I couldn’t eat a lot of that because of the high carb and sugar counts. I was stuck to eating nuts and deli meats, but I missed all of the American “classics,” like Coco Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Oreos, Smuckers, so on. I found that keto is great for diabetes, so I stuck with it, but there weren’t a lot of low carb, low sugar options in the grocery store. Now, this was back in 2010, and at the same time, I’d been diagnosed with epilepsy, and my doctor recommended trying out a keto eating regimen to reduce the incidence of seizures. When I was diagnosed, I realized that if I ate low carb, it made it a lot easier to manage my blood sugars. What inspired you to create Catalina Crunch? That’s why I usually use my CGM when I travel so I can have a constant read on my blood sugar. It becomes more challenging because when you’re in the airport or get somewhere late at night, the only option for food is fast food, and you don’t necessarily know what’s in the products you’re eating. When I’m traveling, it’s more difficult, which, unfortunately, I travel a lot for my job. When I’m not traveling, I usually follow a pretty standard way of eating, which helps with managing my blood sugar. I’ve found that the easiest thing with diabetes is to stick to a standard way of eating. Other times, I just like pricking my fingers and doing it the old school way. I have a CGM, which I use sometimes, but I go on and off of it. I use needles and pens, I don’t use a pump. I spent 2 to 3 days in the hospital, missed the entire new student orientation, and then flew back to California with a bunch of testing equipment. My parents took me to the hospital and my blood sugar was around 900 mg/dL or so, and I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The night before, I was walking around and collapsed. Then, I got admitted to the University of Pennsylvania, which is where I went to college, and I was supposed to attend their new student orientation day with my parents. It wasn’t like I was eating that much sugar or carbs… I was also exercising a lot, but this all went on for a couple of months. I didn’t drink soda or juice back then and I think I was eating pretty well. I had about a 25-minute drive home from school, and I would first stop at a gas station and pick up a gallon jug of water and drink the entire thing by the time I got home. And then I couldn’t stay a whole class without having to go to the water fountain. Initially, I was drinking water in the water fountain in between classes. I just thought I was dehydrated, but it gradually got worse and worse. I was getting ready to go off to college and I started to notice that I was more thirsty than usual.Īt first, I didn’t really think much of it. Yes, I was diagnosed with T1D when I was a senior in high school. There’s a lot to do when you’re running a company. I’m really passionate about our products, so I spend a lot of time doing product development work in our formulation and recipe work. As the CEO, I get to do a little bit of everything. We’re a food brand and we manufacture low sugar/low carb and delicious foods, like cookie sandwiches, cereal, and snacks. I’m the founder and CEO of Catalina Crunch. I was born in 1990, so I believe that makes me 31 right now. Kaliannan recently talked with DiabetesMine to discuss life with T1D, his burgeoning company, and why healthy, crunchy foods are important to him. The company now dominates the natural cereal market, and its low carb cereals and cookies are available in more than 15,000 stores nationwide, including big players like Kroger, Whole Foods Market, Costco, Target, Publix, Albertsons, Meijer, and more.
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