Newsletter 7-10-09


The Right Diet - The Door to Long Term Health

The low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet has been promoted for many years as the healthy diet for both the general public as well as for diabetics. As a result of this ongoing dietary advertising campaign, surveys indicate that America as a whole is now consuming far less fat and eating far more carbohydrates. What is the result? The result is that greater numbers of Americans today, instead of being healthy, are being diagnosed with degenerative diseases. Over thirty-five hundred (3,500+) people are being newly diagnosed as diabetic every day in the United States! Many diabetics who follow the low-fat/high-carbohydrate guidelines, find themselves having to use greater amounts of oral diabetic drugs or increasing amounts of insulin to try and keep their blood sugar levels under control.

The reason this is occurring is that the low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet is not only wrong, it is destructive to your health, and the basic cause of many of the degenerative diseases that have become so widespread.

Carbohydrates are converted to the simple sugar called “glucose” by your digestive system. Glucose passes through the walls of your intestines and loads up your blood stream with sugar, far more sugar than your body was designed to handle.

The true information regarding diet, especially for those who are insulin resistant, pre-diabetic or diabetic, has been researched and proven by medical doctors who are diabetic specialists. What this research shows can be seen in the following excerpts:

“So how much carbohydrates do our bodies really need? The answer may surprise you. Although for years, newspapers, magazines, and television talk shows have told you to load up on complex carbohydrates, like whole-grain breads, cereals, and pasta (because it was thought these foods form the basis of a “healthy diet”). In fact, your daily requirement for carbohydrate is actually zero. You read that right – none!”

“Were you to make a search of all the textbooks in any medical library, you would find diseases caused by both protein and essential fat deficiency, but there are no diseases caused by carbohydrate deficiency.” “Why don’t you need carbohydrates? Your body – actually your liver – has the ability to take dietary protein or fat (your own body fat) and make glucose from it. The liver can make a couple of cups of sugar each day, which is more than enough to provide glucose for the few tissues in the body that prefer to use it. Most of the body, however, prefers to fuel itself with dietary or stored fat or with ketones [ketones: the natural break-down product of burning fat] instead of glucose.”

“Incredible as it may sound, you could do quite nicely without ever eating another bite of starch or sugar – as long as you had plenty of protein and fat. And that’s just what all humans did for the three to four million years we were around prior to the beginning of farming.”

“We lived by hunting and fishing (the meat, poultry, and fish of our diets today) and gathering what grew wild: roots, shoots, nuts and berries – and a bit of fruit in season. Not a bite of bread, cereal, rice, pasta, potatoes, or sugar.”

“Does that mean you should eat a diet without any carbohydrates? Not necessarily, but you could. And when you’re initially working to correct your health, lose weight, control your blood sugar, or lower your cholesterol and triglycerides or blood pressure, you’ll want to focus on limiting your carbs more tightly.”

“You don’t have to stay on a strict low-carb diet for the long term – it’s merely an effective tool to correct the problem quickly. Once near your goals (in weight or health) you can become more liberal with your carb limits, expand your intake of foods, and enjoy eating an even wider variety of fruits, vegetables, and even some higher-carb foods occasionally.”

If you have not yet already done so, adjust your diet and reduce your carbohydrate intake. Along with taking the correct supplements, it will improve your cholesterol levels, triglycerides and blood pressure.


A Simple Yet Effective Way To Lower Blood Sugar & Insulin Spikes After Eating High Carbohydrate Meal

A study done in Sweden in 2001 showed that blood sugar spikes were held in check when pickles preserved in vinegar were consumed immediately after a high-carbohydrate breakfast. Earlier Swedish research indicated that vinegar might help control blood sugar spikes.

“Real vinegar has not been filtered or pasteurized, and is rich in organic acids, pectin (soluble fiber), and acetic acid, all of which help to slow down the emptying of the stomach. This simple ‘detour’ for the digestion of food creates a slowdown in dumping glucose into the bloodstream. A meal with 2 tablespoons of vinegar can slow gastric emptying rate by 30% and drop blood glucose peaks by 30%.”

As a result of the earlier research, Carol S. Johnston, Ph.D., from the Department of Nutrition at Arizona State University, created a study to put vinegar to the test on three groups of subjects: ten type 2 diabetics, 11 subjects who showed symptoms of pre-diabetic insulin resistance, and eight subjects with normal insulin sensitivity. None of the subjects were taking any diabetes medications. Subjects were randomly assigned to consume the apple cider vinegar or a placebo drink. Two minutes later, each subject ate a meal consisting of a white bagel with butter and a glass of orange juice, containing approximately 90 grams of total carbohydrates. Blood samples were collected before the meal, and 30 minutes and 60 minutes after the meal. Dr. Johnston and her team reported several significant results:

And here's the most surprising result: Pre-diabetic subjects (insulin resistant) who drank vinegar actually had lower blood glucose levels than subjects with normal insulin sensitivity who also drank vinegar. Dr. Johnston notes that vinegar dietary supplements may not be useful for managing glucose and insulin spikes associated with meals as they don't contain acetic acid [ acetic acid: a colorless acid with a pungent odor that is the main component of vinegar ] — the key ingredient she feels is responsible for vinegar's effectiveness. Apple cider vinegar is another vinegar that works well. It is recommended that the typical apple cider vinegar product carried by large grocery chains carry be avoided. Instead, look for raw, unfiltered, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, usually available at many health food stores. To make a quantity of your own salad dressing just mix one part oil (or water) to two parts vinegar. Condiments such as garlic and/or onion powder, salt and pepper, should be added to taste.

Three tablespoons of this type of salad dressing will supply you with the two tablespoons of vinegar needed for the above results.