SC - Diabetes and diet

[Jennifer Carlson]

Last year, for Lent, my husband and I performed an experiment:  we tried to 
keep to a diet of only foodstuffs and recipes that would have been 
available to our personas (Irish couple living in London, late middle 
ages).   We did still allow ourselves coffee and tea, but in lesser 
quantities that we were used to.

Let me make it clear that we were eating an ordinary medieval diet, not a 
Lenten diet, and Northern European, not Mediterranean, cuisine.

Immediately, our intake of fiber skyrocketed - we ate a LOT of barley.  Our 
sugar intake plummetted.  We consumed more fish and lean meat and much, 
much less fat.  Breakfast was a bowl of frumenty with currants stirred in. 
 Lunch was bread with vegetables and fruit and tuna, sometimes with cheese. 
 Any fleshmeat was eaten only at supper.

We ate poultry twice a week, fish on Fridays, and red meat on Sundays. 
 Cheese was used sparingly.  When I cooked meat, I tried to use it as a 
condiment - in soups, bacon cooked into greens, etc.  I used only butter 
and olive oil for cooking fat, and lard and beef tallow for piecrusts - and 
since found I myself using a good deal less fat in my cooking, the extra 
cost was minimal.

We used honey sparingly, refined sugar almost not at all, and relied on 
fruit for the bulk of our sugar intake.

We had a glass of either wine, ale, or hard cider with the evening meal. I 
allowed myself a large glass of 1% milk every day.

The net results:  I lost 10 pounds, had more energy and slept better.  The 
most notable long-term effect was that I have finally lost my craving for 
fried foods.  I still like rich, fatty foods, but I can resist batter-fried 
stuff now.  Dairmuit's blood pressure was easier to keep under control and 
he dropped a few inches off his waist.

Oh, and I now really like turnip greens.

Discussing it with a friend who is on a diabetic diet, I found that, except 
for the amount of carbohydrates, the diet Dairmuit and I had been eating 
was similar on many points.  If your doctor has you on a  diabetic diet, 
you will likely find that there is a lot of medieval cuisine that you can 
eat.

Talana
Jcarlson at firstchurchtulsa.org

Exodus 35: 30-35 - The Laurelate is a divine calling!


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