Diabetes Life with diabetes is a challenge, greater for some than others.
challenges
pastry chef
By Betty Shimabukuro
betty@starbulletin.com
Mark Okumura, for example, was diagnosed more than five years ago during a regular checkup. "I was shocked because of my profession, but I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't change professions."
When: 8 a.m. March 29 (registration at 7 a.m.) Walk for Diabetes
Place: Kapiolani Park
To register: Pick up a form at Chevron dealers, Longs Drugs Store pharmacies or Times supermarket pharmacies; or register online at diabetes.org/walk
Pre-registration deadline: Friday
Call: 947-5979
Okumura's profession is pastry chef, for Alan Wong's Restaurant. He lives a life surrounded by sugar, and that's just in his part of the kitchen. He's also surrounded by dishes that do wonderful things with fats, starches and salt, all red flags for diabetics.
"I love all that kind of stuff -- that's why I'm in the food business -- so what am I going to do? And the doctor said, 'How long do you want to stick around?' He's really getting rough on me."
On March 29, Okumura plans to join the Walk for Diabetes, supported by a team of friends and co-workers. The goal is to raise funds for diabetes research, but also to get some exercise and build his own awareness of the disease.
Okumura says his condition was likely brought on by "old age" (he's 43) and weight. He started out at 300 pounds, eventually dropping to 240, where he's been stuck, he says, partly because he wasn't good about exercise.
But now that he can no longer control his blood sugar with pills and has progressed to insulin injections, and especially since he was waylaid for a month due to complications of his diabetes, Okumura has had to get serious.
He has a personal trainer helping him get fit and his doctor has him on an almost-vegetarian diet. He's allowed only two fish entrées per week, no other meat or chicken. "Of course that's killing me." But his blood sugar is going down.
As for the desserts that are his stock in trade, "the most important thing is moderation."
He can't work without sugar, and he won't use artificial sweeteners. You can't bake with substitutes, he says, plus, "there is an aftertaste and some people are allergic to it."
Okumura's suggestion to the diabetic with a sweet tooth is not to rely on substitutes but rather to enjoy tiny bits of the real thing. "That's the key right there: You just taste. You don't eat the whole thing."
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