ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET

If you get a C-Reactive protein test, you will have a measure of the amount of inflammation in your body. This inflammation is the root of just about every disease: diabetes, heart disease, blood pressure problems, and a whole host of human misery. The wonderful thing, though, is that you can control the amount of inflammation in your body by the use of food.

Many other people, more educated than I, have written about this on the internet. What I offer is a food oriented way for diabetics to reduce their need for insulin and other medications. When glucose comes under control, then we can call this an anti-inflammatory diet.

The best way to control glucose, and to reduce inflammation, is to eat one gram of protein for each gram of carbs you eat. The protein builds muscle over the long term and raises your metabolic rate. When protein is taken gram - for - gram with carbs (get the good carbs, you know what they are!) then blood sugar tends to balance out on its own. The best quality protein with the lowest fat is whey protein.

The Omega 3's also play an irreplacable part - you must have them to build cell walls that allow glucose inside.

And other supplements are key for diabetics. See my posts on alpha lipoic acid, benfotiamine, and coQ10.

But the single most important thing you can do for yourself is to learn to hit your target numbers for fat, protein, and carbs. It is low fat - 25 to 40 gm fat, depending on activity level, and then 1 gm protein and 1 gm carbs for each pound of lean muscle mass. For most females, this is 90 to 100 gm protein daily, and 90 to 100 gm carbs daily. When you hit these target numbers, you are feeding your lean muscle mass and starving off the fat.

So, ya have to count. Log sheets are the only way for beginners. Luckily, most of us get the pattern fairly quickly and learn how much better we feel each day as we lose weight and gain muscle. Since morbid obesity is the common problem with diabetes, here is a solution that offers knowledge of food composition as a way to reduce inflammation.