Fiora Dax never thought her love for food would collide so harshly with her health. Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at 34, she was overwhelmed by the numbers, the warnings, and the fear that every meal was a mistake waiting to happen.
“For a while, I was terrified of carbs,” she admits. “I thought if I ate any at all, my blood sugar would spiral out of control.”
At first, she went too far—cutting out bread, rice, pasta, even fruit. Her energy dropped, her moods swung wildly, and meals became a source of anxiety. But a conversation with a nutritionist shifted her approach.
“She told me it’s not about cutting carbs, but choosing the right ones,” Fiora says. “Ones that digest slowly, that give my body a steady release of energy.”
Fiora began exploring foods she’d once overlooked—quinoa, steel-cut oats, legumes, and root vegetables. These weren’t trendy superfoods to her; they were lifelines. She experimented with lentil soups that comforted her on cold days, and roasted sweet potatoes topped with tahini that felt indulgent but didn’t spike her sugar.
One afternoon, she made a barley salad with olive oil, herbs, and roasted chickpeas—and realized for the first time in months, she felt full and stable for hours.
“It was like a switch flipped,” Fiora recalls. “I stopped fearing food and started understanding it.”
Now, Fiora has built a sustainable way of eating that supports her blood sugar, fuels her long workdays, and brings joy back to her kitchen. She still checks her glucose levels, but she no longer panics. She knows how her body responds—and she respects it.
“I used to think managing diabetes meant giving up the foods I love,” she says. “But now I know, it’s about loving my body enough to choose foods that love me back.”
