The recipe that follows has been in my back pocket (and by back pocket I mean my blog post drafts folder) for at least 8 years. I know it's been at least that long because I made this for my high school graduation party in 2012, and a family friend commented that she really wanted the recipe. When I made it again for my college graduation, she mentioned I should post it on my blog soon.
Well, soon has finally come.
This is one of my absolute favorite recipes for when the weather starts getting warmer. It's refreshing and light enough to be an appetizer or topping for a taco bar, but heavy enough to make for a pretty well-rounded lunch. It's also simple enough that I had all of the ingredients in the pantry or freezer during this time of social distancing, and luckily enough I still had some cilantro I got from the store almost 2 weeks ago (store cilantro like this to make it last that long).
Today was the first truly sunny day in a while here in Nashville, after much rain and cloudiness (both literally and metaphorically), so it seemed like a good day to cook!
This recipe is made of veggies, herbs, and some healthy carbohydrates in the form of corn and beans. Since both corn (vegetable or whole grain, you decide) and beans have a lot of fiber and "complex" carbohydrates, they get digested pretty slowly, and the non-fiber* carbohydrates get absorbed in the form of sugar a lot more slowly than something like pure sugar would. This is good for everyone, but can be especially helpful for a diabetic, since these foods tend to cause a slower, less drastic spike in blood sugar. Why? So glad you asked.
When you eat a (non-fiber*) carbohydrate, which is either a starch (complex carbs) or sugar (simple carbs), it starts getting digested as soon as it enters your mouth by something called salivary amylase. This begins the process of digestion that continues when the carbs get to your stomach. Food travels through the stomach, getting mixed with acid and more enzymes, until it reaches your small intestine, where hopefully pancreatic amylase will be secreted to help with the breaking-down process even more.
Starches and sugars are made up of building blocks called monosaccharides: glucose, fructose, and galactose. These are individual sugar molecules. Complex carbs (like those found in black beans) are just longer chains of these sugars than something like table sugar (a simple carb) are, so they take longer to break down. Once the sugar molecules are broken apart, they can be absorbed in the small intestine and from there, processed by the liver (into a stored form called glycogen) or used for energy with the help of insulin.
In other, less-scientific words, the carbohydrates you eat are broken down into their smallest parts, which then travel in your bloodstream to be stored (liver) or used for energy (muscles, brain, etc). Insulin is the key that opens little doors into cells that need energy, allowing sugar to go from your blood to these cells. For example, if you were to go on a run, your muscle cells would realize they need more energy, which usually comes from sugar (we can talk about ketogenic diets later, or maybe never). They would talk to your pancreas and ask it to send out some insulin so they can actually use the sugar that's in your body (either from food you just ate or the sugar stored in your liver). Once the insulin reaches your muscle cells, it attaches to them and opens the doors that allow sugar in. The sugar goes into your muscle cells, allowing them to continue working and allowing you to kill your workout.
In diabetics**, this doesn't really happen. The main thing (but not the only thing!) that happens in Type 1 diabetes is that the pancreas no longer secretes (enough or any) insulin. This is because the immune system starts attacking beta cells, which are the part of the pancreas that make and secrete insulin. It's not really clear what initiates this auto-immune attack, but once it starts, the dying pancreatic cells can no longer provide insulin for the body. This means that any sugar or carbohydrate that is eaten just gets absorbed into the bloodstream and then has nowhere to go. Not only are your cells not getting enough sugar for energy (meaning extreme fatigue), but your blood sugar goes up which can wreck all sorts of havoc on your body. These complications might be what you have associated diabetes with-- perhaps you've heard of a diabetic losing a foot, or having eye problems. The very, very, very good news is that for type 1 diabetics, there is a treatment-- insulin! As long as I give myself the right amount of insulin, my body can't tell that I'm diabetic.
While a normal body secretes tiny amounts of insulin semi-continuously as it reacts to what is eaten, stress levels, sickness, and a whole bunch of other things, I have to try to act as my own pancreas, which is essentially something that no human could ever perfect. The goal, then, is to just get close enough.
For those of who just made it through all of that science, thank you! Type 1 diabetes is incredibly misunderstood by most of the population, and knowledge equals power. Feel free to ask questions at the bottom of this post if anything is unclear. A few key things for non-diabetics to take away:
1. Diabetics can eat anything they want. Really. Saying "should you eat that?" or "are you allowed to eat that?" is never helpful.
2. Diabetics need to function as their own pancreases, which is a hard task to get good at, and impossible to perfect. This can mean burnout, anxiety, depression, etc.
3. Diabetics require insulin to live, and it is tragically unaffordable for too many people. Help them by signing this.
4. Diabetics can do anything a non-diabetic can do; they just need a little more preparation.
On to the recipe!
Black bean and corn salsa
Serves
Ingredients:
1 can black beans
2 cups sweet corn
1/2 small sweet onion, diced finely
1 red pepper, diced finely
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 jalapeño, optional
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Directions:
Mix first four ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk together lime juice and olive oil, and then incorporate the remaining ingredients. Pour dressing over salad and toss. This is best served cold, and even better the next day!
*Fiber isn't actually digested by your body (meaning it isn't broken down), so it travels through your small intestine to your colon and eventually is eliminated from your body. Because it isn't digested, it has all kinds of benefits that I won't go into here.
** As opposed to most of the media that refers to "diabetics," my blog posts will refer mostly to Type 1's like myself, since Type 2 really is like a completely different disease. So in the future, don't assume that when I talk about diabetes, it will necessarily apply to Type 2 diabetes-- the cause for Type 2 and the treatment is and can be very different from Type 1.
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