This article was originally posted at USADailyMail.com.
Diabetologists usually recommend dietary changes and exercise, plus medications for people with Type 2 diabetes. Based on a patient’s age, sex, and current weight, they suggest that the person consume a prescribed number of calories, less fat, more vegetables and fruit, and eat whole grain bread. Patients are also told to check their blood sugar several times per day.
Yet, even with this regimen, most diabetics still suffer the complications of Type 2 diabetes, despite gaining some control over their blood glucose level. Why is that?
In my view, it is because doctors cannot use standardized calorie-counting plans to help patients control their blood sugar. For this approach to actually work, recommendations must match the day-to-day nutritional needs of the individual, which is effectively impossible. One day, the person may need 2000 calories, but on another more active day, the person may need 3000 calories. Any standardized recommendation also fails to consider the many different nutrients the body needs that change day by day. A highly varied diet is important to obtain the many nutrients that cells need for optimum health.
In my book The Diabetes-Free Cookbook & Exercise Guide, my message is: If you want to reverse your diabetes, the power is really in your hands, not a doctor’s standardized recommendations. Voltaire wrote, “L’homme est libre au moment qu’il veut l’être.” (Man is free in the moment he wants to be). This clearly applies to a Type 2 diabetic in that getting free of diabetes starts when you choose to become conscious of your eating habits and decide to change your diet. Do you often overeat? Do you consume too many carbohydrates? Do you eat out of stress rather than true hunger?
The fundamental principle behind my new book is that Type 2 diabetes is caused by the modern diet full of carbohydrates from grains (wheat, rice, and corn) and grain-based flour, and not humans becoming “insulin resistant,” which is the common theory behind Type 2 diabetes.
If you look at the rate of occurrence of Type 2 diabetes in the world, it can be clearly traced back to the agricultural and industrial revolutions when scientists and farmers improved irrigation, developed studier grain seeds, invented better milling and packaging machines, while the government offered subsidies to make these types of foods cheaper for the masses. Targeted marketing, attractive packaging, and longer shelf life made grain-based foods part of everyone’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Worse, the fast food industry took off, as consumers ate more burgers and sandwiches, noodles, pastas, pizza, tacos, rice, donuts, muffins, cakes, pies, and so on.
Today, consumers around the world often eat 50% of their daily calories from grains. This results in the release of huge amounts of glucose into the bloodstream that the body cannot utilize immediately. This glucose is transformed into fatty acids to be stored in the fat cells. That alone explains why so many people experience substantial weight gain and many become obese.
The problem is, once your fat cells become full, the fatty acids can no longer be stored, and so remain in the bloodstream. Then muscle cells burn them for their energy, rather than glucose. This eventually leads to high blood sugar and Type 2 diabetes.
The solution is clear: you need to reduce your intake of grains and grain-flour foods. Cut down on your consumption of them by at least 30 to 50 percent of what you likely eat each day now. If you are willing to try altering your diet for just 8 weeks using my cookbook, you will see your blood sugar level go down, you will likely lose a few pounds, and you will feel healthier and more active.
In the Cookbook, you will find recipes that professional Chef Colleen Cackowski created to make delicious meals that can please almost everyone, from egg dishes to beef burgers and stews to chicken or fish dinners to cakes and pies with minimum or no grain flour. For some recipes, you will be amazed at how you can use ingredients like avocado, quinoa, black beans, coconut oil, and others to create dishes with the tastes you are familiar with.
Going back hundreds of thousands of years, humans ate fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and meat, fish, and dairy products. The modern diet full of grains is a recent occurrence, making it only logical that this is the cause of the rapid rise in Type 2 diabetes. It is estimated that by 1950, one in three American adults will have diabetes. Make the choice not to be one of them.
As a best-selling author and Nationally Syndicated Columnist, Dr. John Poothullil, advocates for patients struggling with the effects of adverse lifestyle conditions.
Dr. John’s books, available on Amazon, have educated and inspired readers to take charge of their own health. There are many steps you can take to make changes in your own health, but Dr. John also empowers us that we must demand certain changes in our healthcare system as well.
Don’t let Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes control your life – start a delicious new journey to a healthier, happier you today!
Discover how you can live a diabetes-free life with Dr. John’s groundbreaking cookbook and exercise guide. With over 80 appetizing low-carb recipes created by Chef Colleen Cackowski, you’ll never miss the high-carb, high-sugar foods of your past. Every recipe nourishes your body and keeps your blood sugar levels in check so you can enjoy tasty, satisfying meals. Dr. John also offers 12 easy-to-do exercises to boost your flexibility and balance and keep you healthy as you age.
What people are saying…
Filled with tons of easy-to-make meals and encourages enjoyable meal planning for moms like me. I highly recommend this book to diabetics and families trying to live and eat healthily. —Maria Chalissery, M.Sc., Diet Technician
If you are looking for ways to improve your health and add more zing to your meals, these recipes are exactly what you need. —Jyoti Veeramoney, Chef, Certified Yoga Instructor
These exercises are great because they focus on dynamic movement that improves joint range of motion and flexibility. They require no equipment, build core strength and stabilization, and incorporate movements that can correct posture, which can decrease the risk of falling. —Sophia LaValle, NASM Certified Personal Trainer
