“My blood sugar this morning is 120.” My younger brother Allen texted. Normal range is 80 – 120 mg/dL. 100-120 is pre-diabetic,and above 120 is a full-blown diabetic. 120 from 330 is an impressive turn-around from 6 weeks ago when Allen called, “My cataract surgery was cancelled because of my blood sugar. What should I do now?”
“What did your doctor tell you?” I asked.
“Not much. He said I need to control my blood sugar first with diet, exercise and medication before I can have my cataract out. I want to know what I can do to avoid relying on drugs. So what can you tell me?”
“I am not a medical doctor, but I do know diabetes must be taken seriously — like your life depends on controlling it. You either change your lifelong eating pattern, or die a nasty premature death.”
“So what should I do?” Allen works at a hospital, and he knows diabetic complications all too well: blindness, infections, heart disease, kidney failures, ulcers that do not heal, leg amputations, and more.
“Your diabetes comes from eating too much for too long.” I said. “Don’t eat till your full, but just to soothe your hunger. It means you need to tune in during meals to that subtle message of ENOUGH. I will e-mail you a quote on Enough later.” Please click here for the letter.
“Like the Chinese saying ‘Eat to 70% full’, right? What else?”
“Sugar, refined carbs, and fruits are converted quickly into sugar in blood, and Insulin is a hormone for moving sugar into cells. Picture each cell as a house, blood sugar as a car, and insulin as the garage door opener. Your ‘garage door’ is exhausted from eating too much for too long, and your blood sugar cannot get into your cells. High blood sugar is very inviting to infections and damaging to blood vessels.”
Below is a summary of what I told him:
- Cut out added sugar like they can kill you, and restrict carbs such as grains, rice, pasta, and fruits to condiment portions until you blood sugar is normal for 6 months
- Before you chew and swallow any food, look up its Glycemic Index, a measure of how much a food stimulates insulin spikes
- Diet and exercise are a sure-fire combination against diabetes. Always eat carbs with a little protein to reduce insulin spikes. There is no restriction on vegetables
- Chew slowly and thoroughly until each bite is pulpy and liquid like baby food. Studies show that eating fast results in high blood sugar from insulin resistance
- Start walking, and walk toward 10,000 steps a day and lift weights to burn more calories when you are not walking
- Take up Tai Chi or yoga. You can do these gentle exercises into your 80’s and 90‘s
- Meditate, pray, or chant. Stress aggravates diabetes. Studies show meditation heals.
I told Allen to keep a journal of his fasting blood sugar, and to send me his then mailed a couple of diabetic cookbooks to his home. Allen is lucky because his wife loves to cook, and she loves him. To their credit, Allen’s diabetes has come under control. Allen did it with 2 hours of exercise each day, and eating “by the books”.
Diabetes is a disease of “run-away mouth” and it is a fast rising epidemic in America. For more information, click on: http://easyhealthoptions.com/diabetes-and-metabolic/.
With conscious eating and support, diabetes can be reversed, as Allen is doing. Each meal is a healing opportunity to drive diabetes back toward normal. As a preventive measure, I began eating as if I had diabetes.
You too can reverse the effects of holiday eating or prevent diabetes by paying attention to what you eat, how you eat, and being conscious of ENOUGH — that happy place where two more bites become uncomfortable shortly, and years of dis-ease spell medical trouble.
This blog only reports what happens to Allen’s blood sugar as a result of changing his lifelong eating habits. Nothing in this blog should be construed as medical advice. Every person is different, and there is no substitute for your doctor’s diagnosis and advice. Always get medical advice from your doctor.