Have you been looking at the Insulin Index Diet site, if so, you may have noticed several articles pointing out the hormone insulin does not just transport sugar, it also transports fat. In fact, insulin is about 300 times more efficient at taking free fatty acids out of your bloodstream than it is at taking out sugar! Because diabetics require more insulin to remove sugar from their bloodstream than non-diabetics, they tend to gain weight. Being fat doesn’t make you diabetic. Being diabetic makes you fat!
But the Insulin Index Diet can help you lose weight a little more easily than most other approaches. You won’t read about this diet in any book … because it works quite well and you won’t need to buy any special products, attend meetings, or go on another diet a year later.
Here are the basics:
More about what you eat than how much you eat. The Insulin Index Diet is more about what you eat than how much you eat. The idea behind this diet is that certain foods trigger greater release of insulin than others. The more insulin released after eating a particular food, the more completely fatty acids are going to be cleared out of your bloodstream. All other things being equal, you lose more weight when you can keep your insulin levels low.
Which foods trigger high release of insulin? Courtesy of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and researchers Suzanne H. A. Holt, Jenni Brand-Miller, and Peter Petrocz of the University of Sydney (Australia), here is a ranking of how much insulin is secreted in response to a 240 calorie (1000kJ) portion of each food. The higher the number, the more insulin release it triggers.
* White Pasta 4455
* Brown Pasta 4535
* Brown Rice (boiled) 6240
* Rye Bread 6659
* French Fries (McCain’s oven fries) 7643
* White Rice (boiled) 8143
* Wholemeal Bread 11203
* White Bread 12882
* Russet Potatoes (boiled and peeled) 13930
High-Protein Foods:
* Eggs (poached) 4744
* Cheddar Cheese 5994
* Beef Fillets (trimmed of visible fat and grilled) 7910
* Lentils (served in tomato sauce) 9268
* Ling Fish (steamed) 9350
* Baked Beans (heated canned beans) 20106
* Doughnuts with cinnamon sugar 12445
* Croissants 13097
* Iced Chocolate Cake 14305
* Water crackers 14673
* Cookies (chocolate chip) 15223
The idea here is the foods that cause the lowest secretion of insulin are the foods that are least likely to cause the accumulation of body fat. Calorie for calorie, foods with the highest insulin score are the most likely to cause weight gain. The foods with the lowest insulin score are the least likely to cause weight gain.
The effect of these foods on weight gain is independent of their effect on blood sugar. If you are in the early stages of type 2 diabetes, your pancreas can still produce enough insulin eventually, to clear glucose out of your bloodstream. These numbers indicate how much insulin the pancreas will produce, and how much fat will be stored in the process.
Protein is not always beneficial: The chart shows that some protein foods cause greater release of insulin than some carbohydrate foods. Steamed fish, for example, causes more insulin to go into your circulation than potato chips. You will also notice that combining fat and carbohydrate into chocolate chip cookies, for instance, greatly increases insulin release and greatly increases the storage of body fat.
How you can lower the insulin index: There are two ways you can keep the insulin index down. One is to consume a kind of fiber called beta-glucan. This is the fiber found in oat bran. Anytime you eat the fiber in oat bran, your pancreas releases less insulin. Less fat will be stored.
The other way is simply to avoid combining carbohydrate and fat. Blood sugars are actually lowered when you combine carbohydrate and fat, but fat storage is increased. If you choose to eat something sugary, and that’s something diabetics should do rarely, you need to make sure it’s low-fat. It’s OK to combine protein and fat, or to combine protein and carbohydrate, but you should never combine carbohydrate and fat. The combination of carbohydrate and fat in food stimulates the release of insulin to store fat in fat cells.
Does dieting by the insulin index really work? A test of the Insulin Index Diet in Mexico found that eating reduced portions of lower insulin index foods resulted in about 21 pounds (9.4 kg) of weight loss in six weeks. Eating reduced portions of higher insulin index foods resulted in about 16 pounds (7.2 kg) of weight loss over the same period. That’s five extra pounds in six weeks of dieting.
It’s hard for diabetics to lose weight, and every helpful change in diet counts. Combining foods in the right way and avoiding foods that give your pancreas a workout is a start toward meaningful weight loss.
Chromium is no doubt one of the most important trace elements needed for type 1 and type 2 diabetics. A deficiency clearly affects glucose tolerance and impairs glucose metabolism. Besides that, chromium deficiency can contribute to the complications that many diabetics suffer from such as impaired immunity, increased infections, high cholesterol levels and peripheral neuropathy or the feeling of numbness in the legs, feet, arms and hands.
Simply supplementing with chromium is risky because it’s too easy to throw off the normal balances of the other minerals and trace elements that chromium works with in the body. Increasing one lone nutrient by itself will surely cause decreases in the others. That’s why a health care practitioner who can test for the levels of minerals is indispensable to you as a diabetic. She can help you balance the nutrients together and thereby relieve not only a chromium deficiency but also other deficiencies simultaneously. Deficiencies never are found alone in the body.
It’s a good idea to incorporate foods that are high in chromium in one’s diet when you are a diabetic, although doing so won’t generally be enough to counter a deficiency. The foods that are naturally high in chromium are:
* brewer’s yeast
* beef
* liver
* chicken
* dairy
* eggs
* potatoes
* whole grain products
* fish and seafood
* green peppers
* beer
* bananas
*drinking water
With all these commonly eaten foods, you would think it would be almost impossible to have a chromium deficiency. However, eating sugary foods will deplete the body’s stores of chromium. Exercise and suffering traumas can also reduce your current stores down to nothing.
Did you notice that beer was one of the foods that was high in chromium? That doesn’t mean you should go rush out and grab one at your local pub! Alcohol consumption is not a great idea for anyone who is diabetic because it speeds up the damage done by diabetes.
You can easily create meals based on foods that are high in chromium. For example, who wouldn’t love a breakfast with an omelet made with green peppers, onions, and mushrooms along with a small serving of lightly sautéed potatoes, a slice of whole grain bread and a nice glass of milk (or cheese on top of the omelet)?
Or how about a lunch of a chicken or fish sandwich on whole grain bread with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise and a banana for dessert?
Are you eating healthy, high-chromium containing foods? If not, start today!
I found this video on YouTube … it’s something to think about now that type 2 diabetes continues to show up in children. To combat this growing problem, University of Missouri Extension teaches kids about healthy eating …
When it comes to nutrition, there’s never a one-size-fits-all type of supplement. Supplement manufacturers will lead people to believe that everyone should take a one-a-day vitamin and when they do, they will get all the vitamins and minerals they need. This couldn’t be farther from the truth!
Babies have different requirements for vitamins and minerals than do teenagers. Teenagers have different needs than adults. You may have already noticed that teenagers can eat constantly without gaining an ounce of weight while most adults breathe in the fumes of foods and seem to gain pounds or kilograms. The metabolic rate of teens is higher than that of an adult.
When you compare two adults to each other, there still is a difference in the amount of vitamins and minerals that each one needs. One adult may have recently had surgery and needs more protein and vitamins and minerals that repair the skin such as vitamin A, C, E, zinc, and omega-3. The other adult may have osteoporosis and needs more calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, phosphorus, boron, vitamin C, manganese and strontium. So one size doesn’t ever fit all.
But the fact is that these multi-vitamins/minerals can at least provide a basic foundation for you to get the bottom line nutrients that you need. A multiple won’t make up for deficiencies of vitamins and minerals that you may have, but sometimes just providing the basic needs will be enough to make a person feel better.
The best type of multivitamin/mineral is never one that is taken once a day. There’s a reason for this. Nutrients need to be taken during the daytime in divided dosages to absorb the proper amount. Your intestinal tract cells can only absorb a few hundred milligrams of calcium at one time, so taking 1000 mg all in one dosage will never help you overcome osteoporosis! A manganese deficiency that leaves your joints aching all day long will respond quicker to two dosages of 30 mg manganese chelate than one dosage.
The best type of multivitamin is one that you must take three times a day. Depending on the company that manufactured it, you may need to take two or three capsules three times daily. So get used to it! Taking a multivitamin/mineral supplement is a great habit for diabetics to get into.
One sure way to watch your blood sugar levels fall and to reverse type 2 diabetes, is to lose weight. Set yourself up for success …
In order to lose weight permanently it is essential that your efforts are underpinned by a personal statement or mantra that will energize you for the way ahead and carry you though the difficult days.
Your personal weight loss statement could be built on the following foundations:
BEGIN BY IDENTIFYING YOURSELF AND YOUR WEIGHT LOSS GOALS
My name is Joe Doe. I’m overweight because I have been eating unwisely for the past two years. I’m the same person inside, and I’m going to become the same person outside within three months starting today, February 22 this year by losing 26 pounds or 12 kilograms.
TELL YOURSELF WHY YOU’RE GOING TO SUCCEED
I’m a strong person and I’ve always got to where I want to be in life before, so I am going to succeed this time too. I’ve also got my faith, and between us we’re going to remove this mountain.
BRIEFLY OUTLINE YOUR WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM
I’m going to stop taking weight on board by eating smaller meals more often that are seventy five percent healthy foods. I’m going to buy the best and freshest ingredients every day and enjoy cooking these in healthy ways that don’t involve the use of fat. I’m also going to go the office gymnasium each lunchtime and work hard for twenty minutes to burn off fat on equipment that’s good for my heart. My evening meals will be healthy snacks and I’m going to sleep well every night knowing that things are under control again.
DESCRIBE HOW YOU ARE GOING TO MONITOR RESULTS
I’m going to keep a weight loss diary on a spreadsheet on my laptop. Every morning and every evening I’m going to record my weight and watch the trend line to see how I’m doing. I expect a slowly decreasing trend with spikes each way and I promise myself that I’m not going to be blue if the spike goes the wrong way sometimes.
DESCRIBE YOURSELF AT THE END OF THE PROGRAM
At the end of three months I’m going to fit into the medium sized clothes again that are lying on the bottom shelf of my wardrobe. I’m going to enjoy going down to the beach again without feeling embarrassed. And I’m going to be proud of myself and what I’ve achieved. And then I’m going to spoil myself with a week away at a fancy spa where I can detox and get ready for the rest of my life.
When you stand in front of a mirror every morning and repeat your personal weight loss statement you will be renewing your promises to yourself and re-energizing your body and mind for the day that lies ahead. When you have achieved your goals, you may like to use a different mantra it to help you not to back slide into over weight again.
Isn’t it great to know that there is assistance you can receive from natural products to lower your blood sugar level?
Here are some of the hundreds of herbs that can help you regulate your blood sugar levels:
1. Stevia
This herb not only lowers blood sugar levels; it even tastes great. The sweetness in Stevia is 300 times sweeter than sugar.
Stevia is called a unidirectional herb because it only brings blood sugar levels down, even if they were normal to begin with. For diabetics, using Stevia is a great way to sweeten foods that are bland and to delight the sweet taste buds while accomplishing health goals.
2. Gymnema sylvestris
This herb is amazing! If you have a taste for chocolate … the type of taste that drives you to finish every bit of the entire pound of chocolate, then Gymnema is the herb for you. That’s because if you eat a bite of chocolate, then follow that mouthful with Gymnema herb, the desire to continue eating the chocolate will automatically stop. You won’t finish the pound of chocolate.
Extracts or capsules of Gymnema can lower blood sugar levels and the glycosylated hemoglobin (Hb A1c) test results as well.
3. Cinnamon
Not only does cinnamon lower blood sugar levels, it also lowers cholesterol levels in those with type 2 diabetes. You’ll need at least one teaspoon if you’re using the herb from your spice jar, but the extract works a lot better and you don’t need as much.
4. American Ginseng
The herb ginseng contains medicinal constituents called ginsengosides that lower blood sugar levels after you eat a meal. About 2 to 3 grams of the herb can be taken daily, and the best time to take it is 40 minutes prior to a meal or with a meal.
5. Siberian Ginseng
The chemical constituents responsible for blood sugar lowering in Siberian Ginseng are polysaccharides, which are long strings of sugar molecules. Other constituents in the herb boost the immune system. These two characteristics make this herb desirable for diabetics that have problems overcoming infections.
6. Bitter Melon
If a herb is called Bitter Melon, you know that its taste can’t be that great! It’s a good thing that it comes in capsules.
This herb has three medicinal constituents that lower blood glucose levels: charantin, Polypeptide P, and gurmarin. Gurmarin is very similar to bovine insulin in chemical structure.
There is one stubborn area of the body that is a problem shared by most of us. Pot belly, beer belly, spare tyre … call it what you want … we need to get rid of it, (slowly and surely), so we can help lower our insulin resistance and improve our blood sugar levels!
Type 2 diabetes is a condition that will have serious consequences if left unchecked. Managing it effectively involves cutting back on the things we enjoy that are also bad for us. It’s a fact of life that this is the only way to go … get well quick cures are just money-making fantasies out to gaff gullible people.
Let’s face it. America is obsessed with health and longevity and the rest of the West isn’t far behind. The health industry cottoned onto this fact ages ago and are making squillions … when last did you see a doctor with a battered second hand car?
The worst of all are the neo-medical wannabees who clog our emails and airtime with news of the latest and greatest in cute cures that they just happened to stumble on, and are now offering at allegedly ridiculous prices to little old you and me.
Fact Number 1: There is NO QUICK FIX for type 2 diabetes
Think about it. If this were possible there’d be no fat or overweight people left, and the government would change Diabetes Week into a public holiday for people living with in-growing toenails.
Fact Number 2: Handling type 2 diabetes is a WAY OF LIFE, not an early grave
Managing a diabetic problem is one of the simplest things around. You literally just have to eat natural, fresh foods and your more healthy life will follow. Your will lose weight!
Fact Number 3: There are MANY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS to a healthy lifestyle
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to spot the connection … the selfsame things that control type 2 diabetes are good news all round for the rest of your body too! That’s because you’ll also be improving your cardiovascular health, reducing your risk of cancer, and maybe even getting back your youthful looks that used to drive the little boys or little girls wild.
And those are the honest facts about type 2 diabetes, delivered in plain English directly to your personal computer at no charge whatsoever. I hope I’ve provided you with enough information to spot the many fantasies that abound on the web … anybody punting a miracle cure is just as likely to be after your hard earned cash, and maybe even fishing for your banking details.
There’s only one thing worse for a parent than to watch the child they nurtured fade away in a cold hospital bed. And that “worse thing” is to know that they could have done more than they did. This is a story presented to me recently:
“Peggy-Sue was a damn fine girl and made a great wife and mother while she was alive. Bright as a button too – she was forever carrying on about wanting to be a teacher and Mom and I found the money somewhere to get her through college when she was of age.
The troubles started when our little girl was just twelve years old and began taking on weight. Some folk did tell us to get her to a doctor, but we’re high up in the Colorado Mountains where such things don’t exist … that’s except for the city slickers down in the valley who are just after a man’s money. As the years rolled on we kind of got used to her being overweight, and stopped nagging when she achieved her majority.
After that, life pretty much rolled on until her husband Jake came round to us in the middle of the night to tell us she was in pain. I could see there was a problem as soon as Mom and I got there. She was sweating like she was in a fever and her hands and feet was all swelled up and full of sores. I couldn’t rightly hear what she was saying but I already knew enough to load her up into the back of the pick-up and get her to the hospital down in the valley real fast.
The one thing I really hate about medical people is that they never tell you the whole truth. I swear I spent a whole week down there with Mom and Peggy-Sue. They all said we’d come to them too late, that we should have done something about our little girl’s weight when the problem started. There was no way we could find money for a kidney transplant even if we sold the house, the furniture and the pick-up truck, so in the end we just loaded her up again and took her home to die.
These days I only want to know two things. Why were Mom and I such fools as to close our eyes to what they told us at the school when she was still our little angel. And how the heck I’m going to live the rest of my life with just a lonely grave out back that I can’t even pick up and hold in my arms.”
Childhood type 2 diabetes, the deepest cut of all …
Insulin is a natural chemical that our body uses to convert the sugar that our blood absorbs during the digestive process, into the energy that our body cells need in order to function properly. Type 2 diabetes is a reaction to the abnormally high levels of sugar in our blood that accumulate when our natural insulin is no longer doing its job properly.
There are a number of ways to deal with this problem effectively:
* reduce the amount of high carbohydrate food you eat by cutting out unnaturally sweet things
* eat less food to force your body into depleting the reserves that manifest as body fat
* burn off body fat and reduce your blood sugar levels by taking part in regular exercise on the advice of your health care provider
Did you notice how everything works back to losing weight? That’s because being overweight or obese increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and type 2 diabetes (insulin resistance) makes you even fatter. If you can get a handle on this synergistic relationship then you will be a great deal closer to solving your problem than most of the rest of the world.
By all means scan the internet for fresh ideas about type 2 diabetes, and feel free to even try some of them out. Just be careful of what I call fashions and fantasies. There is no one single miracle cure for the condition, no matter how well crafted some advertisements may be.
At the end of the day it all comes down to a healthy lifestyle. If this scares you off, remember that a healthy lifestyle involves no more than just a return to the way our Creator made us to be. If you decide to take my advice then please remember this one further thing … following a healthy lifestyle is supposed to be a pleasant thing to do. If you end up hating it then you are doing something wrong, and need to think again about the lifestyle plan you are following.