It wasn’t the news I wanted to hear, but the doc was unequivocal.
“You’re diabetic.”
All my life, doctors had bragged on my blood sugar, which seemed to stay in the healthy range no matter what I ate.
But, alas, last fall it shot to an unhealthy level and had stayed there, according to my most recent blood work.
This visit confirmed it: I have sugar diabetus, as they used to call it when I was a kid.
Then followed the doctor’s words I really didn’t want to hear.
“I always tell people: no bread, no pasta, no potatoes.”
Ouch. Pasta doesn’t matter and I could live a reasonably rewarding life without bread, but giving up potatoes would jerk a hard knot in my existence.
I offered to give up liver instead of potatoes and would have thrown in garlic, too, but no dice. Apparently, you don’t negotiate with diabetes.
Diabetes affects about 13 percent of the American population, and a high number of them came from my mother’s family, including my mother, brother and sister and many others descended from the Wynns.
The doc said the tendency to diabetes can be hereditary, so, obviously, I should have picked better ancestors.
Diabetes brings serious potential health issues, so the doctor briefed me on some of them and did a test to see if I had lost any feeling in my toes.
This involved a thin wire that he touched to my toes. I had to keep my eyes shut and tell him which little piggy he was touching.
I did well, except once I thought he had touched the little piggy that had roast beef when it was actually the one that had none.
When I told Kindra about the diagnosis, I was in near despair over the prospect of a potatofree diet.
One of my great joys is a dish in which she bakes a chicken in a dutch oven over layers of potatoes and carrots. Eating those potatoes drenched in chicken juice is to find rapture on a fork.
I don’t think it would be the same with just carrots.
But wait, she said.
She is going to school to become a chef and recently finished a class section called “Understanding Potatoes.”
I know you think I am making that up, but it’s true. “Understanding Potatoes.” In it, she learned that even diabetics may
In it, she learned that even diabetics may be able to eat “waxy” potatoes in moderation. Waxy potatoes include Adirondack Blue and Yukon Gold, two of my favorites and the very varieties that we planted in our bucket garden.
So, there is hope.
Since the doctor visit, I have taken my pill twice a day and paid attention to food choices and reduced my blood sugar count by more than 100.
We’ll see how it works out with the potatoes.