Show your Heart, but don't make me fart

Weird.....

Who the heck comes up with these titles anyway?? Oh wait that's me!

Last night, I had a costume contest with my Youth Group. It was so much fun. Two kids came dressed as me, which was awesome. Others came dressed in well clothing I would not let my 30 yr. old friends leave the house in, let alone a high school aged kid. I really enjoyed my costume. It was an "ironic" costume. I came dressed as a bowl of Halloween candy. (Basically I taped a bunch of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups" to myself. It was awesome. When people mocked the costume, I would say
Eat me!" and toss some candy at them. It was AWESOME.

The irony of course for those who knew was that the person with Type 1 Diabetes was covered in yummy, scrumptious, candy....... (drool) Yet, I was good, I did not eat myself. That did get me thinking though. The candy, not the jokes and innuendos and such. Halloween and Candy. Well truthfully it was less Halloween and more Candy. That "forbidden" fruit to all diabetics, kinda like Ice Cream it is something we should avoid at all costs. Just ask our friend Wendall. (Purposely not looking for him, it is better this way).

I would like to present to the court a different notion. We all know that if we plan it out and it is done in moderation, us pancreatically challenged individuals can enjoy the "forbidden" fruit just as much as anyone else. Bolus, eat, or eat, bolus, it doesn't really matter. There are those who in the past my parents included thought the right thing, the best thing to do was to give sugar free candy. Yes, that lovely fake chocolate or candy, that was supposed to make the withdrawal easier. You know where I am going with this.

SUGAR FREE CANDY IS EVIL. Yep, I said it. EVIL!!!!!!! It looks okay, usually tastes fine. Yet there is this small unexpected surprise when you eat this stuff. It's not the surprise at the bottom of a box of Cracker Jacks. Oh no, that would be nice. It would be the surprise to your poor tummy and well poop shoot. You know what I am talking about. The d-word and I don't mean "diabeatuuus". I mean

diarrhea. It is so scary I used a small font. Who here present has ever suffered the consequences of a sugar-free binge?? It is horrible. I swore that stuff off years ago, even pre-pump. I figured I would rather deal with the high's if I managed wrong, than to deal with the toilet. 

Who would think that the little warning on the back of the bag was so important? "Excessive consumption may cause a laxative effect." Ya think??? I found this quote in an article from WebMD.

"This is thanks to the part of the sugar alcohol that isn’t absorbed. It goes through the intestinal tract and gets digested by bacteria of the gut. Discomfort ranging from gas to diarrhea can result -- depending on how much of the chocolate you consume and your individual intestinal tract.
"The sugar-free chocolates have definitely been helpful for my clients,” says Tamara James RN, CDE, diabetes educator for the University of California-Davis Medical Center. "But they don’t realize that too much of it will cause them intestinal problems."
The key to avoiding discomfort: "Just don’t pig out on it," says McNutt.
The American Dietetic Association advises that more than 50 grams of sorbitol or 20 grams of mannitol per day can cause diarrhea. You can tell how much sugar alcohol is in a serving of each sugar-free chocolate product by reading the nutrition information label (be sure to pay attention to the listed serving size)"


I only linked to page 2, yet the entire article is quite interesting. 

So back to the title of this article. With Halloween fast approaching, think about how to best handle the candy and sweet needs of yourself, your friends, or any children who may have type-1 diabetes. Allow them their fun and candy. Do it right. Let them eat it. Don't show your heart by making them fart... or worse. 

Thank you, thank you. I am here all day.