An Ending & A Begining: a Little Conclusion

When I first started this food blog, I wanted to answer three questions:

• 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?

To the first question, Jamie Oliver's Jamie's 30 Minute Meals(2010) provided me with the answer of a resounding yes! I didn't even need to alter the recipe to meet my needs. While I'm aware this will not be the case with every cookbook or recipe, it shows it just takes a bit of persistence and patience to find what you're looking for.  

To the second question, my exploration of  Diabetes Cookbook for Dummies(2007), Diabetes Recipes(2012) and Diabetic Gourmet Magazine demonstrated that recipes for Type 1 Diabetics can be good, bad and ugly all in one go. But overall, they serve a purpose. I'd love the convenience of grabbing a Blueberry Muffin from a coffee shop, but going to the effort of learning to make my own is better than running high-blood sugars. I have a relentlessly sweet tooth and cooking this recipe has shown me that I can still enjoy sweet-tasting food without endangering my health.

To the third question, my analysis of Andie Dominick's Needles(1998) turned out to be more emotional than I anticipated. Dominick portrays Type 1 Diabetes in a remarkably frank way in Needles. She refuses to blame or make excuses for poor control, but depicts the daily battle of Type 1 Diabetes in an honest and controlled way. As a Type 1 Diabetic and someone who is also interested in memoir writing, I was impressed with Dominick's Needles and hope that one day I can put my story across in such a restrained way.

In this blog I also touched on carbohydrate counting, the relationship between depression and Type 1 Diabetes, 1940's attitudes to reducing sugar content, and gave an introduction to the disease. While not every post has been 100% food related, every post has pertained to a disease which is 100% related to food. Though this is the end of this project, it has sparked the beginnings of a new relationship with food. This blog has resulted in me discovering delicious recipes that will improve my health and taste delicious. To conclude, I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog nearly as much as I have writing it!