The true secret to controlling diabetes is glucose control. Insulin is secreted by the B-cells of the pancreas. Some diabetics secrete very little insulin, and others secret more just not quite enough. The B-cells react to the levels of glucose in the body. Without the insulin, the cells cannot get the glucose. They get hungrier. The body tries to react by raising the glucose levels so some can get in to feed the cells when there is not enough insulin (or fast enough insulin) supply "unlock the cell door" to let the glucose in. The first thing a paramedic or ER physician checks for when confronted by someone in a coma is to smell their breath. Too much glucose in the blood gets decarboxylated in the lungs and produces acetone. Acetone is easy to detect and is a sure sign of someone in a diabetic coma.
The above is just some history.
Ed was somewhat right when he said small amounts (moderate amounts) frequently. That's partially true for diabetics who still can produce insulin but not enough insulin.
The secret to that secret is glycemic load. Potatoes are a tremendously potent glycemic load. Leave them the **** alone.
Check your fasting glucose regularly. Glucose levels are all over the place when you've been eating. One important test is where a patient is given a high sugar content drink of known amount of sugar, and the glucose levels are monitored to see how fast the body can bring the glucose back down to normal levels. Traditionally, a glucose level of 100 dl/l was considered ideal. Nowadays its anything between maybe about 60 - 100.
Also, about every 3 months or less, get a hemoglobin A1C test. This shows what your average glucose has been like. Anything below 6 is pretty much normal. Mine was 4.9 and my fasting glucose was 91. Doctors were convinced I had diabetes because I was diagnosed recently with severe sensory neuropathy. Surprised me. The usual suspect is diabetes. If your extremities, especially your feet and legs and sometimes your arms and hands seem numb, it might be carpal or torsal tunnel syndrome, OR it could be signs of diabetes. Find a good doctor who knows what he's doing.
Start finding out about foods with low glycemic characteristics. Those types of food present the least challenges to your pancreas and help control the glucose levels by not overtaxing the pancreas' inherent ability to produce insulin. If you're an insulin dependent diabetic, look into insulin pumps. Medtronic just recently announced a new Medtonic Minimed pump that monitors your glucose and doses out the proper amount of insulin. You wear it on the outside of your body. The goal, and I worked on this in the '70's, was to find a closed loop implantable pump with a long lasting implantable glucose sensor. The idea was that the glucose sensor would act like the pancreas reacting to glucose levels, and tell the pump would how much insulin was proper amount of insulin to pump out in response. Such a device still is in the works, the biggest problem still being clogging of the sensor by blood components.
As far as celiac can't help you much there.
doc (not a MD)
Edited by deltadoc - 9/25/10 at 4:01pm
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