20 Things You Need to Know About Diet and Diabetes

1. 1. In addition to The Diabetes Diet, Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution goes beyond diet to total diabetes management, and his suggestions are worth consideration. Our earlier recommendations on diet for preventing diabetes mostly hold for people who already have diabetes as well, with two big exceptions. Once a person has actually developed diabetes, chocolate and coffee may destabilize blood sugar too much in the short term and in many cases should be avoided. There are some other unexpected items you might want to include in your diet, though. One is cinnamon.
   
   - Joe Graedon, M.S. and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D., Best Choices From the People's Pharmacy
   
2. Population studies have linked diabetes to diet and lifestyle. Diabetes is uncommon in places where people consume a more "primitive" diet. As indigenous peoples switch from their native diets to the highly processed "foods of commerce," their rate of diabetes increases, eventually reaching the same proportions seen in Western societies. Blood sugar problems are strongly associated with the so-called "Western Diet." This diet is rich in refined sugar, fat, and animal products, and low in dietary fiber.
   
   - Michael T. Murray, N.D., Joseph E. Pizzorno, N.D., Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Revised Second Edition
3. Clinical trials of dietary treatment with a "primitive" diet high in plant cell-wall materials and complex carbohydrates, and low in fat and animal products, have consistently demonstrated superior therapeutic effects over oral hypoglycemic agents, insulin (when less than 30 units per day), and other previously recommended dietary regimes (carbohydrate restriction, high protein, and the ADA diet).
   
   - Michael T. Murray, N.D., Joseph E. Pizzorno, N.D., Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Revised Second Edition
4. Prior to the report, the ADA Diet consisted of high-protein, high-cholesterol, and high-fat foods. This diet obviously exacerbated the already atherosclerosis-prone state of diabetes and contributed to greater insulin insensitivity. In 1971, a revised ADA Diet was developed based on the exchange system, a very useful concept for diabetic diets. A healthier version of the exchange system is presented in A Health-Promoting Diet. The Importance of dietary fiber population studies, as well as clinical and experimental research, show diabetes to be one of the diseases most clearly related to inadequate dietary fiber intake.
   
   - Michael T. Murray, N.D., Joseph E. Pizzorno, N.D., Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Revised Second Edition
5. As carbohydrate intake goes up and fat intake goes down, the number of deaths from diabetes plummets from 20.4 to 2.9 per 100,000 people. The verdict? A high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet " a plant-based diet " may help to prevent diabetes. Thirty years later, the question was reexamined. After examining four countries from Southeast Asia and South America, researchers again found that high-carbohydrate diets were linked to low rates of diabetes. Researchers noted that the country with the highest rate of diabetes, Uruguay, had a diet that was "typically Western' in character, being high in calories, animal protein, [total] fat and animal fat.
   
   - T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and Thomas M. Campbell II, The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health
6. Many people with type 2 diabetes are able to control their blood sugar level with diet, exercise, and oral medication. As a result, type 2 diabetes is also referred to as non-insulin-dependent diabetes, or adult-onset diabetes. The latter term is left over from a simpler time. With the increase in childhood obesity, more and more children are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes all the time. Type 2 diabetes is the most common kind, and it is increasing at an alarming rate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that one in three children under the age of 5 will develop this kind of diabetes during their lifetime.
   
   - Joe Graedon, M.S. and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D., Best Choices From the People's Pharmacy
7. In comparison, the diet that does not raise diabetes risk includes plenty of yellow and green vegetables (especially those in the cabbage family, like broccoli and kale) as well as whole grains, coffee, and wine. In attempting to prevent diabetes, it might make sense to get used to eating as though you already have diabetes. There are a gazillion diets out there, but the one that makes the most sense to us is a low-carbohydrate, high-vegetable diet. This means, of necessity, that it is also relatively high in lean protein, whether from animal or vegetable sources. Be prepared for some resistance from dietitians.
   
   - Joe Graedon, M.S. and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D., Best Choices From the People's Pharmacy
8. Mothers with Diabetes occasionally have "deficiency diabetes" symptoms, because childbearing taxes the generative power of the spleen-pancreas. In fact, Diabetes is much more common among mothers than other women. Women with three children, for example, are twice as likely to develop diabetes as women with no children; women with six children are at six times the risk. Because of this factor, two out of three diabetics are women. To overcome deficiency diabetes, all vegetables and fruits are cooked, and the spleen-pancreas-tonifying diet for overcoming weak qi is followed.
   
   - Paul Pitchford, Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition
9. A diet rich in nuts, whole grains, and vegetables that are high in magnesium may be beneficial. Type 2 diabetes can be controlled by diet and exercise alone, but oral medications or injections of insulin can be added if regulating the diet does not work. Obesity is a major factor in type 2 diabetes, and a weight reduction program is often all that is required to control it. It was once thought that people with diabetes should avoid sweetened foods. For weight control, this is still the case. However, research has shown that sugar " a simple carbohydrate " does not cause the greatest increase in blood glucose.
   
   - Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements
10. There are several ways to test yourself for diabetes. The tests for type 1 diabetes are also used for self-monitoring by persons diagnosed with the condition. Home testing tends to be slightly less accurate than tests done in a doctor's office. To test for type 1 diabetes: 1. Purchase chemically treated plastic glucose testing strips at a drugstore. 2. Prick your finger and apply a drop of blood to the tip of the strip. 3. Wait one minute and compare the color on the strip to a color chart, which lists various glucose levels.
    
    - Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements
11. Type 2 diabetes can be controlled by diet and exercise alone, but oral medications or injections of insulin can be added if regulating the diet does not work. Obesity is a major factor in type 2 diabetes, and a weight reduction program is often all that is required to control it. It was once thought that people with diabetes should avoid sweetened foods. For weight control, this is still the case. However, research has shown that sugar " a simple carbohydrate " does not cause the greatest increase in blood glucose. Eating baked potatoes or some breakfast cereals causes a greater rise in blood sugar.
    
    - Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements
12. A very different picture of diabetes often emerges in the robust person who has overindulged in a heavy meat-and-fat diet full of refined foods. This person may also have one or more symptoms of insufficient yin, but in addition is typically overweight and constipated, and shows general signs of excess such as a ruddy complexion, thick (possibly yellow) tongue coating, strong pulses, and an outward-oriented personality. A diet abundant in cleansing foods such as raw vegetables and fruits should be followed for excess-type diabetes.
    
    - Paul Pitchford, Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition
13. Normal diabetic Diet is 40-80 percent carbohydrates, 20-10 percent fats, and 20-10 percent protein. Normal fasting blood sugar is 110; 160 after a meal; 120 two hours after; 110 three hours after eating. MiId aerobic exercise four days a week enabled borderline cases to neutralize 11 percent more blood glucose than when not exercising. With diabetes, avoid sugar, refined carbohydrates (count Calories), and stress.
    
    - Joseph E. Mario, Anti-Aging Manual: The Encyclopedia of Natural Health
14. If you have diabetes, try to manage your diet so that you maintain healthy blood-sugar levels with the smallest amount of insulin possible.
    
    - Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, Prescription for Herbal Healing: An Easy-to-Use A-Z Reference to Hundreds of Common Disorders and Their Herbal Remedies
15. This involves changing the diets of people who already have either full-blown type 1 or type 2 diabetes or mild diabetic symptoms (impaired glucose tolerance). James Anderson, M.D., is one of the most prominent scientists studying Diet and diabetes today, garnering dramatic results using dietary means alone. One of his studies examined the effects of a high-fiber, high-carbohydrate, low-fat Diet on twenty-five type 1 diabetics and twenty-five type 2 diabetics in a hospital setting. None of his fifty patients were overweight and all of them were taking insulin shots to control their blood sugar levels.
    
    - T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and Thomas M. Campbell II, The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health
16. Frequent consumption of legumes is particularly important since a high-carbohydrate, legume-rich, high-fiber diet has been shown to improve all aspects of diabetic control. Supplementation with the plant fibers (guar gum at a dosage of 5 g/meal and pectin at 10 g/meal) has demonstrated a positive impact on diabetic control. These fiber supplements are now being used, along with the standard ADA Diet, by many experts in diabetes. For example, David Jenkins and colleagues developed a palatable crisp bread containing guar gum.
    
    - Michael T. Murray, N.D., Joseph E. Pizzorno, N.D., Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Revised Second Edition
17. In the more common kind of diabetes " adult-onset, which we will subsequently refer to as "diabetes"" enough insulin is produced, but its utilization in the cells of the body is simply blocked by the effects of a diet rich in fats. (Eating refined white sugar and other simple sugars also contributes to diabetes because in excess, these sugars convert to fat in the body.) When a low-fat diet based on complex carbohydrates such as unrefined grains, vegetables, and legumes is followed for several weeks, approximately 80 percent of diabetics can stop taking insulin and diabetic pills altogether, and the remaining 20 percent can reduce their intake.
    
    - Paul Pitchford, Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition
18. Doctors often look at diet, exercise, and other physical factors. They are less likely to consider emotions, even though they have such a profound impact on a diabetic's health. How can a diabetic learn how to manage stress successfully? There is no cookie-cutter answer to this question. Everyone handles stress differently. For some, the only effective strategy might be to quit a highly demanding job and move to a cave. Doing that would stress others out even more. Finding the right approach may take trial and error. Avoiding people who make your hands cold is a good place to start. Buy a mood ring (a relic of the 1970s).
    
    - Joe Graedon, M.S. and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D., Best Choices From the People's Pharmacy
19. Researchers estimate that two out of every three Americans are hypoglycemic, pre-hypoglycemic, or diabetic. The ability to maintain normal blood sugar levels is jeopardized by the lack of chromium in our soil and water supply and by a diet high in refined white sugar, flour, and junk foods. A number of human and animal studies have found that chromium supplements can improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control in the face of insulin resistance, elevated blood glucose levels, impaired glucose tolerance, and diabetes.
    
    - Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements
20. Consuming soft drinks (either sugar-sweetened or diet), refined grains (think bread and pasta), and processed meats increases inflammation in the body and nearly triples women's risk of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
    
    - Joe Graedon, M.S. and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D., Best Choices From the People's Pharmacy

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