When sugar levels go berserk you know you have diabetes. With testing one can determine if you are moving towards diabetes months in advance. This test is called the HbA1C or GlycosylatedHemoglobin test. In fact many labs say 6 is good control. The scale goes up to 12 and for me if you are above 6, then you are diabetic.
So approach People with the following Mantra
- Are you already a full blown Diabetic? If yes, a diabetes educator or dietitian has to design you’re eating plan. Most Diabetologist do not have the requisite training in nutrition and the reliance of medication to this life-style condition is lazy from the perspective that it is your DIET habits that have caused this condition. People say its genetic. Yes Diabetes is the Gun, but you don’t have to load the gun with Ammunition i.e.Carb based diets. A Mere education and understanding over a full year with counseling and custom designed meal plans will help you steer you towards better management. In many cases at our clinics, reversal of Diabetes is possible if caught early.
- As per the best dietitian in Delhi, if you are not a full blown diabetic but your test has thrown you in the Prediabetic zone, then it is time for you to take control of your life and change your eating style, types of food in your current cultural pattern of eating and the quantities that you are accustomed too.
Know this nutrition is too difficult a choice and medication are very lazy option. The reason everyone takes it lightly as there is a belief that medication will take care of me and no lifestyle adaption is needed. I can live the way I am. A few years ago I wrote a blog for my father who has diabetes. The headline was “Diabetics die six years earlier than their normal life span”. Everybody dies. It’s the slow process with illness that should make you sit up and take notice.
As a chief Nutritionist I ask people to learn why Sugar is harmful and how it throws havoc to your insulin and management of blood levels. One basic theme is to learn how much of Simple Carbs you eat in a meal. Read Labels on all foods. Take a packaged fruit curd. 7 teaspoons of sugar in a pack of 200 grams. Or one 500 ml Packaged NimbuPani drink is 12 Teaspoons of sugar. All packaged foods are evilly designed have sugar to stimulate your taste receptors to buying more of that food. Call it an influence addiction.
So if you are in the Sugar Death zone as I call it, it’s time to really learn about the Glycemic Index of food.
Think of every food like a card dealer. I will make your cards as CARBS. When it throws the Carbs at you, a slow dealer will release carbs slowly. This is good. If it throws that carbs at you very fast, this is called a high Glycemic Index and is the mistress that lies in your blood wreaking havoc in the months and years to come.
What this basically means that when you workout in the Gym with resistance training the cells in your body respond better to insulin. Thereby you need lesser insulin from your pancreas or if you are getting insulin resistant and it refuses to work because of years of abuse due to your high sugar diet, the exercise will allow your body to reverse or arrest the progression of your diabetic battle. Walking burns fat. Fat getting out of your body means that the Insulin growth factor improves. So I would advise you to walk 6 days a week and aim to do more than 15,000 steps in the day. Go the gym 3 times a week and work with the weights. And women get the best benefit from gyming. Women do not bulk up instead they are able to maintain loss of muscle that they lose as they grow older. So get a good fitness trainer to motivate you everyday without breaking your body.
In terms of nutrition I always say the death of diets has happened. No one diet fits one person. Your neighbor may be on a special diet and getting amazing results but when you try it, you see no effect. The latest is now gene testing of your nutrition genes to determine whether what will be your choice of protein carbs and fat ratio in the diet. Also in the gene test the fact that we can determine vitamin and mineral gene receptors deficiencies which can really help towards managing diabetes. For example a magnesium deficient gene causes lower absorption of this mineral in your diet. As a result, sugar cravings are a body self defense mechanism to make you eat more food to allow for better magnesium absorption. The problem is the choices of high magnesium food is not known to most. A simple tweak in the diet with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and dark chocolate (70% Dark or more, No sugar) is the solution for better magnesium.
Many Foods can work in improving sugar levels. However be warned eating beneficial foods without aligning your food eating behaviour will is like putting a bandage on a wound that has not yet stopped bleeding. It is a temp fix.
Research studies from best nutritionist in Mumbai, states foods that I use in my counseling are Cinnamon, Fenugreek Seeds, Paneer KaPhul, Oats, Micro Greens, Beans, Almonds, Walnuts, Pumpkin and Sunflower seeds. Each food has a secret Ingredient in it that our grandmothers knew. This knowledge allows a food to have a therapeutic effect whilst one is working on lowering sugar levels. Food it thy New medicine, If you know what to look for in it!