Dealing with Diabetes :: Healthy Lifestyles and Natural Weight Loss Information

Dealing with Diabetes
by author Joey Shulman, DC, RNCP

To gain all the benefits of eating carbohydrates while avoiding excess insulin secretion, it is important for diabetics to stick to carbohydrates ranked low to medium on the glycemic index. For the most part, all vegetables (with the exception of white potatoes), most fruits (with the exception of dates, raisins, and lychee fruit), whole grains, and beans are ranked fairly low on the glycemic index. Processed foods such as white bread, white flour, cereals, pretzels, muffins, candy, soft drinks, and breakfast bars are ranked higher.

The glycemic load shows how much sugar is in the food, rather than just how high it raises blood sugar levels. In other words, it considers a food’s glycemic index as well as the amount of carbohydrates per serving. The calculation of the glycemic load (GL) is the glycemic index divided by 100 and multiplied by its available carbohydrate content. In summary, the values are:

High: 20
Medium: 11 to 19
Low: 10 and under

Let’s take the example of carrots–a highly nutritional food choice. Unfortunately, carrots have received some undeserved bad press due to their high glycemic index rating of 71. Yet, a carrot has only has 4 grams of carbohydrates in total. To determine the glycemic load, the calculation is 71 x 0.04 = 2.84 GL.

Carrots, therefore, have a low glycemic load rating and will not over-secrete the hormone insulin. Now let’s take the example of one cup of cooked, white pasta that also has a glycemic index rating of 71, but contains 40 grams of carbohydrate. The calculation is 71 x 0.40 = 28.7 GL. As you can see, pasta has a high glycemic load because it is so dense in carbohydrates.

Take Charge of Your Health!

Of all the steps necessary to achieve proper blood sugar control, achieving a healthy body weight is the most important. Instead of following a fad or “crash” diet to lose weight quickly, healthy and gradual weight loss (two to four pounds per week in the first three weeks and one to two pounds per week after that) is the best way to lose and maintain your ideal weight.

In addition to weight loss, the following nutritional and lifestyle approaches are key steps for diabetics to take back control of their health.

Eat a sufficient amount of lean protein, essential fat, and fibre. Protein, fat, and fibre act as “brakes” slowing down the entry of glucose derived from carbohydrates into the bloodstream. Remember, the slower the entry of a carbohydrate into the bloodstream, the smaller the amount of insulin that is secreted in response.

Incorporate proteins such as yogourt, egg whites, fish, chicken, protein powder, and tofu and healthy fats such as flaxseed oil, fish oils, nuts, seeds, and avocados into the diet. Healthy fibre options include psyllium, ground flaxseeds, beans, vegetables, fruits with skins, and whole grain breads.

Avoid processed and packaged foods that are loaded with sugars and refined flours. These foods likely have a higher glycemic index and load rating, causing blood sugar levels to bounce around and weight gain to occur.

Consider supplements that can help monitor blood sugar control, such as chromium, fish oils, vitamin C, and magnesium. Speak to your primary healthcare practitioner about which ones are right for you.

Avoid foods that are high in saturated fat, such as red meat, full fat dairy products, and deep fried foods. These foods can worsen glucose tolerance and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. In fact, diabetics have been shown to do extremely well on a vegetarian diet.

Start exercising as a part of your daily routine, and you will lose weight, feel great, and maintain proper blood sugar control. Choose exercise activities that you think are fun, rather than those you think are good for you. Be sure to consult your healthcare provider before embarking on any new physical activities.

Wield Your Power

In terms of health care, knowledge is power. This statement is especially true when it comes to type 2 diabetes. If you or someone you love has type 2 diabetes, do not consider it a life-long sentence. By becoming educated on how to use the proper tools, making smart nutritional choices, and exercising regularly, you can regain control of your blood sugar levels, your weight, and your health!

PDF Chart of High and Low Glycemic Index Foods

Type 2 Diabetes is Caused by a Number of Lifestyle Factors Which Include:

An increase in high glycemic index foods in the diet, such as refined flours and sugars (i.e. white pasta, rice, cookies, crackers, white bread, soft drinks, etc.)
An increase in portion size
An increase in obesity
A decrease in physical activity.

Fasting Sugar Readings are as Follows:

<<< Previous Page

1 2 3

Dr. Joey Shulman, DC, RNCP, is author of Winning the Food Fight (Wiley 2003) and The Natural Makeover Diet (in stores Jan. 2006). For more information, visit www.drjoey.com.

Source: alive #277, November 2005

Diabetes: An Aboriginal Epidemic
Statistics show high rates of diabetes mellitus (types I and II) among aboriginal peoples. However, it is not the diabetes, but the complications of the disease, which kill.

The Diabetes Debate
Over 10 million people in North America have been diagnosed with diabetes and another eight million don't know they have it yet. That means that one out of 20 North Americans is afflicted with the diseas.

Caring for Your Diabetic Feet
Diabetes is the leading cause of foot amputations not related to injuries. Each year, thousands of diabetics have to learn to live without one of their precious limbs.

Diabetic Discipline-10 Basic Rules
1.Be aware of what you eat. Diabetics convert everything they eat, even fat and protein, into sugar. The more they eat, the more sugar they have in their systems. The answer is to curb eating indulgence. 2.Don't overeat.

Sweet Conspiracy
Hungry, Jenny ate four teaspoons of peanut butter straight from the jar. Within minutes she became hyperactive. Sound familiar? In these four teaspoons of grocery store-bought peanut butter, Jenny just ate one whole teaspoon of sugar..

The 21st-Century Epidemic
Diabetes is one of the biggest drains of our society's resources -both financial and human. The total economic toll of diabetes in Canada is an absolutely staggering excess of over $10 billion annually.

The Stress and Diabetes Link
Diabetes is a disease of civilization. It is a disease of unhealthy eating patterns, low levels of physical activity, and chronic emotional stress. Canada's aboriginal people provide a dramatic example. A few decades ago, diabetes was virtually unknown among the Cree nation of northwestern Ontario.

Sweet Little Lies
Consumers have filed a $350 million class action against the world's most-used chemical sweetener in a bid to expose aspartame's deadly side effects.

Help for Diabetes
Supplements can help diabetics regulate blood sugar levels. In particular, vanadyl sulphate and chromium are effective individually or in formulas that also include herbal extracts and micronutrients.

Diabetes and Metabolism
Dr. Boyd Eaton, an expert in the diet of early man, believes that the less you eat like your ancestors, the more susceptible you'll be to many of the diseases of modern civilization-heart disease, arthritis, cancer, and diabetes.

Fibre-Licious
The increasing age of our population puts more people at risk of diabetes, but poor diet and lack of exercise are also contributing factors. Greater understanding of the risk factors for this disease can prevent a diabetes diagnosis.

The News About Chromium
Chromium is an essential micronutrient required for proper insulin function, healthy blood-sugar levels, and carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism. However, many North Americans are deficient because of poor diets, that is, over-consumption of simple carbohydrates and refined sugars that are lacking in chromium.

Full of Beans
Blood sugar levels are easy to manage with a diet that focuses on whole foods and beans, which consistently appear on the low end of the glycemic index (a measure of how a given food will raise blood sugar when compared to pure glucose). Beans are an excellent source of protein, but they also contain protective fibre; for example, one cup (250 mL) of chickpeas provides 11 grams of fibre.

Sweet Talk
Medical researchers say we have more control over our blood sugar levels than we may realize. Scores of published studies support the use of a variety of nutritional and herbal supplements in combination with a high-fibre, nutritionally balanced diet as the best natural approach to blood sugar control.

Eating Our Way to a New Epidemic
A surge in obesity in North America and a sedentary lifestyle are two of the major factors contributing to this rising epidemic. People are literally poisoning themselves by eating excessive amounts of all the wrong foods. Products such as refined, sugared, processed and caffeinated carbohydrates are causing the blood sugar of many to become dangerously uncontrollable.

Diabetes Dilemma
Diabetes is now considered a public health problem of enormous proportions. The most effective treatment of diabetes requires the utilization of lifestyle, dietary, and nutritional supplement strategies. Controlling blood sugar levels and promoting good health with natural medicine are quite simple.

Unscramble the Number
Until relatively recently, experts incorrectly assumed that all simple carbohydrates digested quickly, causing a rapid rise in blood sugar, and that all starches digested slowly, causing a gradual rise in blood sugar. High blood sugar and insulin levels have been associated with insulin resistance, hypertension, strokes, and cardiovascular disease.

Looking for Good Samaritans

Cancer Down There

Pet Therapy
"He's saved my life so many times, my mom says to me. "He's figured out when my blood sugars are low. Living with diabetes, my mom often enters a state called hypoglycemic unawareness, in which she can't recognize when her blood sugar levels become dangerously low-but her beloved Maltese Cross Paddy can.

Hanging Down Diabeties
This month's Research Watch examines the growing body of research linking a mother's weight before, during, and after pregnancy to the rising rates of type 2 diabetes.

Here We Go Round the Mulberry Leaf
Many people associate mulberry with the Mother Goose rhyme that goes: "Here we go round the mulberry bush, yet this plant has a much longer history of use.

Milk Thistle
Even though milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is not a new herb to the health food industry, the studies and clinical evidence of this amazing medicinal botanical continue to expand each year.

Type 2 Diabetes
Currently, more than 1.8 million Canadians have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. This diabetes used to be considered a disease of late onset; however, it is now being diagnosed in more young people then ever before.

Carb Balancing Act
Making headlines today is something called the GI diet—a carb balancing act recommended by the Canadian Diabetes Association and the World Health Organization.