#874 Type 2 Diabetes Pro Tip: Fueling Plan

March 22, 2023Scott Benner

A series for people with pre and Type 2 diabetes.

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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.

00:00:22 Importance of personalized fueling plan.
00:10:43 Include vegetables in your diet.
00:12:00 Childhood experiences can shape food preferences.
00:17:57 Importance of monitoring blood sugar.
00:26:26 Processed foods can impact blood sugar.
00:29:23 Food culture and societal pressure.
00:37:08 Forming habits takes conscious effort.
00:40:01 Tracking intake helps with evaluation.
00:45:23 Avoid processed foods, choose healthier options.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 874 of the Juicebox Podcast

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Type Two diabetes Pro Tip series from the Juicebox Podcast. Today Jenny and I are going to talk about your fueling plan amongst other things. While you're listening, please remember 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. If you're just finding the diabetes Pro Tip series for type two diabetes, there are other episodes already available. Check them out at Juicebox Podcast or search your favorite audio app or podcast that if you're looking for some silky sheets are lovely joggers, maybe some nice PJs, check out cozy earth.com And when you check out use the offer code juicebox to save 35% on your entire order. If you're enjoying this series, please share it with someone else who you think might also enjoy it.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six and the Dexcom G seven continuous glucose monitoring system dexcom.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter, you want a glucose meter that is easy to hold, easy to read, accurate and offer Second Chance test strips if that's what you want. And I think that is what you should want. You want the contour next gen blood glucose meter contour next one.com forward slash juice box. Alright Jenny, we are here today to add to our type two series. Yay. Today we are going to discuss a fueling plan, which you taught me in the other episode not to say diet. And I didn't even think to say diet. So I'm pleased to say that I'm learning.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:31
You didn't have big signs in front of you. I really don't say diet.

Scott Benner 2:35
Actually, I thought oh, we're going to talk about eating today. We're going to and I went into my little note and I noticed that I was going to talk about fueling plan. I just wrote down fueling plan. I was like, Oh, look at me. I'm learning.

Unknown Speaker 2:45
Okay, you That's awesome. So

Scott Benner 2:49
So let's, I guess, just broad broad scope, it doesn't really matter, right? If you're a person who may not have been eating well, prior to your type two diabetes, or you were eating great, and you got it anyway. Right? What you're going to eat moving forward to help yourself is going to be the same one way or the other. That makes me Yeah, ish. Like, like, it's not like, I'm saying that, what's it going to be about. So if I'm coming in, I mean, let's just break this down. If I'm coming in with type two diabetes and a weight, right, type two diabetes, and no weight issue, then the person with no weight issue is just going to check to make sure they're not eating foods that are driving their blood sugar up,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:40
correct in in this example, it's a good example. The person who doesn't need some loss just needs to maintain and stabilize and also now has to watch what's happening to their blood sugar levels, it's more of a look at what you've been doing that's maintaining, and then shifting some of the things maybe out or maybe portion needs to change in one place versus another or maybe it's a changeover of these types of foods versus these types of foods, right. Similarly, in the person that needs or could benefit from some loss to get more to an optimized weight, you know, for their own body and for their activity level. There's might be a shift of kinds of foods as well. But it's definitely they need also some portion navigation for that,

Scott Benner 4:34
okay. What I mean, I think this is universal across a good health, not just diabetes type one type absolutely right. And, and we're going to try for people who don't know I think to my mom, excuse me, my mom was told she was pre diabetic. And and then she told me all the things she was going to eat and I was stuck on by how many of them had had, like she, she let me be clear, she said to me, I'm going to eat low carb. That's the thing she had heard somewhere, I don't know, doctor said it to her or whatever. But she's like, I'm gonna eat a low carb lifestyle. And then she listed all these vegetables that had a significant amount of carbs in them. And I thought, Oh, my mom doesn't know the difference between what has carbs in it and what doesn't like she had some of it right? Some of it wrong. Correct. Right. And so can you just help for a minute? Like, can you like just out loud, put a meal plan together for somebody and talk about some of the foods that you can be looking at?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:37
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's the easiest, I think. And unfortunately, the plate method, right, that was put out by the USDA, so that everybody knew what they were supposed to be looking at on their plate. I think the plate method actually is a very good idea for somebody starting out who's really trying to revamp and may have gotten the idea, well, I must, I have to go low carb. But what does that mean, right. And there are so many different ways to do low carb. But the plate methods easy, because if you just imagine sitting down with your plate, you're going to put on it more of the foods that have a low impact on your glucose level. And half of your plate then should be filled with what we call non starchy vegetables. And for your example with your mom, she thought, well, I'm going to do a low carb diet. But maybe she thought just vegetables in general, were low carb, right? They're unprocessed. They're, you know, unless you've bought them with a whole bunch of sauce or something on top of them. They're pretty clean food, right. But there is a difference. Non starchy means that they don't contain a lot of natural sugar. All vegetables do contain some kind of natural carbohydrate to them. Some have a lot more than others. So if you fill half of your plate with these non starchy vegetables being your greens, I mean, they're a powerhouse of nutrition. I'm not talking like, you know, Iceberg lettuce. You can eat all the iceberg lettuce that you want, you're not really getting a heck of a lot of good nutrition there. But it's a filler. So you're talking about the dark leafy greens are like the nice spring mixes and those kinds of things. You're talking about broccoli and cauliflower and cabbage and cucumbers and mushrooms and onions and peppers and even the summer zucchini or the the yellow squash. Those are non starchy vegetables and green beans and that kind of stuff.

Scott Benner 7:43
Easy Google search would be low glycemic vegetables, right? Yes. Okay. That will be great. That's the way you can kind of start now also, there are people who go all vegetables. For sure, too, right? That's a that's a legitimate plan as well, right? Like, instead of like low carb, which you think of as more as like protein and fat, there are some people who go like none of that. And, and they have similar successes sometimes as well.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:10
That's it's yeah, it's interesting, you know, the more the more plant based vegetable kind of plant based foods that you eat, they are really filling. So you can eat a fair amount of them. And because they are non starchy, you don't get a major shift or a major bump in your blood sugar compared to sitting down and eating something like, unfortunately, a starchy white potato, right, it's going to have a big impact on your blood sugar, because that's

Scott Benner 8:39
part of that plan. When you go all vegetables for diet for type two diabetes, that you're just very full, and you're not taking in a ton of calories and carbs, because there's a

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:49
caloric load goes down, because there's bulk. Exactly. Now is that all round, well rounded, it's not anymore. If we're talking about healthy, nutrient dense and not necessarily calorically dense, then we do need a balance. And so that's why I think the plate method is a really nice place to start because you can get a wealth of non starchy vegetables on your plate. And then you can also the other half of the plate, really good lean quality protein sources, from whatever you know whether it's fish or chicken or maybe you love tofu or you're vegan or whatever. There are a lot of really good low glycemic protein sources, even beans and lentils while they do contain carbohydrate, naturally. It's downplayed based on the fiber and also the protein that you're getting with it. So

Scott Benner 9:43
also hydration still very important with type two like type one, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:47
Absolutely. Same hydration is I think it's a forgotten thing for a lot of people regardless of diabetes. You might carry your water bottle around during the course of the day and you know, sip on it or whatever. verb but yes, we need to drink water. And it's very important with type two.

Scott Benner 10:05
Part of the reason I like my green drink is because it also comes with me right away in the morning drinking 12 to 16 ounces of water. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I absolutely noticed that that's better. Okay, so here's what is rattling around in my head. Like, that's all well and good. Right? Like, can

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:23
I say something before you? Can you remember your idea that you're gonna go forward? Alright, here is your green drink in the morning sort of made me think of the idea that vegetables for many people are just a dinner time. Right? Can you include them in other parts of your day? Absolutely. You do like a greens based thing in the morning time. It's a powder, you mix it in, it's easy, you get it down right away. You could also do something similar by getting vegetables for breakfast and putting it in a smoothie. You get a lot of quality nutrition that way, in not a very heavy, calorie dense package. You know, things like spinach and baby kale and celery and cucumbers. They all mix really well, along with you know, lower glycemic fruits, which is the next thing. Things like your berries and kiwi and apples and they're all much lower in impact. So popping that into a smoothie. It's a good way to sneak some vegetables in

Scott Benner 11:25
most of what you just listed would go in any high end scrambled egg to like if you go to a nice, yes, hell Right. They'll throw broccoli into your scrambled eggs or, you know, greens, things like that. There's other places mushrooms. i Right. Mushrooms are a good 1am I right. I love mushrooms. Yes. Every time I make anything I put mushrooms with it. Because and here's why Jenny, I don't eat a lot of vegetables. I do the greens. I am not a vegetable person. It's a texture thing for me. Ah, I can't do them the way they take and listen, we can go into it if you want. I don't think there's a lot of need for it here. But I grew up kind of broke. And there were a lot of canned nasty vegetables given to me like you're scoring like French string greens, like friends, you'd like to have these tastes horrible. And then I was I was parented in a way where you're not getting up so you eat it. And then I was a very stubborn person. So there were times where for breakfast, I would get cold green beans from the night before. And they'd be like, eat them and I'd be like no. So and I would like like physically like gag on them. Yeah, so now I'm wired wrong about vegetables now through bad parenting. And my dad's dead my mom's really old school over here this so they did a bad job and then made me hate vegetables. So I put you like mushrooms. I like it's the weirdest thing. Because

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:47
maybe it's because you're a fun fun guy. And they're nice. I don't know.

Scott Benner 12:52
My wife's always like you don't like the way it feels in your mouth. But mushrooms are okay. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. I like onions. And they're very good for you. Yeah. I love Listen, I love them. I always have like a big bushel of them in the, in the, in the refrigerator. But like I'm looking at this list. And if you put me in this situation, I'd be like, Oh, I don't see a carrots. I think of carrots. And I'm like the guy don't know why. Because texturally, they're like potatoes, which I can do. If they're cooked as they're cooked, right? A cold carrot I can't do as soon as it splits apart, it feels waxy, or I don't know how to describe it. Like, you know what it flakes off. I'm like, it's in my mouth.

Unknown Speaker 13:38
You are so fun. I'm

Scott Benner 13:40
a child. Right, like and so, everything on this list. I've tried egg when you don't particularly care to get past the texture of it. So I didn't you sneak

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:49
it into things like and this isn't you know, tip wise, if there are other people who are like, I can't really do that. Well. Can you sneak it in and make like a zucchini lasagna? Again, get rid of the noodles, slice up the zucchini. It cooks and becomes very soft. Similar to noodle.

Scott Benner 14:09
Let me tell you, I'm gonna do that this weekend. I've never tried that before. I'll try that. Oh, it's so good. I'll

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:14
send you a recipe. Thank

Scott Benner 14:15
you that I will definitely try that salad. I taught. This is so embarrassing Jesus in a restaurant with my wife, seven, eight months pregnant with our first kid. In the afternoon, we just gone to like a OB appointment. So we were kind of like wild and free in the middle of the day, nothing to do. And we went to this restaurant, I can picture where I was sitting. And I said, I'm going to order a salad. And my wife goes what? And I was like yeah, I'm gonna get a salad. And she's like, You don't eat salad. I said it goes beyond that. Kelly. I've never had salad. I'm like, I'm gonna try a bowl of lettuce with things in it now. And I choked it down because I wanted to be a better role model for my kid. Sure, I taught myself to eat salad when I was like 25 years old. You are also talking to a person who was not taken to a dentist as a child. I really grew up like an animal you really

Unknown Speaker 15:15
did. Yeah, not like I'm sorry.

Scott Benner 15:19
Broken. That's just how it went, you know. And so I taught myself to eat a salad. I like tomato sauce. I have trouble with chunks of I can't eat a tomato.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:30
And that's another one. It's just like the mix it in figure out how to get it stuck in there someplace. soups are another really good one, where in especially pureed soups, you can hide a lot of things. So if you like tomato sauce, and it has to be really, really, really smooth, you could put a whole bunch of stuff in it, you could put carrots in there, you could probably put green beans in there, although I don't know what it would do to the flavor. And get a really good high power. Like a Vitamix kind of thing. Let's say. You can puree it down and you'll never know what was in there. As long as it's still got all the seasonings that you want from marinara sauce.

Scott Benner 16:10
I could put pureed carrots into a tomato sauce, and I would never know they were in there. Hold on. Yeah, make a note about that. So

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:18
again, I mean, you're not going to put 20 carrots in with one thing of tomatoes and haven't tasted the tomatoes. But more than

Scott Benner 16:24
I was gonna get if I didn't throw a carrot in there. Exactly. Yeah. Because even like pepper, like I know I can cook peppers. This is I know that I must sound like I'm four years old, but I can cook peppers down into things and eat them. Yeah, but if you made like a stuffed pepper like my wife likes Turkey stuffed peppers. I can't do that. You can't do that. No, I because the pepper gets kind of like I feel like I'm arguing against myself here. But the pepper gets like soft and weird. And then I don't like the

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:55
texture. Yeah, it's a texture thing for you definitely. What about roasted vegetables like if you roast pan roast them in the oven, like onions and mushrooms and peppers and those kinds of things. If you get if you have a good oven or you have something that you can kind of like char broil them with the right seasoning. Sometimes that's enough of a flavor like that you're okay with what it is.

Scott Benner 17:20
Yeah, I tried that with broccoli. But then the broccoli breaks down into those little round things on the floor. Or whatever, Kenny listen to get to my mouth. They're everywhere. And I'm like, why is this happening? I'm listen, I'm outing myself today because I'm going to make these quick for you. There are CGM and B GMs. A CGM is a continuous glucose monitor. And that's what Dexcom makes the Dexcom G six and brand new Dexcom G seven. These devices will allow you to see the speed, direction and number of your blood sugar. Just think about that. I mean, in context, they were talking about type two diabetes. Imagine you eat something and your blood sugar starts to go up, or it doesn't, or it goes up quickly and then comes back down. How would you know any of that with a Dexcom, you will know you will see it happen right in front of you on your receiver or your Android or iPhone. It's crazy how far these technologies come. My daughter is wearing a Dexcom G six at the moment, she will be switching to a G seven very soon. I know somebody personally wearing a G seven and they're having a good old time of it. So you can check it out and see what you think Dex comm.com forward slash juice box. What I'll tell you is there is no better way to make decisions about your medications and your food than being able to see how food and medication impacts your blood sugar. You can see that with Dexcom dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Of course, the podcast is sponsored today by the contour line of blood glucose meters as well. Their latest the contour next gen blood glucose meter is highly accurate. And you're gonna like it, contour next.com forward slash juice box head over and take a look. See all their meters, read about the test strips learn what it means that they offer a second chance. I'll tell you right now, if you touch blood, but don't get enough, you can go back and get more without ruining the accuracy of the strip or the strip itself. And that's a big deal. It's not to say that the strip needs a lot of blood just you know you could fumble around with it or touch it and drop it or whatever. I don't know what happens to you. And you can go right back and finish up lickety split. Like it never happened. Contour Next One com forward slash juice box while you're over there. Check out the Buy Now button. There are a number of places online where you might be able to buy the meters and test trip is cheaper in cash than you're currently paying with your insurance. I know that's strange to think. But it's worth looking into Contour. Next One comm forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. I, I made it through a lot of my life without eating vegetables. Sure, I would supplement where I could. But obviously it's not enough. Even the green drink is great, but it's not the same as eating this food, right? And I'm well

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:31
and you bring up a good point there eating the food. It's just like we say with sugar from fruit. Eat the fruit don't drink the juice, because on a blood sugar level, what's it going to do differently to your blood sugar, right? So it's the same thing from a nutrient level, you're getting good stuff from your greens. But on a digestive level, you're not getting all the advantage of your body breaking it down and pulling things out and getting the digestive fiber benefit. So

Scott Benner 21:00
yeah, I mean, now having said about that this week, I have never been happier than I have been this week, I went to the Costco and I bought I bought four steaks. And I cook them with a light seasoning. And then I refrigerate them. And when I get hungry I slice a few slices off, right. And I I pick at them. I have I cooked all ready to go with them. Shrimp I sauteed some shrimp in mushrooms. And so like my lunch today, as I'll take probably four ounces of steak, put it with like two shrimp and a mushroom. And I'll just like eat that and that'll be my lunch. Yum. Yeah. And that. Because I'm putting myself in the position of the people listening. I'm thinking like, if I got type two diabetes, and you showed me this list of vegetables, I'd be like, Oh, I'm gonna die.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 21:55
Especially if you're not used to even eating some of them. Like you're starting in a very lean amount of vegetables that you would even consider trying to put into your diet. There are many people who already have vegetables in their diet, but maybe it's in such a small portion. That it's not, it's not the wealth of what they should be eating right. They might be doing a plate full of mashed potatoes and maybe aside of green beans, they should be flipped around. Yeah, green beans, good dinner salad, whatever is the wealth of the plate along with a nice healthy lean protein source. And then maybe the rest of the plate something like lower glycemic if you are still going with some type of a grain or maybe you want to definitely include fruit again from a nutrient dense quality. Fruit is excellent. It's just some is higher glycemic index meaning higher quicker impact on blood sugar, compared to others. Your lower glycemic are definitely the berries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries. Typically the green apples are the leanest in terms of like carbon packed kiwi fruit interestingly, as well. Some of the pears. Yeah. Okay.

Scott Benner 23:16
So I think that I think that people need to understand like, even though I'm like I miss anti vegetables a person could be still when I scroll down this list. I can find five or six things on here. I I'd be happy to eat. Sure. It's just the big the big picture. It's it's psychological for me, like I think of like, I smell peas. And I don't want them. I feel carrots in my mouth when I think about carrots. i Yeah, green beans. I feel them stuck in my throat when I think

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:50
I can understand the P one. Because I will only eat real potted peas. Like take them out of the pod yourself and eat the pea like fresh peas. If they have been frozen if they have been canned, then I can taste that in my mouth. You can you can see me right yeah, I can I get where you're saying you can. You can get that in your mouth and you're like, nope, totally not going in.

Scott Benner 24:22
And I do I do think that's part of it. I think the preparation of the vegetables that were given to me as a kid really stuck to me because I have prepared things at home. I you know, when I'm teaching myself to eat it, I might end up with a little Parmesan cheese overtop of it to try to like sure get it in, you know what I mean? But I could do better. Like I really could. But one but I'm thinking that people need to hear is that if you're looking for a place to start, it's boxed bagged cookies cake. What flour right like these are the four tracking

Jennifer Smith, CDE 24:55
process processed foods, right, right. That's the best word for it. Honestly. And, you know, sometimes too, we also have to consider the grand majority of people with diabetes have type two diabetes, and it reaches all, it reaches all level of people, whether someone starting out with a diagnosis in kind of the realm of where you grew up without a lot of money. So they may be on a very tight budget about what they can do, there might be people who can absolutely afford to be improving their intake, right. I mean, there are some really good resources, I have a book that was put out quite a while ago, by the ADEA. It's diabetes meals on $7, a day or less. So from that aspect, it gives you kind of grocery lists that gives you how to pick and choose some things, how to put meals together, sometimes, adults diagnosed with type two haven't been cooking. And, you know, again, this isn't like a shame or a blame or anything. But this is just the way that it is this is how busy we've gotten in life. And the more as you said, the more processed the more packaged the food is, the potential from those increase in ingredients that you can't read. When you look at the label, the impact on blood sugar can be something that then you can't figure out.

Scott Benner 26:31
I went to I did something interesting. I googled processed food examples. But I went to the NHS in the UK for my return instead of America, just in case there's any like corporate pressure on the list that we might find in America. Food processing can be as basic as freezing, canning, baking or drying. To try and that's what that's what they're saying. They say what counts is processed food breakfast, cereals, cheese, tinned vegetables, I guess they mean canned vegetables and bread, savory snacks, such as crisps, or chips, sausage rolls, pies, pastries, meat products, like bacon, sausage, ham salami or Pate, a microwavable meal or ready made meals, cakes and biscuits drinks, even like milk or soft drinks. It says not all processed foods are a bad choice. Some foods do processing to make them safe, such as milk. So it Yes, milk is processed, but not in this category.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:34
And that I think that's actually a really good description. And I'm glad that they emphasize that process doesn't necessarily mean poor quality. Like in my cupboard sure I have processed foods. It's things like canned beans, right? Yeah. Because it doesn't take me an entire 24 hours to soak them. So I buy I buy beans that have already been soaked for me so I can easily use that.

Scott Benner 28:01
Think about this even Have you ever seen low salt bacon? Jedi? Do you ever buy bacon?

Unknown Speaker 28:09
We don't eat bacon? Well,

Scott Benner 28:10
there's a low salt bacon. Let me just skip over the part where you've never looked at bacon before. There's the low salt bacon every time I see that. I think what what is that a healthier pig? No. It's they salt the other bacon. And that's what they're saying here is processed foods, what can make them less healthy, extra ingredients like Salt, Sugar Fat that are added to the process. And buying processed foods can lead to people eating more than the recommended amounts of sugar, salt and fat because you're not even aware you're getting them.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:41
And you and that's that's really those three sugar, salt and fat. They are something that the food industry has absolutely clicked into in order to hook people on the non preferred processed food. It is they put them in together in the right amounts in the foods. And it's the reason that you can't just eat one potato chip.

Scott Benner 29:10
Yeah, no, it's not your fault when you're like, Oh my God, these are amazing. Like, salt, fat, like you always will be saying like crack heroin. Absolutely contain like, like things that you get. And you're like, Oh, your body's like do that again. Yeah, so addictive. Yeah, the end? I think, too. It's a modern society, right? Like, obviously, there are so many people on the planet. And this is the way we have so far figured out to feed everybody. And, you know, you could make the like, well, everyone's alive and they're not hungry, like they used to be. But look at all these people who have type two diabetes and you know, other things that are happening to people's health that we're sort of like That's odd, you know, and right. And so you're gonna have to me you're gonna have to put some effort into it because you're basically dodging the way people hand food to you back in the 50s where you may cookies once a month, right? Okay. And now we just have like, we have so much like, there's such a like everybody stop and think right now. Could you could you make pasta in your house right now? Yes. Could you make a cookie from scratch right now you have all those things, you know, like, it's, it's too in your face? And yes, you know, it's, I'm missing the word but it's, it's just on the present.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 30:26
It is. And I think it is because we've also become it's become a part of every social encounter, like a business meeting today. Even on the highest corporate level, there is always food. Always. And you can't, you can't get away from it. And so you end up sometimes, honestly, from the mental standpoint, you end up feeling like the oddball out if you're always like, no, no, I'm just going to have a cup of coffee, or I'm just going to have a cup of tea or I'm just going to drink my water, you know, or I've got my own lunch. You get the look like you've got like four heads. Because you brought your pack food.

Scott Benner 31:14
She's healthier than the rest of us. Yeah, no, I mean, you and I've had dinner together before. Yeah, I've seen you. Like just pass something by just, I don't want that. Thank you need that? Thank you. Yeah, I just think that it's, I mean, look, you're gonna go to the doctor, right? We already talked about in previous episodes, you're gonna run into a lot of roadblocks understanding how to getting on medications if you need understanding, insulin diffusing and so on. But then this happens. To me, this seems like the linchpin here like this is the hardest part. I just I imagined for most people, this is the hardest part, like, I eat in a certain way, because I'm programmed to because this is how I grew up doing it. I'm partly shared my story about the vegetables because a reasonably intelligent person, I should be able to put a green bean in my mouth. But there's a seven year old boy being yelled at at a table somewhere who's like that makes me gag. And so right you know, and so whatever your thing is, that when you stop and look at your coverage, you go no, I have to have I have to have that. That's part of like, right? Holidays. People associate holidays with a certain food. Yes. So many damn holidays, that if you try to better your health, you can't because you're like, well, I'll just do it after because they roll into each other. Yeah, I'll do it after New Year's. Well, then Christmas. Oh, then we'll wait. Oh, New Years. Okay, well, oh, but you know, Valentine's day I'm gonna want chocolate. So we'll probably Irish potatoes. Hold on a second. I can't cuz in March that you know what, it'll be a Oh, Easter jelly beans, I'm really going to want jelly beans in Easter. So I'll be planning to Oh, God, Fourth of July. Well, I don't want to start then. And it just doesn't stop.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 33:02
It doesn't and I think you're bringing up something that also means you have to consider that there. There isn't an all or none principle. I think that gets people in trouble. There are some people that can do that. They can say, You know what? I've seen what this does, I'm good. Without it. I can just totally give this up. And I can go you know, just like you said I can do just the vegetables and maybe grilled chicken and I'm good with that. I'm not I'm not living to eat right? I'm taking in the fuel, which is the energy for our body because my body needs it. It's a necessity. But for the majority of people we need a little bit of a given take how much give should we have in the picture? You so in terms of like a plan 8020 9010 If you're as you bring up each of those holidays, right we've got something in October, we've got something in November, we have some type of something in December and depending on how you celebrate the beginning of January then February rolls around and like you said March and then April depending on if you celebrate Easter or anything within that there's it's it's never ending and then of course we got the Fourth of July there's only a couple of months in there. There's really not like a food base something

Scott Benner 34:19
maybe summertime and then it's ice cream and like things that are barbecuing everyone associates with by the way barbecuing interesting people like meat that's healthy. Yeah. Okay. If you dry rub your beef. That's great. If you throw a big sauce over top of it, you're looking a block of sugar. And that's why it tastes so great because it's and so you have to like everyone listening is going to just have to decide and but I think they should also understand the rest of it. And I think that's the problem with type two is that it comes on we talked about earlier it comes on so slowly that it really just feels like I could probably Just stay two steps ahead of this and I'll be okay. Right, right. And the truth is it will. I mean, for most of us, it's going to catch you if you don't, if you don't correct do something, right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 35:13
Which is, you know, like I said, That's why a little bit of I can do this. But the majority of the time, I really need to focus on doing this. So let's take each month of the year, let's say that there is something right, you have to make a decision and say, Okay, I'm going to really celebrate here. And the celebration is a day. Okay, what's a day out of 30 days? Right? Yeah, you're not even looking at like 10% of the month, you're looking at much less than that of being able to, if you really liked grandma's frosted sugar cookies at Christmas time, then go ahead and do that or, right. But the majority of the time is what's going to have the wealth of impact overall.

Scott Benner 36:00
How long do you think it takes to change a habit? Like there's you ever thought about it, because there's, there's some people say it's two months, some people say it can take up to like, 250 days to change a habit. And I've seen while someone, I've seen a person do a fast, and at the end of seven days be like, I feel amazing, and not like a fast like no food. Like it's a it's a nutrition fast, like so you're taking in nutrition still, you're just it's anyway, at the end of seven days, they're like down 15 pounds, they feel amazing. Now they have food cravings. So like, I missed this, and I missed that. And they start off well with eating like, you know, things. They're like, Oh, this will be great. But then it's like a week later, and something happens, an event or stress hits or something like that, and it turns into a potato chip, then the salt hits them. And they're like, oh, here we go. Like it really is like watching. It's like watching an addict, like pick a cigarette back up again, or something like that. Yeah, you know? And so is there is there good science on how long it takes or there isn't really to,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:03
you know, it used it used to be in from what I know now it's more of like, it's more of a myth. Honestly, it used to be said that it takes three weeks to make a habit or 21 days to form a habit. And honestly, it was disproven a while ago. It I think what you said about two months, is about the statistic that was actually kind of re put out there. So in general, a habit means that you are making a conscious effort in the change time, it may mean that it's hard for you to do that. Every day. Once it becomes like the end of the night I was bring up like brushing your teeth. The end of the night comes that's your routine, you don't even often like think about it. It's just you head into the bathroom, you brush your teeth, you get in bed, and you'd kind of have this routine, right? It rolls at the point of which you easily go to the grocery store, or you easily write your grocery list, or you easily pick something that you know, is really good for you from a restaurant menu. And it didn't take effort to do that. You've got to have it formed. And sometimes it takes effort even beyond that once you've gone on a vacation, you've gotten out of your habit, you may have to reignite that habit again. Yeah, right. You know,

Scott Benner 38:29
when we talk about how like money can impact what people buy, we're usually thinking people who have less money or are forced to buy more processed food, which I think is true. But I think it's cheaper. Although food prices lately, nothing's cheap. But no, I also think if you have too much money, then it also feels like there's a decadence to it, like I could just buy this, this is $5 it means nothing to me, You know what I mean? Like and now I have a bag of candy around or I you know, I bought a block of chocolate because it's fancy or like, you know, like gears, right? You have to there used to be this thing that I would buy when I went to the grocery store. It's like this little junk food thing. And I realized it was as I got older, and I started making more money. I was like, I can afford this thing that I couldn't afford as a child. And then I would buy it sometimes and not want it. But it was just me being like, look, I can afford this. I can have Yeah, I can have this if I want to. And so there was a day I realized that and I told myself, I'm like you will never buy that again, when you go in that store. Like it doesn't matter if you want it or don't want to you're gonna make like a conscious decision to never purchase this thing again. Right? Nothing to do with your life or nutrition or anything like that. And that's one of the ways I started teaching myself to make changes. I just picked something completely banal when I was like, alright, this again, right for any context that was like a little like sugary candy like that right? Just something silly.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:52
I even it kind of goes along with how much tracking right a lot of people filler, also told will track your intake to kind of figure out exactly what you want to change. Tracking initially might be great if you're starting with a list of what you're doing, picking off of it and saying, Well, I could probably change this, I could transition this into this. And this would be better. Economically, it works out about the same. I think budget is a big thing. If you know how much you have to spend on something, you can often see that going to the grocery store and buying a bunch of stuff and preparing multiple meals is actually less expensive than buying the stuff from the restaurant. Yeah, it can be. But I think in terms of evaluation, you have to know what you're doing. That requires an adjustment. You can't just make an all over change without deciding I have to get rid of some stuff too.

Scott Benner 40:50
Well, it's overwhelming to and making a big change is difficult for anybody. And oftentimes people will say, well, it's not just me, there are other people in my house. Right? And so I can't just, but you know what you can because there are times when people are like, like have like harsh, like celiac disease, for example, rap people will like be like, Alright, that's it, everybody. We don't eat gluten anymore, because Billy's head falls off when we eat it. So we're all just going to stop and it turns out more like his belly falls. But but it turns out, you can if you need to, right, so you have to decide. Like it has to be a thing where you need to do it. And you have to you have to know and that's why I'm trying to say like gently but kindly, you're not going to outpace type two diabetes for your whole life, it is going to catch you. And when it catches you, you are going to be surprised at how quickly your health deteriorates in a myriad of different ways.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:44
If you don't make a change and make a habit of making that change. Yeah, you can't

Scott Benner 41:50
just act like it's going to be okay. It's it's not a thing you can ignore into oblivion. So

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:56
no, it's not. And unfortunately, again, with the the sheer lack of education and information from the get go. Again, there's not really a blame component to what people are lacking doing. Until of course they've been given information, and then just decide not to be able to do something with it. Right. I mean, if you've been told something, and it makes sense to you not that I didn't really get that. Okay, then ask more questions. But if you really did get it, and you're just choosing to not do it, then that's, that is on you. No one's

Scott Benner 42:36
gonna be able to help. I'll, I'll say this. I think bringing back up butterfat, salt and modern cooking. Just using it like magic to make things taste freaking amazing. Yeah, absolutely. And then you're you are hooked on it. I don't care if you realize it or not like you can get addicted to sugar. You can you know, eating that makes you want more of it. Like that, that whole thing. So I know that can feel like that can feel like well, look, someone tricked me into it. It's not my fault. It maybe it isn't, but the outcome is still gonna fall on to you. And what I would say here is when I found my youngest brother, I don't know how obvious it is to people if you listened enough, but I raised my brothers. So I when I was 13, my father left my mom went to work and my brother was we were all five years apart. I was 13 my brother was eight. My other brother was three. And for large portions of the day, it was me, right. And I didn't do everything right, because I was 13 Obviously, I didn't know what I was doing. But there was there was this time where I saw my youngest brother, not when he was three years later, he was smoking cigarettes. And I pulled him aside and I said listen, somewhere right now, there are 20 Rich people sitting in a boardroom laughing that you buy cigarettes. And I was like, Do you want to give them that satisfaction? They're going to kill you to take your money and you are just going to be okay with it. I was like I wouldn't smoke them just to save you to them. If for no other reason, and I do think that about some of this food sometimes like it is just it is everywhere. It is plentiful. It is in bags that are just too big. Like you don't I guess I grew up at Easter time we used to get these jelly beans and when I made a little more money I bought better jelly beans so for anybody listening, just born jelly beans are the best jelly beans I don't care if you agree or not. I'm right

Unknown Speaker 44:41
now that I've ever seen that brand, it's the it's the company that makes the peeps oh really

Scott Benner 44:47
they make jelly beans the best job so every year I would like get myself like a small bag of jellybeans and just and have them throughout the month. Well then one year these Jenny these mothers do They make a five pound bag of these jelly beans. Five pounds. Oh my goodness,

Unknown Speaker 45:05
it's five pound the Jelly Bean rolling $9 By the time you get to eat or walk $9 The

Scott Benner 45:13
one pound bag was $3 it was a no brainer.

Unknown Speaker 45:18
Oh my gosh. Okay. And

Scott Benner 45:22
and I just think like, when you see something like that you should look and think I'm not buying that, like you're not killing me to take my $9 Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 45:32
you're right. And the standpoint behind it, like I said earlier, is that their goal? On a broader sense, anybody that's manufacturing the majority of the processed true processed food, not like canned beans, right? It is to get you to come back and buy more of it. It is I mean, that's, that's the goal. So you really are like you told your brother, you're feeding a corporation that's really not doing anything beneficial for your body.

Scott Benner 46:05
Right. Yeah, I mean, at some point, you just have to say, I'm not going to be a part of your, your silly game where you end up with a bunch of money and I end up dead. So I'd rather give

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:15
my money to Farmer Joe down the road. Who's gonna give me? Well, maybe mushrooms for you. Green beans, right?

Scott Benner 46:22
I think about it as a savings plan. Every time you look at something that you know is going to hurt you put that money in an envelope instead. Yeah, and I don't know, like, I don't here's the point. I don't know what the answer is. What I'm going to tell you is, isn't it? You have to like you have to figure it out. You can't give up and there might be fits and starts you might not get it right the first time. You can't give up on this. This is this is it. I mean, what are the stats? How many people have type two diabetes in America? Do you know it? Oh, my

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:51
goodness, I haven't looked it up. I usually look it up yearly like at the beginning of the year. I don't think I've even looked it up this year. Um, I think it's like 270.

Scott Benner 47:01
I don't even know more than 37 million Americans have diabetes about one in 10. And approximately 90 to 95% of them have type two type two diabetes most often develops in people over 45. But more and more children, teens and young adults are also developing it. This is the CDC what causes type two diabetes, insulin is a hormone made by your pancreas that acts like a key to let blood sugar into the cells in your body for uses energy. If you have type two diabetes cells don't respond normally to insulin. This is called insulin resistance. Your pancreas makes more insulin to try to get cells to respond. Eventually your pancreas can't keep up your blood sugar rise is setting the stage for pre diabetes and type two diabetes, high blood sugar is damaging to the body and can cause other serious health health problems such as heart disease, vision loss and kidney disease. So yeah, like don't buy the jelly beans. Like just

Unknown Speaker 47:53
by the jelly.

Scott Benner 47:54
I think that's what that's what I read what I read was keep the nine bucks don't buy the jelly beans. Yeah, there you go. Anyway, okay, Jenny, is there anything I left out? Should we have said anything?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:03
Um, I don't know. I mean, we're talking about nutrition here. So I could probably go on for like two more hours. But

Scott Benner 48:11
I'll tell you towards the end of this series, why don't we do that? Why don't we jump back on? And you just talk to me like you're helping me. And I will. I will listen, and it'll be there for people if they want it, then.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:26
Do you think I'll convince you to eat green beans?

Scott Benner 48:28
I mean, probably not. Maybe wait French is the thin ones, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:34
Yeah, they're the they're the weird ones. I don't I won't even eat French green beans. See?

Scott Benner 48:38
Maybe I could try the other ones. Although I can feel them soft crunching in my mouth right now.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:45
We will talk about green beans in that. Okay, little

Scott Benner 48:48
beans come out of the middle. And I'm like what is that? Thank you very much. I appreciate

Unknown Speaker 48:54
you. Thank you.

Scott Benner 49:00
I want to thank Jenny for coming over today and talking about type two diabetes with me. And thank you for listening. I also want to thank Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six and Dexcom G seven continuous glucose monitoring systems dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. I'd also like to thank that contour line of blood glucose meters contour next one.com forward slash choose box go check out that brand new Contour next gen blood glucose meter. There are links in the show notes and links at juicebox podcast.com to Dexcom contour and all the sponsors when you click on the links, you're supporting the show. And don't forget if you've missed any part of the diabetes Pro Tip series for type two diabetes, you can find them at juicebox podcast.com. Or in our private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, but don't worry. All diabetes are welcome