Prep Time: 10 minutes Bake Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4 Serving Size: 1 Peach Half
Exchanges: 1 Starch (1 Carbohydrate Choice)
Analysis per serving: 92 Calories, 16 g Carbohydrate, 3 g Protein, 2 g Fat, 0 mg Cholesterol, 31 mg Sodium, 1 g Fiber

4 canned juice-packed peach halves
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
2 Tbs Sugar
2 Tbs slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray. Dry peach halves with paper towels to assure that meringue will adhere. Place cut side down on prepared baking sheet.

In small bowl, beat egg whites, almond extract and cream of tartar with electric mixer at medium speed until foamy. Increase speed to high and gradually beat in sugar until stiff peaks form, scraping bowl occasionally. Spoon meringue over each peach half, covering completely. Stud each peach half with slivered almonds. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until meringue is browned. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Increasing Your Metabolism

How Often Should You Monitor Your Blood Sugar?

There has been debate over how many times you should check you blood sugar for a long time. The benefits of monitoring are evident for people who take insulin; you check your blood sugar, if the reading is high, you take a little insulin and the blood sugar goes down. So what about those of us who don’t take insulin? The American Diabetes Association says the benefits of blood sugar monitoring for people who do not take insulin are “unknown”.

There have been very few well designed studies to answer the debate over whether monitoring helps us or not. The few studies that have been published show that those who monitor more often have a lower A1C. The average reduction in A1C from all the published studies is about 0.4%. This doesn’t seem like much of a reduction in A1C but, if you maintain that reduction you can reduce your risk of developing diabetes complications such as eye, kidney and nerve disease by 14%. Two new studies were presented June 2005, at the Annual American Association of Scientific Sessions in San Diego. One followed 3000 people with Type 2 diabetes for 10 years and found those who monitored more often were 33% less likely to develop diabetes complications or to die than people who did not monitor. The second study also included people with Type 2 diabetes who were not on insulin and found that those who monitored their blood sugar had an A1C of 6.9%, while those who did not monitor had an A1C of 7.8%.

I have found from my own personal experience, if I monitor 2 – 3 times a day, my blood sugars are more in the near normal range than if I don’t monitor. My patients also report they have lower A1Cs if they monitor 2 – 3 times a day. (I see their lab reports and I check the memory in their meters so I know they are telling me the truth) So what can you do to lower blood sugar when you get a high reading? You can exercise more, you can change your eating habits and you can talk to your health care team about other approaches. If you have not been to a diabetes education class or it has been years since you had any diabetes education ask your doctor to refer you to a class in your area. There are also Dietitian/Certified Diabetes Educators who can sit down with you and help you in the areas you need to learn about. Ask your insurance provider if there are any available in your area.

Now let’s talk about what the readings from your meter mean. When you check blood sugar first thing in the morning it is called a fasting blood sugar. This number can tell you if your evening medication or insulin is working for you. In the middle of the night, about 2 a.m. – 3 a.m., your blood sugar normally starts to drop lower. Your liver senses this and begins to make extra blood sugar. Some of us have a very good liver and it keeps on making blood sugar, just keeps going and going, like the Energizer bunny! Sometimes if you eat a small fat and protein based snack, the liver never gets the message to make blood sugar. I like to have peanut butter and 5 or 6 crackers before I go to bed. When I talk about this evening snack with my patients, they will say that they have noticed lower fasting blood sugars when they eat things like pie, cheese and crackers or even ice cream as a bedtime snack.

Another good time to check your blood sugar is about 2 hours after you eat. It takes the carbohydrates in the meal about 2 hours to digest and get out to the cells as fuel. This is called a post-prandial blood sugar. If this number is above 140, this is an indication that you had too much carbohydrate at the last meal. Carbohydrate foods are breads, starches, starchy vegetables, fruits, milk and sweets. Aim for no more than 3 small servings of these foods at a meal, about 45 grams of carbohydrate. If you don’t know what foods are carbohydrates or how to read a food label for them, go see a Dietitian/Diabetes Educator. They can help you learn these things.

You are the most important part of your health care team. You make the daily decisions on what to eat, when to exercise, when to take your medications, whether to check blood sugars. Control your diabetes, don’t let it control you.

See you next issue.

Deborah L. Kimble, LD, CDE, MSPH, CPT

“Your Favorite Diabetes & Nutrition Educator”