Diet Apps and a TED recommendation

Yesterday we were looking at the jargon of carbohydrate counting: total carbs, glycemic index, and glycemic load. You'd think that all of this could be rolled up into a calculator that would take the glycemic load and turn it into a prediction of where the blood sugar would end up. Unfortunately, other factors like exercise and the general state of your health, also impact blood sugar. The best app I have found to calculate all that is Diabetes Buddy. This app has a decent database of  total carbohydrates in many foods and provides space for entering exercise and blood sugar test scores. It then summarizes the information in a calendar entry that includes the average blood sugar of your tests, your total carbs, and the amount of exercise. What have I learned in five days of testing my blood sugar three times a day? My best average blood sugar (normal!) came on a day when I totaled less than a 100 grams of carbs and at least 30 minutes of light walking. My second best day (14% above normal) occurred on a day with 144 grams of carbs and an hour of moderate walking. My worst day was yesterday with only 125 grams of carbs, but no exercise to speak of. If you managed to make it through this paragraph, you can begin to understand how boring it can be to talk to a diabetic. All the data is a way of fighting back against a body that isn't working the way its supposed to be. It's better than talking about the tingling in the toes from nerve damage, or the freezing fingers from poor circulation, or worrying about going blind.

So if you want to avoid having to write a paragraph like that some day, you might want to try my other three apps. The first is Low Carb Diet Assistant which allows you to enter a lot of the data in Diabetes Buddy, but I use it for its incredible database of total carbs in specific restaurants meals. The next two apps are battling it out for my glycemic index/load business. One is A Low GI Diet-Glycemic Index Search and the other is Low GI Diet Tracker-Glycemic Index Manager and Search. The first one has a colorful way of showing the data and the ability to create a favorites list so you don't have to look up the same meal over and over. The second one gives you more information on things like the ratio of proteins, carbs, and fats, and the ability to track your daily intake, but no favorites list. The app store reviewers rate the newer update of #1 at three stars and the December 2011 update of #2 at four plus stars.

OK, enough about diets for awhile. I watched a wonderful presentation at TED.com by Susan Cain on being an introvert. In a nation that promotes extroversion, this is a wonderful plea to understand the 1/3 to 1/2 of the population that isn't outgoing. Like all TED lectures it's less than 20 minutes long, but full of useful information, warmth, and humor. If you aren't an introvert, it's easy to misunderstand us and in a society that overvalues being outgoing that can be disastrous for many people. Just ask me about that one hour interview that "ruined" my life!