| Diabetes |
Diabetes is usually caused by diet and lifestyle, but can be as a result of heredity. If you want to live with diabetes and lower your bad cholesterol or blood pressure, go on a low-fat, low-sugar, low-sodium, high-fiber diet, check the Glycemic Index for foods that work best for you and avoid the following foods:
High-Glycemic Foods
- Dates
- French bread
- Rice Chex cereal
- Cornflakes
- Instant mashed potatoes
- Rice Krispies
- Pretzels
- Jelly beans
- Grape Nut Flake cereal
If you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart ailments along with diabetes, avoid the following foods:
- Any kind of salt or sodium
- Marbled meat, liver or any kind of organ meat and processed meats
- Canned fish (including tuna and sardines). If you “must” have this food, make sure you rinse it well to remove as much sodium as possible
- Salty snacks like chips, nuts, pretzels, or pork rinds
- Poultry with skin
- Fast food
- Full-fat dairy products, including butter
- Eggs (a couple per week is OK)
- Refined or packaged baked goods or snack foods
- Fried foods
- Pickled foods like herring, pickles, relish, olives, or sauerkraut
- Any food that contains trans fat
- Sauces or condiments like soy sauce, steak sauce, most salad dressings, ketchup and BBQ sauce.
- Any seasonings that include salt
Most meats are bad because of their fat content, and when you get into specific kinds and cuts of meats, there are other issues as well.
Full-fat dairy products are not good for you because of their fat content as well. When we ingest animal fats, our bodies tend to increase our production of cholesterol.
Eggs are good, but only when eaten in moderation. Just one egg yolk fulfills over half of your recommended amount of dietary cholesterol, according to the USDA. Eggs are good for people with diabetes because they are chromium-rich, but they are on our bad foods list because most people do not eat eggs in moderation.
Refining food strips the food of most of its nutritional value, including fiber, vitamins and other nutrients, and is usually more calorie-dense than whole foods. By eating refined foods, you are only eating empty calories.
Fried foods taste good, but they are terrible for you, especially foods fried in partially hydrogenated or trans fat oils. These oils lower good cholesterol and increase bad cholesterol. Some experts and studies refer to these oils as “the cigarettes” of food; there is nothing good about them. Too much consumption of oil is a recipe for gaining weight. Your body can only process so much fat, and fat helps increase your bad cholesterol.
Fast food is grossly filled with refined foods, sugars and salts. It is considered one of the leading causes of diabetes. If you have high blood pressure or cholesterol, it is probably one of the worst things you can have. If you “have” to have it, make sure you balance the rest of you diet with whole foods, fiber, fruits and vegetables.
Even though the following foods are relatively low on the low-glycemic scale, eat them sparingly because they are high in empty calories:
- Potato chips
- Pound cakes
- Low-fat ice creams
- Some packaged candy bars
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| melsQuiz answer |
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| melsBuzz |
- By avoiding fatty, processed and refined foods and eating whole, real foods that have not been processed or refined, you will be on your way to optimizing your health. Most important, you will feel better and be more able to control your weight. Within days, you will forget your bad diet.
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| melsAdvice |
- Eat a balanced diet. Know what foods you can and should eat. If you crave bad foods, it’s OK to have them occasionally, just not in excess. Diabetics always need to know their eating plan
- If you are dining out, ask the restaurant what kind of oil they use. If you are ordering a fried dish, ask them to use olive oil.
- When eating a salad, be aware that most salad dressings use bad oils. Instead, splash some olive oil and vinegar on with your favorite spices
- If you absolutely have to have the taste of french fries, make oven fries: cut up a potato, add a tablespoon of olive oil in a bowl, sprinkle some salt, mix in the potatoes, and then bake for 30-35 minutes at 400 degrees.
- If you are a fast-food junkie, start by taking baby steps. Replace the bun with a whole grain bun, ask for baked chicken instead of fried, and so on.
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| DidYouKnow? |
- Most cheap packaged foods are refined foods
- The reason many fast food restaurants use oils derived from animal fats is that they are good for frying, slow to spoil and add taste at little cost
- Ironically, trans fat or partially hydrogenated oil is made from what was once called vitamin F, an omega-3.
- White flour is ground wheat with the good stuff – bran and germ – removed. Without the fibrous husk, refined grains are broken down quickly into sugar and absorbed immediately into the bloodstream. This causes glucose levels to rise, and increases the risk of obesity. Even enriched white flour lacks the essential nutrients that whole grain flour would have.
- There are many kinds of carbohydrates; some are good for you, others are bad. Whenever possible, replace highly processed grains, cereals and sugars with minimally processed whole grain products. Your body will know the difference immediately.
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| melsTips |
- If a label reads �vegetable oil,” assume it is hydrogenated oil
- Avoid soy, corn, sunflower and cottonseed oil, because they generate too much of one class of hormone, and can cause additional health issues beyond contributing to cholesterol. Instead, use Extra Virgin olive oil or canola oil.
- Avoid salt and sugar. If you see high-fructose corn syrup on the label, don�t buy it.
- Avoid any kind of nitrates and nitrites (including sodium nitrates) and avoid sulfites
- Avoid sulfur dioxide
- Avoid benzoic acid (aka sodium benzoate)
- Avoid BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene)
- Avoid BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole)
- Avoid coloring
- Avoid coal tar
- Avoid propylene glycol
- Avoid MSG (monosodium glutamate)
- Avoid refined or bleached flour (i.e. whitened using chloride oxide)
- If a product has a long shelf life, it has probably been refined. Don�t buy it
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| melsQuiz |
- Approximately how much of the world’s population has problems digesting dairy?
- About how many calories are in a 7-ounce bag of regular potato chips?
- Most processed or refined foods contain sweeteners, many of which are artificial sugar substitutes containing no natural sugars. Name two artificial sweeteners.
- Junk food – which is high in fat, sugar and sodium – is one of the leading causes for a number of issues. Name at least 2 of them.
- True or False? Cravings for processed foods are initiated by eating processed food.
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| melsQuiz Answers |
- 75%
- 1,000 calories
- Saccharine and aspartame
- Type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease and tooth decay. It is also linked to hypoglycemia and candida.
- True
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