Shots & Sugars: a Little Introduction

My name is Toni Kerrigan and I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at 19. That diagnosis completely changed the way I will view food for the rest of my life. 

I can hear the questions of nonbetics: What is Type 1 Diabetes? How does it differ from Type 2? Did you get it because you ate too much sugar? How is it treated? In an attempt to clear up some confusion here's the basics: 

• What: In Type 1 Diabetes the pancreas does not produce any insulin. Insulin is the hormone that transfers glucose from the blood stream into the rest of the body's cells.
• How Different: In Type 2 Diabetes the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin, or the body's cells do not react to the insulin produced. 
• Why: Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease caused by the immune system confusing the insulin producing cells in your pancreas for harmful ones. 
• How Treated: Type 1 Diabetes cannot be cured, but treatments aim to normalise blood glucose. A combination of different types of insulin injections are required daily to manage blood glucose, and patients are taught how to administer these and how to match them to food consumed. Some patients use an insulin pump which administers a constant stream (controlled by the user) of insulin through a needle inserted underneath the skin. 
• Information paraphrased from the NHSwebpage about Type 1 Diabetes.

Initially my fears were about coping with daily insulin injections, blood tests, and removing sugar from my diet. However, as the days and weeks turned into months I realised that Type 1 Diabetes is so much more than just shots and sugars.

The three main questions I hope to address in this blog, are: 

• Can recipes from famous cookbooks be effectively followed and adjusted to meet a Type One’s dietary needs? 
• Are recipes from diabetic cookbooks good, bad or just plain ugly? 
• How is Type One Diabetes represented in literature?

The intended reader of this blog is non-specific. I hope Type 1's will read this blog and feel less alone through shared experience. Equally, I hope nonbetics read this blog. The Diabetes Cookbook for Dummies(2007) states that "You wouldn't read a cookbook from cover to cover, and this book is no exception to that rule... The book is designed so you can dip in and out for the information you need, at will"(1). As is the case with most food writing, I know that every reader isn't going to be interested in every aspect of what I write: so using the titles and tags of the posts for reference feel free to read as much or as little as suits your interests.