Here are some books that can help you learn more about diabetes.
For All People with Diabetes
Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution. The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars by Richard K. Bernstein
Dr. Bernstein is most famous for his advocacy of a very low carb diet for blood sugar control, but the book covers a lot more than diet.
His advice on how to deal with hypos is the best I've seen anywhere.
His advice on how to use insulin is must reading for anyone with Type 2 whose doctor has given him or her a prescription and only the most rudimentary "education" in how to use insulin.
There's a lot here that explains why complications happen and why they don't
have to happen.
No matter how long you've had diabetes, I bet you will learn something worth knowing the first time you read this book.
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 Diabetes: A Guide for Children, Adolescents, Young Adults--and Their Caregivers. by Ragnar Hanas, Stuart Brink, Jeff Hitchcock
Don't let the title fool you, this book will extremely helpful to anyone dealing with a recent diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes. I learned a couple very helpful things from it that applied to my own diabetes, even though it isn't Type 1. The author uses CMGS data to show you common patterns of blood sugar fluctuation that result in confusing readings and has many helpful ideas for how to deal with early morning hypos and much more.
Think Like a Pancreas: A User's Guide to Managing Diabetes with Insulin. by Gary Scheiner, Barry Goldstein
I see this book recommended by people with Type 1 quite frequently.
Type 2 Diabetes
The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed. Second Edition. by Gretchen Becker
A gentle but comprehensive introduction to managing Type 2 diabetes with some very good ideas about how to use your blood sugar meter to figure out what you can eat.
Books to Help You Cut Back on Your Carbs
Protein Power. by Michael R. Eades, Mary Dan Eades
You'll find much more information in this book explaining how cutting back on carbohydrates affects your body and your health than you will in other more simplistic and hype-filled books like those of Atkins or
The South Beach Diet.
After you read this book, you'll understand more about how the carbs in your food affect you and what foods are more likely to give you normal blood sugars.
There's also good advice on what to eat when you are in restaurants and pages you can copy and use as a pocket guide to carb counting. Look for the cheap 1998 mass market paperback as it is all you need. They've published some expensive sequels that don't add anything really significant.
500 Low-Carb Recipes: 500 Recipes, from Snacks to Dessert, That the Whole Family Will Love. Dana Carpender
This is the cookbook most serious long-term low carbers recommend. Ms. Carpender originally self-published it before the "Low carb fad" of the early 2000s. The recipes, unlike those you will find in many other supposedly "low carb" recipe books are actually low in carbohydrates.
AVOID Any Cookbook with the word "Diabetic" in the Title!
Sadly, the word "Diabetic" in a cook book title generally means "High carbohydrate/low fat diets full of foods that will raise your blood sugars to scary levels, written by people who don't have diabetes." Most feature a ton of pasta recipes because pasta will give you lovely blood sugar readings at 1 or 2 hours--but wicked high spikes at 4 of 5 hours that nutritionists, because they don't test blood sugar don't know about!
Software to Help You Learn About What You Are Eating
The best way to learn about how much carbohydrate in your meals is to buy a food scale and then use software to learn what the actual carbohydrate count is in the foods you enjoy.
LifeForm
This is my favorite software for calculuating the nutritional values of what I'm eating. It is very easy to use and makes it also very easy to add your own recipes to its database.
It is shareware so you can download and use it for free for a month to see if you like it.
Fitday
This is a free online service that many people use. It's a bit less well designed than LifeForm but the price is right.
http://www.fitday.comCalorieKing
I haven't used CalorieKing myself, but it has been recommended by people I trust. It too is shareware, and it runs on the Mac, Palm, and Pocket PC operating systems, too. You'll find it at
http://www.calorieking.com/software Note to Book Buyers
I have removed the links to Amazon after learning of their new policy of refusing to sell the books of small press authors who do not print their books using Amazon's overpriced Book Surge POD press.
For a retailer like Amazon to refuse to sell products supplied by vendors unless they are manufactured at the retailer's own factory is grossly abusive. Even Wal-Mart does not demand that the products it sells be manufactured in factories it owns.
So if you buy books online, consider buying them from Barnes & Noble instead.
