Shawn’s blood sugar two hours after dinner last night was 92.
And that was even with a dinner of left over turkey, stuffing, gravy, veggies, etc. We’re very excited to say the least.
BTW- I usually make turkey and wild rice soup with carrots, peas, spinach, celery, and onions, but am going to substitute barley this time around. That should be better for him than rice, correct?
Cheryl from Maryland
Congrats to you and Shawn. My husband has blood sugar issues, although his hemoglobin A1C is now at 5.5, mainly due to no bread, rice, potatoes, sugar. He’s moved up to barley, but also brown basmati rice, which cooks just like regular rice, and whole wheat couscous, which can be prepared in a microwave. If you guys like turkey, we made a Mexican flavored turkey roast the other night. Substituted sweet potatoes for the regular potatoes; now have nice leftovers for fajitas.
Tommy
I guess 92 is good? I should know more about this topic since my brother married into a family with diabetes.
Ferdzy
Wild rice is not actually rice, and is better than short grained white rice, about on a par with brown or basmati rice. But yes, barley is much better than any of those.
Mr. Prosser
Speaking from sad experience, watch out how much barley you put in, it swells a whole lot more than rice and can get gummy.
Punchy
Can a brother get some units, yo? mg/dL? ug/dL? Teslas? Farads? Svedberg units?
Schlemazel [was Schlemizel till NotMax taught me proper yiddish!]
@Mr. Prosser:
I love barley, particularly in soup though I use it as a side dish too sometimes. Barley pilaf is great! But, you are very right. It gets gummy if you cook it too long so I don’t add it till late in the process. Of course I like mine a to be a bit more chewy than some ‘al dente’ if you will so under cooked is right for me.
JC: Barley is better than rice for Shawns needs.
Tommy
@Ferdzy: I have gotten into this rice thing. Exotic rice. Found their was rice not cooked in a bag. Amazing stuff out there.
Joe
@Punchy: Scoville.
MomSense
I don’t add noodles, rice, barley, etc to soup. I prepare the starch or grain separately and pour the hot soup over the individual serving. Then you don’t have to worry about the starch getting gummy or gross.
Cervantes
@Ferdzy:
Nor is it actually wild.
(It does exist in the wild but what you buy at the store is cultivated.)
Cervantes
@Tommy:
More news: popcorn was invented before the microwave oven!
Just kidding. It’s a good thing you are widening your horizon — or even seeing it at all.
Villago Delenda Est
@Punchy: Quatloos
WereBear
We like shredded kale instead of noodles in soup. Much more nutrition, and can stand up to considerable simmering.
MattF
I like a 50-50 mixture of barley and quinoa– cook it using the ‘brown rice’ setting in my rice cooker, comes out great..
VOR
@Tommy: Normal range (fasting) is under 100. So yes, 92 is very good for someone with diabetes.
David Hunt
Congrats for Shawn. I know next to nothing about such things, but isn’t 92 pretty much close to optimal?
MomSense
@WereBear:
Love kale in soups. I also add chickpeas to soups. You have to be careful about using canned chickpeas because they can have a funny aftertaste. I buy big bags of dried chickpeas at the Indian market and soak them. If I used canned, I rinse them thoroughly.
SteveinSC
Somewhat off topic, well way off topic, except the AP is running my blood pressure up again. Their “report” currently in Huffpost has me running for more Ramipril and Hydrochlorothiazide. The fucking Gowdy Clown Show on Benghazi has started and the fucking AP hasn’t noticed anything in all the results of all the investigations done so far. Jesus Fucking Christ, Fuck the AP.
p.a.
@MomSense: yes. You can cook the rice and freeze it in a freezer bag for use whenever you whip up a stock. Don’t know if barley freezes well; didn’t know it has better glycemic numbers than rice. For rice I know basmati is better, jasmine worse. Asian Congee style soups that I’ve eaten use a white rice (sushi rice maybe?) that cooks up really soft. Didn’t think I’d like it on first view, but yum.
Iowa Old Lady
Good for Shawn.
Also, I want some of that soup.
Eric S.
@Punchy:
mg/dl
Sadly I had to look that up despite my brother being diabetic for the past 2 and half decades. I always knew what numbers were good (92 is very good 2 hours after eating) but I didn’t know what the actual units of measure were.
Ruviana
@Cheryl from Maryland: I’ve been struggling with brown basmati rice. It does cook for a longer period of time, right? I’ve done white rice in the microwave to great success but when I tried the brown the water cooked down too fast and I got something resembling a giant rice cake.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Punchy:
Mg/dl
Curses! Beaten to the punchy.
Real food is good, JC. Keep it up. Your friend’s eyes, kidneys, and heart appreciate it.
Suffern ACE
So it must not have been you two running the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Syrup Black Market.
Anne
@Ruviana:
It cooks for a good half hour, so yes, longer than white rice. I use this method for brown rice:
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Perfect-Brown-Rice
A little unorthodox if you’re accustomed to cooking white rice, but it’s worked for me every time.
MattF
@Ruviana: Get a rice cooker. There’s a huge, secret club of people who can’t cook rice, and the answer is to use a cooker. It just works. Perfectly cooked rice, every time.
Mnemosyne
@Ruviana:
Alton Brown’s Baked Brown Rice turns out really well, though it does require you to turn on the oven.
When I’m feeling lazy (which is most of the time), I buy the microwave brown rice in the freezer section at Trader Joe’s — it takes 3 minutes in the microwave and it turns out just fine. I’ve seen similar products at Whole Foods as well. It’s a large square box with three packets that make 2 cups apiece.
Ferdzy
Second those who say, get a rice cooker. Not only does it cook every kind of rice, you can cook your barley there too. Also, lentils, quinoa, millet, oatmeal, you get the picture. All you need to do is keep a chart of the correct grain (etc) to water ratio and you are away to the races.
Also, I really like to thicken soups with toasted barley flour. Toast it until just darkened in a dry skillet, stirring all the time, then turn it out onto a plate to cool. Use a few tablespoons to a quarter cup to a small (1 1/2 to 2 quarts or litres) pot of soup.
catclub
@Villago Delenda Est: barns
WaterGirl
I used to be one of the people who couldn’t cook rice. Then I discovered arborio rice from Italy, which I love, and a new way to cook rice.
I put a little bit of butter in a saucepan, toast the uncooked rice until it starts to brown, and then I add the water. I cook the rice on a fairly high heat without covering it, and maybe 15 or 20 minutes later I have perfect rice. Every time.
MomSense
@Anne:
I use the same technique and it works really well.
WaterGirl
I tried to edit my previous comment, but the comment flew off into the ether
I am so excited for you guys about Shawn’s numbers. If I am that happy, you guys must be over the moon. Is it possible that Shawn could stop taking insulin at some point, or take less?
Also, as long as we are talking about food, I want to say that I tried making pizza with naan instead of my usual homemade really thin crust. It’s not as good as my crust, of course :-) but I thought it was very good made with naan as the crust. It had a nice texture and will be very good for a quick meal.
Thanks to all who suggested that.
Ruviana
Thanks for all the rice tips! I’m going to try the Saveur method first although 12 cups of water to 1 cup of dry rice did give me pause. Then again, the worst that can happen is it won’t work and the comments were reassuring. I’m kinda reluctant to buy a rice-cooker, but maybe I should do some research….
Violet
@Anne: Interesting. I do this with most of my rice. Just fill a pot with however much water I fee like, toss in however much rice–less than the suggested 1 cup rice to 2 cups water. Boil and drain like pasta. Then let it sit in the pot, stirring once or twice while I get the rest of dinner ready. Works great.
The only time I don’t do it that way is if I cook rice in broth. I hate to waste broth so I do my best to measure it properly. I always use less than 2-to-1 because I like my rice chewier.
Linnaeus
One of the best castoff items of cookery I ever got from my former roommate is my (formerly his) rice cooker.
JR in WV
Well, I knew that wild rice isn’t rice, it’s grass seed. But that it isn’t wild? Is cultivated?
All these years I have had the mental picture of Minnesota Indians gently pulling tall grass over their canoe, and gently beating the seed loose with their paddles, until the floor of their canoe is covered deeply with dark and pungent seeds. Rocking gently back and forth as they gently move through the high grass, unable to see their destination for the grass which gently gives them succor, as they gather food for the coming harsh winter.
You say it is cultivated? Phooey! another great foody story down the tubes!
Rats.
MomSense
@Ruviana:
You don’t have to use 12 cups–just make sure the rice is covered and then some. It’s sort of like cooking pasta.
I bought a rice cooker and I love it. I had my eye on a really expensive one and waited until I found it on sale. It is such a time saver and it frees up the stove to cook other things. My youngest son can make rice and I don’t have to worry about him dealing with boiling water and that is another great thing for me. He can start the rice so that it is just about ready when I get home from work and throw a stir fry together.
NateM
@Punchy:
Patient-grade blood glucose meters almost never show the units but mg/dL is the accepted standard. With a value of 92, mg/dL is almost certainly the correct set of units – as you rightly guessed.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Good numbers for Shawn. Barley is a bit better than the wild rice (grass seed, as noted) but it will get gummy. I’d cook it on its own and then add to soup, and do the same at reheating.
Glycemic load as as important as glycemic index, and here are some numbers:
Source. See also.
Cervantes
@JR in WV:
Droll.
But instead of paddles, those “Minnesota Indians” actually use “knockers” (also known as “flails”), the size of which, believe it or not, is governed by state law.
shelley
Well, at least this is better news than the one about the goldfish surgery.
chopper
@JR in WV:
LOL. “next thing you’ll be telling me Wild Turkey aint made outta turkeys!”
andy
You might try pearled faro too. It expands to a point but doesn’t go all mushy like barley. It’s a bit spendy but the flavor is good and it’s one of the few grains I cook that actually gets better reheated in the microwave.
EmDeeAhr
To answer your general and specific question, Cole:
They tell you to eat “whole grains” for lower blood sugar because the more processed a starch is, the easier it is to metabolize into blood glucose.
Or, in a picture that is easier for me to recall: something in big pieces takes longer to digest and metabolize than something in small pieces. If you eat whole wheat berries, you have to digest through the bran to get to the insides, including both the germ and the endosperm. If you eat white flour, you’re eating super finely pulverized endosperm, which dissolves into simple carbohydrates faster than Lindsey Graham can wet his pants.
So it depends on the form you choose for a grain. Brown rice has the bran and is better for lower blood glucose than white rice, which does not. Whole wheat flour is finely pulverized, for the most part, but it at least contains the bran and endosperm which take longer to digest, even in pieces.
For barley, read this. Pearl barley is not a whole grain, but is still better for lower blood sugar because in barley, the fiber is not all in the bran. The kernel still has some, which means less simple starch and less quick absorption.
There ya go.
bruceJ
@JR in WV:
Just saw something on “America’s Test Kitchen” about this. There is wild “Wild Rece” it’s mainly harvested in Minnesota and Canada. There’s also cultivated “WIld Rice” grown mainly in California…at leats until they run out of water.
Lizzy L
Rice cookers rock. And I love brown rice; have pretty much given up white rice, except for sushi. Congratulations on those awesome blood sugar numbers. Just keep on keeping on.
Aleta
I keep looking for a rice cooker that has a stainless steel bowl (not non-stick, not ceramic that is made in China). I found an aluminum bowl one some years ago and that’s what I use now. Any ideas ?
I also really want one with a timer so I can have it go on in the morning and be ready when I wake up. (Hot rice with cinnamon to go up against mornings of despair in midwinter.)
Once in Japan I used a rice cooker that (of course) needed water and rice in the bowl but also could have a little water in the bottom under the bowl, which would steam the rice at the same time. Most have the heating element exposed under the bowl, so you can’t put water there. Actually I’ve never seen another like it.
Thanks for the barley info. Had no idea.
Anne Laurie
@Ruviana:
Dead thread, but I finally bought one after deciding, if every Japanese household has one, what do they know that I don’t?
Mnemosyne
@Aleta:
Have you looked at the ones from Zojirushi? They’re usually considered to be the best and they seem to have a decent range of prices.