Natural Cure For Diabetes

Diabetes – America’s Unknown Epedemic

Diabetes alters the way your body uses food. The food you eat turns to sugar. Your blood takes this sugar throughout your body. Insulin assists in getting the sugar from the blood into the body to provide the energy your body needs. With diabetes your body does not get the fuel it needs, and your blood sugar stays high. High blood sugar can cause heart and kidney problems, blindness, stroke, the loss of a foot or leg, or even death.

However,you can manage diabetes. Be careful what you eat and get enough exercise, use medications wisely and check your blood sugar often.

There are two types of Diabetes.

Type 1 – The body does not produce any natural insulin. People with type 1 diabetes must take insulin every day to stay alive.

Type 2 – The body does not make enough insulin, or use insulin well. The most prevalent type of diabetes is Type 2.

There is no specific diet for people with diabetes. Work with your doctor to come up with a plan that works for you. You can continue to consume your favorite foods by watching size of the portions.

The foods we eat are made up of: Carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, breads, juices, milk, cereals and desserts) fats,protein,cholesterol,
fiber (fruits, vegetables, beans, breads, and cereals).

Carbohydrates are the the biggest factor and most responsible for raising your blood sugar. Reading the Nutrition Facts label provided on food packaging can help to determine the number of carbohydrates in each serving. You should be aware that most pre-packaged foods contain more than one serving. You can multiply the number of carbohydrates times five to determine the number of calories per serving. The resulting number suprises most people who don’t realize that they are consuming many more calories than they imagine.

You must maintain an exercise program. Try to be active at least 30 minutes a day for 4-5 days of the week. Even moderate exercise helps your body’s insulin work better. It will also lower your blood sugar levels, blood pressure and your cholesterol.

People with diabetes usually need to take medication or administer a shot of insulin each day. Be sure to follow the medications directions explicitly.
Check with your your doctor or pharmacist and ask them what your medication does, when to take them, and if you can expect any side effects.

Check Your Blood Sugar

You can help prevent heart disease and stroke by controlling your blood sugarlevel, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Check your blood sugar using a glucose meter (home testing kit) available by prescription from your doctor. The glucose meter tells what level your blood sugar is so you can make intelligent choices about your diet, determining which foods to eat and which foods to avoid.

Consult with your doctor about getting an A-1-C (A-onesee) blood test. This test measures blood sugar levels over 2-3 month period.

Most people with diabetes do not notice any signs of the disease. It is estimated the there are over 3 million people in the USA with diabetes that are unaware they have the disease.

Visit our website to keep up to date on news and information to help you with your diabetes.

Tom Walker
http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/diabetes-americas-unknown-epedemic-69047.html

Sugar and Health

For most of the history of humanity man ate a diet of wild game and natural vegetation including some seeds, nuts, and fruit during certain sea-sons. In our era, with the advent of processed foods, mankind’s diet has undergone a radical change. People are eating foods that never existed in nature before, foods which the body was never designed to utilize. The result is that the heavy consumption of refined sugar, and refined flour products too, has led to serious health problems for those who regularly eat them. Today 65% of Americans are overweight, and 27% are clinically obese. Even children are starting to show more and more symptoms of this growing health problem. Diabetes is starting to appear more frequently in the very young. When we look at the diet of the typical American, it is easy to see how this has happened. The average American each year consumes 125 pounds of sugar in the form of 300 cans of soda, 200 sticks of gum, 18 pounds of candy, 50 pounds of cakes and cookies and 20 gallons of ice cream. I want to make clear just how much sugar is found in the sodas people are drinking each day. There are 7 to 8 teaspoons of sugar in some form, in the average soda drink. If you have a soda at lunch, one as a snack in the afternoon, one with your dinner, and one as you watch TV or go out for a final snack later in the night, you have consumed 28 spoonfuls of sugar.
Americans are also consuming too many foods which are made from highly refined flour, which act just like sugar in the body, such as pasta, bread and cookies and cakes. In addition to all the many obvious sources of sugar in the typical American diet, sugar is used as an inexpensive additive to improve the taste of many items in which the producers in order to increase profits use cheaper inferior ingredients or use less expensive ingredients. Among these items, you may have guessed, because they taste so sweet, are ketchup, and jams and jellies, which really should have no added sugar and should be made primarily from the fruit. Fruit flavored drinks and fruit flavored yogurts, and especially, sweetened canned fruit have unnecessarily large amounts of sugar in some form in them. But it is also surprising how much sugar, unhealthy sugar, is found in items like peanut butters, bread, soups, pickles, mustard, canned dishes like baked beans, and salad dressings. Even American’s general idea of proper cui-sine contributes to this problem. Making potatoes a staple at almost every meal has been an additional negative health factor. Potatoes, among all other vegetables, are the one of the most likely to affect the body in the same way as refined sugar.
A surfeit of carbohydrates in any form will lead to gaining weight and eventual obesity, but it is sugar in all its forms, and refined flour in our diets that do the most harm. They lead to a fast rise in blood sugar, which causes the pancreas to produce a large amount of insulin to lower our blood sugar quickly, because high blood sugar is dangerous to our health. Unfortunately, this strong dose of insulin makes the blood sugar drop below our normal level and makes us feel down in mood. In order to compensate for this psychological effect, we are driven by cravings to seek an immediate repeat of our ingestion of sugar to again raise our blood sugar to make ourselves feel better, and so the cycle continues on and on. This results in our taking in more calories than are necessary to supply energy to the body. The end result is overweight and eventual obesity. The high amounts of insulin also have other deleterious effects.

They make the insulin receptors become less and less sensitive, requiring the pancreas to produce larger and larger amounts of insulin each time, to deal with same amount of high incoming sugar. Eventually the receptors become very insensitive to the incoming insulin, and the person has developed a condition referred to as insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance aggravates another problem which results from the production of insulin in the body. When insulin in the body is high, another hormone called glucagon is low. Glucagon is a hormone which promotes the release and utilization of fat from the fat storage cells for energy. So that when glucagon is present, you will be burning and thus reducing your fat stores. In other words, you will be losing weight and the weight will be a loss of fat. However, the high level of insulin in insulin resistant people keeps them from burning any of their fat stores. They can only burn incoming sugar and carbohydrates, and when they are depleted, they will begin to break down and use muscle tissue as a source of energy. This is, again, because the insulin has blocked getting access to the body’s fat by blocking the production of the necessary hormone, glucagon. Now you understand why people who have eaten a lot of sugar, and sugar acting foods like refined flour and grains, and potatoes, in their life all the time have had trouble losing weight, or permanently keeping off any weight they have lost through extreme measures like very strict diets or fasting.
Eventually people on these refined high carbohydrate diets exhaust their pancreas, which stops generating any insulin at all, and they become diabetic, and must take insulin regularly to keep their blood sugar from staying at dangerously high levels.
There is another serious problem with too much sugar, sugar addiction. For many years people have spoken of sugar addiction because of the seemingly addictive behavior of people who have a strong desire for foods with sugar. However, it is only recently that it has been scientifically been shown to be a genuine addiction. Rats fed sugar showed classic signs of withdrawal when their sugar “fix” was taken away from them. When they were allowed to eat sugar again, they binged on it. The sugar had triggered natural pleasure producing opiods in their brains. The effect is similar to morphine and heroin, though not as powerful. Actual studies of these animals’ brains showed an accelerated growth of dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbens in their brains. This helps explain why people who eat sugar regularly, have strong cravings and seek a sugar “fix” many times throughout their day.
You are probably addicted to sugar if you have the following: if you have cravings for food containing sugar, if you can’t stop eating after one piece of candy or one bite of cake or other baked goods; if you can’t go for more than a few hours without experiencing a letdown with fatigue or irritability or anxiety; if you have to have your sugared coffee and donuts or other baked goods every morning and have and eat candy and other sweets in your home all the time; if you regularly drink sugared sodas during the day to give yourself a pick-me-up because you’re dragging.
Nutritionally, refined sugars present another problem. It takes vitamins and minerals to digest and assimilate ingested refined sugars. Unprocessed sugar cane juice is rich in vitamins and minerals and provides some nourishment to the body, though it is still too high in sugar to be good for the body. But refined sugar is an empty calorie, which uses up valuable vitamins and minerals in order to be digested without supplying any of them. Thus, eating a lot of refined sugars depletes the body of these valuable health promoting factors. That’s why, you now can understand, even overweight people who have become so because of large amounts of sugar in their diets, can actually suffer from malnutrition.
Here’s a list of some of the negative health effects of sugar, and the refined flour products and potatoes that act like sugar within the body. Sugar can:
… cause an increase in insulin being generated in the body
… cause an increase in insulin sensitivity
… overstress the pancreas causing damage
… cause diabetes … cause weight gain and obesity
… produce a significant rise in triglycerides
… reduce helpful high density cholesterol, known as HDLs
… promote an elevation of harmful cholesterol, know as LDLs
… increase total cholesterol
… cause atherosclerosis
… increase systolic pressure
… cause hypertension
… upset the body’s mineral balance
… promote tooth decay
… cause hyperactivity, anxiety, concentration difficulties, and crankiness
in children
… lead to alcoholism
… cause depression
If you are seriously craving sugar, you should avoid all sugars. The following is a list of sugars and sweeteners that act like sugars, though you may not have recognized them as sugars before reading this article. Of course, if a label just says “sugar,” you will avoid that too!
AVOID THESE SWEETENERS: corn syrup, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, honey, sucrose, maltodextrin, dextrose, molasses, rice milk, almond milk, white grape juice, fruit juice sweetened, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, date sugar, cane sugar, corn sugar, beet sugar, succanat and lactose.
There are many other points to be made if one wishes to guide oneself correctly. Raw sugar and brown sugar, which was at one time sold in a lot of health food stores and still may be found in some supermarkets, is actually highly refined white sugar with some molasses put back in to give it brown color. Fructose doesn’t increase leptin, a hormone that decreases your appetite, and doesn’t suppress ghrelin, the hormone that makes you hungry. Thus, people who eat food containing fructose are likely to take in more calories, not less. And remember, almost all simple sugars, fructose included, and not just refined white sugar, are metabolized quickly and raise insulin levels too quickly. Just like refined white sugar, they play a role in creating insulin resistance. In addition, fructose is converted into triglycerides more efficiently than glucose elevating triglycerides that are linked to an increased risk of heart disease. Fructose converts to fat more readily than any other sugar, and some believe its prevalence in our present food supply has made it an important factor in making Americans fatter and fatter.
Eating small amounts of fruit will not provide unhealthy large amounts of natural fructose, but fruit juices are best avoided as being too high in fructose for the body to assimilate without generating too much insulin. Aside from limited amounts of fruit, avoid fructose in food just as you would table sugar. One of the best ways to limit your intake of fructose, in general, is to eliminate soda and fruit juices from your diet.
Most artificial sweeteners are increasingly considered to be unhealthy for the body. Aspartame is the technical name for the brand names NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. Aspartame, which is frequently found in diet sodas, accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious. In addition, Aspartame suppresses serotonin production, the chemical in the brain that contributes to your feeling satisfied after a meal. The end result from ingesting Aspartame, just as it was from people eating fructose, is that people are less satisfied with their food and tend to eat more. Diet sodas may actually be increasing your total intake of calories.
Finally, artificial sweeteners in general, just like real sugar, give you an intense experience of tasting something sweet, which psychologically stimulates cravings to consume even more sweet tasting things.
In general, you will be better off health wise if you only buy products that say “no sugar added.” Jams should say fruit only. Often fruit juices are added to the food item, but don’t be fooled, this is an unhealthy form of concentrated sugar too, even though it is originally from fruit. And remember, cocaine and heroine are derived from natural sources, but no one would say they are good for your health. A lot of poisons start out as plant material too. So do not be fooled by people who insist certain sugars are healthy because they are made from natural sources.
YOU ARE READY TO GET HEALTHIER AND FEEL BETTER
Always keep in mind
Sugar is nutritionally worthless and is full of fattening calories Sugar creates cycles of emotional highs and lows, and is chemically additive Sugar is very bad for your body’s health
READ FOOD LABELS
If sugar appears in the ingredients in the first few listed items:

DO NOT EAT THAT PRODUCT
Always keep in mind except for occasional fruit, it is best if you avoid eating any sugar at all.
Many people are addicted to sugar and should avoid all sugars permanently for optimal health.
And remember refined flour products in bread, bagels, pasta, and cookies and cakes, act just like sugar in your body, as do potatoes and potato products too.
We must eliminate refined food products from our diets and choose carefully, selecting high-fiber, non-starchy vegetables as our carbohydrate choices. In this way, we generate less insulin and avoid any insulin resistance and the adverse health effects that result. Remember, even fruits that are relatively low in carbohydrates will generate some insulin in the body to deal with the sugars they contain. Since one of the goals of low-carb eating is to generate as little insulin as possible, enjoy eating fresh fruit, in reasonable moderate amounts. On the other hand, dried fruits should be much more limited because they have a high concentration of sugars. And remember, as noted above, fruit juices are too high in sugars to be appropriate for a low insulin generating diet. Berries, on the other hand, are a good choice.

Jeffrey Rose
http://www.articlesbase.com/nutrition-articles/sugar-and-health-64562.html

Testing yourself for Diabetes

Diabetes is a very serious medical condition. It occurs when your body does not produce and use enough insulin (which controls glucose levels). Diabetes can be categorised as either Type 1 or Type 2 and is a condition which is on the rise. You therefore need to know what to look out for.

If you have diabetes you may not notice any symptoms but there are two main signals; hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar/glucose) and hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar). If you are hypoglycaemic then your insulin has lowered your glucose levels too much and this may lead to dizziness, shaking, hunger pangs and sweating. On the other hand if you are hyperglycaemic this can result in weight loss, nausea, dizziness and/or light headedness.

Some more extreme symptoms you may notice as a diabetic are peripheral neuropathy (the loss of nerve functions in the arms and/or legs) and diabetic retinopathy (when the blood vessels of the eyes change, limiting or even eliminating vision). If you notice any of these extreme symptoms you should seek emergency medical care immediately. This will reduce the chances of permanent damage to your body.

If you start to recognise any of the symptoms listed go and see your doctor immediately. They will discusss your family’s medical history, any history of diabetes in the family, any medication you are taking and any medication you are allergic to. Your doctor is then likely to recommend one of the following tests to you:

FINGER STICK TEST:- This involves pricking your finger to draw a single drop of blood, placing this drop on a disposable test strip and then analysing the concentration of glucose in your blood using a small glucose meter machine. This test is the easiest but has approximately 10% of the accuracy of a laboratory test.

FAST PLASMA GLUCOSE TEST:- You cannot eat for 8 hours before this test. Before you arrive you will have blood drawn and tested. Once tested your blood reading should not be above 126 mg/dl. Otherwise, you could be diabetic and will need to confirm through either a Glucose Tolerance Test or Glycosylated Haemoglobin Test.

If you are diagnosed with diabetes as a result of the tests do not be alarmed. The majority of diabetes cases can be managed by improving your diet and using natural remedies. Even if you feel completely normal you should still get yourself tested by a professional doctor. It’s the only way to identify the problem and if neccessary start taking preventatory measures.

Tom Parker
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/testing-yourself-for-diabetes-241210.html

Diabetes: Take Control With Physical Activity

Exercise is an integral part of life for everyone. This becomes especially true in the case of a person with diabetes, in which case it is part of the treatment of diabetes as well. For a diabetic exercise should be a daily routine. Daily exercise would help a diabetic person to have good blood sugar control in addition to making him or her physically fit. Daily exercise also would make a diabetic person less susceptible for a heart attack and nerve damage from diabetes.

Exercise improves blood sugar control

Exercise provides great benefits to diabetics and it plays an excellent role in controlling the blood sugar. A properly designed exercise schedule in combination with a healthy diet is the recipe for success for a person with diabetes. When you do physical activity your muscles take up the glucose from the blood circulation and use it for the muscular activity thus maintaining a normal blood glucose level. Exercise also increases the tissue sensitivity to insulin making the effect of insulin more effective thus further helping to reduce the blood glucose level.

Exercise reduces weight

Exercise is also helps people with diabetes to reduce weight. Weight gain is closely associated with type-2 diabetes. Exercise decreases the fat stores and thus decreases the extra demand that is put on the already compromised beta cells.

Exercise decreases the need for diabetic medication

Exercise reduces insulin resistance of the tissues and makes body tissue more responsive to the action of insulin. If you have only mild diabetes, a combination of exercise and dietary control may be the only form of intervention needed for your diabetes control. Even in persons who have more severe degree of diabetes exercise would decrease the need for diabetic medication because of decreased insulin resistance.

Exercise improves circulation

Most of the complications that are associated with diabetes are related to impairment of circulation that is caused by diabetes. This is especially true for those who develop diabetic foot as a complication of diabetes. Exercise improves circulation especially to arms and legs and thus may prevent development of diabetes related complications.

Exercise improves cholesterol level

Heart attack (myocardial infarction) is one of the major causes of death in people with diabetes. Exercise would increase the good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol) and lower the bad cholesterol (LDL cholesterol). Exercise also reduces the triglyceride levels. By improving the cholesterol values exercise provide increase protection from heart attack diabetic patients.

Exercise lowers blood pressure

Diabetic patients are highly prone to complications of high blood pressure. Regular exercise would lower blood pressure and thus may protect diabetic patients from hypertension (high blood pressure) and its complications.

It is clear from the above discussion that exercise is a very crucial component in the life of a person with diabetes. Regular exercise, in combination with a healthy diabetic meal would prove to be of significant benefit for a people with diabetes.

Sean
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/diabetes-take-control-with-physical-activity-248836.html

what is a good natural remedy for diabetes?

are there any natural herbs to help eliminate or balance blood sugar with out going on pills or insulen shots

Sometimes, type II diabetics are able to control their blood sugar with diet and exercise. Not often, but sometimes.

For the most part, though, diabetics need to take either pills or shots or both. There are plenty of people who claim that this berry or that spice or the other herb can help control diabetes, however, these people usually have something to sell you.

For a while, people were talking about how cinnamon could lower blood sugar. However, further tests showed that the first study was wrong.

Remember, uncontrolled blood sugar will do PERMANENT, SEVERE damage to your organs. You can go blind, for instance, or destroy your kidneys. Then you’ll wish that you’d taken your pills or insulin while you’re getting dialysis three times a week!

When do I go to the hospital with high blood sugar?

I have a high blood sugar for 400 ti 550. When do I need to go to the hospital?

Now would be a good time to go.

Can someone suggest natural cures for diabetes?

I am tired of taking medications for years for my diabetes. As I grow older I want to reduce medication and switchover to natural cures if possible.

Diabetes is not reversible. Please don’t discontinue any medication without discussing it with your doctor, and PLEASE don’t take advice from people who know so little about diabetes that they refer you to bastions of quackery like Mercola and Natural News.

You don’t give your age, and you don’t say whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, or whether it’s insulin you are taking.

But in another question you talk about your love of junk food and how you don’t understand how it can be bad for you.

Type 2 diabetes can often be controlled by diet alone; mine is. And junk food has no part in a diet for controlling type 2 diabetes. At my 6 monthly check ups, my average glucose level for the previous 3 months is regularly around 5.2; I don’t know where you live or how that translates, but it’s very good control. But I know that however controlled it is, however low I keep my blood glucose levels – I’ll still always be diabetic.

There are no ‘natural cures’ for diabetes. It’s a bugger; I wish I wasn’t diabetic too, but it’s with me for life. It is for you too. I manage to keep on the straight and narrow by asking myself which I want more, chocolate or my feet? Junk food or my eyesight? No contest. If I had to take medication for diabetes my attitude would be the same.

Please don’t run the risk of uncontrolled diabetes and the dire consequences that can have by abandoning your meds and going for any of the dubious (at best) ‘cures’ that may be recommended here.

Seriously i am kind of fed up…This is so so so annoying?

See.. i am a boy of 14 years of age…the main problem is that i urinate often nowadays.. I have no idea why but still i urinate kind of often…=((
Like it would ruin my whole day .. thinking about it and urinating ..I usually urinate like 4 times a day.. which is normal thing .. Like at the normal times.. i urinate like after each 6 hours.. i think that is normal..But two days back..I am urinating like anything.. Like after one hour i feel like urinating which is so annoying..I can control it but still.. you know … i need a cure for this…Well,Frequent urination is also one symptom of diabetes..But i have only one symptom..Which i dont think is diabetes…
Since Last two days.. I didnt get enough sleep. Only 4 or 5 hours of sleep…because of worrying and crying too much..AGRRRhhh.. This frequent urination is so so annoying..Because i have to urinate each time after like one or one and a half hours…
Any cure for this??? Any Idea what is this???IF there is,Are they any natural cures for this like eating fruits,vegatables or taking herbals???
It doesnt hurt when i urinate.. No blood or anything…For Further information i masterbate like 2 times a day….=(
I have dry skin nowadays…Cuz i drink antibiotics for acne and the side effects are dry skin and lips

The frequent urination is another side effect of the antibiotics you are taking mate ……. they wash out all your b complex of vitamins …….. side effects of a deficiency in one of the b complex…. b6 (pyridoxine)…. is frequent urination, excessive sweating,nausea and vomiting, dry mouth so bad that no amount of water will resolve it,night sweats and muscle cramps… it will also contribute to night muscle spasms, leg cramps, hand numbness ….. vitamin B6 is essential for the production of magnesium and hydrochloric acid in our bodies and must be present for the production of red blood cells and antibodies……… so without it you would be suffering from all the symptoms of iron deficiency anemia too like fatigue and exhaustion, dizzy spells, excessive feelings of being cold, nasty headaches, paleness of skin …. along with having other digestive issues such as bloating and cramping, constipation etc…. and of also being deficient in magnesium (the antistress mineral) as B6 is needed for the production of same …….. a deficiency in magnesium will produce unecessary stress, headaches and migraines, nervous tension, muscle twitching like eyelids and muscle tics…… eat more foods rich in B6 such as lean meats, fresh fish, cantaloupe, cabbage, unsulphured organic blackstrap molasses, unmilled brown rice, eggs and oats. ….. and eat more foods rich in magnesium such as brown rice, fresh salmon or sardines and tuna, green salads and raw nuts and seeds like almonds or brazil nuts………. or just ditch eating and drinking processed sugary drinks and foods and your acne will clear up…. promise.

ditch any sodas anyway cos they’ll definitely wash out all your b complex of vitamins and trash your magnesium and calcium supplies.

xo

Eat to Beat Diabetes

You are what you eat, for a diabetic nothing could be truer. When it comes to maintaining good blood sugar levels, a healthy diet is vital.
People with diabetes have to take extra care to ensure their diet is properly balanced with their insulin and oral medications.

The right meal plan will help any diabetic improve blood glucose levels, blood pressure and cholesterol numbers. It will also keep their weight on track.
All diabetics must control their refined carbohydrate intake. These types of carbohydrates increase blood glucose levels. While some promote health, others when eaten often and in large quantities, may increase the risk for diabetes.

Carbohydrates come from a wide array of foods including fruit, vegetables, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti and corn. The most common and abundant ones refined in are sugars, fibers and starches. It is advised diabetics avoid white bread, rice and pasta, along with foods containing unnaturally added sugars.

The body will convert all types of refined carbohydrates into glucose. Eating extra servings of rice, pasta and bread will make blood sugar rise. Just because an item does not contain added sugar, does not guarantee it is a safe food.

Diabetics should consume carbohydrate-rich foods close to their natural form. These items have greater vital nutrient density. Whenever possible, replace highly processed grains, cereals and sugars with natural whole-grain products.

Eating complex carbohydrates rich in fiber significantly lower blood sugar levels. It is suspected that soluble fiber may play an important role in glucose control. It is capable of slowing down the digestion and absorption of carbohydrates and increasing the sensitivity of tissues to insulin, thereby preventing rises in blood sugar.

It is recommended diabetics eat 13 fiber-rich servings of fruits, veggies, beans and grains daily. Soluble-fiber rich foods include orange and grapefruit segments, prunes, cantaloupes, papayas, raisins, lima beans, zucchini, oatmeal, oat bran and granola. Other foods high in soluble fiber include barley, peas and strawberries.

The glycemic index system, or GI, is a good guideline for diabetics to follow.

Invented in the early 1980s by University of Toronto researchers, the glycemic index ranks carbohydrate foods by their effects on blood sugar levels.

The GI assigns carbohydrate-containing foods a number based on how they affect blood sugars. The number indicates how quickly the food breaks down during digestion. The longer the body has to break an item down into glucose, the slower the rise in blood-sugar levels, and the lower the GI. Products with a GI less than 55 are preferred.

Natural supplementation is a good ingredient to implement in the fight against diabetes. Adding a half a teaspoon of cinnamon to any meal can stabilize blood sugar swings.

Many diabetics also supplement with vitamins, herbs and medicinal teas. Incorporating natural ginseng into a diet can produce positive affects. This herb, which is recognized throughout China to have healing properties, has been known to help improve fasting blood glucose levels and increase insulin secretion.

The easiest method to control diabetes is through proper diet. An eating plan high in fiber and low in refined carbohydrates will ensure the best strategy to beat the disease.

Julia Hanf
http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/eat-to-beat-diabetes-135919.html

You May Want to Lay Off the Sugar a Little

Sugar. What is it Good For? Absolutely…

Nothing? I wouldn’t go that far.

It’s been a great contributor to some of the most debilitating diseases known to man. Diabetes, heart disorders of all types, adrenal disorders, allergy, endocrine disturbances, obesity, and brain chemistry disturbances.

Shall I go on?

To truly understand how evil that white crystal really is, you need to understand bio- chemically what happens when sugar enters the bloodstream.

For maximum efficiency of the whole body the amount of glucose in the body must balance with the amount of blood oxygen. Balancing blood sugar levels is probably the key factor in maintaining even energy levels and weight management.

When we ingest sugar the sucrose passes directly to the intestines where it becomes “predigested” glucose. This is in turn absorbed into the blood (where the glucose level has already been established in precise balance with oxygen).

This balance is suddenly destroyed. Hormones pour from the adrenals to deal with these rapidly rising levels. Insulin is rushed from the pancreas to bring down the glucose level of the blood.

Going too fast, it over shoots; the bottom drops out of the blood glucose level and a second crisis develops.

Other adrenal hormones must be produced to regulate the reversing of the chemical direction and bring the blood glucose levels up again. In less precise term, you get a short high when your blood sugar levels rise and a grumpy, confused low when it all suddenly swings south – sound familiar?

Repeated onslaughts of this kind lead to disturbance in endocrine function leading to numerous pathological conditions that I touched on in the opening paragraph.

These periods of high blood sugar sets in motion a harmful process called glycation (the bonding of amino acids to sugar molecules). These abnormal proteins are then incorporated into the lens of the eye and the myelin sheath around the nerves.

The collagen of the skin, the tendons and membranes are all further damaged by these glycated proteins. Translation: You get very old before your time.

Excess sugar is stored in the liver in the form of glucose. Since this capacity is limited, a daily intake of refined sugar soon makes the liver expand like a balloon. When the liver can take no more the excess glycogen returns to the blood in the form of fatty acids that are stored in a variety of locations, usually the gut and the butt.

These then spill into fat accumulations in your organs including your heart and kidneys, your circulatory and lymphatic systems.

Digestion of refined carbohydrates (i.e. sugar, white bread, rice/ pasta) calls on the body’s own store of vitamin, minerals and enzymes for proper metabolism. When B Vitamins are absent the breakdown of carbohydrates can’t take place. Most B Vitamins are removed during the refining process.

Clever. Incomplete carbohydrate metabolism results in the formation of toxic metabolites such as pyruvic acid and abnormal sugars containing 5 carbon atoms. Pyruvic acid accumulates in the brain and nervous system while the abnormal sugars accumulate in the red blood cells affecting the utilisation of oxygen to energy.

50% of our diet today composes these refined carbohydrates. Tooth decay and bone loss occur when the precise ratio of 4 parts phosphorus to 10 parts calcium. Sugar consumption causes phosphorus levels to drop and calcium to rise. The calcium rises because it is pulled from the teeth and bones.

Sugar taken every day produces a continuously over-acid condition, and more and more minerals are required form deep in the body in an attempt to rectify the imbalance.

What other shitty things does this innocuous little crystal get up too?

- Candida albicans (thrush) – Love it as do tumours

- Good gut flora hate it

- Rich sugar diet can increase stomach acidity 20%

- High sugar diet is very taxing on the adrenal glands leading to adrenal exhaustion. Lots of professionals look at allergy and the myriad of potential allergens that surround us ie. pollen, nuts, dust mites, wheat, dairy, but I’ll set you a challenge allergy sufferers. Remove sugar entirely from the diet for 6 weeks and let me know how your allergies are going at the end of that period. Trust me on this one.

- In 1973, even the US Senate described sugar as an anti-nutrient. A substance that is actually harmful since it upsets the existing balance in the body, bloodstream, and the vital organs

- In 1821, the average American consumed 10 pounds of sugar per person annually. Today that figure is 170 pounds per person – annually

Oh yeah, and before Nixon became President of the United States of America he was a lawyer for Pepsi.

Now get that donut out of your mouth and get off your arse.

See partner4real for more health, diet, nutrition and online dating tips for singles.

Brett Smith
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/you-may-want-to-lay-off-the-sugar-a-little-335656.html