Six Things You Should Never Say To A Type 1 Diabetic

          I was just recently researching diabetes a little bit on the internet, and came across this list of things that should never be said to a diabetic. When I read them, I could connect to every single one of them immediately and thought it was the most perfect thing for a blog post, and figured I would share how each one of them relates me with my past experiences.

1) "Can you/should you eat that?"
         When going out to eat at a restaurant, having lunch with a few friends, or even a Christmas party with the family, these questions often come up more often than you would think. Anytime I'm not eating a salad with low carbs in it, this question tends to be asked. But the answer is always "I can eat whatever I want, actually". Of course I cant eat something that's loaded with sugar, like pop for example, just because it puts my sugar up so high, but if I really wanted it, or if my sugar was low, I could have it. The trick here is proportions and moderation. I can eat whatever I want, whether its pasta, donuts, cookies, ice cream, bread, whatever. I can have it, as long as its in a proportion adjusted to my blood sugar levels, not every single day, or unless my sugar goes low. If i wanted ice cream, I could have about a half a cup of it as a snack, or even choose frozen yogurt as an alternative. Pasta and bread are also easy to figure out because I could simply have whole wheat toast instead of a bagel, and whole wheat pasta in a bowl instead of white pasta heaping on a plate. Its not a matter what I can eat, its how much and when.

2) "Do you have BAD diabetes?"
          Both forms of diabetes are a chronic disease and not only are they hard to adapt new lifestyles with, but they both require a lot of attention. They cannot be compared to one another on terms of which one is worse, because they are both two totally different things and caused by two completely different factors. Yes, I do have to inject myself with insulin everyday, and yes I do have to take my blood sugar levels but that doesn't mean that its "bad". It means that I am taking care of myself. I may not get to go to Candy Mountain whenever I go to Toronto, but that's because I am taking care of myself and my body to the best of my ability. Both types of diabetes aren't exactly "good", but you cant consider them to be bad either. Its just a matter of how you adapt and take care of yourself. It may not be fun at times, but its livable.

3) "If you just exercise..." OR "If you just eat better.."

          While no one wants to be blamed for causing their own illness or disease is an autoimmune disorder completely unrelated to exercise and diet., This gets me going the absolute most. Being a type 1 diabetic, yes I do have to exercise more now to keep my body even healthier and I definitely have to watch what I eat when it comes to sugar and carbs, but doing this will not "reverse" or "cure" my diabetes. I do not care what anyone has to say that is not my doctor or endocrinologist, YOU CAN NOT REVERSE OR CURE TYPE ONE DIABETES FROM EXERCISING AND EATING RIGHT. It is impossible. I make ZERO insulin because my pancreas decided to quit on me, and your body needs it to function and be healthy. Without insulin, I will die. So if i were to stop taking insulin and just exercise and eat healthy, it wouldn't matter. My sugar would continue to rise, and my body would get weaker and weaker, and eventually have no energy for anything at all. So no, do not tell me that if I do something, my diabetes will go away because it WONT. Type 2 maybe, but NOT type 1.

4) "You don't look like a diabetic!" 

          It is impossible to "look" diabetic, unless someone witnesses you giving yourself an injection, or sees your pump site. To assume that diabetics are "over weight" is completely ignorant and totally not even true. A type one especially. Genetics determines whether you're type 1 diabetic, not your eating habits or how much you weigh and its totally a skewed stereotypical opinion for one to think so. It is absolutely not possible to be able to pick a type 1 diabetic out of a crowd of people.

5) "My Grandfather had that, and he lost his leg"

          Seriously? I cannot handle when people assume the worst of diabetes because they know someone who had it. Odds are that if your grandfather had it, it probably wasn't type one, and if it was, then he might have not take care of it the way he should have. Of course there are times where this isn't the case, but its not fair to assume something just because it happened to someone else. I am not your grandfather and diabetes effects everyone differently. Even though your grandfather had diabetes, do NOT act like you know everything about it because you DON'T. You don't know what its like to inject, or how to balance carbs with insulin and do adjustments, or how my body reacts to certain things. Do not give me advice on how to take care of it because your grandfather told you something, because we have two totally different medical records.

6) "I couldn't do that!" (inject insulin)

          HA. Pretty sure you would if it meant you were gonna die without it. That's all I really have to say about that.

jenn :)