Carbohydrate Info and Diabetes

In today’s modern nutrition world, high-protein and fat diets are fashionable and “carbohydrate” has become a dirty word.

Reality check; Protein, Fat and Carbs provide energy and nutrition for an active lifestyle. 

If you have a family legacy of diabetes, there are two key holistic health practices about food your entire family needs to hear

Key One: Learn to use Food as a Primary Tool for Avoiding Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes

In 2010, Medicare began reimbursing a lifestyle-based program for treating heart disease. This helped primary care doctors to have more conversations about food as medicine. Talking about food in the doctor’s office may not have happened for you yet. We’re all watching the success of the Fresh Food Farmacy, a food bank that helps people in need use nutrition to manage their blood sugar. My blog post today adds to these conversations.

Key Two: Understand how your Body uses Macronutrients, especially Complex and Simple Carbs

There are three macronutrients in our diets and they supply us with the building blocks for good health.

1. Protein
2. Carbohydrates
3. Fat (fatty acids)

Depending upon which study you look at or which best-selling book you read, we need a varying amount of these three macronutrients for health and strength. Reality check; diets high or low in any one of these nutrient groups can be unhealthy. If you worry about diabetes, obesity, or prediabetes, the carbs category is one you should thoroughly understand. Carbs are in everything from candy bars to vegetables. Vegetables are not a problem.

The problem is that people are not eating enough of the complex carbs that nature intended: the type that makes their body whole, healthy and strong.

In America today, most people are eating carb-rich foods that are deformed and denatured. Simple sugars can lead to weight gain because our cells do not need large amounts of glucose at one time, and the extra sugar eaten by many Americans is mostly stored for later use…stored as fat. The food industry has created simple-carb convenience foods that damage our body. Many of these foods are advertised as healthy, natural, or wholesome. Here’s the truth. The anti-carb movement should really be an anti-simple-carb movement.

Simple Carbs are Everywhere

Over-consumption of simple carbs has led to rising cases of hypoglycemia in America. Hypoglycemia is the body’s inability to handle large amounts of sugar. It’s common among people with diabetes, but can also be seen in those without diabetes who eat lots of sugar, starch, and processed food. The damage to a person’s body can continue for 10+ years before a high-blood sugar diagnosis.

Understanding Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia results when the pancreas secretes too much insulin in response to a rapid rise in blood sugar. This causes blood sugar levels to plummet, starving the body’s cells of needed fuel. A person with hypoglycemia may feel weak, drowsy, confused, dizzy, and hungry. This is often noticed in mid-afternoon when blood sugars are naturally at their lowest.

A poor diet, especially one with an excess of refined or junk sugars, causes a gradual breakdown in our body’s ability to manage blood glucose. When this happens, blood glucose levels may initially spike after a meal (hyperglycemia) and then crash to an abnormally low-level several hours after the meal (hypoglycemia). Solve this roller-coaster effect with real food and self-care choices.

Coach’s Note: The high-fat diet (Keto) popular today for dropping weight is effective at keeping insulin secretion low. When the body is not given carbs it does not need to respond to a rapid rise in blood sugar. The Solution Starter™ Prediabetes Program I teach offers a healthy balance of the macronutrients. It does not cut out any of these three food categories.

About 26 million children and adults in the United States, or more than 8% of the total population, have diabetes. Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death.

Type 1 diabetes, known as juvenile onset or insulin-dependent diabetes, typically develops in childhood or early adulthood. With this condition, the pancreas is unable to produce insulin. Insulin acts as the gatekeeper, allowing the proper amount of glucose into the body’s cells as fuel. People with type 1 diabetes must rely on injections of insulin to keep their blood sugar from getting too high.

Type 2 diabetes usually develops later in life, though recently it’s on the rise among children and adolescents. In fact, type 2 diabetes was commonly called adult-onset diabetes until the rates of children diagnosed with the condition began to skyrocket. With type 2 diabetes, the pancreas is still capable of producing insulin, but the cells in the body are less responsive to it. Type 2 diabetes is now much more prevalent than type 1. This news is especially heartbreaking because we know that reducing junk carbs and eating a healthy, balanced diet can prevent Type 2. Much of this wellness care happens at home, in your kitchen, with your family.

Balancing Your Blood Sugar

If you are a person who wants to create a healthy future, your blood sugar health can no longer be overlooked. Awareness of healthy food choices needs to include the motivation to follow-through at every meal. Holistic health coaching is powerful support in this follow-through! Understand the difference between complex and simple carbs and use food to manage your blood sugar. If you are like me, manipulation by the food industry needs to be revealed and shared with your beloved family.

Please note: If you are under a doctor’s care for Type 1 Diabetes, the food you eat is vitally important. Keep in close contact with your medical team to make food decisions that compliment your medications. If you worry about high blood sugar or prediabetes, I urge you to bring a copy of the Starting Line document to your next doctor’s appointment. Click on the image at right to print your copy!

If you want to avoid Type 2 Diabetes, your health begins in the kitchen. Eating to avoid cellular damage is key to your health success. I invite you to download a copy of my FREE mini-course called A Crash Course on Carbs! Click the button below to receive this helpful 11-page booklet today.