The End of Diabetes (15 page)

No sweetened drinks of any type are permitted, even artificially sweetened. Even no-calorie sweeteners can stimulate the pancreas to work. No fruit juice. Vegetable juice can be used as part of the soup base—dilute it with water. Drinking only water and eating whole foods are strongly recommended. In general, drinking our calories is unfavorable for diabetics.

Dried fruit, such as raisins, are limited to a minimal amount, usually only as a flavor enhancer as a small part of the recipe in a breakfast dish, soup, or vegetable dish.

Seeds and nuts are limited to one to two ounces daily, depending on weight and activity level—usually a one-ounce limit for overweight women and a 1.5 ounce limit for overweight males. Seeds like raw sunflower, chia, hemp, raw unhulled sesame, and pumpkin seeds are great choices, and even preferred over raw nuts, as they are higher in nutrients and have beneficial fatty acid profiles. A half of an avocado is permitted occasionally on a salad or with a dip, but make sure the seeds and nuts do not exceed one ounce when you're also using the half avocado.

Refined flour products, bread, white rice, processed cold cereals, and white potatoes are not allowed in these menus, as these foods are not recommended on a regular basis. Nor do these menus and recipes contain added salt, oil, or sweeteners of any kind.

Whole milk, cheese, butter, and red meat are not recommended. These foods should only be considered on special occasions or holidays. Nonfat dairy products could be used as a flavoring in small amounts once or, occasionally, twice a week. However, they are not missed and can easily be replaced in recipes with almond or hemp milk and other nondairy alternatives. Blending a half cup of raw almonds and hulled hemp seeds with three cups of water in a high-powered blender makes a simple milk when a recipe calls for that.

Animal products in general should be limited to a small amount of fish once a week and then only one other small serving of non-fish white meat per week. No eggs, meat, or cheese.

Usually, you can still achieve good results with a small amount of animal products such as one ounce of turkey, scallops, shrimp, or chicken to flavor a soup, stew, or stir-fry. Many people feel more satisfied when they are allowed to have even this small amount of their animal product allotment divided up as a condiment to flavor dishes. Instead of eating one four-ounce serving a week, they split it up over several meals.

Some recipes in my menu plans are used twice in the same day or as leftovers the next day. This is done intentionally because when you prepare a dish, it makes sense to reduce your workload and make enough for at least two meals. Many people choose to use a prepared dish for two to three days to save time and cooking efforts. My family cooks huge amounts of food and eats leftovers for a few days. That way we only have to prepare food two days a week. Experiment to find out what works best for you.

With the removal of potato, rice, and flour products, and the restriction on nuts and seeds to one ounce daily, you may need to add more beans to reach your caloric needs. Greens, beans, fruit, nuts, seeds, tofu, and the low-calorie vegetables listed above supply the major volume of calories in the diet. Nuts and fruits somewhat less, of course. Spaghetti squash and cauliflower are permissible substitutions for higher-starch, higher-calorie grains and potatoes. Turnips, parsnips, and other squashes are alternatives to rice, bread, and potatoes and are a better, more nutrient- and fiber-rich choice. Grains should be whole and intact when cooked in water. Whole grains such as brown and black rice, barley, quinoa, and steel-cut oats or old-fashioned oatmeal are ideal examples; nevertheless, they are best avoided in phase one and limited to a one-cup serving or less per day in phase two. Most of my preferred diabetic-reversal menus have such grains only a few times per week.

Always wash fresh fruit and vegetables thoroughly. Buy organic if possible. Always buy organic strawberries, spinach, and celery, as these three items are the most pesticide-contaminated foods in the produce section.

 

Cooking Techniques and Tips of the Trade

A basic cooking technique utilized in some of these recipes is water-sautéing. This is used instead of cooking with oil. Water-sautéing is simple and good for stir-fries, sauces, and many other dishes. To water-sauté, heat a skillet on high heat until water sputters when dropped in the pan. Use small amounts of water, starting with two to three tablespoons in a hot skillet, wok, or pan, then adding the finely sliced vegetables, stirring and then covering to maintain the moisture. Continue to stir and add more water only if necessary. In many dishes, the moisture from tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, and other high-water-content vegetables is sufficient.

Soups and stews are critical components of this nutritarian diet style. When vegetables are simmered in soup, all the nutrients are retained in the liquid. Many of the soup recipes use fresh vegetable juices, especially tomato, celery, and carrot juice. These juices provide a very tasty antioxidant-rich base. If you don't have a juicer, consider purchasing one. If you are short on time, bottled tomato and other vegetable juices can be purchased at most health food stores, but nothing beats the flavor of freshly juiced vegetables. I also use a simple procedure to create “cream” soups. Raw cashews or cashew butter are blended into the soup to provide a creamy texture and rich flavor. A big advantage of homemade soups is that they make wonderful leftovers. Soups generally keep well for up to four days in the refrigerator but should be frozen if longer storage is desired.

Should you occasionally choose to use a prepared soup, keep in mind that your overall daily sodium intake should remain under 1,200 milligrams for men and under 1,000 milligrams for women. Natural whole foods contain 400 to 700 milligrams of sodium, which allows for a leeway of about 500 milligrams. Be sure to read labels. You will be amazed by how much sodium canned soup contains. Try to select a no-salt added variety.

My recipes include many delicious salad dressings and dips. Conventional dressings usually start with oil and vinegar; the oil provides the fat, and the vinegar provides the acidity. The fat sources in my salad dressings are whole foods such as raw almonds and cashews, other raw nuts and seeds, avocado, and tahini. This is not a fat-free eating style because our bodies require healthy fats from whole foods; the way nature designed us to consume them. By eating this way, we receive the lignans, flavonoids, antioxidants, minerals, and other protective phytochemicals that come along in the package. So the oil is removed, and seeds and nuts supply the healthy fats instead because they are such a healthy disease-fighting food. Removing the oil and using nuts and seeds as the primary fat source in the diet is critical to reversing diabetes.

A powerful blender such as a Vitamix is very helpful for making salad dressings, creamy soups, smoothies, and fruit sorbets. Nuts and seeds do not get soft and creamy for dressings in a regular blender unless more liquid is added. Only the more expensive, high-powered blenders can make fruit sorbets from frozen fruits and blend vegetables effortlessly for fruit and green smoothies.

 

Frequent Mini-Meals All Day or Three Meals a Day?

Here is a quiz to see if you understand part of this complicated message. Is it healthier to eat frequent small meals or just two or three meals a day?

I'll give you a hint. Remember, deep cellular repair and detoxification occurs most readily in the non-digestive stage (during glycolysis) and during sleep. I am sure you now have the answer.

Contrary to popular advice, it is best to eat only when you're hungry, and not eat after dinner. Your next meal should be when you feel true hunger the following morning. Giving the pancreas the prolonged time to rest and to lower insulin levels is key. Snacking after finishing dinner is the worst thing you can do. When you consider the advice to eat frequent small meals and snack all day long, remember this:

 

1. People who eat more frequently usually take in more calories per day.

2. Obese people are invariably snackers; snacking correlates with obesity.

3. Animals fed the same calorie amounts monthly, but on a less-frequent schedule, live longer.

4. Diabetic recovery is enhanced by resting, not utilizing, the pancreas.

5. You don't want or need to eat frequently when you eat properly. Food tastes better when you wait until true hunger occurs.

6. Eating when truly hungry directs you to your precise calorie needs to maintain a lean body. Eating outside of true hunger is usually addictive eating or recreational eating and promotes diabetes.

7. More frequent eating or snacking has been shown to increase the risk of colon cancer in men.
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The Diabetes Solution: High-Nutrient, High-Fiber, High-Water-Content Foods, with No Snacking

Most people following this program for diabetes reversal eat two main meals of mostly vegetables and beans plus a light breakfast. That means they usually eat a breakfast consisting of about 300 calories and then about 400 to 500 at lunch and again at dinner. Because type 1 diabetics are on insulin, they should eat approximately the same amount of calories at each meal and stay with three meals a day.

Some people claim that more frequent eating speeds up the metabolic rate, and a faster metabolic rate facilitates weight loss. This is a myth. Eating more frequently or eating more calories will not change metabolism sufficiently to make up for the increase in calories. If eating less made you fat, then anorexic people would be the heaviest. Of course, overweight people naturally have slow metabolic rates. That was a favorable genetic inheritance to enhance survival for most of human history when food was not as plentiful as it is today. A slow metabolism means a person can comfortably eat less and not get too thin. Actually, a slower metabolic rate means one is aging slower too. Therefore, if you are a naturally heavy person, you have been given a survival gift. A slower metabolic rate is only a bad thing in today's toxic food environment, not the food environment that has existed for most of human history. You can still have a long, healthy life free of diabetes and heart disease. It is just that you are designed efficiently and can handle lots of physical activity without needing too many calories.

People on this diet style are actually amazed how satisfied they are with fewer calories. Since they are getting so many micronutrients, they feel great, have more energy, and definitely are not suffering the same hunger cravings often felt on most restrictive diets. You can eat abundantly from healthy foods and still not overeat calories.

The only safe way to enhance metabolism is exercise. Supplements, green tea, caffeine, metabolic boosting herbs and supplements, drinking hot or cold drinks, or packing yourself in ice do not play a significant role in weight loss.

 

Supplements and Multivitamins to Consider or Avoid

Multivitamins and supplements have pros and cons. The main problem with taking a typical multivitamin is that it may expose you to extra nutrients that not only are unnecessary for your body but could actually be harmful too. Excessive quantities of some vitamins and minerals can be toxic or have long-term negative health effects. We know it is important to avoid vitamin and mineral deficiencies, but it is just as important to avoid consuming too much of certain nutrients.

 

Folate

Folate and folic acid are members of the B vitamin family. Folate is the form found naturally in foods, especially green vegetables and beans. Too much folate obtained naturally from food is not a concern. It comes naturally packaged in balance with other micronutrients, and the body regulates its absorption. Folic acid is the synthetic form that is added to food or used as an ingredient in vitamin supplements. Folic acid is also added to most enriched, refined grain products like bread, rice, and pasta in the United States and Canada in an attempt to replace the nutrients lost during the processing of the whole grain. Recently, there have been troubling studies connecting folic acid supplementation with increases in breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers.
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A diet rich in green vegetables is high in folate, so supplemental folic acid is not necessary on this kind of diet. It is important for our health to eat vegetables to obtain the folate (and other nutrients) we need and avoid the significant risks associated with supplemental folic acid.

 

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is also risky to take in supplemental form. Ingesting vitamin A or beta-carotene from supplements instead of food has been shown to increase the risk of certain cancers.
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In Finnish trials, using beta- carotene supplements failed to prevent lung cancer, and there was actually an increase in cancer in those who took the supplement. This study was halted when the physician researchers discovered the death rate from lung cancer was 28 percent higher among participants who had taken the high amounts of beta-carotene and vitamin A.
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The death rate from heart disease was also 17 percent higher in those who had taken the supplements compared to those just given a placebo. Another recent study showed similar results correlating beta-carotene supplementation with an increased occurrence of prostate cancer.
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Furthermore, a meta-analysis of antioxidant vitamin supplementation found that beta-carotene supplementation was associated with an increased all-cause mortality rate.
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As a result of these European studies, as well as similar studies conducted here in the United States, articles in the
New England Journal of Medicine,
the
Journal of the National Cancer Institute,
and the
Lancet
all advise people to stop taking beta-carotene supplements.
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Taking extra vitamin A (retinyl palmitate and retinyl acetate) may be even more risky than using supplemental beta-carotene. Because beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A by the body, there is no reason a person eating a reasonably healthy diet should require any extra vitamin A. There is solid research revealing that supplemental vitamin A increases calcium loss in the urine, contributing to osteoporosis. One study found that subjects with a vitamin A intake in the range of 1.5 milligrams had double the hip fracture rate over those with an intake in the range of 0.5 milligrams.
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For every 1 milligram increase in vitamin A consumption, hip fracture rate increased by 68 percent. Vitamin A supplementation has also been associated with a 16 percent increase in all-cause mortality.
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