Bad Diabetic

Guilty as charged. I am a bad diabetic... Rotten. The worst.

Seasonal Fruit Crepes by Planet Raw

These past few months you'd wonder where my head's been. I forget to wear my medical ID bracelet, and I don't always remember to check my blood sugar. I miss occasional support group meetings with fellow diabetics just trying to manage their condition. I defy doctors' orders, refuse to take their drugs, and am the regular recipient of scolding letters from my insurance company reminding me how important it is that I take the recommended daily dosage of a whole smattering of prescriptions I don't even need. Furthermore, I routinely and shamelessly devour honey, ice cream and other desserts (all raw), and I resist taking insulin and even disconnect from my insulin pump altogether at times.

That's right. I did it. I do it... It's all true.

So then why do my doctors continually insist they're so impressed and amazed by my performance as a diabetic? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my highest A1C ever (so far) was just 5.9, that my sensitivity to insulin is increasing, that I'm producing slightly more of my own natural insulin, and that my energy levels and overall zeal for life are so dramatically on the rise. Curious, isn't it?

Weird Science

Raw Honeycomb

For a diabetic, it takes a certain amount of faith to deliberately start spooning "tremendous amounts of unheated [raw] honey" into regular meals. Medically speaking, it makes no sense at all. But for months now, that's exactly what I've been doing... And the more, the better.

In his book, "We Want to Live: The Primal Diet", Aajonus Vonderplanitz recommends about 3/4 cups of unheated raw honey throughout each day to help heal the pancreas. When I first began this Raw foods adventure back in January, I needed more insulin, of course, to compensate for this new habit. It was an adjustment, as expected. After all I'd read about the dangers of synthetic insulin, the last thing I wanted to do was increase my dosage, but it was an adjustment I was willing to make temporarily if it would ultimately lead to healing.

Blueberries & Bee Pollen

And I'd say it is. These days, I regularly prepare raw honey-heavy fruit smoothies, as well as sandwiches using about 1/3 cup raw honey, about 1/4 cup raw peanut butter and 2 slices of low sodium organic, sprouted Ezekiel bread. And I eat them with little to no need for short-acting insulin... It's crazy. 

I say 'crazy' because, as a diabetic, I have been trained routinely to avoid sweeter foods like honey (in any form), but in reality, raw unheated honey seems to be a key ingredient to my recovery from the diabetic condition. Ironic, no? It was certainly a leap of faith on my part that helped me cross that bridge.

Unfortunately, for most of us, the idea of real, observable healing seems as elusive and far-fetched as the idea of magic and miracles. And for some dumb reason, prescription pills still seem easier to swallow than the truth - that we need not be sick in the first place.

Farmageddon

McDonald's and a hospital on every street corner? If the image doesn't horrify you, then you're not watching enough of the documentaries I've listed in the right margin of my blog.

Last night, I had the honor of attending the Los Angeles premiere screening for a new documentary film called "Farmageddon" by Kristin Canty. It was a packed house here in Santa Monica, but the movie has a message the whole country needs to hear - how the small, local farmers on whom an increasing number of us depend for grass fed meats, Raw dairy and other organic produce are being targeted and run out of business by folks in our government who claim (and in some cases actually believe) they are trying to protect us. The problem is we don't all agree on what the revolving door of the USDA, FDA, large corporate food production and pharmaceutical company drones would have us believe about what is "healthy" - especially when what many of us get from their 'protection' is sick, sicker, dying and dead.

What was it Henry Kissinger reportedly said? "Control the food and you control the people." I think corrupt and/or largely misinformed men and women - certainly with deeper pockets than my own - have taken this idea to heart, and unless we make our voices heard, vote with our dollars and support these small local farmers, we may yet find ourselves on the losing side of the 'Farmageddon' already upon us. In short, if we don't take action to protect our rights to health and to choosing what foods we eat, then we will certainly lose both. I know the madness has already threatened a central part of my world, by coming after the Rawesome market in Venice (see the clip from the film here) and repeatedly harassing one of Rawesome's suppliers. If such intimidation efforts continue and are successful, for me, it would mean I am unable to continue to fight my diabetes as aggressively as I have so far... What would it mean for you?

If the idea of having no choice but to eat what the likes of Monsanto and McDonald's decide to feed us (and then probably spending your life in and out of hospitals as a result) doesn't exactly cause you to salivate, then please, do what you can to support this film and what it represents. If you're in the Los Angeles area, you can catch it at the Laemmle 4 in Santa Monica until June 30th. Folks in other cities can check the film's website for other current and future screenings. Keep in mind that more screenings will be added, depending on the film's success!

It all starts with you, my friends... And you can start here: http://farmageddonmovie.com/ or here...

Farmageddon - Movie Trailer from Kristin Canty on Vimeo.

Getting Some D

I've been missing the D.

Even as I actively work to reconstruct my world into one more life-giving and less toxic - a world where healing is not only possible but the natural, sustainable way of things, a world where my full recovery from Type 1 diabetes is not just a hope but a plan, a world where the doctors and drugs don't rule my body - somehow I manage still to be deficient in vitamin D... Really?

On a Limb

"You're going to die."

In that doctorly tone of authority, my endocrinologist gave me the news, the truth of which was soon betrayed by a curl in his lips and a fatherly twinkle in his eyes. He was only jokingly answering a question I had asked a moment before - one I assume must have seemed too absurd to take seriously: "So let's just say - hypothetically speaking - what happens if I don't take these antibiotics?"

I had paid a visit to Urgent Care the previous afternoon for a pain and sudden swelling in my right elbow, which I had noticed that very morning. Within just a couple hours the swelling had gone from the size of an average mosquito bite, to halfway down my forearm and a third the way up my tricep.

The Skinny

Avocado undressing.

Few things help me feel as skinny as I do while stuffing my face with essential fatty acids.

It is, in part, thanks to those mighty avocados that I've reached a milestone this month that I wasn't even aiming for... I now weigh the least I've weighed since either a) lying about my weight on my Oklahoma drivers license, or b) my memorable trip to the ER in Jan 2008, from which I emerged with Type 1 diabetes. The current number for this 5-foot-6-inches tall 31-year-old white girl is 116 pounds, at 17.5% body fat, 60% body water and 6.2

And Raw to Grow On!

It's been a while since I had a traditional birthday spanking, but these past few years have certainly whipped me into shape in a beautiful way, both spiritually and physically, that I didn't even know to look for. This last year, especially, has been like icing on the birthday cake. It's been the most awesome, progressive twelve months of my life so far, and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate that than by ditching the cake altogether... for some Raw chocolate birthday mousse with friends!

On Tuesday of this week, I met several of my dearest friends at our neighborhood Raw restaurant for a birthday dinner to remember. The nine of us in attendance were coming from very different backgrounds; still, we all share a fundamental interest in health and healing. I was particularly giddy and aglow that evening, for several reasons: First, half the people in attendance were actually new friends to me, our meeting having been the direct result of my deliberate shift in life direction over the course of