Drugless Ways In Controlling Diabetes
By Sharon A Bell
The treatment of diabetes depends on three things: diet, exercise, and medication. To prevent fluctuations in blood sugar levels, the diabetic patient must know how to balance these three in order to live a normal life and reduce the risk of complications.
What should a diabetic eat? Young diabetics requiring insulin shots should consume as much calories as possible to gain weight. Regular eating patterns are essential for the lean patient for normal growth and development.
On the other hand, overweight individuals suffering from adult-onset diabetes who don't need insulin should restrict their calories to lose weight. Obesity increases the body's resistance to insulin, making it difficult to control blood glucose levels.
Alcoholic beverages can also make things worse for the diabetic and ruin his weight control program. To avoid this, limit your alcohol intake or better still, stay away from alcohol completely. If you smoke, kick the habit since this adds to the risk of heart disease and other problems.
In The Best Treatment, Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld of the New York Hospital - Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center advises the following:
The diabetic diet should be free of all simple sugars like sucrose. That means no candies, cakes, frostings, and other delicious foods. But, complex sugars of which there are many - pastas, fruits, beans, and nuts - formerly forbidden, are now considered permissible. In fact, such carbohydrates should make up 50 to 60 percent of your total calories.
Any soluble fiber like oat bran is good too because it lowers both your sugar and your cholesterol. If you miss the sweet taste in your diet, you can add one of the artificial products like aspartame (which the Food and Drug Administration has certified as 'safe'). But remember that like any other chemical, sweeteners can cause side effects especially when used in large amounts.
Your fat intake should be less than 30 percent of the total calories. There are three kinds of fat - saturated fats (found in animal foods), polyunsaturated fats (present in most vegetable oils), and monosaturated (such as olive oil).
Saturated fats should constitute less than 10 percent of your total fat intake. Since diabetics are more vulnerable to arteriosclerosis, limit cholesterol consumption to no more than 300 milligrams a day.
Having assigned approximately 50 percent of the caloric intake to carbohydrates and no more than 30 percent to fat, you have approximately 20 percent left for protein - basically meat, poultry and fish.
Go heavy on the fish and poultry, and light on the red meat. You're also better off not drinking, but if you find that easier said than done, limit your alcohol to two glasses of wine a day (or a bottle of beer, or one cocktail). (Next: Exercise and diabetes.)
Since obesity can worsen diabetes, keep your weight down to a healthy level. You can do this with the help of Zyroxin, a safe and natural supplement that will maximize your weight loss through its unique fat-burning ingredients. For details, visit http://www.zyroxin.com.
Sharon Bell is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and published author. Many of her insightful articles can be found at the premier online news magazine http://www.HealthLinesNews.com
