As a registered dietitian, I often hear, "I've never met a carbohydrate I didn't like!" I can certainly understand the sentiment. Carbohydrates are everywhere, easily accessible, and made into tasty treats. At the same time, carbs can play a precarious role when it comes to diabetes, wreaking havoc on your blood sugar with potentially serious results.
Without having to "break up with carbohydrates" as one of my clients put it, how can you avoid becoming diabetic or better control your blood sugars if you are diabetic?
1. Read labels or choose foods without labels.
If you pick up an apple or some green beans you won't find a label. Herein lies the clue that you are consuming a healthy, unprocessed form of carbohydrate. Fruits and vegetables have built in fiber that delays the absorption of their sugar. This prevents an insulin spike, followed by a drop, which creates cravings for more carbohydrates or food.
If you choose a carbohydrate with a label, look at how many total carbohydrates are in a serving. The American Diabetes Association uses 15 grams of carbohydrate as one serving of carbohydrate. This is equal to a slice of bread. With this comparison, you can look at how many total carbohydrates are in a particular food, or how many slices of bread worth of carbohydrate you are consuming.
For example, a typical container of juice can be marked for two servings with each serving having 35 grams of carbohydrate. That's equivalent to more than four slices of bread -- without the benefit of the fiber.
2. Squash it! Substitute veggies for starchy carbs.
Most people can name the obvious starchy carbs -- potatoes, rice, pasta, cereal, bread, etc. Even in a less processed, high fiber form (whole grain pastas, breads, etc.) they still contain significant amounts of carbohydrates that can increase blood sugars.
Here are some healthy, nutritious, and satisfying substitutes that will result in fewer spikes to your blood sugar:
• Spaghetti Squash: This yellow squash is easy to prepare and substitutes nicely for pasta. Sprinkle with some parmesan cheese and enjoy with your favorite protein or meatballs and tomato sauce.
• Eggplant: This squash is underused and tastes great as a substitute for noodles in lasagna or in any vegetable dish. Eggplant can also be diced and sautéed with Indian spices for a meat-like side dish.
• Portobello Mushrooms: These mushrooms can be used as a pizza crust (scoop out insides and bake slightly before adding pizza toppings) or as a holder for any protein dish or hearty vegetable side.
• Butternut, Acorn, Delicata or Tahitian Squash: These squashes make great substitutes for potatoes and can be mashed or baked.
3. Increase your activity and move your body.
A landmark study in 2002 showed that even a 30-minute walk or other form of exercise per day can result in a 58 percent decrease in the incidence of diabetes. Activity and exercise have a powerful effect on normalizing blood sugars. Even if you never lost a pound from exercise, the internal changes have powerful benefits.
4. Increase protein and good fats...especially at breakfast.
Protein is not as alluring as carbohydrates, but it has a profound effect on blood sugars. Protein evens out your blood sugars and increases energy and satiety to make you feel full.
Eating more protein and a moderate amount of carbohydrate from unprocessed sources for breakfast sets a good blood sugar tone for the day. If you eat a large bowl of cereal with fruit, your blood sugars go up, spiking your insulin levels and resulting in a large drop. This is followed by a craving for more food and more carbohydrate along with less energy for the rest of the day. It's as if the blood sugars won the race instead of you.
A higher protein option might be cottage cheese topped with fruit and sliced almonds and cinnamon. It has protein, some healthy carbohydrate, and fat.
5. Eat regular, balanced meals.
Here's a phrase that has been way overused. But what does it really mean? Let's break it down to an easy formula:
• Eat within an hour of waking since you've been fasting overnight.
• Don't go more than four hours without food to keep your blood sugar and your metabolism even.
• Choose protein at each meal along with a healthy, unprocessed form of carbohydrate and some healthy fat. Do the same at snack time.
6. Regularly check your blood sugars.
If you're not diabetic, you may be scratching your head on this one. However, if you suspect you have diabetes, or have type 2 diabetes, this is one you don't want to ignore.
Checking your blood sugars first thing in the morning can show you how your body responded to the food you ate on the previous day. Below 95 is ideal. If your morning blood sugar is over 100, you could be diabetic or pre-diabetic.
Checking your blood sugars two hours after a meal shows you how your body responded to the meal. Less than 126 is the number to achieve. My most successful clients -- those who avoided diabetes or avoided the long-term effects of diabetes -- were diligent about checking their sugars. Most pharmacies carry several types of glucometers which are more user friendly than in the past and can impart power in a way no medical professional ever could.
Seem like a lot to do? Start with small reasonable changes. Eat a high-protein breakfast for a few weeks and slowly increase your walks. Small changes cause noticeable results in the body.
The diabetic epidemic is rising, but you can avoid becoming a statistic. A few lifestyle changes can mean a healthier you in 2011.
Susan is the author of "A Recipe for Life by the Doctor's Dietitian." For more information, visit susandopart.com.
Follow Susan B. Dopart, M.S., R.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/smnutritionist
Diabetes prevention: 5 tips for taking control - MayoClinic.com
Diabetes Prevention - Risk Factors and Prevention on MedicineNet.com
Diabetes - Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention
CDC - Diabetes Public Health Resources - Diabetes & Me - Prevent ...
American Diabetes Association Home Page - American Diabetes ...
Diabetes - Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment of Diabetes - NY Times ...
New information out of UCLA shows that drinking coffee (especially with women) can prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes:
http://www.espresso-and-coffee-makers.com/benefits-of-coffee
So, drink up!
Here's to your continued god health,
Betty Z
http://www.garytaubes.com/2010/12/calories-fat-or-carbohydrates/
"Virtually any diet that significantly restricts the number of calories consumed, even a diet that is described as low-fat (because the subjects are instructed to reduce the proportion of fat calories they consume), will cut the total amount of carbohydrate calories consumed as well. This is just simple arithmetic. If we cut all the calories we consume by half, for instance, then we’re cutting the carbohydrates by half, too. And because these typically constitute the largest proportion of calories in our diet to begin with, these will see the greatest absolute reduction. If we preferentially try to cut fat calories, we’ll find it exceedingly difficult to cut more than 400 or 500 calories a day by reducing fat — depending on how much fat we were eating to begin with — and so we’ll have to eat fewer carbohydrates as well.
"Put simply, low-fat diets that also cut significant calories will cut carbohydrates significantly as well, and often by more than they cut fat."
This is a gross oversimplification of the results of this study.
The "58 percent decrease in the incidence of diabetes" was in a group that followed "lifestyle interventions" that included a reduced-calorie diet in addition to exercise.
Reduced calories, other things being equal, means reduced carbohydrate, and the exercise amounts were self-reported.
So, we don't know how much the participants actually exercised, only how much they said they exercised. But even if they really did exercise 150 minutes a week, we have no way of knowing if the reduction in diabetes was due to exercise, reduced calories, or reduced carbohydrate.
jsr
Gone are most breads (rye crisps are now close at hand at meals), pasta (hello spaghetti squash), potatoes and rice (wild rice is tastier and nice and chewy) and most processed foods.
No more drive-bys at McD's or other fast food stops; planning and preparing healthy meals has actually become an unexpectedly welcome activity in our lives!
It's only been 1 month since these adjustments, and neither of us are ever going hungry, and yet we've both dropped about 10 lbs each, and we haven't even really started upping our exercise regime yet.
At a family reunion recently, I was the only one who could eat rice. All my cousins are type 2 diabetics and cannot eat rice. For a Japanese person to not be able to eat rice, it's sad. There's a price to pay, exercising and controlling diet is not an easy thing, but wouldn't that be preferable to getting diabetic?
EVERYBODY should be avoiding sugar, and eating only limited amounts of complex carbs.
The irony of the "low" carb diet, is that it really isn't low carb at all. Your typical "low" carb diet has even proportions of protein, healthy fats, and carbs. But people perceive this as being low carb, because the standard American diet contains an egregiously high ratio of carbs.
Fructose - one half of table sugar and more than half of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is metabolized in the liver like saturated fat and alcohol. Fructose elevates triglyceride levels putting one at increased risk of inflammation, plaque formation, heart attack and stroke.
Fructose from whole fruit (not fruit juice) is safe because it contains fiber. HFCS does not.
Fructose also suppresses the hormone Grehlin that signals satiety. Basically, you keep on eating because you don't feel full. This is one of the reasons HFCS is found in nearly every processed food including bread, potato chips, and those foods formerly sweetened with sugar.
HFCS, as well as added sugar, is contributing to the obesity epidemic which in turn contributes to metabolic syndrome - diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
Everyone is at risk with a diet high in sugar.
http://www.pcrm.org/health/prevmed/diabetes.html
Read Gary Taubes.
However, to get its real effect to lower/control blood sugar levels, follow the method below since cooking would destroy its essential qualities. My father used it this way to control his sugar levels and never took anything other than this for the purpose. I have recommended it to several of my friends who are very thankful for the information.
METHOD: Cut the vegetable in half; remove the seeds; then slice into thin pieces; fill half of an 8 ounce glass; fill the glass with water; keep it over night; drink the water in the morning and eat the vegetable if you for higher effect though it may be bitter.