Re: New Here: Introduction

http://www.diabetic-talk.org/freeveggies.htm

you called? :-)
kate

"Quentin Grady" <quentin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
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On Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:14:14 -0500, "chakajo75"
<chakajo75@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Hi,

I am 30 years old and have type 2 diabetes. Had
a hard time controlling sugar, but it is now
undercontrol. Need to know what diet and exercise
ideas anyone has.

Thanks,
chakajo75

G'day G'day,

OK. How about some ideas on diet and exercise.
Notice that is not
giving advice, rather it is offering some
questions that one needs to
answer for oneself, with or without expert help.
A mixture of both
makes sense to me.

Firstly in very rough terms exercise is twice as
important as diet.
Stanford did a cunning experiment in which they
followed two groups of
people for five years. One group was ideal
weight but sedentary. The
other were obese but worked out regularly at a
gym. Twice as many of
the ideal weight but sedentary folks died as the
obese but active
folks.

When it comes to diet it is really mostly a
matter of answering some
questions. Don't bother if your answers aren't
very good to start
with. Being diagnosed as a T2 diabetic is only
the beginning of a
learning experience and it does take time to
make the changes that
lead to better health. Quick fixes are for the
slick spammers who
would take your money and leave you no better
off.

Question 1. What is a whole grain cereal?
Give three examples.
Conventional wisdom on diet for T2 diabetics
emphasised whole grain.
It is only recently that the advocates of whole
grain have realised
that most newly diagnosed T2 diabetics didn't
know what whole grains
were. A strawberry Danish doesn't qualify.
<grin> All too often
people do a strange slight of mouth where they
read some research that
suggests whole grain has benefits and feel
pleased with themselves
when they tuck into a wholemeal bread roll. Can
you see what is wrong
with that? Whole meal was whole grain UNTIL it
was finely milled.
Then it wasn't. Most conditions that are
improved by having whole
grains are made worse by whole meal or worse
highly refined flour.
Read the labels. Anything that suggests it is
"enriched" is usually
letting you in on the secret that anything of
value has been removed
and a little imbalanced something has been
returned.

The major problem in Western diets is that foods
are made to be
supermarket friendly. This means the labels are
likely to reveal
"modified starch" Why are the starched
modified?

Is it to improve your health?

Don't you believe it. More often than not
starches are modified so
that they look nice when they are thawed out
after being frozen. Does
this matter? Well yes it does. There are two
basic forms of
starch. There is the more slowly available form
of starch called
amylose found in the Indian basmati and
Australian Doongara rice and
the amylopectin found in sticky rice. Amylose is
the one diabetics
need if they are to have starch and amylopectin
is the one that
freezes and thaws nicely but bumps up blood
glucose too rapidly for
the delayed release of insulin many T2 diabetics
manage.

Question 2. Which whole grains can you manage?
Notice that this is a
personal question. It is not a competition.
You are not a failure or
non-compliant if you can't manage whole grains.
Some T2s manage them
readily and some don't. One of our biggest
hassles is that we all get
the common label of T2 diabetic but that is
about where the similarity
ends. Some people find they can eat organic
brown basmati rice.
Personally I like to have a little red rice on
occasions but the
portion size is very small. Red rice is nutty
and crunchy so the small
portion size doesn't matter. For years after
diagnosis I simply went
without rice. Some people have tabouleh. That
has a feast of nutrients
in the parsley, mint and/or coriander that goes
into it. Tabouleh
achieved prominence recently when it was
realised that many T2 were
non-compliant simply because they didn't know
what whole grains were
or how to include them in their diet. So the
recipe was published.

Question 3. Can I manage bread? If so what
sort of bread?
Here in New Zealand we have Burgen bread. It
has an exceptionally low
GI. If there is a bread that a T2 can manage
then it is likely to be
one of the breads that has been fermented slowly
and cooled slowly.
Most bakeries used fast cooling because it
improved the bakery through
put. Unfortunately that produces bread that
converts into almost pure
glucose by the time it reaches the small
intestine where absorption
takes place. Far from being healthy it is as
dangerous as having
glucose by the tablespoon full. Many T2s simply
leave bread out of
their diet. Personally I don't entirely agree
with that approach.
When first diagnosed I ate rye and linseed
bread. One eats it in very
thin slices so this acts as a form of portion
control. Rye is about
five times as effective as wheat in keeping one
regular. People who
rely on vegetable fibre often find themselves
straining after a period
of time. Some don't. It's an individual thing.
Be warned though if you
leave out all grains that this can happen. They
need rye such as
ryvita or kavli rye wafers to ease the problem.
There are other
desirable pseudo grains such as buckwheat.
Buckwheat behaves a little
like insulin allowing glucose to enter the
muscle allowing better
feelings of being energetic.

Question 4. Can I manage legumes? Legumes are
things like beans,
lentils and peas. There are several reasons why
successful ways of
eating often include legumes. Lentils are
excellent sources of folic
acid for instance. The biggy for T2 diabetics
is that beans are the
best source of what is called resistant starch.
This is starch that
hasn't converted to glucose by the time it
passes the small intestine.
It ferments in the larger intestine.
Fermentation isn't to desirable
it you rush into things. Put simply you fart.
The upside though is
that short chain fatty acids such as propionic
and butyric acid are
also produced. These regulate cholesterol
production and do neat
things like repairing the cells in the bowel. I
find it strange that
we live in a modern society which would rather
risk the side effects
of statins than the backside effects of beans.
The reason why this is
all so important to T2 diabetics is that
resistant starches alter our
order of metabolism. In a diet deficient in
resistant starch,
carbohydrate is burnt first and fat is left to
go find some place to
park itself. If a diet contains enough resistant
starch more of the
fat is burnt before the carbohydrate and so
doesn't get stored. Recent
research has produced the startling bit of
information that the hearts
of diabetics burn fat not predominantly
carbohydrate as in
non-diabetics. We need to burn fat. Pure and
simple. As I see it part
of the solution is to have a diet rich in
resistant starch and that
means beans or lentils or peas. Peas
incidentally are about the most
fart friendly of the three.

Question 5. What fruit can you eat? Can you
eat citrus fruit?
T2 diabetics who eat citrus tend to have lower
A1c than those that
don't. This is surprising as citrus is sweet.
The sweetness is table
sugar. When citrus juice is stored it becomes
bitter so more table
sugar gets added to overcome the problem. For
this and other reasons,
eating citrus fruit is much more sensible for T2
diabetics than
drinking orange juice. Never the less citrus
fruit don't contain
significant amounts of starch and so don't
supply as much glucose as
we anticipate. Almost all T2 diabetics can eat
berries. Berries have
about 7% carbohydrate as opposed to bread which
has about five times
as much. Put simply is easier to regulate
carbohydrate intake with
berries than with bread or other cereal based
sources of carbohydrate.
As a rough rule fruit grown in temperate
climates is easier to
tolerate than fruit grown in the tropics. The
only way to find out of
course is to test, test, test. Read Jennifer's
advice to newbies.
When you have finished ... read it again. It has
the basis of learning
what is true for you, the only person that deep
down really matters to
you.

Question 6. What vegetables can you eat?
Perhaps this should have been the first
question. In general
vegetables have a high water content. T2
diabetics often get to be T2
diabetics because they have become almost
addicted to high calorie
density foods which they are unable to process.
Their blood glucose
levels rise dangerously and they feel lethargic
so they eat more high
calorie density foods. It is a dangerous spiral.
The way to break the
spiral is to eat what are known as free
vegetables. Kate has a good
list. Many T2s find potato simply doesn't work
for them. The portion
sizes are too small. It is much simpler to eat
cauliflower.

Question 7. What fats and oils can I eat?
About a decade ago the ADA experts agreed with
the consensus of the
scientific community that some starches could be
replaced with cis
monounsaturated fat. This is the oleic acid
found in olives, avocados
and most nuts. Though it was published in their
expert opinion the
message got lost in much of the presentation to
the general public.
The Women's' Health Initiative, the most
authorities test of the low
fat hypothesis, costing 415 million dollars,
involving 50 000 women
for eight years with 48 coaching sessions to
ensure compliance showed
once and for all that low fat was the flop of
the century. It didn't
lead to weight loss, reduced risk of coronary
heart disease or cancer
... all the things its proponents claimed it
would do. If you go to a
dietician and you notice that they are comparing
saturated fats
(bad)with POLYUNSATURATED fats (good) then you
know immediately that
you have found one stuck in a decade old time
warp. Notice that they
are not even mentioning cis monounsaturated fats
since it doesn't
affect cholesterol levels. The cis
monounsaturated fats are the one's
that are beneficial to diabetics. One reason
that they are beneficial
is that make those vegetables we could
beneficially be eating
palatable. Take the beans we could be
beneficially be eating. Beans
are somewhat acid. They cook better if combined
with alkaline
vegetables such as chicory. Chicory though is
bitter. Yes, I know it
is good for improving bile flow and helps expel
cholesterol but people
are funny old things ... that don't tend to eat
bitter foods unless
they live in the tropics where bitter flavours
alleviate the heat.
Simple. Have the bitter vegetables with fruity
flavoured olive oil.
Green vegetable have many advantages. Firstly
they are basically low
in calories. People argue about calorific
content but there is no
getting past the fact that water has as low a
calorific content as you
can get. Secondly their greeness hides many
essential pigments such
as the orange zeaxanthin and yellow lutein that
protects the eyes from
ultraviolet and blue light damage. Include green
herbs eg parsley,
mint, dill, cilantro. These haven't been
tampered with as much as most
vegetables so still contain an abundance of
these desirable pigments.
Olive oil or avocado makes the phytonutrient
pigments we need for
health much more readily available. Even
something so common place as
lycopene from tomatoes is made more available if
oil is present.

The other essential fat is omega-3. There is the
omega-3 found in
vegetables that reduces the risk of heart
attacks. There is the
omega-3 found in fish oil that improves brain
function and lowers
blood triglycerides which is a good thing to do.
There are several
reasons to eat fish and shellfish. This is one
of them. Another is
that shellfish are one of the best sources of
Vit B12, one of the cell
rejuvenativing vitamins and taurine a cell
stabilising amino acid.
In New Zealand, green lipped mussels are very
popular. What is popular
where you live? We all must live with what is
available locally.

The one fat to absolutely avoid is elaidic acid
commonly known as
trans fat. This hides in labeling information as
vegetable shortening,
partially hydrogenated fat etc. It put on belly
fat even on a
subsistence diet, no amount of dieting or
exercise will overcome the
damage it does.

Question 8.
What alliums can I eat? Alliums are members of
the onion family.
They include leeks, garlic, bulb onions and
spring onions. These are a
rich source of quercetin. Quercetin is a pale
yellow pigment that
inhibits the conversion of glucose into
sorbitol. Sorbitol is found in
the more common path ways to destruction of
cellular function. Stop
glucose from converting to sorbitol and many
complication can be
avoided.

Question 9.
What meat can I eat? Perhaps the answer is
none. Perhaps you are a
vegetarian by choice. That will make things more
difficult for you
unless you happen to like soy and have taken the
time to find out how
to serve it. Joslin's recommendations for
sedentary people boil down
to requiring two grams of protein for each gram
of fat. This is easy
with lean meat and fish. It isn't with eggs and
cheese. In New
Zealand where venison is farmed it is easy to
obtain high protein lean
meat that hasn't lived a miserable life on a
feed lot. Diced venison
is cheap and very lean. Once again it all
depends on what is
available to you locally as to what is going to
work for you. If you
have other medical conditions, then what sort of
meat you eat is
something you will have to consider with expert
help. Recently I have
taken to thinking of meat more in terms of
flavouring than the basis
of meals. Bacon improves the flavour of hearty
tomato soup. Chorizo
improves the flavour of a bean casserole. The
simplest strategy is to
look around for recipes whose popularity has
stood the test of time in
some culture.

Question 10.
What nuts can I eat? For reasons that are not
fully understood
people who eat nuts get three to five more years
of quality life than
those that don't. (We are talking about people
who aren't allergic to
nuts ... the bottom line is always to act
sensibly and not bore
everyone else by telling us all about it. Most
adults can act sensibly
without being reminded that some people are
celiacs, lactose
intolerant, etc etc) Perhaps it is the
magnesium, copper or other
minerals. Perhaps it is the phytosterols that
block cholesterol
reabsorption. Perhaps it is the cis
monounsaturated fatty acid.
Perhaps it is the tocopherols ... the most
common form of Vit E. The
reason doesn't actually matter. Raw nuts work.
Most people have the
sense to drop out some other higher calorie food
to compensate for
eating nuts ... at least this is what is shown
time and again by ad
libitum trial where the participants didn't put
on weight despite
eating large amounts of nuts per day.

Question 11. Hey, how about you ask some
questions and we'll attempt
to answer them.

Best wishes,



--
Quentin Grady ^ ^ /
New Zealand, >#,#< [
/ \ /\
"... and the blind dog was leading."

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/quentin


.

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