

Scott Benner 26:48
right? So if you're in a situation where you think, Oh, my God, my kid eats throughout the day, and they never eat insulin, try thinking about like this, instead, it's not a free food, you're pre carving a low before the low happens, right? You're treating before it happens, and you don't even realize it. Yeah, could be the situation. I wish somebody would have given me a list of foods. That's interesting, because then that's, you know, we get into eating styles. And I don't know that doctors would want to be pushing an eating style on you one way or the other. But, I mean, you should definitely see a dietitian who could help you with that. You know, and I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:25
would, I would request a dietician, who specifically is a diabetes educator, if possible, if where you live, that is a possibility. I will say that being a dietitian, myself. I know diabetes, for many reasons, obviously. But had I gone into the realm of cancer management. As a dietitian, even my life with diabetes would have taught me something. But I may not be quite so good at education outside of that, because that wasn't my realm of professional work. I've learned a lot by working with so many people with so many different needs and interests and requests and whatnot, to kind of draw on, so definitely do your homework, as we've said before, with any clinical team, do your homework and find somebody that can work with you,

Scott Benner 28:21
this person said, you know, there are just days when I need a break. And so I eat very low carb, or, and I think that's completely reasonable, first of all, and said, there should be options that people know how to do that without being scared. Because if you if your settings are set up for a lifestyle, and then you suddenly swap that lifestyle to something else, your settings are going to be too heavy, then, and you're going to have trouble. But she's like, it would have been nice if someone would have explained to me that, hey, if you just don't want to eat a bunch of carbs today, switch to this basil program and do this. And I take your point, I think that's a really good point, actually,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:59
indoor cover your meals, you know, learn how that learn what that means in terms of meal coverage, because it really should be a swap out of okay, my Basal does this because I've tested it, that should be worked pretty well. I mean, I've got a lot of people I work with who for religious reasons, do all day fasts, right? And so we've been fine with that having tested basil, that sometimes on a fasting day, they may even need a 10% reduction in their base basil, these there really is no food impact whatsoever through the course of the whole entire day. But the meal times themselves. If you're doing a type of fasting, that's more vegetables and protein or just a little bit through the course of the day or if you're doing any intermittent fasting where you're really only eating for six hours of the day, or eight hours of the day. You may see different impacts than you do with all day food intake of more, you know, mixed meal

Scott Benner 29:56
Yeah. Do you give time or do you have to go No, I've

Unknown Speaker 30:00
got let me check me. Let me check my schedule. I have five minutes. All right,

Scott Benner 30:08
so we'll do one more. And then we'll kind of come back to this one. This person says, I wish someone would have told me that it's okay. Right to eat one way to eat another way. But instead, I got a very restrictive care team that shamed us. And it was it was really tough. You know? That's the I'll tell you though, of all the things like I'm really freewheeling on my Facebook page, meaning like, I let people talk like adults, you know, there are very few rules, but shaming people about their food choices. I am not okay with ever, no, especially around diabetes, you can you can cause eating disorders with very easily. You know, eating disorders with people with type one is, is you know, more common. If someone wants to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken every day and learn how to Bolus for that's their life, you let them do that. If someone never wants to take a carb and once their blood sugar to be, you know, at 24 hours a day, that's their decision is their decision. Yeah. And then I see then everybody's tries, you know, everybody tries to make their point. And the one thing I wanted to ask you before we go on this one is do you I mean, you're listening, you're a trained dietician, right? So you have type one diabetes, do growing children need carbs to grow correctly? Freaking word?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 31:32
Yeah, that's a very good question. I think the bigger the bigger piece to it that I always look to analyze, when I get the questions from parents is calorically, what's necessary. And within that then also becomes food preferences and what they currently look like, and what you're considering transitioning into for your child, let's say, you think that it would be easier to just be carb free, or to be low carb, let's say, I mean, most people who are not entirely carbon free, children do need a very set amount of nutrition, intake through the day, carbs, proteins and fats, proteins and fats are really the very essential. I mean, they are protein is the building block of your body, you need fat for a lot of different functions, hormone, and all that kind of stuff in the body. And carbs are the preferred energy source of the body. They are, they're fast, they get in, they give you this energy boost, and then they kind of digest and they come out. And that's sort of the reason that we eat every several hours, if we are eating more normal carb types of meals. So our carbs necessary, carbs are necessary, I think in a certain amount, what that amount is boils down to, what are you looking at doing? And how can we meet the overall nutrition need of your child where they are? Are they heavily into sports? Are they more sedentary? What is their growth percentile? Are they growing on par with where they started out prior to diagnosis? Do we need to make any adjustments and then we can look at you want to aim to try lower carb because it might be a little bit easier in terms of glycemic control. Okay, but then we need to navigate those other pieces to make sure that they're meeting their growth needs.

Scott Benner 33:28
Okay, the fat and protein stuff fatten, right, it's funny, you're making me think of Arden's friend who is a she's like I'm a vegetarian are, you know, and but then she basically just eats like, potato chips and stuff like that. Yes, that's not I think you're missing the point.

Unknown Speaker 33:45
I don't be a vegetarian, but

Scott Benner 33:49
it's, um, I think that's what you just said just resonated with me so much. It made me feel like if everyone had you with them, I don't even mean diabetes, or a person like you to stand behind you and go, Okay, look, here's your lifestyle. Here's your need. If we eat these things in the course of the day, that's going to put your body in the best position possible. Right, right. And then the problem is that people don't get caught up in what you need carbs to grow, like, okay. Okay. Maybe you do and maybe you don't maybe let's just say you want to have carbs in your diet. And then there's a person over here is eating like a pretty keto diet and they don't want that. Just let live and let live like just let it be your name and their

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:33
their parameters. Most often the people that I've seen who are keto or more paleo, or more just considering low carb. They've done enough homework or they've come in with I'm trying to do this. This is what I really want to stick with. I'm missing something. Something isn't quite right. I don't feel quite right or whatever. So then we have some things to look at to make sure we're meeting glycemic goals as well as for kids, especially again, bro. Schools. I mean, protein is it's a big piece of piece of growth and change. And kids are growing rapidly. They they need a good quality, you know, nutrition intake. I think the bigger thing if you're looking at carbs, are you looking at going low carb and getting an answer to whether carbs are necessary carbs, like celery and cucumbers and kale and spinach, and berries, if you're going to add carbs in small amounts, those are the ones you want. You don't want the processed, like keto carbee foods that are just like tricking the body.

Scott Benner 35:43
The only time eliminating carbs from someone's diet makes me sad, is when I see them do it because they can't figure out insulin. Correct. That's all like if you want to do it as a choice, I understand. And if you figure out insulin and then decide I still want to be low carb, I understand. But I feel badly when someone just didn't you know, all the things we've talked about in this podcast forever didn't learn how to Bolus didn't learn how to Pre-Bolus Didn't understand glycemic load all that stuff, you don't understand any of it. And you're just stuck in a space where you like when I eat carbs my blood sugar goes way up. I eventually give myself insulin I get super low and I'm bouncing all over the place in the dam and I'm not eating carbs anymore because I don't want to be on unwell. That That to me? I don't know. I wish they knew if they knew when they decided to do it. I understand. But if they don't know and they just are being pushed into it because they're scared. Well, I would rack you know, I would hope that somehow they could learn before they made

Jennifer Smith, CDE 36:40
that decision. No, I 100% agree. They're 100%.

Scott Benner 36:44
Alright, so Jenny, the next time we do this, we'll come back and make sure we're done with this list. Before we move to the next one, you can go back to your thing. Sounds good. Have a great weekend. Thank you, you too. Thank you.

First, I'd like to thank Jennifer Smith for helping me again on the podcast today and remind you that she works at integrated diabetes.com. I also want to thank Omni pod and Dexcom for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Go check out all the trials and offers at Omni pod.com, forward slash juicebox and dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Those links, of course are available in the show notes of your podcast player, and at juicebox podcast.com. I hope you're enjoying the bold beginning series. There's way more coming so keep downloading them every Friday. If you've been enjoying the podcast, here's a couple of things you can do. That will help me you can leave a great rating and review wherever you listen. You can follow or subscribe in the podcast player or audio app that you listen in. You can tell a friend about the show. If you see a question online where people are like, I don't understand this. You could say oh, you should try episode bla bla bla of the Juicebox Podcast. That would be lovely as well. What else? Hi, listen, subscribe. Tell a friend. Oh, here's another one. You could join the Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes now with over 27,000 1000 members, over 110 new posts a day. What am I trying to say? It's jumping over there, full of great information. And great community members go meet somebody just like you. I'm going to share a little something here at the end, I assume you're a real big fan. If you're still listening once you know the podcast is over, but we're at the halfway point of 2022. The podcast is now as popular by download or stream you understand you can download an episode or stream it while you're listening a download or stream count the same for me. And in 2022 The show has as many downloads or streams already at the halfway point of the year as it did in the entire year of 2021. Now, not only is that true and amazing, and I thank you very much. But the best day in 2021 like the day with the most downloads, it was the day of the year I was like I cannot believe this many people downloaded the show today. That kind of thing. Right? That amount. The best amount from 2021 is now about I'm not great with percentages. Give me a second. Hold on a second. I'll be right back. I'm back I use the calculator. Okay, sorry. So the that that show that one show that had the most downloads in 2021. It has As about 21% fewer downloads than an average day in 2022. Does. That is bananas? As a matter of fact, what I would consider a slow day on the podcast is now only 14% lower than what the best day of 2021 was. That is crazy growth. It is because of you. It's because you're sharing, you're listening, you're subscribing. I can't thank you enough. It's really astonishing. And really, you could knock me over with a feather when I see stuff like this. Absolutely wonderful. I really appreciate you supporting the show. I hope you're enjoying the bowl beginning series. Don't forget, there's a ton of other series within the podcast. If you go to that private Facebook group, scroll to the top click on the feature tab. There's lists of all of them. I'm not going to bother you here with all of them. But there's so many about how people eat and the Pro Tip series defining diabetes stuff. Stuff about thyroid and pregnancy, mental health, on and online. Go check it out. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.


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