Avoid type 2 diabetes....

Today's Post:  Monday, 11-16-2015

My Saturday, 11-14-2015 Medical News Today email said that it was National Diabetes Day.

This was a surprise to me. 

But here is a quick post on the key info because it’s extremely important to know your current blood sugar level.

You cannot feel it early enough to protect you.  The only way to know where you stand is to get tested.

Here’s why, in the early and middle stages because the only way to know if you are in this trouble is to get your fasting glucose and HBA1C tested and why it’s so important to do:

1.  If it’s even a bit high, fasting glucose of over about 90 to 95 & HBA1C over about 5.8, you need to take preventive action to bring it down and add mental decline protections since at or above this level new research shows the higher blood sugar begins to cause Alzheimer’s disease and other causes of mental decline.

In fact as a public health issue, the long term avoidable costs are so high this is more important than the heart attack risk mentioned in the article on Medical News Today.

2.  It’s also quite important to get tested because, if your blood sugar gets really high and you haven’t found out, because your first symptom may be that you suddenly can’t see while you are driving!  (The woman I found that out from had it happen to her!  Incredibly, she was a nurse and somehow had missed getting her blood sugar tested.)

3. There is a lot more type 2 diabetes and heart attacks related to it today than there was 50 years ago and this quote explains why in large part:

“"We have an increasing supply of food, including junk food, which is relatively cheap and heavily advertised - soft drinks with a lot of sugar, for example," says Prof. Rydén. "The typical heart attack patient today is a sedentary, overweight person with type 2 diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance, while in the past the average patient was a lean, stressed chain smoker."

3.  In keeping with the theme, the article had some advice on how to not get type 2 diabetes or limit damage such as heart attacks in people who already have high blood sugar.

The quote suggests NOT eating junky, heavily advertised foods or drinking soft drinks and NOT staying sedentary.

Surprisingly, the article with it didn’t stress what not to eat and drink as much.

The article with it had the mix of decent advice and the outdated and horrible advice that most people get who wind up with type 2 diabetes and which can cause it to be worse than necessary.

Simply put, they got right that adding more vegetables and pieces of whole fruit was important and getting both more moderate exercise and some vigorous exercise each week also was quite helpful.

That could have used several upgrades on why these three things help so much and the best ways to do them and even how to get started.  But it’s exactly the right advice.

4.  They also include the older and incorrect version of the advice to eat whole grains with no mention that whole grains, particularly wheat, are worse for you and your blood sugar level than eating sugar directly!!

Because even whole wheat spikes blood sugar something like 50% MORE than sugar and today’s wheat also causes high chronic  inflammation that doubles and redoubles the damage from the high blood sugar this is MOST unfortunate.

5.  Oddly, the advice to include some starchy and high carbohydrate foods most days can help you feel and live better if the amount isn’t too high.

Even people trying to lose fat, need to do this some days to avoid the failsafe famine response.

The trick is to NOT use wheat, rarely use other grains, and use these foods instead:

Cold potatoes kept in the refrigerator overnight after cooking the day before; organic prunes; organic fresh fruit daily or a bit more; beans and lentils, and raw, unsalted tree nuts with no added oil or salt if you aren’t allergic.

You can even include red wine and real sugar if your intake is much lower than people who use them heavily.