Read The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook Online
Authors: Mark Hyman
Tags: #Health & Fitness / Diets, #Cooking / Health & Healing - Low Carbohydrate
The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook (5 page)
For those on the Basic Plan, gluten-free, low-glycemic grains in moderate portions (½ cup daily) can be a great source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Avoid these if you’re on the Advanced Plan.
• amaranth
• brown and black rice
• buckwheat/kasha
• millet
• quinoa
• teff
• Arrowhead Mills
• Hodgson Mill
• Lundberg Family Farms
• Shiloh Farms
Nut meal is a great alternative to grain-based flours, which can be very high-glycemic. By choosing to bake and cook with these alternatives, you boost your intake of restorative fiber and minerals while avoiding a nasty blood-sugar-spiking glycemic load.
• almond meal
• coconut flour
• Bob’s Red Mill
Choose raw or sprouted nuts and seeds, and organic if possible. You can always lightly roast or toast nuts at home. This allows you to control the temperature and avoid eating rancid and oxidized nuts. Ground nuts and seeds make for wonderful nut butters and healthy oils. You can also use nut “milks” as a healthy alternative to dairy.
• almonds
• Brazil nuts
• cashews
• flaxseeds, chia seeds, and hemp seeds
• hazelnuts
• macadamia nuts
• pecans
• pine nuts
• pistachios
• pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds
• walnuts
• Artisana
• Barlean’s Organic Oils
• Eden Foods
• MaraNatha
• Omega Nutrition
• Once Again
• Pacific Foods
• Spectrum
• WhiteWave
Choose phytonutrient-rich and flavorful herbs, spices, and seasonings to add depth to your meals. There’s no need to mask fresh, whole foods with excess salt or sweeteners when you can add color, flavor, and aroma as well as powerful disease-busting chemicals to all your dishes.
• basil (fresh and dried)
• bay leaf (dried)
• black pepper
• broth or stock
• cayenne powder
• chili powder
• chipotle powder
• cilantro (fresh)
•
cinnamon
• cooking wines (such as Japanese Mirin)
• coriander
• cumin
• curry powder
• dill (fresh and dried)
• ginger (fresh and powdered)
• jalapeño peppers (fresh)
• mustards
• parsley (fresh and dried)
• red chili paste
• rosemary (fresh and dried)
• sage (fresh and dried)
• sea salt
• sriracha
• tahini
• tamari
• thyme (fresh and dried)
• tomato sauce and paste
• Vegenaise
• vinegars
• Edward & Sons
• Flavorganics
• Frontier Natural Products Co-Op
• Penzeys Spices
• Rapunzel
• Seeds of Change
• The Spice Hunter
Select organic and unrefined whenever possible.
• avocados and avocado oil
• coconut butter
• flaxseed oil
• grapeseed oil
• olives and extra-virgin olive oil
• sesame oil (light or dark)
• tahini
• walnut oil
• Artisana
• Barlean’s Organic Oils
• Spectrum
These superfoods have a high concentration of anti-inflammatory, detoxifying, disease-busting phytochemicals, blood-sugar-balancing fats, and high-quality protein.
- arugula
- beets
- broccoli family (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, kale, kohlrabi)
- cilantro
- dandelion greens
- onions
- parsley
- sea vegetables
- shiitake mushrooms
- shirataki noodles (from konjac)
- sprouts (especially broccoli sprouts)
- sweet potatoes
- watercress
- apples
- avocados
- berries (especially wild, organic blueberries, acai, and goji)
- kiwis
- lemons
- pomegranates
- cacao (raw)
- chiles
- cinnamon
- garlic
- ginger
- green tea/matcha
- miso
- turmeric
- adzuki beans
- black beans
- edamame
- nuts (especially almonds, Brazil nuts, pine nuts, and walnuts)
- omega-3 eggs
- sardines
- seeds (especially chia, flax, hemp, pumpkin, and sunflower)
- wild salmon (fresh or canned)
- extra-virgin coconut butter
- extra-virgin olive oil
There are certain “free foods” that are so low in calories and so nutrient-dense that you can’t overeat them. If you want to binge, these are the foods to choose. They should be the bulk of your diet; they should take up 50 percent to 75 percent of your plate at every meal. In fact, you can enjoy these plant foods in unlimited quantities. Keep a list of these with you when you go shopping and make them the new staples of your diet. I often make two or three vegetable dishes every night. Find fun, easy ways to prepare them.
- artichokes
- arugula
- asparagus
- bean sprouts
- beet greens
- bell peppers
- broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- cabbage
- cauliflower
- celery
- chives
- collard greens
- cucumbers
- dandelion greens
- eggplant
- endive
- garlic
- ginger root
- green beans
- hearts of palm
- jalapeño peppers
- kale
- lettuce
- mushrooms
- mustard greens
- onions
- parsley
- radicchio
- radishes
- shallots
- snap beans
- snow peas
- spinach
- summer squash
- Swiss chard
- tomatoes
- turnip greens
- watercress
- zucchini
Size does matter! So does variety and frequency. Follow these guidelines:
- Eat three meals each day with two snacks.
- Each meal can have up to 15 grams of carbohydrates, and each snack can have up to 7.5 grams. If you exercise regularly or increase your exercise routine while on this program, you can slowly begin to increase these amounts. But have no more than 30 grams of carbohydrates at a meal unless they come from low-glycemic vegetables such as broccoli, green beans, asparagus, salad greens, etc.
- As your insulin sensitivity improves, you can increase your consumption of natural carbohydrates to 30 to 50 grams per meal. Choose nonstarchy vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and lower-glycemic fruit such as blueberries, raspberries, apples, and pears. You should eliminate refined carbohydrates and sugars for the first six weeks on the program, then you can have an occasional small treat once a week if it doesn’t trigger sugar or carb bingeing.
The following serving sizes are based on cooked servings unless otherwise noted; each serving contains 15 grams of carbohydrates. In general, sweet potatoes, beans, lentils, and squash have a glycemic index of around 50—medium-burning but great in the right portion size (½ sweet potato or ½ cup beans, lentils, or cooked squash). These don’t include every item you might eat, but are a sampling to get a sense of correct portion size. It is often smaller than we think.
Not all foods with the same number of grams of carbohydrate raise your blood sugar in the same way. Some, especially those low in fiber, cause a rapid spike in blood sugar levels. Others lead to a slow, sustained rise. Using the glycemic index and glycemic load is a way to quantify these differences in foods.
You may have heard about the
glycemic index (GI)
. It measures how 50 grams of carbohydrates from a specific food raises your blood sugar levels compared to 50 grams of glucose (a pure simple sugar). The index is measured on a scale of 0 to 100, with glucose having a value of 100.
Higher numbers mean a food causes a sharper rise in blood sugar.
High GI: 70 and up
Medium GI: 56–69
Low GI: 55 and under
Having a general idea of a food’s glycemic index helps you put together meals and snacks that provide a slow, sustained rise in your blood sugar for lasting energy. This may help you:
feel fuller or more satisfied for a longer period of time to help prevent cravings.
help maintain or obtain an ideal weight.
choose unprocessed, high fiber carbohydrates.
The glycemic index can’t be used alone to plan a healthy diet. It won’t tell you:
whether a food is rich in nutrients—so keep choosing whole foods.
how different cooking methods, like mashing, will affect a given GI.
the GI for many foods that haven’t been tested yet.
The glycemic index also won’t tell you the
glycemic load (GL)
,
which is the impact a chosen serving of food has on your blood sugar
. Glycemic load depends on a food, serving size, total carbohydrate grams, and fiber. For example, kiwis have a medium glycemic index (58), but a serving of just one kiwi is considered low GL (5). The GL numbers are classified on the following scale:
High GL
: 20 or more
Medium GL
: 11–19
Low GL
: 0–10
This means that when you consume larger portions, or add a higher-glycemic food on the side, it raises the overall glycemic load of your meal. On the other hand, pairing a carb-containing food with healthy fats or protein helps you reduce the overall glycemic load of your meal or snack. Try combinations like these to balance your blood sugar:
brown rice or carrots with roasted turkey
whole-grain crackers with a hard-boiled egg
freshly sliced apple with almond butter
It’s also important to realize that certain foods, such as agave nectar, contain more of the sugar
fructose
. These foods appear lower on the glycemic index because the scale is based on blood
glucose
(a different type of sugar). Continue to moderate your intake of foods high in fructose because research suggests that excess consumption of the sugar promotes fat storage.
You can calculate the glycemic load for any food, but if you combine good-quality protein, good fats, and low-glycemic carbs, you will create low-glycemic meals. Adding fiber, protein, or fat to any carbohydrate will also lower the glycemic load of the meal.
