When dealing with blood sugar issues, little things count. For instance, we know we should be eating lots of fresh veggies - greens especially, but where we err is in how we dress the dish. So salad dressing is an example of a little thing not to treat lightly (sort of a pun intended). We should not only be careful about the amount used, we should also be hyper-vigilant about the quality we use.

While we could use any low-fat dressing we like, using dressings made with olive, canola, or flax oil is the best choice to make. Ann Fitante (registered dietician for the Joslin Diabetes Center in Seattle) recommends we avoid the low-fat brands because they are made with artery-clogging trans fats.

My personal favorite is flax oil - Barlean's, especially. It's light and nutty tasting, so it's perfect for salad dressing. Plus, it's a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, which have proven health benefits. Its only drawback is that it's highly vulnerable to heat and light. So to keep it fresh and tasty, we should store it in the refrigerator in a dark container (Barlean's comes in a black plastic bottle, for example). Flax oil is best used for salad dressings as an addition to cooked foods. For actually cooking, though, canola or olive oil is the better choice.

We make our flax oil vinaigrette to taste, but the proportions we use are 4/2, flax oil to balsamic vinegar. I like to add some crushed garlic and a pinch of Himalayan salt. We've found that freshly ground pepper is good as well. Finally, the ultimate touch comes from fresh chopped herbs - rosemary, thyme, parsley and basil. Each tablespoon contains about 70 calories and 8 grams of fat.

And here's another "little" thing that counts: the sodium in canned foods - I talked about it last week - it adds up quickly. One thing we can do to greatly reduce the amount in our meals is to rinse foods, such as canned beans, in cool water to wash off excess sodium.

One more "little" thing from the cereal department: avoid the processed junk. Processed stuff is not only nutrient-weak, it is sodium- and sugar-heavy. Choose steel-cut oats (also called Irish oatmeal) instead. They have a nuttier taste and chewier texture and are also a tasty alternative to old-fashioned rolled oats, which get a bit tiresome after awhile.

One of my favorite ways to eat steel-cut oats is in Swiss muesli. This breakfast dish was invented by a Swiss physician, Maximilian Bircher-Benner, for patients in his hospital. I use about a cup of oats, about 1/2 cup of water, a tablespoon of raw honey, half an apple, about 1/4 cup nuts, fresh lemon juice, and about a cup of unsweetened yogurt. I combine these ingredients to taste before I go to bed and let it sit on the counter overnight. I shred the apple and chop the nuts. The lemon juice prevents the apple from turning brown and protects it all from "going bad." In the morning everything is chewy and moist, and all the flavors have combined well. This dish is good enough to have for snacks, is a super craving deterrent, and is loaded with live enzymes!

And speaking of enzymes, that's the one last "little" thing: fresh food is SO much better than cooked - fresh is full of live enzymes. Enzymes deliver nutrients, carry away toxic wastes, digest food, purify the blood, deliver hormones by feeding and fortifying the endocrine system, balance cholesterol and triglyceride levels, feed the brain and cause no harm to the body. All of these factors contribute to the strengthening of the immune system, a factor crucial to anyone with blood sugar issues.

So the bottom line? "Little" things do mean a lot when it comes to our health, and it's always to our advantage to pay attention to them.