There are so many words that have real meaning in the nutrtional world that get thrown around very loosely. Sugar / honey / maple syrup all have about 15 grams per tablespoon. fiber does offset - the carbs some which is the thing about whole grains .

As far as I can tell diabetes is a lot about portion sizes. there are people that eat vegan diets and others that go Atkins -- both can be successful way of influence blood sugar. the only thing that is can say seems to be truly bad for diabetics is overly processed food - and since that strips fiber, vitamins , etc out of food and puts not food chemicals in ( meaning not nutritional ) that makes sense to me.

What that means - i don't eat a t mcdonalds. In fact the last time i tried , i couldn't because things tasted bad to me. and If i had to eat there for breakfast - I'd stick with an egg mcmuffin. Because if I am in a situation where I have to eat at Macdonald -- that means I don't know what or where I am eating next. so I have to try an balance everything.

fiber does offset - the carbs some which is the thing about whole grains .

I assumed that was the case with oatmeal. But maybe it's not as healthy as I thought. It might be an insulin death bomb (in which case I'm going back to eating captain crunch, dang it). I never think about that stuff.

In terms of fiber counteracting some of the blood sugar spike from concentrated carbs - up to a point. The way I understand it the first 4 grams of fiber. The rest has other good affects but does not help much in controlling blood sugar. In terms of dried fruit and candy. Fiber to calorie ratio is awful in dried fruit. And it is (as expected) mostly fructose, which has lower direct impact but affects how other calories hit you in funny ways. Even for non-diabetics the differnce between dried fruit and candy is not as much as you might think. For diabetics the difference is very small. Like candy, dried fruit is not just carbs but highly concentrated carbs. Makes it easy to get a lot of sugar while eating a really tiny amount. So for diabetics dried fruit is pretty bad unless you are eating extremely small portions. (I guess that is the real problem - portion control is much harder than with fresh or frozen fruit).

Also just want to apologize again. I do review before I post but sometimes I can't spot when I'm acting like an asshole until called on it. After someone points it out I can stare at what I wrote a while and after five minutes kind of trace back that "oh yeah, I WAS being an asshole." But cannot spot it on my own in a million years.

So last night as we were going to bed late, I set the alarm clocks forward. They are self-setting! So, this morning cats wake me up, it says 6:30, but I am so so tired. BECAUSE IT IS REALLY ONLY 4:30!!! I figured it out in a half an hour and re-set them and went back to bed and then slept through my alarm when it did go off at the correct 7:00.

Really sore from the yard work yesterday.

3 boys at my house playing and two of them have had stinktastic trips to the bathroom. 9 yo boys are so gross.

go Suzi on the loss.

go Duke.

Sara, I keep meaning to point you to the company PermaGlaze - they could make your bathroom fixtures all match purple without having to buy one.

If someone is more concerned with their cholesterol than their blood sugar, and oatmeal has been shown to reduce cholesterol, eating oatmeal with even a crapload of sugar could be "healthier" for that person than whatever else.

I mean, obviously, right? And maybe we should all be concerned about blood sugar, but I for one am not. Except when it gets low and I get cranky.

Are unsweetened or less-sweet dried cranberries readily commercially available? Do they taste nasty?

Cranberrie are not sweet on their own. So doubt they would be good without sugar, and don't know how little one could get away with.

What Jesse said. Unless you're diabetic, you don't need to worry about blood sugar if you're eating mostly healthy and get exercise.

Are unsweetened or less-sweet dried cranberries readily commercially available?

The bag I have of organic ones is 130 calories for a 1/4 cup, and is 34g of carbs. That's two fruit servings for a diabetic, so when you think about eating a whole small banana or peach, the cranberries don't seem so great.

I don't know if I've ever seen unsweetened ones.

I'm procrastinating like a mofo. Who knew looking up diabetic exchanges would be a fun distraction?

Man. I got up and went to brunch, and it was hard because of DST. I ordered a heart attack on a plate, and got full so fast that the portion I ate probably wasn't that bad for me. Then I walked to Target for air filters. I accidentally bought some DVDs, because the Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds was on sale for $5. Also gin.

Got over 3 miles of walking done already today. Still congested, though.

Msbelle, I deliberately didn't reset my alarm clock because I couldn't remember if it reset or not. It didn't. Now I have to figure out how to reset the damn thing.

I had a carbtastic and delicious supper: Chickpea curry, basmati rice, naan, mango chutney.

Also, I have had big breakfasts late both days this weekend, causing me to skip lunch and eat supper super early. I was finished supper AT five!

I have no idea what time it is...