For people with diabetes, Christmas, for all its fun and jollity, can feel like a bit of an obstacle course. Calorific Christmas dinners can trip you up, and it’s often hard to know exactly how to navigate the festive season without disastrous consequences for your blood sugar. Here are a few ways you can have a healthy Christmas dinner without missing out on the festive fun:
As December begins, families across the country have no doubt been locking horns over just when is “too early” for Christmas decorations to go up.
A divisive issue, yes, but another quandary many find themselves in annually is what Christmas present to purchase for your loved one, family member or friend with diabetes.
We’ve selected five of the finest gifts that somebody with diabetes could receive, inevitably leading to admiration and appreciation from your esteemed receiver.
Very rarely do diabetes and pop culture ever mix, but four young girls from the Unites States may have just instigated the relationship.
The girls are from Tuscon, Arizona, aged seven to-nine, and star in a video that is informative, adorable and extremely clever.
They cover the 2014 smash hit “All About That Bass”, by Meghan Trainor, which reached number one the UK singles chart and achieved international success and acclaim.
“Because you know we’re all about that cure, no needles,” are some of the inspired rewritten lyrics from the pop song that is sure to raise diabetes awareness among children and adults.
Christmas time, mistletoe and wine. Cliff Richard summed up Christmas delightfully with one lyric but people with diabetes, and who are over 18, must consider drinking alcohol carefully around Christmas time.
It can be tempting during the Christmas period for people with diabetes to consume alcohol more frequently then they perhaps would throughout the rest of the year.
Work Christmas parties and general festive celebrations will often see alcohol purchased, and while people with diabetes should not avoid drinking, understanding the effects of alcohol is essential.
Each person with diabetes will react differently to alcohol, which can lead to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) depending on the amount you consume and what food you have eaten beforehand.
Hannah Postles was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 26. She had plenty of symptoms: she was thirsty, despite drinking plenty of water; she’d lost weight; and her vision was blurred. Despite having so many symptoms, her GP dismissed the possibility of it being type 1 diabetes, suggesting that she was too old to develop the disease.
Eventually Hannah was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, but received little in the way of care. She describes feeling that ‘as an adult, you’re pretty much left to get on with it.’
I have type 1 diabetes, I’ve had it since the age of four (which equates to roughly 22 years of living with the disease).
While yes, having diabetes can be a drag, there are moments which crop up where having diabetes can be quite advantageous.
My own experiences bring to mind five particular highlights where having diabetes was actually of great personal benefit, if only for a short period.
Imagine someone who doesn’t have diabetes. They don’t know anybody with diabetes. The disease has never affected their life in any way, and as such they don’t really know anything about it.
Recently, however, they read something about the problems type 2 causes and the seriousness of its complications, so decided to look it up. And they read: ‘Why Sleeping Naked Could Cut Your Risk of Diabetes.’
How is such a headline supposed to encourage people to take type 2 diabetes more seriously? Is a condition that affects only the pyjama-clad really worth spending public funds on?
When it comes to diabetes, this kind of irresponsible (not to mention lazy) reporting is commonplace, perpetuating existing myths and creating whole new ones. These are just a few examples.
An advert for the LighterLife weight loss plans and groups has been banned because the weight loss achievements listed in the adverts were too successful(!)
The adverts featured Denise Welch, who many will know as barmaid and then landlady, Natalie Barnes, of the Rovers Return in ITV’s Coronation Street.
The adverts promoted the fact that Denise had lost more than 2lb per week on the LighterLife plan. Whilst this sounds like a smashing achievement, the Advertising Standards Agency viewed the weight loss as too rapid and could encourage others to endanger their health by following too low calorie a diet.
A man from Los Angeles who took on the challenge of drinking 10 cans of Coca-Cola a day put on a staggering two stone within a month.
George Prior, 50, was extremely fit before he took on the challenge. He embarked on the “Coke diet” to illustrate the amount of sugar in one of the world’s most popular drinks.
A regular can of Coca-Cola contains a staggering 35g of sugar, the equivalent of seven cubes, which many would surely reject as an accompanying snack with lunch.
Copyright © Diabetes.co.uk 2018
Diabetes » Diabetes and your health: News of 12.14.2014
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