Living with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) has given me a kind of superpower that few people have: Knowing how sensitive my body is to insulin.
I read so many books and health articles talking about the importance of reversing insulin resistance and balancing blood glucose levels, but most people have no idea how sensitive to insulin they are. According to the CDC, 38.0% of the adult U.S. population has pre-diabetes, and this jumps to 48.8% for those 65 and older. This is in addition to the 11.6% of the population who already have it, so about half of the population is suffering from metabolic dysfunction!
With T1D, I am responsible for injecting all of my insulin needs directly into my body every single day. Thus, I get to track exactly how sensitive my body is to insulin over time. This also means that I can run experiments to see exactly how certain foods effect my body's inflammation and insulin resistance. AWESOME!
FAFO
There is so much conflicting information on pretty much anything and everything you can imagine. Any belief or stance you have about something, you can almost always find evidence and people supporting and fighting it.
For example, one very controversial food is coconut. I recently watched this video: "Coconut Oil: Superfood or Silent Killer?", which dives into the latest research on coconut oil's health effects. The conclusions to these videos are often the same: "It depends" or "It's complex." Sometimes you'll find more prescriptive videos like this one from NutritionFacts.org, which says, "Coconut oil is definitely not healthy."
As with many uncertainties and decisions I make in my life, I am usually left with only one real option: fuck around and find out for myself.
I decided to make some of my favorite lazy low carb pumpkin spice mug cakes:
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- 2 tbsp coconut oil (melted)
- 2 tbsp coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- Pumpkin Spice
- Stevia to taste
Mix in a mug and microwave for ~1-2 min until cooked through. (I need 2min for a 1000W microwave)
RESULTS
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My insulin needs immediately increased by 50% for the entire day. Not only was this WAY too much insulin for so few carbs that I was eating, but the insulin resistant effects lasted for about 48 hours after eating it. I repeated this experiment 3 times with the same outcome.
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I just do not feel good. It's a kind of "wired and tired" anxious/exhausted feeling that I usually attribute to stress or low-grade inflammation. But that's what my 'normal' used to feel like for years.
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I was very hungry all day long, and my satiety signals were turned down so that even when I was physically stuffed, my brain was shouting for more. I'm not sure if this was due to the inflammation or because my sweet tooth was being stimulated by the fat+stevia combo. I imagine whatever leptin/ghrelin hormone funkery was going on is how most people live every day.
So... it seems that coconut and me do not agree. However I will probably try to make these mug cakes without the coconut and see if I have the same reaction. There are a lot of other variables (egg, stevia, spice, vanilla) that could be playing a role here.
Beautiful Nightmares
I... "like"... horror in the same way I "like" spicy food. It's a kind of thrilling and masochistic entertainment. It hurts while consuming it and I'm almost always haunted by it long after.
I have been terrified and excited for Silent Hill ƒ to come out for years, and it's finally here. I'm only an hour or so into the game, but I'm very much enjoying it. It's gorgeous, graphic, and stressful.
I'm also totally stoked to learn that one of my favorite horror games of all time, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, is receiving a remake. I might be in for a lot of sleepless nights. I got this game when I was 12 years old and I wasn't able to muster up the courage to beat it until I was 16.
I notice that I have varying levels of sensitivity to different kinds of horror. Some things I can be exposed to and it might spook or jump scare me while engaging with it, but it doesn't really keep me up at night. Movies like The Thing (my favorite), Alien, or 28 Days Later were thrilling for me. Meanwhile movies like Ari Aster's Hereditary got under my skin, filled me with dread, and really fucked me up for a couple of weeks.
Electrolytes
I recently switched from using LMNT electrolytes to Saltt. I was struggling with LMNT since it has a lot of citric acid in it, which really irritates my throat and stomach. Saltt uses malic acid, which doesn't seem to have that affect. My tastebuds have also loved every flavor I've tried. My favorite is the "Red, White, and Bam" which is a recreation of the famous 'Bomb Pop' popsicles. There's even a cocoa and caramel flavor which is great to have as a sweet and salty hot tea in the morning.
Unintentional Intimacy
As I sit here writing, my apartment is filled with three distinct smells:
- The chicken and apple sausages cooking in my air fryer
- The smoky barbeque from one of my neighbor's grills
- The perfume from another neighbor's shampoo/bodywash
Living near people brings with it a lot of scents. Even if you are locked inside all day long, it's hard to escape the aromatic symphony of lives being lived out around you.
Food, bath and body products, laundry detergent, candles, incense, cleaning products - all of these unique scents find their way into my home whether I like it or not. My nose and ears are quite keen and so I unintentionally end up learning a lot about the routines and lives of people around me through just these two senses alone. It's strangely intimate to know when someone is showering or when they have changed body washes.
However, it's not always very enjoyable. A few years ago I shared walls with someone who would leave their trash rotting in their apartment for weeks at a time. The smell of sour milk and rotten banana peels would leak into my room and I became quite familiar with the stages of their decay. I would often have to tape the electrical sockets and other holes in the walls where we shared air. Mmm... memories.
Song of the Week
When I was in college I had a job working in the university's Office of International Affairs. I got to meet and learn from hundreds of students from all around the world. It was a lot of fun, but also stressful since the main day-to-day work involved working with stressed-out students who were having visa issues.
My boss was a lovely woman from Bosnia and she introduced me to a lot of great Bosnian folk music. This was one of my favorite songs, and it was my ringtone for a good while:
Thanks for reading :)
-Jason