Yes my friends it is National PKU Awareness Month!!! Time to go out and tell the whole world about Phenylketonuria. Lately I've been noticing that often people who don't really know much about my diet will ask, "Can you have this.?" "Are you allergic to that?" (It's easier to say I'm allergic to something than go into detail about my diet to every person I meet.) Technically there's no can have/ can't have list. It's more of a matter of counting. When a person is on a calorie diet they count how many calories they have consumed and what they have left. Diabetics check their blood before every meal to see how much sugar they are allowed to have at that meal to balance it out. It's the same for Phenylketonurics and phenylalanine. I have to count how much I have eaten and how much I have left. If I have a low PHE (Phenylalanine) day then I can have a higher food like: a doughnut, a cookie, crackers, chips. Every Phenylketonuric has a different limit. It changes all the time too, depending on our blood tests. I personally can have 24 equivalents a day. I have Classical PKU which is the most severe degree of PKU there is. Other people with PKU I've met can have a lot more than that. My sister though can have 18 equivalents a day. I used to be that as well but, because I am on the swim team I need to consume more Phenylalanine than I used to. But I'll get on to exercising and PKU later.
Remember it's National PKU Awareness Month!!! Do something to tell the world about Phenylketonuria! Thanks for reading and good bye.
Your Faithful Blogger, Cassandra Baggaley
yay
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