I am sorry, sometimes I give up explaining to you about T1DM.
Today, I was consulting a 60 year-old Indian uncle about Food Intolerance and Diabetes. His diabetes is Type 2.
A few misconceptions that he is having:
1. Guava can help in lowering sugar level. But he forgot about eating guava with all other different types of fruits can increase his sugar tremendously, despite Guava is known to have a low Glycemic Index (GI).
2. Bitter gourd cannot help in reducing blood sugar level (which I agree with him, but I disagree with his explanation). His explanation is bitter gourd has a natural insulin property. So, when we eat bitter gourd, it will actually stimulate our pancreas to secrete less insulin. Less insulin = Higher sugar level.
3. I told him that I am also a diabetic patient, but is Type 1, in which my pancreas no longer produces insulin due to autoimmune. Then he started showing me an astonished face and saying that my parent must have diabetes but they didn't know yet. I told him, neither my parent nor my grandparent has diabetes. He insisted that my great grandparent must have diabetes, and during their time, medical diagnosis wasn't so advanced yet, so doctors missed out the diagnosis.
A few misconceptions that he is having:
1. Guava can help in lowering sugar level. But he forgot about eating guava with all other different types of fruits can increase his sugar tremendously, despite Guava is known to have a low Glycemic Index (GI).
2. Bitter gourd cannot help in reducing blood sugar level (which I agree with him, but I disagree with his explanation). His explanation is bitter gourd has a natural insulin property. So, when we eat bitter gourd, it will actually stimulate our pancreas to secrete less insulin. Less insulin = Higher sugar level.
3. I told him that I am also a diabetic patient, but is Type 1, in which my pancreas no longer produces insulin due to autoimmune. Then he started showing me an astonished face and saying that my parent must have diabetes but they didn't know yet. I told him, neither my parent nor my grandparent has diabetes. He insisted that my great grandparent must have diabetes, and during their time, medical diagnosis wasn't so advanced yet, so doctors missed out the diagnosis.
Okay, I give up. If I continue to correct him, I wouldn't be able to finish my consultation and he would start pointing all my Nenek Moyang (ancestors) have diabetes.
I do not want to sound too harsh in my consultation that would make him feel that I am offensive. Therefore, I corrected his "Guava" and "Bitter gourd" misconception slowly and I praised him that not many people know about Glycemic Index. One extra compliment for him is when I gave an example about 2 bowls of Brown Rice and 1 bowl of White Rice, he actually understands well about Glycemic Load.
Okay la uncle, I forgive you because you certainly should know more about T2DM, instead of T1DM :)
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| Picture from BBC Science |
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