Another example of uncommon sense – eating for type two diabetics

The Type 2 Diabetic suffers from insulin resistance. His/her cells have become resistant to insulin. Consumption of carbohydrates leads to the release of insulin into the bloodstream. Too much insulin leads to insulin resistance. So, how would you treat a Type 2 Diabetic?

If you answered “By getting 60% of dieatary nutrients from carbohydrates” you’d be following the American Diabetes Association’s plan. And you’d be wrong. That’s right the association that exists for diabetics has things ass about.

If you answered “Eat less carbs” – well done. It makes sense – uncommon sense it would seem.

Eating less carbs and therefore reducing your production of insulin helps with the issue of insulin resistance.

Sometimes, even those you think would know everything about a particular area are way off the mark. Be careful. It’s your body, not theirs.

Cholesterol

There might not be an area of nutrition and biochemistry that’s more fought over than cholesterol. On one side you have the skeptics who say that cholesterol isn’t the big, bad wolf that many experts would have us believe. On the other side, you have those who think that cholesterol is killing us all and that we need drugs to fix this…right now! People populating the middle ground are hard to come by.

I am by no means an expert in this area. But I tend to fall closer to the skeptical side than the ‘we need drugs’ side. There is certainly a correlation with high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease but I do not believe that it is causitive. For one, cholesterol is absolutely essential to human survival. No cholesterol in the body means no cells means death. And the amount of cholesterol absorbed from foods is negligable, so eating eggs and red meat isn’t going to kill you because of the high cholesterol levels in each.

The point of this post is to illustrate that it is not a cut and dried debate. We shouldn’t blindly believe our GPs or pharmaceutical companies. In fact, I have heard off the record reports that these companies actually encourage prescription of statins by GPs when they really aren’t needed. Oh, the almighty dollar!

Educate yourself. Arm yourself with knowledge! Then make a decision based upon something other than ignorance. Here are a few sites that you really need to visit:

• Cholesterol – you can’t live without it!
• Cholesterol Myths
• The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics

Fuel

Food is fuel.

Some tastes better than others. Some is better for you. These are not mutually exclusive. You can have good tasting food that’s good for you.

We have weird associations with food. We use it as reward. We use it for comfort. We use it to fight boredom. None of these practices treat food properly. I say again: food is fuel.

Much like choosing standard or high octane fuel for your car, the quality of food you consume has an affect on your performance and your health. Don’t fool yourself: garbage in results in garbage out.

Here is a list of foods that you might think are healthy but really aren’t all that good for you:

• bread (refined carbs)
• rice (refined carbs)
• pasta (refined carbs)
• fruit juice (more sugar than Coke)
• potato (dense cabs)
• dairy (inflammatory)

Here is a list of foods that you might think you should avoid but are actually beneficial:

• eggs (yes, the yolk too)
• red meat (but not everyday)
• avocado (it’s good fat)