Desserts... to have them or to not have them?

Desserts are the best, aren't they?

Can we as Type 2 diabetics, who are trying to control blood sugars through diet and exercise, afford to eat the delectable sweet dishes that we used to consume with gay abandon before we were diagnosed?

I will tell you right away that I ate no dessert ....none at all...for the first year or so when I started dealing with my diabetes. I was just too scared. Scared that I would have to take drugs...and I am drug-phobic to begin with. Scared that my beta cells would burn out and leave me with dependency on external insulin.

One of my worst fears was that I had precious few beta cells left and that they were an endangered species in my pancreas. There was no clear way to assess the damage to the pancreas. In other words, by the time the fasting blood sugar and post-meal blood sugar tests cross into the danger zone in the laboratory tests, 70-80 per cent of the beta cells may have been compromised is what the literature said.

That will put the fear of God in anyone. I told myself that if high glycemic carbs from desserts wreak havoc on my pancreas, the remaining good 20-30 per cent of the beta cells will also perish. And then I will be left with no choice but to get on insulin. Which might not be bad at all. Others manage to deal with it quite nicely. My own cousin is not paranoid about the syringe and the bottle.

Me....I just was not ready to deal with that. So fear took strong hold of my psyche and I stayed away from all things sweet and tasty.

The only desserts I allowed myself were Jello snack cups (they contained maltodextrin free Splenda) and full-fat yogurt with DaVinci syrup.

This afternoon I had a lunch meeting at Manny's, home of the best Corned Beef sandwich in the world. I had the beef without the rye bread and the potato pancake. Instead with spinach. And topped it off with a small slice of Eli's cheesecake. My, how times have changed.