Diabetes

Most people with diabetes have type-2 diabetes, which used to be called ‘non-insulin dependent’ diabetes because, if properly managed, you’d never end up needing insulin. Type-2 diabetes is reversible and we’ll show you how.

Type-1 diabetes, or insulin dependent diabetes, may also be reversible but certainly it is possible to massively reduce your need for insulin by following the same low GL diet principles (always consult your Doctor or Healthcare professional regarding changes to medication).

The reason for this is simply because the body needs to make less insulin (or have injected in), your blood sugar doesn’t go up so much by eating low GL. There are also receptors listening out for insulin which become deaf over time with too many high blood sugar peaks and insulin release, however, they can become re-sensitised and more responsive to insulin with the mineral chromium and cinnamon.

High dose chromium supplementation, taking 200mcg (a small pill) with each meal helps to stabilise blood sugar levels. So too does a spoonful (3-6g) of cinnamon. Actually, there’s a substance within cinnamon called MCHP which is particularly effective and concentrated in a cinnamon extract called Cinnulin¬Æ. We’ll give you the full lowdown on chromium and cinnamon next week but you’ll see they are included in the report in your Library called ‘Say No to Diabetes’. Please read this and follow the principles.

There are two books that will support you in reversing type 2 diabetes. These are The Diabetes Weight-Loss Cookbook: A life-changing diet to prevent and reverse type 2 diabetes by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi, based on Dr David Unwin’s principles (the recipes are delicious!) and Say No to Diabetes by Patrick Holford.

Further info

Eat protein with carbs and top tips to lower the GL of a meal

One of the principles of a low GL diet is to always eat carbs with some protein. Examples of this are:

• Nuts or seeds with fruit
• Fish, eggs, meat or beans with brown rice or potatoes
• A nut butter such as sugar-free peanut or almond with a ‘non-squishable’ bread such as Scandinavian style vollkornbrot or sourdough wholegrain rye
• Natural, live yoghurt with berries
• Hummus (chickpea spread) with oatcakes

The reason this lowers the GL of a meal and consequently makes you feel fuller for longer is that protein takes longer to digest, triggers an increase in stomach acid, plus the shutting of the valves at the top and bottom of the stomach to digest the protein. The sugars in carbs also get ‘slow released’ by this process.

That’s why anything acidic, from citric acid in lemon juice to acetic acid in vinegar help to lower the GL of what you’re eating. Watch out for balsamic vinegar which is almost sugar – at most use a drop. Apple cider vinegar is much better.

Here are some top tips to lower your daily GL

• Add lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to your meals.
• Liquidise solid food to make soup, as this is more filling.
• Add a spoonful of chia seeds to your cereal.
• Soak oats or eat them as porridge (chia porridge soaked overnight is really filling, but be sure to drink plenty of fluids such as water or herbal tea as they act like a sponge in your body.
• Chew each mouthful at least 20 times and sip water throughout the meal.
• Put your fork down on the plate between mouthfuls.
• Never add sweet sauces – Dijon mustard, for example, is sugar-free and anti-inflammatory.
• Wait 30 minutes before eating something sweet.
• Save your dessert until it’s time for a snack, and include some protein.

Further info

Stress and sugar = addiction

Does it surprise you to know that marketeers know how to get you addicted to their products such as cola, coffee and confectionary?

The combination of sugar, stress and stimulants such as caffeine hijack the brain’s ‘reward’ system making you become addicted to sweet food. But the same is true with non-food stimulants such as social media, gaming and gambling.

Dr Robert Lustig who is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) specializes in the field of neuroendocrinology, with an emphasis on the regulation of energy balance. He wrote the book ‘Fat Chance: The hidden truth about sugar, obesity and disease‘ and the ‘Hacking of the American Mind‘ although the same principles apply to any mind.

His research and clinical practice have originally focused on childhood obesity and diabetes, but latest book ‘Metabolical‘ explains what’s really driving ill-health and what we can do about it on both a personal and societal level. Dr Robert Lustig is a member of our Scientific Advisory Board.

Your assignment this week is to watch this short film with Professor Robert Lustig discussing the dangers of processed food or listen to this podcast interview called How Junk Food Kills People featuring Patrick Holford and Professor Robert Lustig.

Further info

A spoonful of sugar

To become a master of your blood sugar control and sugar cravings, you must take both quality and quantity of carbs into account when planning your diet. Our advice is to eat fewer carbs overall and the right kinds.

Together this is called the Glycemic Load, GL for short, of a food, as shown in the table below. It takes into account both how many actual grams of carbs you eat, but also how quickly the kind of sugar in the carbs is released. The speed of release of sugar in the food you eat is called Glycemic Index, or GI for short, which is shown in the table below. Pure glucose, which is what ends up in your blood after digesting carbs, has a GI score of 100 by definition.

Dr David Unwin, a GP from the UK, has a terrific way to illustrate GL for his diabetic and overweight patients. Instead of trying to explain the concept, he simply shows them the ‘teaspoons of sugar equivalent’ for each food, as indicated in the table below.

Food	GI	Serving size	GL	Teaspoons of sugar
Cereals
Coco Pops	77	30g	20	7.3
Cornflakes	93	30g	22	8.4
Mini Wheats	59	30g	13	4.4
Shredded Wheat	67	30g	14	4.8
Special K	54	30g	12	4.0
Bran Flakes	74	30g	13	4.8
Porridge	63	150ml	6	2.2
Bread
White	71	30g	10	3.7
Brown	74	30g	9	3.3
Rye (69% wholegrain rye flour)	78	30g	11	4.0
Wholegrain barley (50% barley)	85	30g	15	5.5
Wholemeal (stoneground flour)	59	30g	7	2.6
Pitta (wholemeal)	56	30g	8	2.9
Rough oatcake	35	10.4g	2	0.7
Fruit
Banana	62	120g	16	5.9
Grapes (black)	59	120g	11	4.0
Apple (Golden Delicious)	39	120g	6	2.2

Adapted, with permission, from David Unwin’s charts in the Journal of Insulin Resistance (2016)

The GI column relates to how quickly or slowly each of these foods releases its sugar. For instance, the GI for strawberries is a relatively low 40 per cent (compared to 100 per cent for glucose). In addition, they have an extremely low glycemic load (just 1 GL), which means that a typical (quite large) 120g portion provides the equivalent of only 0.4g of white sugar. By contrast, while an apple’s GI is slightly lower, at 39 per cent, it contains more actual carbs so it has a much higher glycemic load (6 GL) and therefore it raises blood sugar levels six times as much as the same quantity of strawberries.

The last column converts the GL score into the equivalent number of teaspoons of (white) sugar. So, for example, a 120g apple would have the same blood sugar effect as 2.2 teaspoons of sugar. A banana, one of the highest sugar fruits, has the equivalent of 5.9 teaspoons of sugar.

Two oatcakes with a protein-based dip such as hummus or taramasalata (fish roe paste), high in omega 3 DHA, is only 4 GLs, or 1.5 teaspoons of sugar equivalent. Aim for 5 GLs for a snack.

Further info

What to eat for lunch and dinner – main meals

For all main meals, start by filling up half your plate with non-starchy vegetables. This is anything green such as salad greens, broccoli and peas, but also carrots, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms and most vegetables except parsnips, squash and swedes.

That leaves a quarter of your plate for protein-rich food. This is a portion of meat, fish or poultry that would fit into the palm of your hand.

If you are a strict vegetarian, you will need to eat more beans, lentils, soya products (such as tofu and tempeh), eggs, good quality dairy and Quorn than either meat eaters or pescatarians (those who eat vegetarian and fish) to achieve the sufficient protein. A serving size of tofu for a main meal is 160g – roughly three-quarters of a packet.

A plant-based diet can provide protein from beans, pulses, soya products, seeds nuts and whole grains.

Many of the chicken and fish recipes in your Library can be adapted by using tofu or a tofu steak instead, and a number of recipes feature beans and lentils.

Then there’s the final quarter for more carb-rich foods from potatoes to rice but, already you’re going for the lower GL versions – such as brown basmati rice, wholegrain bulgur and and wholegrain pasta.

Read the Report What to Eat For Lunch and Dinner in your Library.

There are some main meal recipes in your Library but the book The Low GL Diet Cookcook, Patrick Holford & Fiona McDonald Joyce gives you a wide selection of really easy and delicious low GL recipes. All recipes are GL rated so if you eat from this book you’ll be fulfilling all these requirements for low GL living.

Further info

Your perfect diet starting with breakfast and snacks

The ideal diet for life, as well as reducing your future risk of cognitive decline, is a low-GL (low-glycaemic load) diet. By definition, this is a diet that keeps your blood sugar levels even. This means that you produce little insulin, which is not only the fat-storing hormone but also a promoter, in excess, of cancer cell growth and numerous other diseases, from heart disease to diabetes, and from dementia to depression.

There are more immediate benefits as well, such as increased energy throughout the day, and better and more consistent concentration and mood. Below are examples of the feedback we receive on a regular basis from people embarking on a low-GL diet:

‘I feel incredible. Before, I didn’t have a cut-off switch. Now I feel full and can leave food on the plate because I’m full.’ Adrian

‘It’s as if someone has given me a magic pill and said, “You’ll have more energy, you’ll feel calm and you’ll feel less stressed.” I am full of energy.’ Marianne

‘This is the easiest way to lose weight and stay healthy I’ve ever tried.’ Glynda

‘My energy level is incredible. My blood sugar is well under control (I’m diabetic). It’s been so easy.’ Linda

‘I lost 6kg (13lb) in a month and, amazingly, I lost my craving for sweets! My energy level increased so much.’ John

A low-GL diet prevents and reverses disease

More than any other criterion, the GL of your diet is associated with a lower risk of just about every disease you’re likely to suffer from. Also, lowering the GL of your diet has been shown to reverse many diseases as well. It is also the best predictor of how much insulin you are going to produce in response to a meal (it works better than knowing the grams of carbs) which we have learnt is critical, not only for health, but also for protecting your brain.

These are the benefits:

• Prevention and reversal of weight gain.
• Less hunger and sugar cravings.
• Better appetite control and weight-loss maintenance.
• Prevention and reversal of Type 2 diabetes,
• Prevention and reversal of heart disease, hypertension and high cholesterol.
• Reduction in the risk of cancers of the breast, prostate, colon and rectum, ovary, thyroid, endometrium and
  pancreas.
• Reduction in Alzheimer’s dementia risk and cognitive impairment.
• Reduction in depression and aggression, and building up stress resilience.
• Switches on anti-ageing genes.
• It lowers IGF-1, associated with accelerating ageing and increasing cancer risk.

Read the Report What to Eat for Breakfasts and Snacks in your Library.

The principles of the low-GL diet

There are three core principles at the heart of a low-GL diet. Each of them is a positive guideline in its own right, and each supports the others. All three are easy to attain and essential if you are serious about achieving health (and weight control).

1. Balance your blood sugar by eating 45 GL a day for weight loss or 60 GL for lifestyle.
2. Eat good fats, and avoid bad fats. (This will become clear in the ‘brain fats’ guidelines)
3. Keep on the move – exercise is important (see ‘active body’ guidelines)

Why should you balance your blood sugar?

Balancing your blood sugar, and consequently keeping your insulin level down, is the fundamental concept at the heart of the low-GL diet. Once your blood sugar and insulin levels are in balance, sustainable weight loss (if you want it and are eating 45 GL a day) and 100 percent health will follow, and will continue, when following the higher-GL lifestyle diet of 60 GL. Success is inevitable.

Keeping your blood sugar balanced depends not only on WHAT you eat, but also on HOW and WHEN you eat. We’ll explain exactly which foods and food combinations stabilise your blood sugar best and help to burn fat. When you understand that it is high-GL foods and meals that lead to gaining weight, you’ll understand how to control what you eat to lose weight, or to maintain your healthy weight.

In time, GL-awareness will become second nature, and, before you know it, you’ll be experimenting by mixing and matching your own combinations of low-GL foods at every meal. Reducing your blood sugar level will encourage fat burning instead of fat storing, your appetite will be satisfied and you will feel energetic for longer than you are used to.

Knowing your GL will become a lifestyle essential.

The first step in the low-GL direction is to avoid adding sugar, or eating foods with added sugar, as well as eating refined carbohydrates, which tend to be white in colour: white bread, rice and pasta, for example. The unrefined carbohydrates are better for you because they are broken down into glucose slowly, and your body has more time to use the energy. They tend to be brown in colour, providing more fibre: brown rice, whole grains, brown bread and pasta, for example. Eating too many unrefined carbohydrates increases your blood sugar levels fast – which produces excess glucose, which turns into fat.

Further info

Lowering the GL (glycemic load) of your diet starts today

In the weeks that follow, starting now we’re going to guide you in taking simple steps to become a master of your blood sugar control. You achieve this by eating a low Glycemic Load diet, based on what you eat when, the total carbs in your meals and snacks, and the kind of sugars in the carbs you eat. For example, if you have the same quantity of  banana, which contains as much glucose as fructose, with glucose being a very fast releasing sugar; compared to an apple, which contains mainly fructose – a slower sugar; versus berries which are mainly ‘xylose’ which is a very slow-releasing sugar the effect on your blood sugar level is different.

So too is the amount of fibre in the food. An apple, for example, contains a teaspoon of fibre which delays the sugar release. Turn an apple into apple juice and almost all that fibre is gone and the blood sugar brakes are off. What’s more you can easily ‘drink’ more juice than you can eat a whole fruit.

To some extent, you don’t ‘need’ to know all this because the GL, which is an empiric measure, takes it all into account. For example, the

• Banana (100g) 11GL
• Apple (100g) 4GL
• Strawberries (100g) 1GL
• Apple juice (100ml) 5GL (a very small glass)

Winning combos

Just like apple, sugar with apple fibre lessens your Glycemic Load, so too does eating protein with carbs – for example having some nuts with that apple adds even more fibre, but also protein. Now, protein takes along time to digest in the stomach, thus the apple gets trapped there for longer and its sugars get drip fed into your lower digestive tract. So, protein with carbs – eg fish or beans with rice or potatoes – lowers the GL.

Why bother? Because everything you want – freedom from metabolic diseases in the future [QID NO=92 C=LowGL D=1], [QID NO=34 C=LowGL D=1], [QID NO=75 C=LowGL D=1] and energy comes from eating a low GL diet. With a more stable blood sugar you have more energy for longer, you feel fuller for longer, so have less hunger, and your brain works better – both sharper and more ‘intelligent’. When blood sugar levels dip too much it causes a release of adrenalin, and you go into a state of stress/anxiety and that high emotional state makes you less able to think
logically.

Eating low GL not only reduces your risk for dementia, but also diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer and hormonal problems such as polycystic ovaries in women, decreased sex drive and fertility.

The great news is that you don’t have to deprive yourself, however, there is a ‘transition period’ where your blood sugar re-stabilises and hence your desire for sweet foods decreases. That’s the three weeks to break a habit which is why this month’s changes, one step at a time, require discipline, but then quickly become your new habit. Your first new habit will be to have the right breakfast. That’s covered in your next email. For now, just note what’s the first thing your normally eat or drink.

Further info