The Miracle of the Cats and Carbohydrates

Pindar

The most recent biopsy on Peter's (small and early) prostate cancer showed that it's active enough to need to come out sooner rather than later. He'll have the robotic prostate surgery at Cedars Sinai within the next few weeks, but the scariest factor here is his severe diabetes, which makes him alarmingly prone to infection. So, faced with this prospect, I went into action, and put him on a strict No Carbs diet, ten days ago. Results have been so astonishing that the word "miraculous" would not be an exaggeration. He went from an average glucose level of 250+ (very high) to average 120 (normal) in just a few days.



















Pindar, whose blood sugar must be similar to a hummingbird's

I had skimmed all those Zone, Atkins, South Beach diet books, and never been able to stand them; have just thrown them across the room or out. Too complicated, too much deprivation; I knew we could not live life constantly balancing and measuring and counting and not enjoying. But since I knew he *must* do low carbs, I got a list of the all low carb foods he could eat, according to stringent first stage Atkins. All the recipes given were horrible, so I made up my own recipes and menus. This took three days of the most intense thinking and planning and researching and studying and experimenting. I did figure it out, however, and out went the bad food from the fridge, and in came a bunch of new things from Trader Joe.

Peter has hardly been able to cut down on the insulin fast enough! I don't know if he'll ever be actually off insulin, but nobody seems to have ever seen or heard of an improvement quite as dramatic as this before. The doctors are literally speechless. Our conversation with the endocrinologist, after only three days of the diet, went like this:

"Who put him on this diet?"
"Me."
"How did you learn it?"
"Not through those impossible books. I made a list of low carb foods he likes and am tailoring recipes using them."
(Doctor's eyes bug out and he says simply:)
"If you can keep this up, Peter's blood sugars should be low enough for surgery within a month. It's in your hands now."



















Marshwiggle, who is not on a low carb diet

We really can't express our own amazement, and I must say dear Peter is most touchingly grateful to me, as he knows that this has been a lot of work. We always knew "diet would help," but this? And *which* diet? I only chose this one because two hopelessly obese people I knew had taken up what seemed to me a bizarre and difficult way of eating, in the last year or so, and lost respectively 100 and 50 pounds. I never thought *we* could live like that - or wanted to - but events made it urgently imperative for Peter. So imagine our delight when we found that the eating need not be bizarre or unpleasing! It must be that Peter has some really extremely carb-allergic metabolism. Can he keep this up? Oh yes. Let me show you our menus of the last week:

Italian chicken with tomatoes and cheese, with spaghetti squash

Steak, baked "fries" cut out of yellow squash, creamed celeriac, string beans, and tons of mushrooms

Spaghetti made out of eggplant parmesan, with homemade meatballs

Chicken rolled in Parmesan and baked, with squash fries and baked asparagus

Baby back ribs grilled with bok choy, squash fries

Grilled salmon steaks, creamed celeriac, squash fries and asparagus

Hamburgers with Portobello Mushroom "buns," squash fries, sauteed cabbage & onions

His favorite dessert is a baked custard with pumpkin, cream and cinnamon. I also make delicious muffins with almond meal and pumpkin.

Obviously he still has the surgery ahead (we haven't got a date scheduled yet, but soon), but this should certainly help his prospects.

I haven't photographed any of the food yet because I've been too busy cooking it, so I illustrate this post with cat pictures, as they are always Peter's comforters. We have also pioneered Cats as an antidote for depression, a service they perform most effectively.

Peter Taking the Cat Cure




















Paul contemplating two fat cats (Marshwiggle and Catullus)