The goal is always to end up on top - right?
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Do you mean hamburger grease is not the same as olive oil?
The mystery picture went along with a meal plan given to you by your doctor or “diabetes nurse.” It told you you should have for breakfast, say, 2 Starch choices, 1 Protein choice, and 1 Fruits & Vegetables choice. Then you looked in the big binder they gave you to see what 1 Starch choice meant:
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I’m actually of the opinion that we should eat heartily from the Four Basic Food Groups™–Fat, Sugar, Salt, and Chocolate.
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I could stick to that diet, I think 
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I was always told, even back in the food exchange days, to avoid the fat-free versions of things, because they would be more likely to result in carb spikes, and that having at least a little fat and/or protein with carbs is helpful. For instance, I prefer full fat or at least low fat yogurt to fat-free. I think it does flatten the spike somewhat, as well as delay it, even if it doesn’t eliminate it.
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Cool that you got that advice. You were told kind of the same thing that I was thinking, adding fat with the food could be helpful.
I just never got that as an official recommendation. Didn’t know if anyone was doing that on purpose.
Many foods have flavor coming from sugars or fats - right? I think of it like a see-saw. To maintain the taste/flavor, if you decrease the fat then you increase the sugars. Probably not all food but seems to be a lot.
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That explains ice cream!
All kinds of good - fat AND sugar!
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I guess that is the see-saw that goes UP at both ends?
lol
I bet you could buy some ice cream at some health food store that goes DOWN at both ends. ha ha ha.
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For the sake of, erm, science, tonight I ate a mug cake made with almond butter, an egg, agave syrup, and a couple other things, and ate it right after some berries and salami (45 carbs total), and my BG barely moved in the 2 hrs I watched it - 79 before; 91 after. Yay, fat!
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Nice! Science is fun.
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[Trip Down Memory Lane trigger warning]
I think in the '80s/'90s you might have been using the Food Choice Value system (?), or whatever it was called. That came after the Exchange List system, which was well established by the time I was diagnosed in 1970. I don’t know how closely it matched the American exchange system. It was all laid out in a thin 50-cent pamphlet with the gripping title “Exchange Lists for Meal Planning for Diabetics in Canada.” It was very strict, and forbade sugar in any form. No cake, no pie, no chewing gum. I remember three Arrowroot cookies were a Bread exchange. I remember this primarily because Arrowroots and Social Teas were the only cookies you were allowed, so they were something special. There was a page of “Calorie-Free” foods – yum, you could snack on mushrooms or consommé while watching TV.
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Yeah, I remember that exchange list pamphlet. I lost the one that my doctor gave me on the way home, and never had the desire to replace it.
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Where the hell is coffee on that food pyramid?
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Yes - very accurate. It was the Food Choice system but like a lot of things, the old material I got in the hospital was a cross between the two systems as they went from one to the other. The nurses in the first hospital I was in were stuck in the 1970s (while it was the 1980s) with the Exchange system, urine testing, and the blood glucose test was a vial of blood milked from my finger that was run off to a lab somewhere. In their defense they were nice people and helpful (no playing around with an orange and syringes for us - we practiced on the nurse’s arm 
)but I think that there was a quantum leap in diabetes care between the time they were trained and when I was diagnosed with BG meters just coming out.
And I have to laugh - early on it was pretty much Arrowroots and social tea (with some Rich Tea’s thrown in) while everyone else was eating the better cookies. Digestives followed and then the ultimate - chocolate covered digestives (my favourite cookie to this day).
I actually recently re-introduced myself to Rich Teas. and eat them when I want a lower carb cookie
Oh wow, this is bringing me back—I was diagnosed in the early 90s, and a lot of this is still very familiar sounding, including the arrowroot/social tea cookies thing.
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I am so jealous of you guys who don’t need to bolus for protein and fats. I just look at food sideways and I need to bolus. It’s not fair 
Sometimes I don’t need to bolus for carbs. I just look at the insulin vial and that’s enough. 
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you never seize to amaze me. always a laugh and a chuckle after reading (most of ) your posts 
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