Eating with Diabetes: Exposing the Common Myths

The following article was kindly contributed by Emma B. Wood, a dental assistant who has a blog for diabetics at www.diabeticdietrecipes.org

Maintaining a healthy diet is vital to our all-around health and wellbeing. Eating the right foods help us control illness, reduce stress, and provide assistance to prevent serious disease. However, for all those with type 2 diabetes, making appropriate food choices can be both frustrating and confusing. Because diabetes type 2 is a serious disease, debunking the following myths may actually help save the lives of countless.

Myth 1: Diabetes is due to consuming too much sugar.

The cause is not totally understood, diabetes is thought to be the result of genetics and lifestyle factors. With diabetes, your body is unable to properly convert food into glucose, which uses insulin to provide the cells with energy. Carrying excess fat can make type II diabetes more likely to occur.

Myth 2: Diabetics cannot eat sweets.

Consuming a piece of cake will not cause a medical emergency. Although sugars could be empty calories and result in weight gain if eaten in large amounts, when eaten in moderation, sweets can be part of a healthy diet, especially when combined with exercise.

Myth 3: Diabetics must consume special diabetic foods.

A healthy diet plan for those with type II diabetes is quite similar to a healthy diet for everyone - limit the fats, use salt and sugar moderately, and consume whole grain foods. Lean protein, vegetable, and fruit also help to complete a balanced diet. Many foods marketed as "diabetic" foods still usually raise glucose levels inside the blood.

Myth 4: Carbohydrates are dangerous for diabetics.

Starches are an essential part of a balanced diet. Carbs could have a significant effect on blood glucose levels, so they must be consumed in moderation. Carbs contain important nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and fiber, so eradicating them from the diet is not a healthy idea.

Myth 5: Fruit can be consumed freely because it is healthy and natural.

Although fruit is chocked filled with nutrients, consuming too much of it, especially immediately can prove problematic. Also, dried fruits like dates could possibly be high in fat and rich in calories. Fruits such as these should only be eaten without excess.

Myth 6:  Dairy milk consumption, as part of a balanced diet, is healthy for diabetics because milk is very low in carbohydrates.

Dairy milk is rich in galactose, casein, and harmful hormones, all of which can significantly promote diabetes in a regular milk consumer.  The milk protein casein is similar in shape to the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.  Because the body may perceive casein as a foreign invader and attack it, it may also start to attack the pancreas cells having confused them for casein, leading to diabetes.  (Cavallo, M.G., et al, Cell-mediated immune response to beta casein in recent-onset insulin-dependent diabetes: implications for disease pathogenesisk, 1996, The Lancet. 348, 9032- 926-8).  Milk is rich in galactose and it “reaches high levels in human plasma following milk ingestion. Galactose increases atheromatous plaque formation in Baboons and other experimental animals, causes cataracts in rats (and possibly in humans), and is related to the onset of diabetes in humans” (Gordon, D.B. 1999. Milk and mortality: the connection between milk drinking and coronary heart disease. Livermore CA, Gordon Books, USA).  Apart from the fact that milk is fattening and promotes obesity and diabetes, dairy milk is high in harmful hormones.  These hormones create an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone in the human body – this in turn leads to so-called “estrogen dominance”.  Several studies show that estrogen dominance can significantly increase the risk of diabetes. “Whereas estrogen impairs homeostatic control of glucose levels, natural progesterone stabilizes them. Thus, natural progesterone can be beneficial to both those with diabetes and those with reactive hypoglycemia. Estrogen should be contraindicated in patients with diabetes” (diagnose-me.com).

Now that the myths in regards to the diet for those with type II diabetes have been exposed, diabetics and non-diabetics alike will make wise decisions regarding food. Coupled with proper medical care and workout, food can continue to be considered a necessary tool to maintain our bodies healthy.

About me: Emma B. Wood blogs for diabetes recipes , her personal site she uses to help diabetics to eat healthy. 

Why Fruit Juice Is So Bad For Health

Scientists have proved for the first time that fructose, a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks, can damage human metabolism and is fuelling the obesity crisis.

Fructose, a sweetener usually derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease.  It is known to raise blood pressure, thus increasing the risk of a heart attack.  Unlike sugar, fructose promotes triglycerides in your body which in turn promote obesity and illness.

Also fructose interferes with your brain’s communication with leptin.  This results in overeating since leptin is a hormone that suppresses appetite and stops you overeating.

Several studies carried out in 2009/10 show increasingly that fructose is metabolised (used) by the body in a different way compared to sucrose (table sugar).  Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a controlled diet including high levels of fructose produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems.

Fructose contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals, and it leeches micronutrients from your body. A mountain of evidence has accumulated demonstrating that it is absolutely terrible for your health.  When you eat fruit you eat fructose, so how can fructose be so bad for health? 

It is true that fructose is found in fruit. However, eating small amounts of whole fruit does NOT provide concentrated amounts of fructose.  When fruit is intact and whole, its fibre will somewhat moderate the release of fructose into your bloodstream, as well as somewhat moderate insulin release. Furthermore, the act of chewing the fruit in the mouth allows the fructose to be released into the body much more slowly than gulping it down as juice.

Fruit juice contains little to no fibre -- but it does contain about eight full teaspoons of fructose sugar per eight-ounce glass. This fructose is brought rapidly into your body, promoting obesity and other health problems. Drinking a glass a freshly squeezed orange juice, even if diluted with a little water, may give you some nutrients, but is super-bad for health because of the concentrated fructose.  Humans were not meant to drink their fructose and for this reason you should always avoid any kind of fruit juice.

You should avoid all flavoured fizzy drinks, all kinds of fruit juice and all kinds of artificial sweeteners.  Stick to water or club soda instead of fruit juice, and avoid dairy milk which is bad for health for a multitude of other reasons.  Also, avoid agave syrup/nectar which is almost pure fructose!  Honey is also best avoided because it is high in sugar and has negligible nutritional value.

If you must add a sweetener to your drinks or cooking use just one of the following:  stevia or xylitol.  Stevia is a natural low calorie sweetener that can be purchased in granular form just like table sugar.  Xylitol is also a good natural sugar substitute and has the added benefit that it helps protect the teeth.  Xylitol has been used safely since the 1960’s.  Every household should have a stock of these two sugar substitutes.

If you need to lose weight don’t forget to check www.the-foolproof-diet.com.

I wish you a really great year in your life for 2011.

Russell Eaton