Carbohydrates, High Blood Sugars, Diabetes – know the connection?

There is a strong connection between carbohydrates, high blood sugars and diabetes. Carbohydrates give your body the energy, or fuel, it needs to function properly. There are two types of carbohydrates; simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates are in foods such as fruit sugar, corn or grape sugar and table sugar. They are single-sugar molecules. Complex carbohydrates are the foods that contain three or more linked sugars. So carbohydrates create blood sugars and that’s where the problems start for diabetics.  Understanding more about the connection helps to control your diabetes… A Personal Experience I am a diabetic type 2 and, at the moment, I control my blood sugars through tablets and diet.  Blood glucose control is extremely important for any diabetic – it is the only way of minimising future health complications; heart disease; neuropathy resulting in amputations; kidney disease and early death. Four years ago my A1C sugar levels were starting to get out of control – they weren’t massively high but were creeping up. My Doctor increased my medication – with no real satisfactory results, my blood sugars were all over the place; I could go from a high reading at night and be woken by a hypoglaecemic (low blood sugar) in the early hours. Then I discovered the Atkins diet and, because I wanted to lose weight, I started to follow the low carbohydrate, high protein menus. That’s when I discovered the real connection between complex carbohydrates, high blood sugars and my diabetes.  Suddenly my blood sugars stabilised and it was because I was no longer piling in huge amounts of carbohydrate, which were pushing my blood sugars far too high.  This seemed to fly in the face of conventional advice on the right diets – complex carbohydrate rich – for diabetes.  You see, I already understood I had to avoid sweet, sugary food – these contained simple carbohydrates.  I hadn’t realised that the more complex carbohydrate of bread, potato and cereals affected my blood sugars as well. But (there’s always a ‘but’ isn’t there?)  the Atkins diet did not really suit me.  I had constant diarrhea which was stressful and debilitating.  So I came off that diet after 3-4 months and, of course, my blood sugars began to get out of control again. But now I knew about the connection, all I needed to do was find the right program for me that followed the low carbohydrate principle. And just recently, whilst doing research for my diabetes website, I discovered a program that suits me, and which I describe in more detail on my website for diabetics. My advice to any diabetic and pre-diabetic, do your research!  Understand the close connection between the complex carbohydrates you eat, how they affect your blood sugars and how it can make it difficult to control your diabetes.  Once you understand that link, look for a diet or system that you can adapt to safely bring your blood sugars back under control.   Remember, too many carbohydrates (complex or simple) give you high blood sugar levels and if you have diabetes it means your body cannot cope with the additional overload. Carbohydrates, High Blood Sugars, Diabetes – know the connection? is a post from: Diabetic Chocolate

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Avoid fats, meat and meat foods to control diabetes

Fats The excessive use of fats has been linked to development of diabetes. A recent study at the University of Colorado Health Science Center, USA found that intake of an extra 40g of fat day increases the chances of developing diabetes by three times. Fat rich diet, especially one saturated with animal fat, seems to damage the insulin’s effectiveness. Research at the University of Sydney in Australia measured the saturated fatty acids in the muscles cells of older non-diabetic men and the women undergoing surgery and found that higher the presence of saturated fatty acids in the cells, the greater the insulin resistance. On the other hand, higher tissue levels of polyunsaturated fats, particularly fish oil, indicated better insulin activity and lower resistance. Fish oil differs from animal fats in that fish oil contains polyunsaturated fatty acids. One of the fatty acids called omega-3 is especially good for the heart—it lowers cholesterol and protects from atherosclerosis. In fact, the researchers also reported that intake of omega-3 fish oil to the subjects effectively overcame their insulin resistance. In another study, Jennifer Lovejoy, assistance professor at Louisiana State of University, USA, studied and the eating habits and insulin activity among 45 non-diabetic men and women. About half of them were obese and the remaining half of normal weight. In both cases, higher fat consumption increased insulin resistance. This indicates, says Dr. Lovejoy, that even normal individuals who decrease their insulin efficiency and boost their vulnerability to diabetes. Meat and Meat Foods One of the most important nutrition guidelines to follow is to “eat less saturated fat.” A quick and simple way to do that is to eliminate meat products. They are high both in saturated fat and cholesterol content. People with diabetes have a greater risk of heart disease earlier in life. The practically useless calories added by saturated fats contribute to above normal body weight and obesity, putting a diabetic at greater of heart disease. Flesh foods are extremely harmful for diabetes. They increase the toxemic condition underlying the diabetic state and reduce the sugar tolerance. Most diseases of the human body are caused by autointoxication of self-poisoning. The flesh of animals increases the burden on the organs of elimination and overloads and system with animal waste matter and poisons. Chemical analysis has shown that uric acid and other uric poisons contained in the animal body are almost identical to caffeine and nicotine, the poisonous, stimulating principles of coffee, tea and tobacco. The renowned journal Lancet, reports that a patient of diabetes must be persuaded to consume less animal foods. However, in cold countries where meat and mat products constitute the bulk of the diet, patients of diabetes should limit their intake of animal products to eggs and white meal like fish and poultry. Even their use of should be kept to the minimum; all red meat and red meat products should be eliminated from the diet. Avoid fats, meat and meat foods to control diabetes is a post from: Diabetic Chocolate

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