Tonight at my folk dance group, I was telling my friends about my fantastic, better than average blood lipid panel. And their first reaction was, "oh, you must have really cut down the fat!" Well, no, I didn't. "Well, what about the saturated fat?" Nope, didn't pay any attention to that, either. "Well, what did you do?" I cut back on carbs. " Well, the Mediterranean diet is really the best" Then I stopped talking. I don't REALLY know all that much about the Mediterranean diet, but one of the ladies gave me a copy of Nutrition Action Newsletter, published by CSPI, and it has a distinct bias toward plant food in order to save the earth (when what would really save the earth is to get the human population way down), and there were recipes, and one of them (red lentils) had 40g of carbs per one-cup serving -- I couldn't get full on THAT! They also gave a sample menu that included an all-carb breakfast of fruit, fat-free milk and oatmeal -- no way I could tolerate that, a salad and hummus for lunch -- I would be starving 2 hours later, and stir-fried veggies and tofu over brown rice and yogurt with banana and a little granola for dinner. And I got to thinking -- let the non-diabetics save the world. Those who can handle that kind of diet should follow it. My insulin-impaired metabolism requires a medically indicated diet, and that's what I'll follow!

And for those who are curious as to what a better than average lipid panel is: Total cholesterol 170 (range under 200) LDL 90 (range under 100) HDL 65 (over 60 considered protective) Triglycerides 77 (range under 150) and VLDL 15 (range under 40). I have NEVER had such a good lipid panel in my life, and the only thing I can attribute it to is having reduced my carb intake. The proof is in the low-carb pudding!