Diabetes, what not to eat.

Diabetes used to be a very rare disease.  Unfortunately, nowadays, it is all too common.  Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle acquired disease - this means that unlike type 1 diabetes, type 2 is the direct result of your lifestyle (eating habits, exercise habits, etc..).  So, I am sure you will understand that if you have given yourself type 2 diabetes through your day to day choices, then you can change those choices and habits and improve your health.

Type 2 diabetes can lead to a whole host of serious diseases such as heart disease, blindness and even limb amputation due to the lack of circulation that causes gangrene.

For me, the scariest thing is that everyday more and more children are being diagnosed with diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is reversible, and in the very least controlable, it is up to you.

So, if you have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, if you are pre-diabetic or if there is a history of type 2 diabetes in your family, then you might want to start looking after yourself.

Here is what you SHOULDN'T eat:

A big problem for people with type 2 diabetes is carb intake.  Carbs severely affect the blood glucose level causing it to spike but the insulin response to the spike doesn't work.  So, if you have high glucose blood levels for sustained periods of time your body's nerves and blood vessels can be damaged which is the beginning of heart disease, kidney disease and other health conditions.  Keeping to a low carb diet is the best way to avoid any more serious health problems.

So, the first things you need to avoid are refined "white" carbs; white bread, pasta, and white rice.  Refined products have had all nutritional benefits removed during the refining process, leaving them with next to no nutritional value, but they will quickly spike your blood sugar levels.  This also goes for gluten-free products that were found to have the biggest effect on blood sugar levels, the rice-based products were the worst.

Another study found that the effect wasn't limited to raised blood sugar levels but also found that brain function was impaired in people with type 2 diabetes.

Fiber is an extremely important part of our diet.  It is the fiber in high sugar foods such as fruit that stop them being dangerous.  The fiber content means that the sugars are released slowly over a longer period of time.  Refined products like bread, pasta, etc, have very little fiber and so the sugars are released quickly.

Eat wholegrain foods whenever you need to have carbs, the less processed the better and high-fiber breads have been shown to reduce blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes, and they also showed reduced levels of cholesterol and blood pressure.

Sugary drinks are another no, as I am sure you can imagine.  They are very high carb as each can of

330ml soda contains 38g of sugar - and what is more it is mainly fructose  that you might remember from last week's post.  Fructose is extremely hard for the body to process and can lead to metabolic changes that facilitate belly fat, high cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

But don't get excited about diet versions, they are just as bad for diabetes as regular soda.  A recent study posted in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition which followed 66,118 women over a period of 14 years and kept track of the drinks they consumed.  By the end of the study, both sugar sweetened drinks and diet drinks were linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.

It's a much better idea to stick to water, sparkling water or unsweetened drinks.

Breakfast cereals are also right up there in the high carb section.  If you read the ingredients on a packet of commercial cereal  the second ingredient is usually sugar with the first being some kind of refined cereal, usually wheat.  These are highly processed and lacking in nutrients.  And don't be fooled by the supposedly healthy ones either, they also have high amounts of sugar - you'd be surprised as to how much.

Yogurts are generally deemed healthy, and if they are natural yogurts with no added fruit, sugar or flavoring then they generally are.

However, the minute you get into added fruit and flavoring then you are talking about large amounts of added sugar.  Just one 245g serving of fruit-flavored yogurt can contain a huge 47g of sugar - that's almost 81% of its total calories from sugar!

Stick to plain greek yogurt or kefir - your gut bacteria will love you for it too!

Avoid Starbucks and other such places like the plague.  Our brains do not process liquid or solid calories in the same way.  You don't consider a coffee to be food which means you will probably eat more later, putting your weight at risk.  If you are overweight, then this will only give you an even bigger problem.

Although coffee does have certain health benefits, adding milk and flavored syrups just means adding even more sugar - again.  Even the diet versions have enough carbs in them to raise blood sugar levels.  Just one caramel frappuccino from Starbucks (454ml) has 67g of carbs and the diet version as 30g of carbs...  Need I say more?

Stick to plain old black coffee or expresso and if you must, add some heavy cream.

Honey and spice and all things nice...  Some people believe that natural sweeteners such as honey, agave nectar and maple syrup are healthier versions of white sugar.  But in fact they are even worse.  The carb count for white sugar is 12.6g per tablespoon, so you might be surprised to find out that one tablespoon of honey has a carb count to 17g, Agave nectar comes in at 16g per tablespoon and Maple syrup has a carb count of 13g.  So as you can imagine these aren't going to do any good to your blood sugar levels.

While on the subject of "healthier" options, you should stay away from dried fruit too.  Fresh fruit is a good source to vitamins and minerals and when it is dried, the loss of water content means that these nutrients can be found in higher concentrations.  However, the down side is that its sugar content also becomes concentrated.

An example of this is grapes vs raisin...  One cup of grapes contains 27g of carbs of which 1g is fiber.  Now, one cup of raisins contains 115g of carbs, of which 5g are fiber.  So, if you do have diabetes then stick to low sugar fruits such as berries, small apples, etc., are good for you as their fiber content helps with a slower rate of absorption of the sugars.

Don't even think about juice.  Fruit juice is deemed healthy, but in fact all it is is fruit flavored sugar water.  When you make juice you remove all the fiber from the fruit, and if you remember it is the fiber that makes fruit healthy.  So eat the whole orange - fiber and all!

Potatoes in any form are high in carbs, but especially when fried.  Frying any foods has been shown to produce high amounts of AGEs and aldehydes, toxic compounds that promote inflammation and increase your risk of disease.  A better option is sweet potatoes but keep them to a limited amount.

So, remember which foods to stay away from and you will be helping yourself to stay healthy or get healthier - it's in your hands!

I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com