Those who live with type 2 diabetes, and those who have lived with diabetes since before rapid-acting insulins and home glucose monitoring, are familiar with lists of dietary restrictions. If we are diagnosed early enough in life, and our families adopt our diets, there may be little difference between our feelings about "forbidden" foods and those of someone whose diet is mandated by religious observance. For those who are diagnosed later on, the adjustment can be a bit more difficult -- especially if the diet is imposed with a heavy hand and a sharp whip, and if the foods we must now eschew are not replaced by foods which are equally sensorily fulfilling.

The stresses of dietary change are never so sharp to me as in the days and weeks preceding Passover and Easter. Growing up in an environment where Kashrut (keeping Kosher) was only observed during Passover, I would find myself always wondering what Easter candies tasted like -- candies that my parents would not purchase before Passover because we were trying to clear our cupboards of anything not Kosher for Passover, and which were no longer available after Passover. Moreover, the various Passover dietary restrictions make it cost-restrictive for many confectioneries to produce candies and chocolates suitable for that holiday.

Supermarkets tend to get their Passover stock piecemeal, and when they sell out, it's not replaced. As a result, I tend to overbuy anything and everything that needs to be formulated and supervised differently for Passover than for the rest of the year. This is the same sort of mentality associated with binge and hoarding behaviors, regardless of
justification or rationale. It is the mentality of impending privation.

We may take on that same feeling of privation when we start a weight loss diet, or when we are handed an especially restrictive diet to control our blood glucose levels -- or, as these often coincide with Type 2 diabetes -- our blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Perhaps the better way to look at these changes is in the positive light -- not as much of a "turning away" from an "evil" diet, but as a dedication to ourselves and to our loved ones -- turning towards a healthier lifestyle, giving ourselves a gift of health, dedicating ourselves to better health. Gift yourself with high quality, tasty foods; treat yourself to smaller amounts of higher quality foods, invest in your health.

In the end, we are the people responsible for taking care of ourselves -- and as the L'Oreal spokeswomen have said for many years, we are worth it.