Breathe
By Pamela Cerdeira
It's the weekend, but I woke up a little early: dusting off that dress I wear, at most, twice a year; taking a love/hate look at the heels that are going to torture me for the next two hours; the makeup; the full hour to the hairdo (unlike what usually happens during the week, here I do have to take care that it also looks backcombed). We made it out of the house on time, all dressed up, as if dress pants and itchy sweaters hadn't been part of a pitched battle that ended in: "wear whatever you want".
Whoever organized the event surely invested a lot of money in it, made a guest list in which there were some casualties (budget martyrs), and finally, we made the cut: because he loves us, because he cares about us or because we are a compromise, it doesn't matter. What I would never have thought is that whoever invited me to that breakfast had intentions of killing me and all of us who went.
"Welcome, what a pleasure," I am greeted. I am fasting. "Don't you want mimosa? We have a healthy orange juice or green juice (with orange) for the fittest ones". I don't know if breaking the fast with alcohol is the right thing to do, but come on, it's the weekend. sweet bread? By that time my stomach is already screaming "food". Food? "Pan dulce, chocolatín... How about a concha?" Real food is coming. Fruit? "We have a delicious cocktail, so healthy we included a fruit of each color." Some yogurt, probably with sugar, and, to close, what you've been waiting for all along: eggs.
After two hours, just when it is time to leave, I start to feel a slight tremor, palpitations. It was the coffee, I'm sure it's the coffee; it was very strong. I find it hard to concentrate, I'm in a daze, as if I can't focus. No more coffee for me, it has been said.
It took me a long time to realize that it wasn't the coffee, that this sensation was repeated sometimes two hours after an ice pop, a chocolate with pineapple enchiladas (they are delicious) or a breakfast of French bread with banana. It wasn't the coffee; it 's the sugar going down in me, faster and faster than the Mexican peso in '82.
I haven't found much literature on the subject, but I have the patience of Elizabeth Reyes, with whom I try to decipher the dilemma based on food and a glucose meter (it's not an Airtag, but it's similar). I also have the best of teachers, she is not a doctor; she is my mom, and the same thing has been happening to her for many years, so she knows it well: no banana, no pineapple, no mixed fruits, NEVER orange juice, always bring some food with you and, when you start to feel bad, eat, ideally protein.
They will think that this is a particular case, mine; that the rest of the people can eat any bomb for breakfast, that nothing happens to them. This is not true. Our way of eating breakfast (socially) is wrong and it is urgent that we talk about it.
According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), in 2021 diabetes was the second leading cause of death in Mexico. Hey, but wait, we were still in the middle of a pandemic. What do the 2018 figures tell us? The same.
Adriana Sandoval, a nutritionist, explains: "The problem with this breakfast is that you can't start with sugar so readily available in such high quantities, because the body produces insulin and absorbs it in three seconds. You need slow-absorbing foods. That's why orange juice, which is pure sugar and water, doesn't work. Fruit cocktail, which is sugar, doesn't work either". If it seems that we've been told this about juice ad nauseam, why do we continue to offer it? "Children, I brought you some juice.
Adriana gives us the best analogy in this regard: "Imagine that our glucose levels are like the sea. We don't want a choppy sea, with waves going up and down all the time, because that drains our energy and exhausts us. What we need is a calm sea, with small waves, that allow us to be at practically the same glucose level all day long, and that will keep us in balance. It is not that peaks are bad; from time to time they are good. The thing is to stay as long as possible with that low tide".
But if you don't have a problem (or maybe you do, but you don't know it and decide to ignore it) and you want the fruit or the bread... "Leave it to the end. Not only will you end up eating it (if you do eat it in the end) out of taste and not out of hunger; and, if you start with what we eat today until the end, what you eat will be absorbed slower and you will have less energy imbalances," says Adriana. In my case there are symptoms and that's why I know about it, but that sugar-driven slide happens to all of us. So we are changing what is always done. Maybe, if we start telling our friends that their invitations to breakfast hide the intention of killing us, we will all start changing the way we are eating.
Elizabeth Reyes is a nutritionist specializing in sports and diabetes. She can be reached at https://www.instagram.com/nutrierc/
Adriana Sandoval is also a nutritionist, specializing in clinical nutrition. She can be reached at https://www.instagram.com/adria_san3/ and you can also find her texts in Opinión 51.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
Comments ()