Pongalo Pongal

Happy New Year Everyone! It's been over a year since I posted. I promise to post more this year..

Jan 14 - is the first day of the Tamil month, Thai. Pongal is a festival that is celebrated in South India - celebrating the good harvest and the Hindus celebrate the Sun god for the harvest. They make Pongal. There are two kinds of Pongal. Sweet and Savoury.

Sweet Pongal - is made with rice (new crop), bit of green grams, milk, jaggery (pure unrefined sugar made with sugarcane), ghee, raisins, cashews and cardamom.

Savoury - (white Pongal) is made with rice, bit of green grams and milk.

Both pots are tired with green ginger and tamarind plants like a jewel. Everyone add a bit of milk and rice into both pots and when the pot boils over kids bang the drums and scream "pongalo pongal" - celebration of rice boiling over.

A rooty vegetable curry - made with 7 kinds of vegetables, grated coconut and ground rice is added at the end, it's delicious.

Pumpkin kulambu - a dark pungent hot sauce made with thick tamarind paste, lot of chilli powder and pumpkin is made. It goes great with white Pongal.

Children eat lot of sugarcane during this festival as this month is the harvest season for many things including sugarcane, ginger, tamarind, sweet potatoes and new crop (new rice from the harvest.

It's been a long day getting ready today.. its 2:23am and I am not least bit tired. I guess I got so much on my mind. I hope I got everything packed. Weird weather with heavy winds and snow drifting all day.. hopefully there will be no delays at the airport with all these new security rules that has just come in. I guess I am bit anxious being diabetic and carrying so many diabetes supplies like needles, insulin and snacks in my carry-on and hopefully I'll be able to board the plane without any hassles. I have my doctors note with me and I hope they will let me carry all my supplies in my hand luggage without having to check it - which worries me about my supplies getting lost in case my suitcase doesn't make it to Mumbai.

My first trip to India after being diagnosed with type-1 diabetes and getting a bit worried about my very first day with 10.5 hours time difference. I always has low blood glucose/sugar (BG) with 6 hours time difference in Europe so this will be a new challenge for me.

To Pretzel or not to Pretzel

This is my first post on Cinnamon Diva, and my mother would ask me to make sure it’s an auspicious day and hour. It’s a centuries old South Indian custom, making sure all the stars align together to make it a lucky hour giving their true blessing. I am not knocking down the ritual but even for purchasing a small bike, they check the Horoscope to make sure it’s the proper time in Traditional South India. The sun is shining, its Earth Hour today and it seems like a pretty good day to start writing so here I am.

I went to a Type-1 Diabetes Symposium by JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) two nights ago and there was a topic on Type 1 diabetes: the creative, adventurous and active life. Diabetes and food go hand and hand and I should know this since being diagnosed with type-1 diabetes over two years ago. I pay attention to what I eat. Taking it further, I teach healthy diabetic cooking at the hospital, at my cooking school and provide education & advocacy for the South Asian Diabetes Chapter of the Canadian Diabetes Association. I put my brain and my thinking where my mouth is so to speak – what I eat all the time, it’s a 24/7 thinking job since it affects my blood sugar and my well being.

Most people with diabetes (type 1 or type 2) have to think about their carbohydrate intake to balance their blood sugar level. People with type-1 diabetes have to count the carbohydrates to consume in order to take insulin. I won’t go into too much detail and save it for another post, but you really have to get good at counting the total carbohydrates of what you eat, most of the times eyeballing an estimate (you do get good at it) so you can take the proper insulin dosage.

It’s an art, it’s a science and its critical and its survival. I have been counting carbs since I started my insulin regiment over two years ago. The hardest part is not knowing new food items, choices are millions. Especially when the item is not packaged and it doesn’t have the nutritional value label on it.

Take the simple warm soft pretzel with sprinkles of sea salt on them - they sell them at the ball parks or on famous New York streets (it brings back memories) - even in malls these days, how harmful can it be?

Well at the JDRF talk, one of the Doctors talked about carb intake and asked us to guess for a few items. Every type-1 person knows a slice of bread (white or brown) is approximately 15g of carb. Next item was a soft pretzel and asked people to guess. People guessed 30g, 40g even 60g. The innocent looking soft pretzel that I loved eating with mustard in balls parks, New York streets and on my last visit to Germany for a snack... I couldn’t even guess. They are harmless looking - soft, light and I thought it could be as much as a half bagel which is about whopping 35g of carb (this is why I can’t eat a bagel). I can have two slices of bread and be still under half a bagel’s carb rate.

Well the good doctor said the soft pretzel was 200g of carbohydrate. The whole audience went “awwwwh” is deep distress. I could easily eat two of them for a snack and it’s one of the national snacks in Germany. Everybody eats them and they are great.

I went home heavy hearted and sad. I go to Germany at least once a year and for me not to be tempted for a snack, how can this be? Sure I can take insulin for 200g of carbs, but it’s like blowing all your calories in one item for the whole day, and for me it’s like almost two days worth of carb intake. I didn’t sleep well - kept tossing and turning and pondering about “to pretzel or not to pretzel”, the question kept plaguing me all night.

Well the next morning I was tired but I did some research and was happy to find that the good doctor didn’t do his research well. I think he exaggerated the truth a bit. I still can’t eat it everyday but it can be done.

One soft pretzel is approximately about (143g) and 99g of carbohydrate, 483 calories and 2008mg of sodium (one full day’s worth of salt supply) *facts provided by Nutritiondata.com

I am very insulin resistant. Most people take 1 unit of Insulin for 15g of carb, but I will still need 12 units of rapid insulin to battle this soft tasty pretzel, so I guess Pizza, Bagel and now soft Pretzel are off my list and only allowed for special occasions when I feel like taking 12 units of insulin before consuming it.

Some interesting facts to think about before eating this tasty soft pretzel for people with diabetes or not:

Exercise required (Based on a 35 year old female that’s 5.74 ft tall and weighs 144 lbs) * facts provided by Calorieking.com

To burn the calories of this soft tasty pretzel you could do any of the following:
94 minutes of walking
39 minutes of jogging
28 minutes of swimming
52 minutes of cycling

At the end of the day, I am relieved that the soft pretzel is not 200g of carb but 99g of carb - but I am still not convinced to take 12 units of rapid insulin but will reach for a cookie instead (mare 15g of carb) and save the soft pretzel for my next trip to Germany or New York instead.