Pre-diabetes

Pre-diabetes! After only two full days of drinking ten Cokes a day, this morning’s measurement of my fasting blood sugar level showed that I had crossed the line into pre-diabetes! So exciting! 104mg/dL! For a week before, my fasting blood sugar measured consistently at 97mg/dL. So, that’s insulin resistance. Pre-diabetes is insulin resistance, and doctors consider full-blown Type II Diabetes to begin at 125mg/dL. Actually T2D also has to do with when the pancreas can’t produce enough insulin to handle the massive amounts of blood sugar now needed by your cells, so you end up with a lot of extra glucose floating around, and that’s rough on the old bod.

What else? Weight was 172 this morning. That’s four or five pounds of gain in two days. Water weight? Time will tell. Blood pressure further elevated at 142 over 91, but my pressure is usually a bit higher in the a.m., so that’s just something to watch.

In other news, I’ve discovered something that 7-Eleven and McDonald’s have known for years: Coke goes down easier with ice. The Coke drinking is pretty hassle-free now; I just keep an iced glass of Coke by my side like a best friend and keep the refills a-coming. (Like a best friend who’s an enabler, an evil best friend, a frenemy.)

Had to make a grocery store run this morning because I woke to find I was out of Coke. Bought nine twelve packs of Coke, and mixed in a Vanilla Coke and two Cherry Cokes. I’m going to have fun on the way down, damnit. I also took some pictures of the soft drink and juice drink aisles – so colorful and happy and attractive… and HUGE! My kid loved it. He had never been down those aisles before. It was like taking him to a beautiful enchanted forest of bright colored drinks, like Candyland in bottles. See attached beauty pix. And now that I’m drinking the Koolaid, I’m tempted by all the wonderful sugary drinks to try! How wonderful! A new world!

A few new followers have been commenting that drinking ten Cokes is different than drinking fruit juice. It’s true. Juice may have some vitamins that Coke doesn’t have, Coke may have some phosphoric acid that orange juice doesn’t have… but what we are concerned about here is how much it affects your insulin level: The Glycemic Load. Glycemic Load is the glycemic Index of a food combined with the amount we’re ingesting. The short answer is that orange juice has nearly the glycemic index that Coke has, and they both have high glycemic indices. Fruit juice of any type raises your insulin level and worsens insulin resistance. But, what’s worse is that while people generally know that Coke is bad for you, fruit juice and all the fruit drinks that say “healthy,” “organic,” and “natural,” fool people into thinking they’re not as bad, and we therefore drink more of them.

It doesn’t matter to your insulin and blood sugar if the sugar is natural or refined, fruit sugar or corn syrup, natural or added. It will give you insulin resistance. Juice and fruity flavored drinks and Gatorade are just as bd or worse than Coke.

You know when you give blood and the doctor then gives you a glass of orange juice? It’s not for the vitamin C. It’s because nothing gives your blood sugar a quick boost like a glass of juice. Or a Coke.