When I first started to manage my blood glucose with food, by hitting my target numbers for fat, protein, and carbs, I was simply stunned. I could not believe how much better I felt, starting with DAY 2 of this balanced carb and protein diet. Where before, I was hungry and tired all the time, by DAY 2 of the diet, the hunger had gone away, and my tiredness disappeared.
My sin was eating the average American diet. Once I began getting adequate protein, with half of my protein from whey protein, the hunger just went out the window. Instantly. Then, as I learned that the 100 gm of carbs to go with my 100 gm protein would not leave me craving carbs, my new way of life became complete.
This is a much better way of treating diabetes. Just learn to hit your target numbers. The target numbers are derived from 1 gm protein and 1 gm carbs for every pound of lean body mass. When you feed your body what it needs, the outrageous desire for more and more carbs just disappears.
Once I started hitting my target numbers, I felt BETTER from day to day, not worse, yet I was still losing weight! And my need for medications just disappeared.
So, if you want to feel better, learn to give your body the fuel mixture it is asking for. We know that if you learn to hit your target numbers for fat, protein, and carbs, that the body loses fat and gains muscle all on it's own. How much more of a clue do you need?
This is super nourishment on far fewer calories. Learn to live on lean protein, good carbs, and low fat. The stuff humanity has eaten for millenia. And you feel so much better!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
YUM, CEREAL
As you know, the balanced protein and carb diet balances blood sugar because it uses protein to slow down the carbs that enter your blood stream. The rule is: equal amount of protein grams to go with every carb gram, each time you eat.
I like this approach because not only has it helped me lose 110 pounds, but it means I can actually have carbs. Of course, the carbs need to be WHOLE GRAIN, so you get fiber, but it is still possible to have the yummy taste of cereal in the morning without breaking any of the rules.
Step 1: find a good whole grain cereal that has 25gm carbs or less. I like REDUCED SUGAR CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH.
Step 2. mix a scoop of whey protein with one cup water. I like BANANA SCREAM whey protein from Champion Nutrition.
Step 3. Pour the whey liquid over the cereal and enjoy! at 23 gm protein and 25 gm carbs, it is perfectly balanced.
And, voila! You have all the goodness of those tastes you loved as a kid, without the blood sugar spike.
I like this approach because not only has it helped me lose 110 pounds, but it means I can actually have carbs. Of course, the carbs need to be WHOLE GRAIN, so you get fiber, but it is still possible to have the yummy taste of cereal in the morning without breaking any of the rules.
Step 1: find a good whole grain cereal that has 25gm carbs or less. I like REDUCED SUGAR CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH.
Step 2. mix a scoop of whey protein with one cup water. I like BANANA SCREAM whey protein from Champion Nutrition.
Step 3. Pour the whey liquid over the cereal and enjoy! at 23 gm protein and 25 gm carbs, it is perfectly balanced.
And, voila! You have all the goodness of those tastes you loved as a kid, without the blood sugar spike.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
NO MAGIC SUPPLEMENTS
I am just as guilty as anyone else who has just been diagnosed diabetic. I went on a frantic search on the internet, looking for what supplements would lower blood sugar. I spent a whole lot of money looking for that magic pill that would mean I could eat like I used to eat.
Let me tell you now, and save you a bunch of money. That magic supplement does not exist.
What works is rebuilding your diet from the ground up, using just in time food, and hitting your target numbers for fat, protein and carbs. This is important because it is best to GAIN muscle as you lose weight and manage blood sugar. It is muscle that burns calories, so if you hit your target numbers for fat, protein, and carbs, you gain muscle as you lose fat. That means you are ramping up your metabolic rate with the food you eat. Over time, it can make quite a difference.
Once you get the hang of hitting those targets, then you can add in supplements that do work. They don't have to fight all the bad food that spikes blood sugar, and the diet produces muscle gain. The payoff comes when you have learned how to plan your meals, eat five or six times per day, and take your supplements.
See my posts on Alpha Lipoic Acid and Benfotiamine, the work horses for diabetes. But hit your target numbers first. No magic here, just good food, and a higher burning metabolism over time.
Let me tell you now, and save you a bunch of money. That magic supplement does not exist.
What works is rebuilding your diet from the ground up, using just in time food, and hitting your target numbers for fat, protein and carbs. This is important because it is best to GAIN muscle as you lose weight and manage blood sugar. It is muscle that burns calories, so if you hit your target numbers for fat, protein, and carbs, you gain muscle as you lose fat. That means you are ramping up your metabolic rate with the food you eat. Over time, it can make quite a difference.
Once you get the hang of hitting those targets, then you can add in supplements that do work. They don't have to fight all the bad food that spikes blood sugar, and the diet produces muscle gain. The payoff comes when you have learned how to plan your meals, eat five or six times per day, and take your supplements.
See my posts on Alpha Lipoic Acid and Benfotiamine, the work horses for diabetes. But hit your target numbers first. No magic here, just good food, and a higher burning metabolism over time.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
WHY DO I HAVE TO HIT MY TARGET NUMBERS?
I get a lot of comments that for instance, "I am vegetarian, I don't need all that protein" - or "Just where did you get your target numbers?"
These numbers represent the Zone diet - which normalizes blood sugar. Why is this? It is because the body has specific biological responses to protein, and to carbs.
Carbs trigger insulin spikes, and protein triggers glucagon release, which lowers blood sugar. They MUST be in balance. You would not put diesel fuel into a gasoline engine. If you are eating the standard American diet, you are doing just that, putting the wrong fuel mixture into your body and damaging it. The human body has a preferred fuel composition, and that is a balance of protein and carbs, and low fat. If you do anything else, over time, you will become diabetic.
I was the world's greatest natural food cook. I was doing my very best to cook for my family and maintain a semi-vegetarian, natural foods orientation. Imagine my shock when I learned I was diabetic. Not to mention the fact that I weighed 283 pounds. I had to find out what went wrong.
The answer? In my zest to pursue whole grains, bread baking, lots of fruits and veggies, brown rice, granola, and lots of honey, cheese, and eggs, I knew NOTHING of food composition. I had poisoned myself, and my family, with too many carbs and not enough protein. And all the cheese I was eating overloaded my fat processing ability and gave me pancreatitis, which is at root a lipid processing problem.
The Zone diet assigns equal amounts of carbs and proteins to balance blood sugar. We have further refined that to say that it is the lean muscle mass in the body that defines your protein, carb, and fat targets.
I have helped over 600 people lose weight without hunger. The key to this is to hit those targets on the left side of this blog. It does not matter what food you use, but you must hit your targets. This means you can be a vegetarian and lose weight and control blood sugar, but you must be very careful to add some low fat source of protein to match each and every carb gram that you eat. As a diabetic, you can have protein without carbs, but never carbs by themselves. If you do that you are further damaging your pancreas and spiking your blood sugar. That all goes away when you balance protein and carbs.
The key to getting off of diabetic meds is to log every bite of food that goes into your mouth, and to hit your targets for fat, protein, and carbs. If you do that, the supplements will show a pronounced effect, and the chances that you will completely get off diabetic medications are very good. But work with your doctor to confirm your progress. You should never stop diabetic medications without the approval and knowledge of your doctor.
We have seen the evidence play out on a body composition scale with over 600 clients. If they are short on carbs, or not getting enough protein, or starving themselves and going to the gym, they lose muscle mass. It is that simple. So don't try to re-invent the wheel, it is already proven many times over that the low carb diet is wrong, high fat diet is wrong, and none of us are getting the recommended amount of protein. And a high carb approach to diabetes will only make the problem worse. Instead we need to add a source of low fat protein to match all carb grams.
Whey protein fills the bill. Adds muscle, alkalinizes the body, and puts you in a good mood! I recommend half of the recommended amounts of protein as whey protein. For me, that is around 45 grams of whey protein daily. That amount can be achieved with the protein cocoa and Reese's shake.
But thank goodness I found this information. I have half a pancreas, and my last A1C was 6.4 - and my insulin needs are practically non-existant. I am never hungry or tired, and I have lost over 110 pounds. Try it, you will like it!
These numbers represent the Zone diet - which normalizes blood sugar. Why is this? It is because the body has specific biological responses to protein, and to carbs.
Carbs trigger insulin spikes, and protein triggers glucagon release, which lowers blood sugar. They MUST be in balance. You would not put diesel fuel into a gasoline engine. If you are eating the standard American diet, you are doing just that, putting the wrong fuel mixture into your body and damaging it. The human body has a preferred fuel composition, and that is a balance of protein and carbs, and low fat. If you do anything else, over time, you will become diabetic.
I was the world's greatest natural food cook. I was doing my very best to cook for my family and maintain a semi-vegetarian, natural foods orientation. Imagine my shock when I learned I was diabetic. Not to mention the fact that I weighed 283 pounds. I had to find out what went wrong.
The answer? In my zest to pursue whole grains, bread baking, lots of fruits and veggies, brown rice, granola, and lots of honey, cheese, and eggs, I knew NOTHING of food composition. I had poisoned myself, and my family, with too many carbs and not enough protein. And all the cheese I was eating overloaded my fat processing ability and gave me pancreatitis, which is at root a lipid processing problem.
The Zone diet assigns equal amounts of carbs and proteins to balance blood sugar. We have further refined that to say that it is the lean muscle mass in the body that defines your protein, carb, and fat targets.
I have helped over 600 people lose weight without hunger. The key to this is to hit those targets on the left side of this blog. It does not matter what food you use, but you must hit your targets. This means you can be a vegetarian and lose weight and control blood sugar, but you must be very careful to add some low fat source of protein to match each and every carb gram that you eat. As a diabetic, you can have protein without carbs, but never carbs by themselves. If you do that you are further damaging your pancreas and spiking your blood sugar. That all goes away when you balance protein and carbs.
The key to getting off of diabetic meds is to log every bite of food that goes into your mouth, and to hit your targets for fat, protein, and carbs. If you do that, the supplements will show a pronounced effect, and the chances that you will completely get off diabetic medications are very good. But work with your doctor to confirm your progress. You should never stop diabetic medications without the approval and knowledge of your doctor.
We have seen the evidence play out on a body composition scale with over 600 clients. If they are short on carbs, or not getting enough protein, or starving themselves and going to the gym, they lose muscle mass. It is that simple. So don't try to re-invent the wheel, it is already proven many times over that the low carb diet is wrong, high fat diet is wrong, and none of us are getting the recommended amount of protein. And a high carb approach to diabetes will only make the problem worse. Instead we need to add a source of low fat protein to match all carb grams.
Whey protein fills the bill. Adds muscle, alkalinizes the body, and puts you in a good mood! I recommend half of the recommended amounts of protein as whey protein. For me, that is around 45 grams of whey protein daily. That amount can be achieved with the protein cocoa and Reese's shake.
But thank goodness I found this information. I have half a pancreas, and my last A1C was 6.4 - and my insulin needs are practically non-existant. I am never hungry or tired, and I have lost over 110 pounds. Try it, you will like it!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
CRYSTALLIZED GINGER, TAKE 2
The maximum recommended doseage for ginger is 4 gm daily. Each 1 inch cube of crystallized ginger has 500 mg ginger. So, you should not exceed 8 one-inch cubes of crystallized ginger to help drive fasting blood sugar down.
NOTE: A CUP OF GINGER TEA HAS ABOUT 250 MG GINGER, MUCH LESS THAN THE CRYSTALLIZED GINGER. IT WILL ALSO LOWER FASTING BLOOD SUGAR IF TAKEN RIGHT BEFORE BED, SO IT IS THE MILDER APPROACH.
However, please note that too much ginger can make blood on the brain, as ginger reduces platelet stickiness and thins the blood. So, people that are on blood thinners should probably not take ginger in any form.
But it continues to drive my fasting blood sugar down. I am not taking blood thinners and am very glad to have this information. The 30 carb grams in 1 ounce of crystallized ginger just disappear overnight, so you don't have to count them in your daily targets.
NOTE: A CUP OF GINGER TEA HAS ABOUT 250 MG GINGER, MUCH LESS THAN THE CRYSTALLIZED GINGER. IT WILL ALSO LOWER FASTING BLOOD SUGAR IF TAKEN RIGHT BEFORE BED, SO IT IS THE MILDER APPROACH.
However, please note that too much ginger can make blood on the brain, as ginger reduces platelet stickiness and thins the blood. So, people that are on blood thinners should probably not take ginger in any form.
But it continues to drive my fasting blood sugar down. I am not taking blood thinners and am very glad to have this information. The 30 carb grams in 1 ounce of crystallized ginger just disappear overnight, so you don't have to count them in your daily targets.
CRYSTALLIZED GINGER
If you read my blog regularly, you know about ginger tea and how it reduces blood glucose. Someone commented on that post, saying they eat 2 ounces of crystallized ginger before bedtime, and their fasting blood sugar has normalized, originally 130 to 140, now 85 to 100.
I was concerned because crystallized ginger has a lot of sugar in it, and Calorieking shows 30 carbs per ounce. But I decided to test the concept anyway. We are all here to learn!
I ate one ounce of crystallized ginger before bed. My fasting blood sugar this morning was 65!
Ginger acts by speeding up the body's metabolism.
So, go get your crystallized ginger slices!
And THANK YOU, kind reader, for your suggestion. It will help a lot of people, including me!
I was concerned because crystallized ginger has a lot of sugar in it, and Calorieking shows 30 carbs per ounce. But I decided to test the concept anyway. We are all here to learn!
I ate one ounce of crystallized ginger before bed. My fasting blood sugar this morning was 65!
Ginger acts by speeding up the body's metabolism.
So, go get your crystallized ginger slices!
And THANK YOU, kind reader, for your suggestion. It will help a lot of people, including me!
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