#480 How We Eat: Bernstein

Alex has type 1 diabetes and follows the Bernstein Diet.

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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends. Welcome to Episode 480 of the Juicebox Podcast.

In today's episode, we're going to be speaking with Alex. Alex is a type one in the way she eats is why she's here. That's right. It's another episode of how we eat. And as you saw on your podcast player just now, today's topic, Dr. Bernstein. In the past, I've spoken with someone who eats a vegan lifestyle. Dr. Paul Saladino is here to tell us about the carnivore diet. We've had plant based people gluten free low carb today is Dr. Bernstein coming up soon keto, and fodmap. And I'm super excited to be telling you, I'll be recording one about intermittent fasting pretty soon. So excited. I'm excited. I love talking about how people eat. It's interesting. Please remember, while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Please always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod Dexcom and touched by type one, you can learn more about touched by type one at touched by type one.org. Or find them on Instagram, or Facebook. They're a wonderful organization doing incredible things for people with type one. I hope you check them out the Omni pod dash boot Did you know about this, let me tell you real quickly, you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash find out at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. And to get started with the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. Or to find out more about it. All you need to do is go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box. I want to tell you before we start because I don't even know how much of your name you're going to use. But it doesn't it doesn't matter to me. But I want to tell you that every time I see your name, I think if I was going to be like a writer like that wrote like a kind of like exciting almost trashy novels. I would I would want your name,

Unknown Speaker 2:42
but I love it.

Scott Benner 2:44
Don't you think it just is like, now we won't tell anybody your last name and it'll be great. Nobody will wonder. But anyway.

Alex Quinn 2:51
I say my name sounds like a pseudo name for like a trashy novel writer or something to that effect. Yes.

Scott Benner 2:58
Even if, yeah, like writing like, I don't know, like, spy thrillers even or something like that.

Alex Quinn 3:05
Yes. I love that. That makes me happy. Thank you.

Scott Benner 3:08
I would feel very good about that. If that was my name, and I was writing a spy thriller anyway, and that I feel like 40 years from now, Tom Cruise in his 90s would play the main character in the movie.

Alex Quinn 3:22
Alright, I'll get to writing that and I'll let you know when it gets made into a movie.

Scott Benner 3:26
We have plenty of time. He's not aging, so don't worry about it. I heard I heard someone say the other day. This is such a strange way to start this off. But Tom Cruise is the same age. While he's making like Mission Impossible movies that Wilford Brimley was in the movie. Were they all in cocoon? I think or something like that.

Unknown Speaker 3:46
Wow, that crazy? Yes, that's that's quite the juxtaposition of characters.

Scott Benner 3:51
So you're on your balcony. Where do you live? ish?

Unknown Speaker 3:54
I live in Atlanta. Oh, cool. Yeah.

Scott Benner 3:58
Oh, and it's March so it must be at seven degrees there already?

Alex Quinn 4:02
No, it's in the 60s today but the sun is out and it's beautiful.

Scott Benner 4:06
hottest I've ever been in my life. I was in Georgia.

Unknown Speaker 4:09
Really?

Scott Benner 4:10
See I grew up in the desert in southern Arizona and I feel like that is way hotter. Maybe I've never been there. So my appendix almost a burst. Almost a burst. Ooh, English is going to be a problem today by my my appendix. Almost burst the night before I was supposed to go to Arizona for the noun. And I've since then I've been there once but only to fly in like be shuttled to something speak and fly out again. Gotcha. But Georgia was terrible.

Alex Quinn 4:42
What time of year did you come? Oh,

Scott Benner 4:44
it was summertime. My son was playing baseball. at its worst moment. I stood next to a telephone pole and circled it as the sun moves across the sky to stay in the small strip of shadow on

Alex Quinn 4:58
the pole. direct sun in Georgia summers pretty brutal,

Scott Benner 5:03
almost kill me. I'm not gonna, the boy almost died too. But I was worried about myself by that, you know, when you get into self preservation mode and you're like,

Alex Quinn 5:10
yeah, I hear it. You know, I lived in the desert for my like, from 10 to 22. So my youth and then moved to Georgia, and I never once had any sort of like heatstroke or anything like that until I moved to Georgia. The humidity, right? It was Yeah. Well, it was also the hottest day of the year and I was working in an amphitheater outside in like a bowl with indirect sunlight. So, you know, just a radiator just banging sudden heat around on those brutal

Scott Benner 5:46
Okay, anyway, well, now that we're five minutes into this, can you tell me your name, please?

Alex Quinn 5:51
Okay, my name is Alex. It's short for Alexandra. Alex Quinn is usually what I go by.

Scott Benner 6:01
And if you were an author, you would definitely go like that for certain totally, totally. Yes. I just don't know why it just every time like your name is Monica. We had to reschedule once, right. So it as it stuff bumps around in my inbox. I'm like, that's a great name for a book author. I love it anyway. Okay, so you're on? I'll tell you why. Well, not that you don't know. But um, basically, I don't know if this is a secret to people, Alex, I'm not really telling you. I'm telling the people listening. But I've been doing the how we eat series through the podcast, and people have been coming on talking about the different ways that they eat. And you were recommended to me by someone else. And when you emailed me to tell me how you eat, you said, you use the words Dr. Bernstein. I was like, Oh, that's interesting, because you're the first person who's ever come out and said, I like those words. Like some people say I'm low carb or stuff like that. But I was like, Sure, I would love this. So well. Yeah.

Alex Quinn 6:58
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I'm excited to be here. Oh,

Scott Benner 7:01
well, that's odd. But thank you. I appreciate that letter.

Unknown Speaker 7:03
Why is that odd?

Scott Benner 7:05
Well, I mean, it's just me. I'm in a room. You don't I mean, like somebody was telling me the other day, like, they saw like somebody prepping to be on the show. And they were nervous. And I thought, well, that's so strange. Because I'm in Costco right now. And if you were, if there was anything to be nervous about talking to me, I wouldn't have to be in Costco. Like, that's how it occurred to me.

Alex Quinn 7:29
Right? I think I think it's because this carries the potential for it to be more in a public eye. And it's not just you and me. shooting on my back porch. Yeah, sorry. I suppose I shouldn't say shooting the breeze. There we go. Okay.

Scott Benner 7:46
Don't worry, I'll just cut it out. I'll be like, Okay, cool. I'll be like shooting, and it'll get really boring from it. Alright, I used to do beeps, and then I realized, why am I bothering with that it was extra time. And it was bored by it. So anyway, I, I'm happy about this. And yeah, the more of these I record, the happier I get about them, because I think that I think that as people we are very inclined to get into groups. Yes. Get on a team, where color that kind of stuff. Right? Okay. And then I think you bring in this sort of extra added layer of people feeling like they're saving your life when they're telling you something, right? They've been through a thing, and they don't, you don't have to go through it. And this is the thing that saved me. And, and then there's somebody on the other side, just like you're trying to take a thing from me or I have a different idea about how to write a view. And then it just becomes tribal. And it's very interesting.

Alex Quinn 8:46
Sure. And the the potential for like, dogma is enormous. And I I don't ascribe to that. I don't feel like that really helps anybody find their own way to living with type one and what it looks like for them.

Scott Benner 9:04
Yeah, no, I completely agree. And I'm, I'm so I'm excited that you're that you're here to talk about. So first, let's start slow with how old were you when you were diagnosed?

Alex Quinn 9:13
So I was three years old. That was in 1992. Wow.

Unknown Speaker 9:20
I'm sorry. I'm remembering when I graduated from high school and feeling badly about myself, but good.

Alex Quinn 9:26
It's all good. Don't worry. My my partner is 12 years older than me. So we have conversations like that a lot. Yeah,

Scott Benner 9:31
no, can you just I mean, you just threw out a number. You were three years old, like three years after I graduated from high school. And I was like, Oh,

Alex Quinn 9:39
well, hopefully I don't make you feel old during this conversation. Other than that,

Scott Benner 9:42
no, I don't worry about that. If you do, I that might be more on me than you. So. So you're three you're diagnosed. I mean, 30 ish years ago, right? Okay.

Alex Quinn 9:52
It'll be 29 years this year.

Scott Benner 9:55
And your parents are obviously on board taking care of you. But you're In God 30 years ago was like regular and mph days, right?

Alex Quinn 10:04
Yeah. The analogs hadn't become available yet. So yes, I was on regular an MPH. But um, I'll tell you this. So my mother's two older brothers. Both have type one. Okay. And it wasn't, it wasn't unfamiliar to my family. And so my mom was actually the one who caught it first, because she grew up with brothers who had it. So she recognized, you know, the symptoms and took me to the doctor and, you know, made sure that they got the testing done that needed to be.

Scott Benner 10:41
Well, it makes sense that she saw it, she doesn't have Does your mom have any autoimmune stuff?

Alex Quinn 10:46
As far as we know, she does not, but she has had several rounds of skin cancer and breast cancer. So I don't, I don't think she got the autoimmune stuff. But pretty much every woman in my family on both sides has either an autoimmune disorder or cancer or both. So I find your neck a lot was doomed.

Scott Benner 11:16
I was just gonna, well, I was just gonna say it's incredibly interesting how people who live with chronic illness see the the roll of the dice of life, you were just like, Yeah, she didn't get diabetes, but she got something else. We're all screwed over here. It is. Pretty much. Yeah, no, it's, um, it's a telling statement. Because there's no other world where I would say to somebody, like, Hey, does your you know, you have a car? Does your mom have a car? And you were like, No, she doesn't have a car. But she does have an airplane. And it's, you would never say that. Right? Right. Right. But it feels very connected. And it's, um, and I don't know that. I don't feel the same way honestly. Feels like he got bit by some sort of a bug that other people don't get bit by or something like that.

Alex Quinn 11:59
For sure. Yeah, definitely. You know, I've actually, I've thought about that a lot over my life. Just because, you know, I have family members with it. And one of my uncle's died from type one complications. And I really feel like, and this is going to get a bit meta here. But like, my role here is to change the story. And really take my life with type one and do something with it. You know, like, I'm here to live well, and to, you know, take that story and turn it around, and, and prove that I don't have to die from complications or be like, riddled with them. You know, I can live a good life and still have the right one.

Scott Benner 12:46
Yeah, without giving away too much of somebody else's details. Do your uncle's not have a good go of it.

Alex Quinn 12:52
So they were diagnosed in the 60s. And blood sugar monitoring was, you know, the urine dipsticks back then. So they didn't have the tools to manage blood sugars when they were young, the way that we do now. So Well, I didn't imagine because to be honest, you were born in a time where it still wasn't terrific, either. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, totally. I mean, I know that I had it a little better than they did just because we had blood glucose monitors. By the time I was diagnosed, but I think that they didn't. My uncles and I were still on the same types of insulin. You know, 30 years later.

Scott Benner 13:40
Yeah, yeah. Well, such a leap now.

Unknown Speaker 13:43
Sure, yeah.

Scott Benner 13:44
Just It's a crazy difference. I'm going to revisit that idea while we're talking at some point, but so your mom is just I can't, by the way, I'm trying to imagine using that regular and mph and just like thinking like this babies on the schedule has to eat at certain times. Yeah. And because what are you gonna do? You're three, you're gonna be like, Hey, I feel dizzy,

Alex Quinn 14:05
you know? Right. Right. And I can clearly remember as a child, you know, having these like horrible low blood sugar episodes in the middle of the night where I just wake up, just totally disoriented, like vomiting and just, you know, out of my mind, and my parents would have to, like, force me to drink orange juice, or whatever they could get me into me at the time. And to this day, I still can't do oranges. Like, being forced to drink orange juice. Well, in that state as a child so many times I can't eat them. No,

Scott Benner 14:41
I understand. I really do. I had a piece of chicken from a certain place right before my appendix when I can't believe that came up twice. And I still can't like stomach the smell of the chicken even though it had literally nothing to do with my appendix.

Alex Quinn 14:56
Sure, but man, those associations get deep down in your psyche.

Scott Benner 14:59
They don't go away. Okay. Okay, so you, it's a tough go. Do you? Do you have context for your health outcomes? How did you measure them back then? Or did people are just being alive and not dizzy? constituted when?

Alex Quinn 15:16
I think, you know, as a toddler, it was basically like, Are you alive? And are you happy overall? You know, we're cool with that. But I, I don't have too much data on like specifics of blood sugars and eight, one C from when I was a child. I'm sure I could go back and dig it up. But I don't really, I don't really have that information. But my parents have told me that, you know, my a one sees when I was a kid were mostly like in the eight to 10 range. It got up to as high as 14 when I was a stubborn teenager who couldn't be bothered to take care of myself. But I've slowly and steadily improved things since then.

Scott Benner 16:04
Isn't it interesting, too, that no matter where you start, the idea of ignoring it just seems to exponentially make it grow. Like Like, there's like, I mean, what are you really ignoring as a team shooting twice a day? and eating certain times? That was it. Right?

Alex Quinn 16:23
Um, when I was a teenager, homologue had come out. And I was on Lantus as well. So I don't, it wasn't just, you know, twice a day injections and a rigid eating schedule by that time. So I think I was like, maybe five or six when the analogs became available, and they put me on those as soon as they could. Oh, good. Okay.

Scott Benner 16:45
And so you just can you describe a little bit about what it means to just ignore it when you're a teenager?

Alex Quinn 16:52
Sure. Um, so I think for me, I just deeply rejected the notion that I had to do this. And it was just, it was painful for me, because I didn't want to deal with it. And I didn't want to be, you know, the freak with needles, because that's how my peers viewed me when I was a child and I got bullied a lot for my diabetes, had a lot of like, really not pleasant experiences with my peers about my being the only person in the entire school who has type one. So by the time I got to be a teenager, I was like, EFF this, I do not want to deal with it. I'm weird enough as it is without this in my life. So, you know, I just don't care. I don't want to you can't make me and I was, I'm a stubborn person. And when I was a teenager, I was even more stubborn. And you know, you couldn't get me to do something I didn't want to do. So, at that point, my parents were kind of like, Okay, well, if you don't take your insulin, you're gonna end up in the hospital, in decay. So let's put you on the pump to at least make sure that you get something in you. So I think when I was 14, they put me on an insulin pump. And I am convinced that that insulin pump kept me out of the hospital from like 14 to 21. You know, I would not have taken care of myself at that point.

Scott Benner 18:33
I'm really interested that you said it that way. Because I've gotten the feeling over the years talking to adults who have had type one for a long time. That that is what an insulin pump was considered. In the beginning, it was like, Alright, this is for people who are just not going to take care of this. So we'll get them at least their basil in through the pump, and maybe once in a while for lucky, they'll push some buttons with me. Mm hmm. Right.

Alex Quinn 18:56
Yeah, totally. That was that was exactly how it was for me. And I think part of my rejection of everything was because of my family history with type one. My mom's brother died when he was 37. And I was seven. And he died of type one complications. And my family kind of used that as the example of what not to do. And they were like, you know, finger wagging. Take care of yourself, or you're gonna end up like your uncle. So in my little seven year old brain, I was like, Oh, I'm gonna die like my uncle. So why does it matter? And by the time I hit teenage years, I was like, I can't even care. You know, if that's what my adult life is gonna look like, why should I even bother you a third

Scott Benner 19:48
of the way to death already? 14, right.

Unknown Speaker 19:51
Yeah,

Scott Benner 19:52
I'm almost there. And I'm doing it. Like you're getting up in the morning and nobody's staring at you and nobody's making fun of you. If you're not showing them your needles and everything is right. There was somebody on once I wish I could remember their name, who told me that they had a person bullying them about their diabetes, who would just say to them die? diabetes?

Unknown Speaker 20:09
Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner 20:10
That was like, wow, how? I mean, try harder at the very least. But you know, yeah. But you mentioned being I mean, I almost say, Can you imagine being a kid? Like, yes, Scott, I

Alex Quinn 20:24
can. I can. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I can't remember. Like, I went to Pizza Hut one time with my soccer team when I was 10. And I went to the bathroom to go test my blood sugar and take a shot. And I'm standing at the counter in the bathroom, and drawing up my insulin. And one of my teammates walked in and saw me with a needle and just started hysterically screaming. And her mother came in, and she was like, Why are you screaming? She sees me with a needle, and then she starts freaking out about me in the bathroom with a needle. And I got so upset that I just, like stormed out of the bathroom. And I went, and I got my mom. And I was like, Mom, I need you to deal with this. And my mom had to come in and be like, What is wrong with two of you? You know, like, she's 10? Yeah, well, you know,

Scott Benner 21:22
20 years later, you would have just looked at them and said, Hey, Karen's calm down. Right? Right. Diabetes, just chill out a second. I'd like to know, I just tried to do my business here.

Unknown Speaker 21:33
Sure. Yeah. No, actually, sorry. Go ahead. I

Scott Benner 21:36
just was gonna say it bothers me when I hear that people used to get driven into bathrooms to give themselves insulin,

Alex Quinn 21:41
right? Well, I you know, and that bothers me too. Because I've gotten to the point in my life where I just don't care, I have to do this. And if it makes somebody else uncomfortable, they can just not watch I'm gonna do it whenever and wherever I have to, because other people's pancreas is are doing it whenever and wherever they have to. So you know, my pancreas just lives in a bag that I carry around? Well, the truth is,

Scott Benner 22:07
you have to care more about your health than you do about what other people think. It just exactly just ends up being very important. You can't, you can't just you can't, I mean, imagine, it's so hard for me, because I don't have a personality like that, where my wife and I were talking the other day about. She got a she's looking for cars a couple years ago, and I really thought she was going to buy a jeep. And yesterday, I said to her, I was really, I'm not sure how we got back on the topic. Maybe it's, you know, I'm not certain. And I said, I was really surprised when you didn't buy a jeep. And she said, Yeah, I did want one but and she started talking about the experience she was having with the salesperson, and how it kind of led her out of the place. And I can't make sense of that. Like, if if I had a, I can't explain to you there, there'd be no situation where a salesperson could do or say or create a scenario where I would leave and then go buy a car that I didn't want, because that was so bad. But my wife's like, in part that happened. You know, she's like I was, it was early in the process. And I didn't I wasn't invested enough to push through this scenario. And I thought, Oh, my God, like, that would never happen to me. But But I recognize that it's, it's a it's a reality for a lot of people that you just, I mean, and so that's why I try to say on here, the that idea that I think your health just has to be more important to you than what other people think you just can't. Yeah.

Alex Quinn 23:38
100%. And, you know, I think that i think that that ties in a lot to the pressure against eating low carb and following Bernstein because there's, there is, like, almost vitriol against it in some circles. And, you know, you have to be steadfast in your convictions that, you know, this is a choice that I made for myself, and I'm not doing it for anyone else. And I really don't care what you think. Yeah.

Scott Benner 24:11
I I'm in a unique situation where I feel like I understand both sides of this, like, fight that you see happen online sometimes. And, and I don't know that there's, I don't really think there's a fight. I think there's these Anyway, we'll get to it as we're talking. I think it's interesting how it works, but and I agree with you, you know, and Listen, I've had enough adults on who eat low carb, then I there's a commonality through your stories usually, which Yeah, you know what I mean? And it is, I've noticed that too. Yeah, it's it's Look, I was diagnosed at a time where I didn't have a sensor that could tell me that for carbs, maybe go from 86 to 104. And you know, and I, we sometimes were using insulin that was inexact. Nobody ever told me to, you know, you don't Pre-Bolus you know, regular and mph. So that's not how I grew up and then you get not stuck even but you're just indoctrinated into this is how diabetes is handled, and then people bring you a newer insulin. And that's frightening to see, you're like, you got it younger, you got him a lot younger. But I watched a buddy, I watched that a friend of mine happened to he had to go through regular and mph to, you know, humor blog novolog. And that stuff might as well have been rocket fuel that they were putting in him.

Alex Quinn 25:34
Sure. And they are they are not the same, or not the same, like completely different action profile, completely different effect completely different timeframe. Like, it's, it's, yeah,

Scott Benner 25:48
I think there's nothing the same about using that older insulin and the newer insulin?

Alex Quinn 25:52
No, not at all. And you know, I'll I'll say this. Yeah, to that point, when I first started following Dr. Bernstein, I had to, like, take everything I thought I knew about diabetes management and kind of put it in a box over there for a second, and then focus solely on learning an entirely new way of doing things. And it was really challenging for me, because I had at that time, you know, 23 years under my belt.

Scott Benner 26:37
I'm going to start today with the Omni pod and tell you that you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash, this is an exceptional possibility for you. And I hope you check it out. Omni pod comm forward slash juice box, get there and see if you're eligible. Now, what are we talking about here? a 30 day trial, this is a usable thing, like they're gonna send you the dash enough for you to I mean, you get it right for 30 days, it's pretty crazy. On the pod does other stuff. Like if you don't want to try the dash for 30 days for free, or you're not eligible, you can ask them for a free, no obligation demo pod will they'll just send you out one pod, but it's nonfunctioning, and I know you're like, well, what am I gonna do with that? Well, what you're gonna do with it is where, and you get a real good vibe for it. Like, this is what it feels like to have on you know, you'll notice, I mean, at least for me, when I've worn it in the past, that you just stopped noticing it. And this, this demo pod is really great for that. I think they call it a pod experience kit. So you can you know, alright, look, that's a lot, right? There's two things, but Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox, you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash, or at the very least, everyone can get a demo pod. I feel like I can hear you and you're like Scott, why would I do that? couple of reasons. You're on MDI and you're looking for a pump. This is a great way to try. You have a pump that has a tube on it. And every day of your life You think I don't want this to pump. There's so much tubing, why is there tubing going through my underwear, maybe that's your heart. This would be another good reason why the Omni pod is tubeless. It doesn't have to point to bling. That's not a word tubing. It's worth looking into on the pod.com forward slash juice box. My daughter Arden has been wearing it on the pod since she was four years old. She's about to turn 17 she's worn one every day. It's been a real friend in this. And I think maybe it could be for you as well. Now another thing I don't know what I would do without is the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor being able to see Arden's blood sugar, the number like what it is the direction and the speed, it's moving, it's moving all in real time is crazy bananas. Now I know that Arden's blood sugar right now is 127. She's having some popcorn, and we might have missed on the Pre-Bolus a little bit. But it's kind of Alright, because we'll watch this, see what's up, make an adjustment if necessary, and have a lot of comfort doing it because again, I can see the speed direction and number of her blood sugar all the time. I can see it on my iPhone. If I had an Android phone, I'd be able to see it on my Android phone. Arden can see it by the way on her phone as well. And if we wanted up to 10 people could be watching Arden's blood sugar. I mean, I don't even know 10 people, but if I did, and I wanted them to see my daughter's blood sugar, we could do that with the Dexcom. You may be thinking about people who you'd like to be able to see your child's blood sugar or perhaps your own. And you're thinking Oh, Scott, I see what you're getting. That is a good idea. And you're right it is. Now what do you do? You go to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox and while you're out there on the internet, check out touched by type one.org. There are links to these sponsors and all the sponsors at Juicebox Podcast comm or right there in the show notes of your podcast player. Have you ever really looked around on that podcast player? Which by the way, if you're listening to one, please subscriber, follow the show.

so dramatic. Okay, let's get back to Alex.

Alex Quinn 30:34
How do you take 23 years of thinking that this is how I do this, and put it aside for a second to learn something new, it just, it's like learning a new language. That's in it. I did it. But it was hard. People should,

Scott Benner 30:50
people might find commonality in this idea. There are people who go from MDI, to a pump, right? And the common, the commonality, there's people will tell you, hey, that's it's like learning diabetes all over again, like you'll, you'll feel like you have it all worked out. And by the way, who all worked out usually just means there's a pace and a balance to your life that you're accustomed to. Not that not that you're walking around with a five to a once that you've got it all worked out. Because I would imagine someone with a five to whose MD is like, I don't need a pump. And that would make sense to me. Right? So you move from that. That would be me. Yeah. So you'd move from MDI, to a pump? And it's like learning it all over again.

Unknown Speaker 31:30
It is Yeah, sure.

Scott Benner 31:31
So the same would be from going from, you know, humalog. And, you know, some needles to I'm going to remove, like most of the carbohydrate impact out of my life. It's like starting over again.

Unknown Speaker 31:44
Yeah, it was for sure.

Unknown Speaker 31:45
How long did it take you to figure it out?

Alex Quinn 31:47
Oh, man. So okay, for context. When I started Bernstein, it was out of sheer desperation, because I had been diagnosed with retinopathy. And I was 25 at the time, and it scared the daylights out of me. He and I had, I didn't know it at the time, I got this diagnosis later, but it also had gastroparesis and neuropathy. So in my mid 20s, you know, showing long term complications, and I was like, I have to do anything and everything I possibly can to make this not happen, because I know where this leads. And so my, my health was not great. So adjusting to a whole new diet and asking my metabolism to do something that it had never done before. And learning how to manage my insulin around that was enormously challenging. So I think I took about six months to just lean myself down slowly off of carbs, because I tried to do it cold turkey, and it made me like violently ill to the point where I thought I needed to go to the hospital. So I backtracked. And I was like, Oh, okay. Oh, no, no, don't do that.

Scott Benner 33:17
Have a Do you have a CGM now? And did you have one then?

Alex Quinn 33:20
Um, I don't have one. Now. I didn't have one when I started, but I got one shortly thereafter. Okay. And I'll, I'll explain my stance on CGM. I'm allergic to medical adhesives. So I had one I used it. I took all the data I could possibly glean from all of that for as long as I could stand to wear it. And then I got to the point where I was like, I'm covered in rashes that never heal, and they drive me insane. And I just can't do this anymore. So I got rid of it.

Scott Benner 34:00
Yeah, I have to say about that, that it really is unfair, that seriously autoimmune issues that that end you up with a disease that could really be greatly benefited by something that has adhesive on it. And you might also have an adhesive allergy because of autoimmune issues is like right, double suck. You know, it's just like, Wow, thanks.

Alex Quinn 34:24
Trust me. If I wasn't allergic to medical adhesives, I probably have built my own DIY closed loop rig by now and just be like killing it, but I can't wear them. I could not figure out a way to not have an allergic reaction to so I got rid of

Scott Benner 34:42
I understand how did you try all the barrier creams and stuff like that?

Alex Quinn 34:45
Everything. Everything I could possibly find. I joined groups on Facebook specifically for people who have allergic reactions to these products. like yeah, it's Yeah, I tried everything. I could I just it wasn't worth it, you know,

Scott Benner 35:03
feels like walking through a desert and finding a well full assault water. You're just

Unknown Speaker 35:08
yeah,

Alex Quinn 35:10
you know, so no, because Okay, here's my thing like I, I think CGM are amazing technology. But I didn't grow up with one. And I don't need it.

Scott Benner 35:22
Now you figured something else out?

Alex Quinn 35:24
Right? And I understand why other people feel like they absolutely need it. But I don't, I don't have that push for myself. You know, I think that the data is really interesting. And I find a lot of value in being able to see the trend lines and the graphs and you know, adjust like that. But I can do that, with my glucose meter, poking my finger, and I don't care about finger sticks. They don't bother me. I've been doing it since I was three. So

Scott Benner 35:56
well, I would imagine also with the small amount of carbs that you're taking in that the variability is much less and so you're using insulin to stop the spikes. And you and of course, I say all the time that the lessons when you use, the less chance you're going to have have a low later. So for sure, yeah, you're in that in that space?

Alex Quinn 36:16
I am definitely. And I honestly, I think that's, that, to me, the stability that you just described is the number one thing that keeps me doing what I do. Because

Scott Benner 36:29
Yeah, I would say that I'm sorry, one second, I'm going to tell you that our connection is just a little bumpy, or I'm stepping on you and I apologize, but I'll finish and let you get right back to it. I think if Arden my daughter ate low carb, like a real low carb diet, I think I can pretty comfortably put her a one C in the mid fours. I don't think yeah, it would be hard, honestly.

Alex Quinn 36:51
Yeah. Um, I have some long term complications that make that tight control a little more challenging for me. Like the the gastro precice really affects my digestion. So, you know, there are some days where everything works great. And then the next day, you know, I wake up with food that I ate 12 hours ago still sitting in my stomach, and it doesn't I can't do anything about it, except kind of do damage control. So I would love to be able to achieve that. But I've had I have accepted that. You know where I'm at right now is still really really good.

Scott Benner 37:34
Yeah. My my point wasn't that what you're doing isn't good. My point was that I know what my daughter eats a whatever she wants. Okay, so she doesn't have like a like a limit on what kind of food she's taking in. And I have her a once he really settled in the mid fives. And that's cool. Yeah. And like Saturday, she you know, got up and last minute said to me, can you go to the corner to the bagel place and get me a blueberry crunch bagel. Have them toasted put butter on it. And I was like, and she was on her way to a lesson she's taking. She's taking sewing lessons. I don't know if I should say that here if she'd be anyway, she's taking. And so I roll out. I grabbed the you know, as I leave I think her blood sugar's about 94. Yeah, I said, Okay, I'm gonna go I'll be back in like 20 minutes, just Bolus 10 carbs right now. So she puts it in a little Bolus, get some insulin working as I'm driving back and fairly comfortable, I won't be killed in a car accident. I text her again. And I say you know, Bolus this much now. And, and we stayed on top of that bagel for the first. I don't think it came back to try to bite us again for maybe about three hours. And then you use the CGM data to say to myself, okay, here comes the second round of this bagel. And then right, you hit it again, and it stops it from spiking again. So like, given that, that, you know, a five and a half is amazing. But if you took away all those carbs and how I understand how to use insulin, I just think that it would, I don't think I don't think I'd have trouble with I think it would kind of be it might be easy, honestly. So yeah,

Alex Quinn 39:12
for sure. It really takes a lot of the cognitive processes out of things. Like I don't, I don't have to pay attention like that. And I do just because I want to I like keeping on top of things and being proactive about stuff. But you know, I I Bolus right before I eat a check again an hour later, and I'm usually like, pretty dead on right where I was before I ate something. Yeah. And I really appreciate that stability in my life because it allows me to do other things. And that's what's most important. There's no

Scott Benner 39:57
calm to it, I would imagine.

Alex Quinn 39:59
Oh man So I was, I was starting to tell you a story earlier. But um, so when I had been following Dr. Bernstein, or a couple months and had really like, hit my stride with it and started understanding what the hell I was doing. I was at work one day, and I tested my blood sugar. And it was in the 90s. And I stopped, and I thought about it. And I realized that my blood sugar had been in the 90s, consistently for over a week. And that was the first time in my entire life that I had ever felt that and I just cried. I'm getting teary eyed now thinking about it, because it's still such a profound moment for me, you know? Like, I had never, ever experienced that kind of internal stability before. Yeah. And it just, it was like, somebody hit me over the head, and I just started crying happy tears, and like, my boss came over. And she's like, are you okay? And I was like, No, no, it's

Unknown Speaker 41:03
a good thing. It's a good thing.

Unknown Speaker 41:05
I'm healthy.

Alex Quinn 41:07
But I 26 for the first time in my life. Yeah. Wait, that. I like there are no words to describe how profound that was for me. And I'm doing my best right now.

Scott Benner 41:21
I can't imagine Honestly, it seems like it would have been, it would have been like a moment where you saw the sun for the first time, right? Just Just a man.

Alex Quinn 41:30
Yeah, it was it was so profound. And having experienced that, I was like, oh, man, I'm I cannot go back to how my life was before. I can't.

Scott Benner 41:41
So we don't really. So I have some theories about the world. I think that media, social Li, the social kind, is incredibly valuable. Because without social media, no one would ever hear your story, I wouldn't be able to talk about the things I talked about. And at the same time, it opens up avenues for people to I always think it's be scared, and then react to the fear. Like that's how, how it seems to me you hear something that's uncommon or different to you. And your brain immediately goes for Oh, well, what about this? Or this? You know, like, yeah, it's just, it's, I mean, it's how my brain works. I work backwards from now. Like, my kids could come to me and say, Hey, Dad, we have a foolproof plan to make $100 today, and I would go, No. And then I would ask, and then I would ask questions, and to see if they could get me off of now. Sure, some people are, you know, not like that. But I think that in social media, you get you get shown things that are so far from how you think that it can be shocking. And when I when I see it, I'm always like, Oh, that's interesting. Like somebody does something like this. But that's not that's not common for everybody.

Alex Quinn 42:57
No, it isn't. And I think that knee jerk reaction really prevents people from accessing things that could actually help them.

Scott Benner 43:07
Yeah. And it's interesting to watch the things that you'll be able to believe and the things you'll be able to display, like, like, I'm going to just tell you right now, like, I don't think my daughter would ever eat low carb, okay. And that's neither here nor there for this conversation for us. Because what I see people do is a number of different things. And you've probably seen them all too. I eat low carb and my blood sugar's super stable. I've been I was in the 90s, once for two weeks, eating just protein is not healthy. I'm assuming you've heard that. Right. And then you think, Well, how do you know? Like, so. So you heard eating just proteins not healthy, that you believe I tell you, I'm eating just protein? And look how well I'm doing that you disbelieve? That's got nothing to do with protein and the health of protein? It's no,

Alex Quinn 43:55
that's just cognitive dissonance rearing its ugly head. Yeah.

Scott Benner 43:58
It's very interesting. Like, I'm going to disagree with this now, because it's different than mine. And to go deeper, not to make everybody think too deeply about themselves, because that can be painful sometimes. But I think what it really says is, oh, gosh, what if I'm doing it wrong? Oh, yeah. hurting myself? Or what if I'm doing it wrong and hurting my kid? Yep. And then you don't want to feel that way. So then you have to fight the other person, because this is the thing you're doing. Now. I'm not saying it. I'm not saying eating carbs is hurting anybody. I obviously don't feel that way. Because, you know, my daughter is doing it

Alex Quinn 44:38
right now. But I understand what you're saying. Because people want to feel like they're doing the best thing they can for themselves or their children. And when presented with information that might possibly contradict that idea. It can be painful that they have to admit that hey, maybe I could be doing better, even though I thought I was so

Scott Benner 45:00
Because there's no time machine. And yeah, and you're and you're running towards listening, we are all running towards our death. Okay? I don't mean to be too like deep here. But if if you have been making decisions for the past 10 years that have been running you faster To that end, and suddenly you're you realize, Oh gosh, this is wrong. Do you put your head down and run faster? Because you don't want to feel badly about what happened? Or do you look up and stop and go, okay, maybe I should be doing something differently. And again, I'm not making that this or that discerning comment about low carb and not low carb. I'm just telling to tell you why people react the way they do.

Alex Quinn 45:36
Sure, sure. And, you know, I run into that enough times that I recognize that pattern. And, you know, everybody deals with new information differently.

Scott Benner 45:48
Yep. And I'll say this, too. Because of the internet again, the internet draws in lost, lost people and new people in health space all the time, right? I either I need an answer, maybe these people will have it. Or, you know, I'm brand new with this. I don't know what I'm talking about. Let me see if I can go find out. So when you keep bringing in the new people over and over again, they keep having the same reactions, because they're at the same space in their progress. Right. That's why it seems like people are always arguing about the same things, not because the world is overwhelmed with people who are carb versus no carb or republican versus Democrat. But because these people are constantly brought together for the first time around this. I mean, you're in your 30s I'm almost 50. It's comical, around political season to hear people talk about politics as if it is a brand new thing that just heard for the first time, right? Yeah, or really anything really, like, you know, racism, you're like, oh, my god, there's racism. I've known I've been alive longer than you have. I've been in this space longer. But when people first find out about it, it's so shocking. And by the way, in some worlds, it's the lighting to see how motivated they are. To do something, it's amazing. It's as an older person, you look back and go look young people some energy, thank god get in there and scream about racism. We need Yeah. Like, yeah,

Alex Quinn 47:22
totally. You know, I I have that same mindset when people start talking about we need a cure. I'm like, Alright, get it. Yeah, I don't care.

Scott Benner 47:30
No, you're right. We definitely need one. And if you get it call me, but yeah, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 47:35
I've already been

Alex Quinn 47:36
in the meantime, I, I've been there. I've done that. I've gotten over it. And I have better things to consider myself.

Scott Benner 47:42
I, I've already been at this part. And now and now you're at that part and great. But the problem is, is that when people look inward, they'll say things like, well, we're as divided as we've ever been. mean? Or I'm sorry. I've misspoken. I think we're as divided as we've ever been. People are like this is as divided as we've ever been. And I don't think that's true. I think that it's all been the same forever. There's more people.

Alex Quinn 48:09
I think that it's more that we're now aware of all of the opinions as opposed to, you know, existing inside of an echo chamber. Exactly. And the internet, the internet really brings all of the opinions together. Yes. And that's why you get so much infighting and argument. And it's like, Look, we all have our own experience, and have drawn our own conclusions from it. And all of us are operating from a place where we think we are right,

Scott Benner 48:37
your friend circle is built of people who you either feel superior to, or agree with. sorry to tell you.

Unknown Speaker 48:47
No,

Scott Benner 48:49
like, well, you ever noticed some people just like to feel like they're in charge of the friend circle? Yes. And so they put themselves with people, they feel like that's reasonable for them to do. And but my bigger point not to get I don't want to go down a different rabbit hole. But But the idea, yeah, you bring you you surround yourself with people who agree with you. And so when you hear of an outside influence, everybody poopoo it and suddenly you don't hear about the outside influences any longer because you're so surrounded with people who agree. And then the internet to your point makes it impossible to avoid other people's opinions. Sure. And then we say stupid things like oh my god, we're as divided as we've ever been. We just have more cons. It's the world's not a more dangerous place. It's not a more racist place. It's not a more anything place. It's, you're just aware of it now, in 1949, if there was a tornado in Kansas, you did not know about it if you lived in New York, right? That kind of stuff. So, so so back to car versus no car. I think what can happen already, we'll play like, we'll take sides. Okay. And then we'll, we'll have a little conversation. You'll be the low car person because you're doing an RD. My kids just diagnosed, I feel like normalcy has been taken from them. You have been saved by eating a low carb lifestyle. Someone that comes from your perspective swoops in sees this newly diagnosed person and thinks I can save them all the pain that I went through. Mm hmm. Right. And then you come in you say, Dr. Bernstein, and other words that you know, mean low carb, and some and their their feeling is either Oh my god, I'm so scared by this. I'm gonna go try that. Or you can't take my kids normalcy from me and cupcakes at their birthday.

Alex Quinn 50:40
Right? Right, right? Yes, I would agree with that. And I'm actually pretty active in a newly diagnosed parents of type one kids group. For that reason, but not because I want to prove that I'm right. But just because there's so much knowledge of managing diabetes that you have to wrap your head around. And the learning curve is extremely steep. And, you know, a lot of people have never even been exposed to type one until their kid is diagnosed. And then they're just confused. And they have no idea what the EFF they're doing. And so, I come along, after almost 30 years, and I'm like, hey, you're going to be okay. And here's what I've learned about how to live with this stuff. And I'm not there to prove that I'm right. But I think that mentors are extremely important with this kind of thing. Yeah. And, you know, I had him growing up. My mom's two older brothers were type one. So I had a family member, I could call if I wanted to, to just be like, this is happening. And, you know, I think we need that. But I think you're right to like, the Don't take my kids last sense of normalcy away from them is is a really powerful driving force,

Scott Benner 52:06
right? And then they'll hear all kinds of different things. If you if you came to me and said that privately, like, forget the internet, if you came to me and said, Oh, my God, normalcy it's gone, Bob, I'd say, hey, look, I think that there's a way for you to eat a cupcake. And for it not to make your blood sugar crazy and lead to a bunch of long term issues here. And and if you start laying those things out, like you said, they're overwhelming. So yes, I, if you understand the, the, the place I came from, because we have a pretty firm understanding of where you came from. So the place I came from was, I had a kid with diabetes, no real attachment to it. Nobody told me how to do it. I started a blog where I was talking about it. And so I was watching it happen and seeing what I needed to happen differently, that I figured out how to make it happen differently. And then I thought, okay, here it is, excuse me, once I get the spring. Here, here's this stuff, read it if you want, I don't care. Doesn't matter to me. It's here if you want it. And then I watched it help people. I thought, Okay, why is it not helping people faster? Well, it's not as digestible as it needs to be, I can break this down farther and farther and farther into simple to understand concepts. And I feel like I've basically done that by now. And so then you go to audio. And it turns out, it's way easier to listen to this kind of stuff than it is to read about it, my and, and so now you see it helps one people, it helps 10 people have 100. And then once you get to the 10,000, and the 20,000, and you start having millions of people listening, then you go, Okay, this really power this works, right, like so keep it simple, like keep the ideas simple. And now now I'm completely comfortable telling you that I could see somebody get diagnosed, be lost, and inside of those same handful of months that you're talking to just understand it, and they can use the insight. So if that's what they want, I'm cool with that, if they want to use those same tools to eat low carb or vegetarian or just fish eyeballs, or I don't give people I so don't care. It's it's hard for you to wrap but might be hard for you to wrap your head around. I genuinely don't care what people do.

Unknown Speaker 54:21
I don't either,

Scott Benner 54:22
right. I just want them to be healthy as they can be and as happy as you can be. Whatever.

Unknown Speaker 54:26
Yes. Same.

Unknown Speaker 54:27
Yes.

Alex Quinn 54:28
So you know, you mentioned tools. And honestly, to me, that is the most important thing that I got from reading Dr. Bernstein's book, and, you know, listening to his teleseminars and YouTube videos and stuff. It wasn't the, you know, the regimen to do this. Do that. It was here are the tools to understand how to make these things work for you. Yeah. You know how you manipulate the insulin dosing to match what you're going to eat or your activity level and how to do Basal testing and cover meals. Like, those were essential skills that I didn't learn in that way. Until I was like 26. Yeah. And I think those are, those are more important to me than, you know, cut out the carb only eat protein and non starchy vegetables like, I mean, if you can learn how to understand the insulin, and how to interpret the data, you've got, like, that's the leg up you need.

Scott Benner 55:38
That's exactly what I say all the time. Just to understand how the insulin works. I tell people, Type One Diabetes is about understanding how insulin works. And moreover, the timing and amount that you should use. You need to have your basil, right, understand how to Pre-Bolus meals and the difference between the impacts and different carbs. And that's pretty much the whole game right there.

Alex Quinn 55:56
Yeah, for sure. And protein,

Scott Benner 55:58
right? And then you go eat protein, if you want in fat and protein, get a rise later from that kind of stuff. It's I mean, but at its basis, if you were like I always say like if I was falling off a cliff and you're like, Scott, the secret to diabetes, I just scream those four things out before I splattered on the chair. If I was falling an extra 500 feet, I'd be like, and fat and protein will make your blood sugar rise two hours.

Unknown Speaker 56:22
Right. But

Scott Benner 56:23
I just don't see. I Well, I am lying. I do see. I do see how people get embroiled in the thing. I do see how the thing looks bigger than it is. And I understand people's fervency behind it because I imagine that the way you feel when you see somebody say I can't control my blood sugar's my Awan sees 10 is the exact same way that I feel when I see somebody say it.

Alex Quinn 56:51
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because I've been there, and I know what that feels like. And I want those people to have that same profound moment of realizing that stability that I have, because it changes your life. And if you want to do that by eating blueberry crunch bagels, like get after it, you know, but let's figure out how to make that work for you. 100%

Scott Benner 57:15
I don't just don't care what people eat. I care if they're healthy. And I'm thrilled that you're the one that ended up here. Because Because you're you have the exact you have my aesthetic You are in my Viber exactly the same. Yes, totally from two completely different places, as far as the the input of what food is. And that's why I think that's exciting. And that's why I want people to hear conversations like this because you're not mad at Alex because she eats the way Dr. Bernstein describes. And by the way, the man should be lauded for figuring out what he did. Because, right, especially at that time, when the tools were, what they were, as far as insulin was and technology and everything. He really figured out a thing that saved people like listen to you, right, you did what you were told to do, and you have gastroparesis, and other issues coming along. And if you don't meet this man's ideas, I gotta think your heart starts getting funky in your 40s. Right. not pretty, right? Yeah,

Alex Quinn 58:18
yeah, totally. I mean, I started to go blind when I was in my 20s. Like, if I hadn't found Bernstein's methods, I would probably not have any eyesight left. And, and that's profound. It is, yeah, it really is. So, you know, I understand if, if it's not the choice that somebody else wants to make, but it is the choice that made my life better. And that's just the message I keep blasting out into the ether. Like, this works. For me, okay. It worked for me.

Scott Benner 58:53
100%, I say all the time, if you if you listen to this podcast, then go eat low carb, actually, there are some pretty successful low carb eaters that listen to the podcast. And I mean, their their health is a reflection of their success. It's amazing. It doesn't, you know, it takes a while because dogmatic might be one way to think of but everybody just gets on a team. Like all of a sudden, if you say Bernstein out loud, that just means you're some militant, no car beating person. And if

Unknown Speaker 59:20
Oh, I know.

Scott Benner 59:22
And I didn't recognize Alex until more recently that if somebody said, oh, there's a podcast, they say bold with insulin, that meant that I think you should eat everything in the world. And I was like, I don't think that I've never even said that. But it's I'm sure that there are things attached to Dr. Bernstein and other people that they've never said or intended out loud. Just like it happens to me as well. You know? Yeah.

Alex Quinn 59:45
It's for sure. It's I mean, there are some groups on the internet where you mentioned Bernstein and they will mute you and kick you

Scott Benner 59:51
out. Yes, you are not allowed to share the podcast on almost every Facebook group that exists. If you haven't talked about it. It just gets you Like shutdown. And then if people come back to my Facebook page and say, Hey, I tried to, you know, somebody had a thing, and I said, Oh, you should try this podcast, I got kicked out. If they start talking about it on my Facebook page, people from that Facebook page will come and ask me, please stop them from talking badly about my Facebook page. And I'm like, you guys have way too much free time. just way too much free time. You know, I

Alex Quinn 1:00:23
mean, like, I love talking about diabetes, because I enjoy the intellectual exercise behind all of it. But like, as far as my day to day stuff, like, I don't have time to care like that.

Scott Benner 1:00:38
Yeah, well, you know, the wall, tell us a person who's you know, who created the thing that we're talking about, right? Is that it took me I had to swallow hard The first time I saw it happen. So imagine, I have, I've always had a public Facebook page. It's always just sort of been like, there's an episode out here the links, I don't put, like, I'm a 50 year old guy. I'm not really into Facebook. I don't know if that's obvious or not. But I'm just like, you know, here it is. And one day listener said, Could you make a private group because we'd like to talk more about like, like, management stuff? And I was like, Yeah, sure. I said, but I'm not going to moderate it. And I'm not your mom, you know, so I made it. And there it is, right. And today is You and I are talking I think it's about ready to go over like 10,000 like, and it's incredibly active, like 85% of the people are active. Like, every, it's amazing how many people are, right. It's very nice. But the first time someone came in, and somebody said, Hey, I'm having this issue, what should I do? And someone left a link for something that wasn't the podcast? I was like, Oh, yeah, I'm not the only person with information about this. But I do have an episode about this. And it's hard not to jump in and be like, Hey, I see you're directing them over here. But what about Episode 295? You know, and it took me a little while I didn't do it. But I, I laid back and I'm like, this doesn't matter. If they go somewhere else and find out about it, it doesn't matter as long as there. Okay, so people will will say, you should try this low carb thing, or you should try this, or you should try that. And I'm like, cool. That's fine. Just I want everybody to be okay.

Alex Quinn 1:02:16
But make sure. I also feel like my approaches is all information is valid, but not all information is applicable. Sure. So, you know, I want to be aware of all the ways in which people go about doing things and, you know, I think that there's just as much merit in you know, protein focused, low carb eating for Bernstein as there is in the, you know, Whole Foods plant based no fat thing. Yeah, I wouldn't make that choice. I don't agree with it. But it exists, and I can't deny that it exists. So at least I can be aware of it and and learn enough about it to understand why somebody would make that choice. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:03:04
If you ask me my personal opinion, I think that rush, restrict is not the right word specific, specific eating is has a likelihood of falling apart over time, no matter what it is, like, if I if I told you I was gonna eat ice cream every day, I could probably make it like a day and a half. I was like, oh, Christ, I can't come every day.

Alex Quinn 1:03:28
Okay, so I wrote out some talking points for myself before we started this. And the word restriction is one of the things I wanted to talk about, because restriction and deprivation get thrown around a lot in the conversation about eating low carb. And I feel like that sort of takes away the autonomous choice of the individual. If you if you look at it as I choose to eat this, I consciously am aware of what I am about to eat and I am deliberately making this choice for myself for an intended outcome. Yeah. You're not restricted, and you're not surprised. What's the word then? So

Scott Benner 1:04:15
help. Seriously, here's it. Here's a real world issue. If I go to a thing, and I speak at something, I have about three sentences, they put in a blurb, Scott benders those to the Juicebox Podcast, a va, his daughter's a one C has been between five, two and 6247 years without any diet restrictions. Now that those are all the words I have, I get that the word restrictions not great, but how do I say she eats anything she wants? Without using that, like, what's the word I need?

Alex Quinn 1:04:43
That's a good question. That's I honestly, I don't have an answer to that. Um, you know,

Scott Benner 1:04:48
because I don't mean it the way you just said it. But I get why you heard it that way.

Alex Quinn 1:04:55
Right. Right. For sure. I mean, I don't know. Does you No telling your kid regardless of whether they have diabetes, no, you can. subsist only on grilled cheese and candy every day. Like, is that restrictive? Or is that just like parenting for better health?

Scott Benner 1:05:13
100%? Yeah. And do you think that when I told you I used an example of the bagel that my daughter eats bagels every day, now cuz she doesn't like she has bagels, like every once in a while, I just know how to Bolus for them. Like they're the day before she had a chef's out. So it's like it really is. And I try to be careful too, when I talk. This is the one thing that I it took me a minute to say, in the podcast, but I finally saw how important it was. I started telling people look, just because you've learned to Bolus for tiramisu doesn't mean you should eat it every day. Like don't confuse good blood sugars with good health.

Alex Quinn 1:05:54
Yes, yes, I wholeheartedly and adamantly agree with that. I also feel like, you know, just because you can eat the tiramisu doesn't mean that you should have a boatload of insulin floating around in your system, like those lead to long term and potentially short term like detrimental consequences. And, you know, so I can also make a tiramisu out of ingredients that don't cause me to have a boatload of insulin in my system and the potential for a major spike and then drop later,

Scott Benner 1:06:32
right. And that's where you start getting into the weeds. And it's hard to like sort through the whole thing, because I've had very respected people on here that said that, that have said that using more insulin, it's not dangerous. And they're not connected to a pharma company or anything weird like that, right. And at the same time, I mean, if you mitt unbalanced the insulin and have a whole bunch left over, when the impact of the carbs goes away, you are going to drop down really low. So that's the short term you're talking about. I also feel like the podcast does a pretty good job of describing how to not let that happen. But at the same time, I would be lying if I didn't tell you that my favorite brownies are a gluten free mix that is made by like King Arthur bakery, I like I like them better than brownies that you would make with flour. And at the same time, I mean, they're not low carb or anything like that. I'm just trying to use the example of like alternate ingredients can sure can sometimes make the same exact thing. For sure.

Alex Quinn 1:07:29
I think I think that choosing the alternate ingredients part is something that kind of gets left out of the conversation. Like when you bring up low carb, what I find most common is people hear what they can't eat. And they're like, but if you take away my bread, and my pasta and my potatoes and my cake, what's left. And you know, I had to go through that mental shift, too. And when I first went low carb, I made myself a promise. And I said, you know, my food has to taste good. It has to look good. And it has to be good for me. Otherwise, I will set myself up for failure. So how can I make these changes in such a way that I still enjoy my food? And I mean, I've been eating low carb for six years now. And I still eat like brownies and pasta, and cake and ice cream. And, you know, was Anya, I still have all of those things. I just change what goes in it a little bit

Scott Benner 1:08:31
right. Now, I don't disagree if anyone listening has ever thought like I've heard people say you just get lost when you're trying to quantify something. And there's so much I mean, you're going to be on episode like, I don't know, like 480 you know what I mean? Like, so there's so many words that have been spoken already. And when you ask somebody to like, real quick, what's that Juicebox Podcast about? I have to be honest with you. If you asked me what it was about. I can't quantify it. So I don't know how someone else would. So I hear people say that. Oh, you know, most, most often I hear people say he talks about how to use insulin so you can eat what you want. And I'm like, that's fair. And I've heard low carb people say he pushes carbs on people. And I'm like, that seems unfair. But okay. Like, I also, you know,

Alex Quinn 1:09:19
my interpretation of that question is you talk about living with diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:09:26
Yeah, that's it. I'm gonna tell you right now that I don't see any other established diabetes hub. And so I think of the podcast as a as a as its own sort of media hub, right? Like it's, that's no different than a television channel that only has one show on right. It's like any other established hub, whether it be in print online, or audio or whatever it is. I don't see anybody else having a diversity of conversations like this. They pin thing and they stay in their lane, and I get right Like I get the fear, like I understand like shark, you know, the idea of like, people are so scared not to be canceled and stuff like that. But

Alex Quinn 1:10:08
I think also they stay in their lane because a lot of people want what they're doing to be the right way to do it. And it sort of takes out of the equation that there is no like one right way to do anything because you lose your clickbait. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:10:29
that is really how it feels. I'll tell you that. The part I left out about the Facebook page thing is the my real belief. And I'm this is just me speculating. But I think that the reason most people don't want Dr. Bernstein's name, or this podcast or anything else to be left in their Facebook group is because they are very afraid that somebody will click on a link, go find something that works for them and never come back. And I just don't have that fear. Like, I am confident in what this podcast is. And by the way, if you don't need it, or want it, that's also fine with me.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:01
Yeah, for sure.

Scott Benner 1:11:02
But that confidence comes. So it's not real confidence, it's, it's I get to be confident because of how popular the podcast is. If it's a smaller group of people listening, I can honestly tell you, I might be more fervently trying to keep people in my little group. But I don't feel like that. Personally, I have to say, I don't think I would do that. I really, I really do want people to do what works for them. But I can see the draw to I started this thing, I built this thing. I you know, think of them think of a listener or reader as a customer for a second, like imagine you had a gas station. And the guy a guy pulls in, grabs the hose, and right before he's about to put the gas and the guy at the gas station across the street screams over with a bullhorn. You don't want to be at Alex's gas station. It's a bad guest. But I put all this effort to get him this close. Like you can't steal him now, like it could feel that way. But you have to have people's better interest at the core of what you're saying and just say, Alright, look, if you want to go find something different, and it works for you, then I need to be happy for you about that.

Alex Quinn 1:12:07
Yeah, for sure. That's why you're allowed to go get a second opinion. When you get a diagnosis at a doctor's office, you know,

Scott Benner 1:12:13
go figure something out. And if you and by the way, too, if you go out and you see other stuff, and it works. That's great for you, I miss you goodbye. And if you go out and see it and gone, like go back to the podcast thing. Well then Welcome back. Like I've no harm, no foul, like you don't even like you and I completely agree. I even eat steak the way you do. I don't like a lot of stuff. I just I'm gonna make a statement eat the steak. I don't need it to have stuff with it. Look,

Alex Quinn 1:12:39
I don't know if we eat steak the same way because I go to Costco and I get monster steaks and I put them on the grill and then eat that. Well, that's what

Scott Benner 1:12:47
I would do. I would go to Costco, I would get a steak. I would smoke. Yeah, I would smoke it and then I would see it. And then I would cut it open and I would put a little pink salt and some crack pepper I would eat.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:57
What kind of wood Do you like to smoke your steaks with?

Scott Benner 1:12:59
I just use a it's just like a competition blend? I don't I don't pick like a specific flavor. Not that far into it. All right, gotcha. But I might also if I'm being honest, I might make a little compound butter the day before.

Alex Quinn 1:13:14
Yeah. I went to the farmers market probably a couple of months ago. And this guy that I go to who makes hot sauces have this thing called black garlic. You know what black garlic is?

Scott Benner 1:13:27
No, but I'm listening.

Alex Quinn 1:13:28
Oh my, okay, it's a fermented garlic and basically, they just take a whole head or a bunch of them. You put it in a low heat like rice cooker, and you put the lid on top and you let it ferment in that warm environment for like a month and it takes the garlic and turns it into this sort of like caramelly like rayson sort of flavor but it's got garlic notes to it and it's it's really popular in like Asian dishes, but it's just got this like rich depth of flavor to it. That is phenomenal. And you put that in some butter and put it on a steak oh

Scott Benner 1:14:09
I made ribeyes like i i splurge I'm incredibly cheap. So I splurged on Father's Day, and I made revised last year. And I you know they came off the smoker. I sear them. I soaked them in butter as I was eating them. Like this is literally taking a year off my life and I didn't care. I was like this is the greatest thing ever. It must have been a pound of butter, like so.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:29
Oh, man,

Scott Benner 1:14:30
it was so good. It was good. Yeah, so you know, I'm right there with you. Having said that, you know I also might go make a pizza at some point and you should say whatever you want, but a low carb pizza crust. You it's not I can't tell you wouldn't be good or that it couldn't be enjoyable or whatever. But it's not pizza in in my context of what pizza is. So

Alex Quinn 1:14:54
I understand. Like, don't get me wrong, man. I grew up on eating right Little pizza. And if I could eat regular pizza and not experience terrible effects from it, trust me, I would. But I have to make choices for my long term benefit. So there's actually Um, there's a chain restaurant called blaze pizza. Have you ever heard of them? I haven't. Okay, so there's a chain restaurant called blaze pizza. And they have a keto crust. And I discovered this, thanks to Facebook. And now we do Friday night pizza night with my stepdaughter on the regular and it's great because it brought pizza back into my life. It's excellent.

Scott Benner 1:15:35
I don't have it a lot. But when I have it, I I turn it into a thing. I make dough, I cold fermented over news, and then I could you know, it's it's an event, not a natural meal. If and having said that, if if I was a person eating pizza three times a week, I would look at myself and go, I have a problem.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:52
Totally.

Scott Benner 1:15:54
Okay. Because you had no, it's all ask you. Is there anything that you wanted to talk about that we didn't? And I will tell you why you're looking that I'm incredibly happy with this conversation. I thought it was.

Alex Quinn 1:16:06
Yeah, for sure. Oh, okay. So one of my things was the social aspects of eating a particular way. And this, I feel like can translate across the board, you know, be it low carb, vegan, high carb, whatever. Um, there's a lot of questions about how do you handle eating at a restaurant? How do you handle parties or holidays and this kind of thing? And that takes us back to one of the points we made earlier in this conversation about you have to not care what other people think. Yeah. Because when you stop caring what other people think then these questions to me become a moot point. You know, if I, like example, I went to a Thanksgiving holiday dinner with my partner's adopted brother's adopted family.

Scott Benner 1:17:07
Go ahead, people. I gotcha.

Alex Quinn 1:17:09
Yep. People, people I'd never met before they live out in rural Georgia. So they're not going to eat the same way that I do, you know. And I respect that. So what I did was I brought a dish that I could eat, that everybody would enjoy. And then I stuck to Turkey. And that, and I had a great time, and everything was wonderful. And like nobody even questioned what was on my plate. Yeah. And, you know, that's how I do it at parties to like, you know, I'll bring a baggie of bacon in my purse and eat that at a party if I have to, like, um, I don't know, I'm just not afraid of people thinking that it's weird to do what I'm doing or feel like I have to justify any of my choices to somebody else.

Scott Benner 1:17:57
I don't I don't get I don't get feeling that way at all about anything. Like, I here's the way I think about it. Imagine your mind right now everybody's listening. All the people in the world you'd go to with a life or death situation, how many people do you really know? You'd be like, I what you think is important, right? Yeah. A list of 100 people has not popped in everyone's head. Oh, yeah. I know all the people. There's three people who you're like, yeah, this guy is bright. That one's a little stupid, but seems to make good decisions for some reason. And, and you know, and I got a common sense, friend. And that's pretty much it. But yet, you'll let you'll let a stranger make you feel weird about how you eat, how you look how you smell who you are. I don't understand that. I just don't get there. Right. So

Alex Quinn 1:18:41
like, even my own parents, when I went low carb were like, what are you doing? And I was like, I don't care. Trust me, you know.

Scott Benner 1:18:49
And when it's the internet, I don't know, if you're all aware of how the internet works. You don't have to look at it. It's not like it's not seared in your eyeballs, you could just look away and go, Oh, look, it's not there anymore. Like you can literally make the internet disappear. It's as if it doesn't exist.

Alex Quinn 1:19:05
Right? I mean, isn't that funny how we have such like, amazing relationships with people that like, aren't in our reality, like they don't exist, it's a relationship through a person in your phone,

Scott Benner 1:19:19
everybody should get the benefit of doing something like this once and what I mean by that is like, I wrote a book one time, and it was interesting to see people review it. And and once you realize that somebody is going to like it, and somebody is not going to like it. And that doesn't make it that doesn't change what it is or how you felt about it or what your intention was. It's a freeing feeling like even with this, even with this podcast, you know, people will like joke with me all the time. Like they'll say like, I'm in my house, and I'll say to my husband, the guy on the podcast said or Scott would do it like this. And And listen, I'm not you know, I'm not Don't know, like pick the most famous person, you know, right? I'm not being spoken about all around the world with the with the same, you know, frequency as those people, but there are people saying something I said or my name out loud in their homes and almost unaware of it, you have to be able to just think, okay, whatever. Like that's good. Like, if it works for them, I'm glad if they're saying it because they don't like me, there's nothing I can do about it. Like I like to be able to have that freedom is is I wish everybody could could experience something that would force them to give up on caring about those things.

Alex Quinn 1:20:34
Yeah, for sure. Much. Well, look, I've I have, I don't know if you've experienced it to this level, but I've legitimately gotten death threats in my inbox about what I had to say about managing diabetes. And like, it rattled me for about a day. And then I blocked that person and went on about my life.

Scott Benner 1:20:58
realize they've now gone Yeah, I No one's ever threatened me. And this is not a this is not a an offer for you to start. Please don't do.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:06
Yeah, no, don't

Unknown Speaker 1:21:07
invite.

Scott Benner 1:21:09
But I mean, I I'll get an email once in a while. It's mostly about my, are you gonna make me say this out loud? It's mostly my personality, Alex, like, I get periodically, from adults with type one, generally ones who have had a tough go. I don't think it's I don't think it's very comfortable sometimes to hear a person who does not have Type One Diabetes tell you that they understand how to manage it, when you are struggling with it. And you. And I understand that I've and I do my best to do my best to make sure that people know that. But I get caught up sometimes in language like I'll sometimes I'll be doing like something with Jenny. And I'll be like, so say I have diabetes. And this happened. I'm just trying to set up a scenario. And I don't mean to say I have it like I don't. It's a colloquial way of speaking, you know, right.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:58
Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:22:00
And but yeah, it has happened and people have really horrible notes to me. And I read them and I try to take from them what I think is valuable. And then I let the rest of it go cuz

Alex Quinn 1:22:14
you can't please everybody.

Scott Benner 1:22:15
You know, like, you can't, that it is what it is right that some of my favorite reviews are the ones that are like, I love that podcast and hate that guy to me.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:26
That's funny.

Scott Benner 1:22:26
I love that so much. Because here's what it says to me that the podcast is so valuable that they're willing to listen, even though they hate me. I'm like, that's fantastic. All right, you were terrific. And the birds behind you were an added bonus. I thought,

Unknown Speaker 1:22:41
are they I love it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:22:43
yours is the second episode that will have bird singing in the background. And people really liked it the first time so I thought it was very cool. Well, I appreciate you very much doing this. I really don't I'm sorry. We had some trouble, like sinking up at one point. But

Alex Quinn 1:23:00
well, my fault my email is full. Well, then I'm not sorry. Yeah, no. 100%.

Scott Benner 1:23:06
Actually, Alex, what I meant to say is I would appreciate if you would apologize.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:10
Well, I'm sorry. And you're welcome.

Scott Benner 1:23:12
They're excellent. Couple things First, let's thank Alex for coming on the show and talking to us about how she eats. Thank you Alex. Then let's thank Omni pod and Dexcom Oh, and you're not really supposed to use n twice but I don't feel like editing this out so end touched by type one. Checkout touched by type one.org find them on Facebook or Instagram. Look into the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox or check into those offerings from Omni pod at Omni pod comm forward slash juicebox links of course in the show notes of your podcast player worth Juicebox Podcast comm also let me remind you very quickly I mean number one out music I'll just remind you quickly if you're looking for the diabetes pro tip episodes there diabetes pro tip calm or at Juicebox Podcast calm. Let me tell you this too. If you're looking for some really great people talking about type one diabetes, the way we talked about it on the show, you are looking for the Facebook page for the podcast. It is of course completely free. I know some places like the charger to be in their Facebook page. That seems weird to me. It's called Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. It's a private Facebook group. There are 11,000 people in it. And it's great, really is a wonderful place to talk about type one. Check it out, head on over if you're on the Facebook. Last thing I enjoyed this conversation about the way Alex eats and timely because I just saw online, somebody I would love it if Dr. Burns theme came on the podcast. Meanwhile, I don't know if Dr. Bernstein knows about this podcast or not, I wouldn't imagine he would man in his 80s. But if he did, or if somebody knew him, I have to tell you, I'd love to talk to him. It's a fascinating conversation. Even if you don't eat the way, Alex does or want to eat the way Dr. Bernstein talks about, I still think it's a great, great story. And I'd love to hear it. So if you know Dr. Bernstein. Get him on the podcast. If you're enjoying the show, please subscribe in the podcast app that you're listening in. Did I just say in twice? It's not important. I'm just saying if you're listening in a podcast app, and you're not subscribed or following the show, could you do me a solid and subscribe? If you are subscribed, thank you. That's lovely. Tell a friend, tell two friends, tell people you don't know, grab people's cell phones when they're not looking. Open up the podcast app and subscribe to my show. And then just give it back to them. I don't think that's illegal. I'm not a lawyer. So don't take my word for it. This is not like legal advice, obviously. But I would like you to do that if you could. I'm not asking you to just saying that. If you told me like if I got an email it said, Scott. I have a friend has diabetes. I picked up his phone. I opened it up, listened to all these podcasts. I was like, boom Juicebox Podcast, and I just subscribed. I'd be like, No, thank you. That's how I would respond to that email, if you like thank you. And then I say something nice. And that would probably be the end of email correspondence. This has gotten away from us. But anyway, subscribe to the podcast and a podcast player. If you listen online, it's alright with me. But come on, right. Let's get a podcast player. By the way, they should be free. I shouldn't even say a podcast player. You could listen anywhere you get audio like Spotify for example. Or Pandora do people still use that's not the point. The point is if you get audio in a thing, you can probably get the buy cast in that thing. And buy that thing. I mean an app. It's an app world, people.

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