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So, what is a diabetic diet? Simply put it’s a diet to help you stabilise your blood sugar. When your blood sugar gets out of control this is when you are in danger of becoming a diabetic.
Diabetes is one of the modern diseases. The word disease originally came from dis-ease as in your body is not at ease – not happy - and the reason that it’s not happy is because you have been feeding it with the wrong fuel.
If you have a car that is supposed to run on gas (petrol) you wouldn’t dream of filling it with diesel because it is the wrong fuel (food) for your car and if you were to fill it with diesel then not only would your car break down but you would land yourself with a large bill to pump all the fuel back out again and you may even finish up having to replace the engine.
The human body is supposed to run on fresh natural foods such as water, fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, roots, grasses … and for thousands of years humans had done just that but then in the last few hundred years we started introducing grains and then suddenly in the 20th century humans started to consume completely unnatural things like cola, sugar, chips, biscuits, breads, hamburgers, donuts, alcohol, pharmaceutical drugs … and to make matters even worse we gradually ate less fresh fruit and vegetables.
Our bodies are much more adaptable than a car engine and it will work hard to survive on what it available but eventually it all gets too much and things start to go wrong and our bodies start to seize up. This is why there are so many modern ailments that were never, or rarely, seen in previous generations – diabetes being one of them. Diabetes is your body telling you that it has had enough – it’s basically a cry for help!
When you become diabetic your doctor will give you pills to control your blood sugar levels and tell you to eat healthier by cutting out sugar and reducing fat. The diet advice usually involves eating food ratios as per the diabetic food pyramid but they never seem to give you a plan to reverse the diabetes instead you are led to believe that diabetes is for life and that the best you can hope for is to stay on the diabetes pills and not progress to taking insulin shots.
Earlier I asked what is a diabetic diet? well the answers isn't what most doctors will tell you because the diabetic food pyramid recommends having at least six portions of starches and grains a day, when these are foods that has your body shouting for insulin. It's a bit like recommending that an alcoholic has at least one beer every day! No, the real answer to this is a diet that doesn’t just control your blood sugar levels but works towards reversing your diabetes so that you can become diabetes free. It’s about not having to worry about measuring your blood sugar levels every day, it’s about eating the foods our bodies are meant to eat a real diabetes diet.
My mum was diagnosed with diabetes a couple of years ago although she doesn't need injections but tablets. She has managed to keep it pretty much in check by watching her diet so far. I will pass on this info to her thanks.
Thanks Mark, I hope things continue to go in the right direction for your mum
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Very well written and great tips for getting the right fuel for our bodies. thanks.
Nice article Sue. I have recently become more aware of what I put in my body and I'm making a move towards all organic, no processed garbage. As you said we need the right fuel for our bodies,
I wholeheartedly agree with everything you are saying with the exception of anything you say about grain. I hope you are just referring to processed flour when you use the term. A bit of research will reveal that anthropologists believe that peoples in the Fertile Crecent began using grains 9,000 BC. We know beyond any doubt that grain has been a staple in the diets of many large people groups for 1,000's of years. Whole grain (including the germ) is a complex carbohydrate that makes the body work hard to break down. It thus stabilizes insulin and does the opposite of white flour, which causes a blood sugar rush. The body sees flour like a sugar. Whole grain, on the other hand, is linked with decreasing the risk of type II diabetes. Even Wikipedia agrees with that.
Thank you Jim for your comment. All processed food is a no no and yes unrefined whole grains are much better for us than processed but even whole grains can cause high blood sugar if too much is eaten. There isn't really a one diet fits all but for many of us consuming too many grains can have an adverse effect and the standard diabetes diet recommends eating much higher proportions of grain than is good for us. I agree that we have been eating grains for millions of years but wheat is what the western world eats most of and modern wheat grain just isn't the same as it was thousands of years ago because we have modified it to produce higher yields. Recently spelt has become more popular and this is an ancient grain which is much closer to the grain consumed by our ancestors but most bakers still mix it with normal wheat when making bread so you usually need to make your own bread to take full advantage of this more nutritious grain. I was eating wholemeal bread for years before I realised that it was doing me more harm than good and now I only eat bread very occasionally. Some people need more protein than others and some need more carbs but nearly all of us need more fresh food. It's often a case of listening to your own body but the majority of us don't need the amount of grains that we are currently eating.
Yeah, you are right Sue, things have gone so far downhill with the coporatization of the food industry, that you cannot even trust a lot of what is grown now. I am fortunate in that the organic farm where I buy whole wheat kernels grow Red Fife. It almost became extinct when they started messing with a bunch of different strains. It was brought to Canada from Scotland in 1942 and made our country famous as the "bread basket of the world." I am thankful for growers who resist the commercialization and produce heritage crops organically.
Thank you for providing an informative article about the diabetic diet. I will not recommend it to my husband or my brother-in-law. They are both diabetic, and they are not used to eating natural foods. I have cut back on sugar due to other problems (sinusitis and GERD). I feel better when I eat less sugar. Sugar is hard to avoid, though. Many products are processed with sugar, honey, and syrup. My doctor told me a low-carb diet is good for people if they eat a lot of vegetables (and I do that).
Being Diabetic myself, having contracted it genetically exercise,dieting,blood sugar checking every day can bum ya out real fast so your info really hits home for me Great Article Sue
Thank you Jacob, I hope you can eventually manage to take control back
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Great article, my auntie has diabetes and I know she used to eat regularly throughout the day and always made sure she had bread or potatoes each time - she wasn't much of a pasta eater otherwise she would have been eating that too. Such a shame as she was doing what her doctor told her and so thought she was doing the right thing!
I know what you mean, and with so many people being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes it's a tragedy that so many are getting the wrong advice!
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