Your editor has been regularly using three bloodsugar meters: AccuCheck Compact, TrueType, and OneTouch UltraMini.  As those who follow this page well know, the three rarely agree with one another.  Even though the sample is the same, the time of day the same, they show widely varying bloodsugar readings.  And your editor has no clue which one is the more accurate.  He only knows that all of them cannot be accurate. For example, on February 19, 2010, AccuCheck showed 101, TrueType 118 and OneTouch 135.  At least two of them are lying. Perhaps all three.

But, having said that, you editor can safely say that TrueType, the cheapest, is also the easiest to use.  Accucheck's cylinder feature is nice, but the checking device is awkward to use as the strips are quite short.  And the little testing strips on the OneTouch are hard to get out of the container (they often stick together).  Nonetheless, we won't recommend any of them until we learn which one is the more accurate, for, after all, the only reason to test is to determine the level of sugar in our blood.  Whichever one is the more accurate is the one we will recommend.  How to find that out is still something of a mystery, but hope springs eternal. 

Lets pause for a moment and take stock.  We have been dying since birth.  Those of us with diabetes are thought to be dying faster than most others, at least if we don't keep our bloodsugar under control.  And the basic premise of this page is that the proper way to keep your fasting bloodsugar at or below 100 is to lose weight.  And we know that it is particularly hard for diabetics to lose weight because their system, the system that is supposed to tell us that we are full, just doesn't work right.  Our cells often won't readily accept the bloodsugar that is in our bloodstream and dieting for a life-time is, simply put, depressing.  The trick then to controlling bloodsugar is to find a diet that you are comfortable with for a long time for there are three parts to any diet. 

First, does the diet work?  Do you lose weight on it?

Second, what does the diet do to your bloodsugars while you are losing weight? A few months on a diet that spikes bloodsugar can be devastating.  

Third, how long can you stay on the diet without wanting to no longer go on living?

Your editor has come up with the "Accountant's diet" as a possible bloodsugar-lowering answer to these questions.  It is simple.  Pick a diet, any diet your doctor is comfortable with, and stay on it for three months (one quarter).  Compare your weight, bloodsugar and disposition at the end of the quarter with those same factors at the beginning.  And then choose a new diet or stay on the old one, depending on results.  Of course, if, as was the case with your editor on Barnard's "Reversing Diabetes" diet, your bloodsugars spike too much, take the safety valve and go back to your last diet until the end of the quarter.  Then, depending on the results, stick it out another three months or try a new one.   Boring, but essential stuff.  Get life's pleasures out of something other than what goes into your mouth.  

Well, the best laid plans.......Dr. Neal Bernard's "Program for Reversing Diabetes" diet is basically a fruit and vegetable diet, with no fat, while Dr. Atkins' is a meat and leafy green vegetable diet, with lots of fat. About as opposite as diets can be.  Common sense tells us that Bernard's diet is healthier.  Yet your editor quit his "Reversing Diabetes" diet the other day (5-4-2010), despite promising not to do so, and has reverted to a modified Atkins diet.  His reasoning was simple:  after a little more than a month of trying it, your editor's blood sugar was slowly rising to unacceptable levels.  Barnard's diet is just too exacting and too hard right now.  Perhaps later, when your editor has fully digested the Reversing Diabetes book...... 

He could cheat a bit on Atkins and nonetheless his fasting bloodsugars were in the 90-110 range.  But cheating on Bernard was dangerous. When he quit Bernard, despite only being on his diet for a month, they had risen to the 150-170 range.  And your editor was feeling the tell-tale tiredness that goes along with high bloodsugars.  Your editor's missing of fruit was the reason he switched to Bernard, but your editor's concern about bloodsugar is the reason he switched back to Atkins. 

Bernard's is a more exacting diet and more difficult to work into a restaurant-based lifestyle. Nonetheless, there was some good to Bernard's diet and your editor is making one change, based on his Bernard experience:  he is going to substitute navy beans for 2 of the 4 eggs in his typical Atkins breakfast, at least for a while. Reason? His digestive system felt better under Bernard than under Atkins. By reason of this change, your editor now generally has 5 or 6 pieces of bacon, two eggs and some beans  for breakfast.  He will continue with his traditional cobb salad for most lunches.

Readings below are taken in the morning before breakfast: