Type 2 Diabetes is a Dietary Disease. Your blood sugar (glucose) rises
and falls depending on what you eat. It’s that simple. When you eat
carbohydrates, there is a direct and simple relationship to your blood sugar
level. It goes up. And when you eat more protein than your body needs, there is,
to a lesser extent, a secondary and delayed rise in blood sugar. Fat, the
third macronutrient, has virtually no
effect on blood sugar.
Carbohydrates – including simple sugars and more “complex” carbs, especially those in packaged foods that
have been refined to the point where they are close to simple sugars – will have
the most impact on your blood sugar. In contrast, unprocessed, whole
vegetables, although also carbohydrates, will digest more slowly. However, all
carbohydrates – simple, processed or “whole” (unprocessed) – will become
glucose “under the curve” (in your blood) within an hour or two of eating.
That’s better than a few minutes, but it’s still an elevated blood sugar.
So, for starters, you need to educate yourself about what carbohydrates
are and what foods contain them. Do your homework! And you will need to study
the Nutrition Facts panel on processed foods, paying attention to the carbohydrate grams. And don’t forget to
check the portion size. It is usually much smaller than you will eat.
You will also need to learn what effect carbs have on your blood sugar. Everyone is different,
depending on your degree of Insulin Resistance (IR). (To understand the
relationship between IR and blood sugar, see “Type 2 Diabetes, a Dietary Disease #308.” As a frame of reference though, if you fasting
blood glucose is not between 70 and 100mg/dl, you have a degree of Insulin
Resistance. If it is between 100 and 126mg/dl, you are Pre-Diabetic. If your
fasting blood glucose is ≥ 126mg/dl, you are, frankly, a Type 2 Diabetic. How
do you know what yours is?
You’re thinking that your doctor will test your fasting blood sugar (or
A1c) if he or she suspects you have IR or are Pre-diabetic or Diabetic . True,
but he/she can only monitor your Type 2 Diabetes. Remember, Type 2 Diabetes is a Dietary Disease, and only you can manage your
diabetes. And to do that you need to buy a meter and test.
First you need to test your blood after an overnight fast. And until
you know how your blood sugar responds, you should test both before and after “test”
meals. To find out how high your blood sugar spikes, test before and then 1
hour after starting to eat. To find out how close to “normal” it returns, test
2 hours after that meal. If your blood sugar doesn’t drop 2 hours postprandial
(after eating) to near where you began, you are Pre-Diabetic. If it isn’t below
140mg/dl, you have Type 2 Diabetes and
you have eaten too many carbs in that meal. Blood sugar in a “healthy”
(non-insulin resistant) person never goes above 140mg/dl even 1
hour after a big carb load.
You will learn quickly what you should eat and what you shouldn’t.
Carbs are hidden everywhere, especially in plain sight. Fruit, unfortunately,
is just a simple carbohydrate: sugar (sucrose = glucose + fructose) and water.
At least the whole fruit contains a little fiber and pectin, but it is
otherwise not much different from a candy bar. Fruit juice is worse. Because it’s
liquefied, and thus partially predigested, it is several candy bars at once! It
will send your blood glucose through the roof. As will all fruit drinks and all other sugar laden soft drinks.
Bread has a glycemic index of 100, meaning it is the very definition of a high glucose food. The
ingredients list of virtually all breads begin with flour (highly processed and
100% carbohydrate), then water, and then always sugar in some form. Even the
“sprouted” grains in Ezekiel bread are just sugar. Sprouting or malting is just
a method of breaking down the complex grains to simpler sugars. Wiki “malt” or
“malting” if you don’t believe me.
Protein digests more slowly than carbohydrates, and has many bodily
functions before the excess breakdown products of protein, amino acids, are
shunted to the liver for storage. There they cannot be reconstituted as protein;
however, the liver can make glucose from them. This secondary process, called
gluconeogenesis, is a good thing. The body needs multiple ways to make glucose.
Glucose is essential (in small amounts), whereas
carbohydrates
are not. But the liver of Type 2s makes glucose even when the body
doesn’t need it. That’s why clinicians prescribe Metformin to Pre-Diabetics and
to Type 2s: to suppress this unwanted
glucose production.
So, to take charge of
your Pre-Diabetes or Type 2 Diabetes, you need to monitor your blood sugar. And
to do that, you have to manage what you eat and eat to the meter. Test your blood sugar before meals and 1 hour
after you eat to see your peak (and 2 hours to see how far it falls). It’ll
take time to learn what affects your blood sugar level and by how much. How
strictly you follow a Low Carbohydrate Way of Eating (WOE) will determine how
your blood sugar responds. But you are in charge. Remember: Type 2
Diabetes is, simply, a Dietary Disease.
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