Reuters: Potato lovers may face higher risk of diabetes here are a couple snippets from the story:

"Though potatoes have healthful attributes, they also have a high glycemic index (GI) -- meaning they cause a rapid, strong rise in blood sugar. Over time, these surges may damage the pancreatic cells that produce the hormone insulin, which is needed to metabolize blood sugar.

Overweight or sedentary adults may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of high-GI foods because they often have underlying insulin resistance -- a precursor to diabetes in which body cells lose their sensitivity to insulin."

and,

"He and his colleagues found that women with the highest potato intake were 14 percent more likely than those with the lowest intake to develop diabetes over 20 years. And women who ate the most french fries, specifically, had a 21 percent greater risk of diabetes than those who ate the fewest."

__________________
~~~Teelbee
Back to GOAL!!!
start weight: 176/goal range: 137-134/now: 138
Reached goal in Aug. 2003 - 4rd year of maintenance.

That's interesting, Teel. In the old days, I don't think I'd go more than 2 days without eating a potato in one form or another. Matter of fact, I can remember 3 servings of potatoes in a day. Hash browns w/breakfast, maybe some french fries with lunch, and a baked potato with dinner.

Baked potatoes were my strongest craving when I first adopted this way of eating, which is why I'd allow myself a baked potato skin - with all the fixins - every so often. Once I realized I could have this and that it was ok on my BGL's the cravings started to subside. Funny, now, I don't think I've had a "skin" in a year or so.

__________________

Someone told me once that a spoonful of potato turns to 'sugar' in your body faster than a spoonful of sugar does! This would certainly follow that kind of logic.

Sometimes I look back on the amount of bread, pasta and potatoes that I consumed and am amazed that I am not in much worse shape that I am.

Maggie - have you found that you simply don't miss these things any longer? Honestly, I occasionally miss a nice piece of "rustic" (dark or grain) bread or homemade bread with a fancy meal - but I don't miss pasta or potatoes at all. At all. I wonder if I ever loved them or if I ate them because they were cheap and easy and filling. mmmmmmmm, I wonder.....

__________________
Hugs, Rachel







(the horn is in honor of DH!)
Quien canta, sus males espanta... ("She who sings fightens away her ills") Miguel de Cervantes

Yes, Rachel. You're right.

Once I realized that I COULD have some small portion or version of something I THOUGHT I was craving, the less I thought about it. For the first year or so, I'd have a potato skin every month or so, ditto a quarter of an english muffin, or a small piece of dark rye bread.

It's been literally years since I've thought of those things long enough to work them into my menu. LOL! The thought surfaces, I acknowledge it, I say "yes, maybe I'll have a bit of that next week" and then I forget to do anything about it.

It's true, I think, that we "like" "what we eat" and if we eat differently long enough, we learn to "like" "what we eat." Does that make any sense?

__________________

It's not so hard to not think about those foods, but when you smell them, sometimes the cravings can get really bad. There is a food chain here that has piped ducting from the bakery to the front doors so that when you enter the store, you are immediately hit with the smell of fresh baked bread, making you hungry, so you buy more.

I can do without potatoes and pasta, not miss them, but when I smell fresh baked bread, I drool. Of course, I don't indulge.

__________________
Nita