How a Baker Manages Her Diabetes: ‘You Have to Be as Resourceful as You Can Be’
Key takeaways:
Jessica Stern-Enzi was fit and dedicated to healthy eating. Her diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes came as a shock.
Jessica, a baker and lover of sweets, found low-carb, sugar-free ways to make pastries and desserts.
Her diabetes diagnosis inspired her to start a home bakery that is grain- and sugar-free.
When Jessica Stern-Enzi was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 44, the news came as a shock.
Jessica, a Cincinnati Public Schools speech pathologist, had no symptoms. There was no family history. She’d never had prediabetes. And she didn’t have gestational diabetes with either of her two pregnancies.
In fact, Jessica was extremely health conscious. She was fit, exercised regularly, and dedicated to healthy eating. Although she hates the word “foodie,” her lifelong passion for cooking and baking had turned into several business ventures as a caterer and recipe tester for America’s Test Kitchen. Her diabetes would inspire another business, Beyond Grain Bakery, which she now runs.
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But 4 years ago, an annual health screening at work revealed she had a high blood sugar level. She immediately saw her doctor, who confirmed that she had diabetes. At first, the diagnosis was Type 2 diabetes. An additional antibodies test, however, showed that Jessica actually had Type 1 diabetes, a chronic condition in which the pancreas makes little or no insulin.
Although Type 1 usually occurs during childhood or adolescence, it can develop later and is commonly referred to as adult onset Type 1 diabetes.
Jessica’s Type 1 was a variant known as LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults). Over time, the body’s insulin production declines at a slower rate compared to Type 1 but at a faster rate compared to those with Type 2 diabetes.
“When I was diagnosed, I knew nothing about diabetes,” Jessica says. Since then, she’s learned a lot and says the following tips can help others manage their diabetes, too.
1. Do your research
When Jessica was diagnosed, she was set up with a counselor who gave her some general guidelines for managing her diabetes. She didn’t find them very helpful.
“I learned that you have to be as resourceful as you can be when learning about your own diabetes,” Jessica says. She went online and started gathering information. Jessica also joined several diabetes support groups and found the most helpful information came from talking with others who were living with diabetes.
2. Make small changes
Lower your blood sugar by changing your diet, Jessica suggests. Start with small changes. For example, choose fresh over processed foods when possible. Or try swapping a high-carbohydrate favorite, like wheat pasta, for a lower-carb alternative.
Jessica uses chickpea pasta and hearts of palm "pasta" for a low-carb option. Go slowly and make changes you can stick with, she says.
“Your long-term health depends on it,” Jessica says. “Because if you don’t make those changes, your diabetes can result in all kinds of future health complications.”
3. Try different ways of eating
Before her diagnosis, Jessica had been a vegetarian for 20 years. But she switched to a keto low-carbohydrate diet after her diabetes diagnosis. Although it seemed like an easy way to control her blood sugar, she eventually became concerned about the amount of fat she was eating.
“I wasn’t getting enough fiber, either,” she says. Then she read about a plant-based, low-fat way of eating. “I’m now eating a version that includes some meat,” she says. So far, it’s working. “I have found a way of eating that I enjoy while still managing my blood sugar.”
4. Modify recipes
Through a lot of trial and error, Jessica found ways to make low-carb and low-fat versions of some of her favorite sweets. She did a lot of experimenting based on her own knowledge of ingredients and some research.
Her Instagram posts of her creations generated so much interest, Jessica started home-based Beyond Grain Bakery, which specializes in low-carb, gluten-free, grain-free, dairy- and sugar-free desserts and pastries. She supplies several restaurants and coffee shops and takes individual orders in her area.
5. Track your blood sugar
The most popular method of measuring blood sugar levels at home is with a glucose meter that analyzes a small amount of blood from pricking the fingertip.
Jessica uses a continuous glucose monitor. She wears a sensor on her upper arm and has an app on her phone that allows her to scan the sensor and receive a readout showing her glucose levels at any time. It’s painless and becoming more popular, but also more costly. Jessica suggests people check with their insurance providers to see if the cost of a monitor is covered.
6. Don’t panic
If you do have a device for monitoring blood glucose levels, don’t panic every time you have a blood sugar spike, Jessica says. She looks at patterns. If a sugar spike is only happening every once in a while, she thinks about what she has eaten that could possibly have caused the spike. Then she makes adjustments.
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