Becoming physically active and choosing wholesome foods such as lean meat and fish, lots of nonstarchy vegetables, and whole grains is essential A healthful lifestyle can prevent 87 percent of type 2 diabetes. That sweeping statement, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, is based on decades of scientific investigation. Nevertheless, for many people, the changes required to prevent or even reverse the disease fall in the category of “easier said than done,” but that doesn’t mean the task is impossible. Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, is a case in point. In 2003, at the age of 47, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and given 10 years to live. During the next year, by making dramatic changes to his diet and adopting daily exercise, he shed more than 100 pounds, controlled his diabetes, and transformed his lifestyle into an exceptionally healthful one. Given that he was raised on traditional Southern food and has always had an extremely hectic work schedule, the challenges were considerable. But then again, his life was at stake.”If you really are serious about it, you’ll be able to find healthy foods,” says Huckabee. On the exercise front, he emphasizes the need to make, rather than find time. “I realized that if my still being alive a year from now was at least as important as cutting a ribbon at some industrial site, then I’d make time for that.”

lifestyle basics

The same study that concluded most type 2 diabetes could be prevented also identified key lifestyle factors that prevent the disease: for overweight people, losing as little as 5 percent of total body weight and becoming physically active (regardless of weight), eliminating trans fats and excessive alcohol, and eating more fiber and healthful fats. Choosing wholesome foods such as lean meat and fish, lots of nonstarchy vegetables, and whole (rather than refined) grains is also essential.

Stopping the Diabetic Cycle

Before type 2 diabetes develops, there’s a prediabetic stage of insulin resistance, usually triggered by years of eating starchy and sugary foods. Insulin is a hormone that transports blood glucose to cells to be used as fuel, but in the prediabetic phase, cells become resistant to the insulin, refusing to accept glucose. The condition is most likely to occur in overweight people.

Cathleen London, MD, in private practice in Brookline, Mass., recommends that overweight individuals get tested for levels of fasting insulin and blood glucose to detect if prediabetes exists. She recommends the same tests for women with irregular periods, as this may be a sign of PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), which can cause insulin resistance regardless of weight.

London recommends these basic steps to control or avoid diabetes:

* Make simple changes rather than trying to drastically change everything at once.

* Start by getting more exercise daily. Exercise will improve your cells’ response to insulin and make you crave healthful foods. To lose weight, build up to an hour a day. Do three days of resistance training per week, and cardiovascular exercise on the other days, varying the pace with fast and slow intervals for optimum results.

* Stay away from junk food, soda, and anything with sugar or white flour. These have no purpose in your body. As a guide, the South Beach Diet is a sensible way of eating.

* Take basic supplements to make sure you’re getting adequate nutrients.

The Basic Supplement Program

These are the basics London recommends:

Multivitamin/mineral: Take a quality supplement that includes at least 50 mg of the main B vitamins, 1,000 IU of vitamin D, and at least 10-15 mgof alpha-lipoic acid, chromium, and trace elements such as zinc, selenium, and boron, which tend to be deficient in nutrient-poor diets.

Chromium picolinate: This form of chromium has been studied the most for improving insulin function, is easily absorbed, and may reduce cravings. For overall health, take 200 mcg daily, an amount that is found in some multis. For prediabetes, take 200-500 mcg with each meal.

Vitamin D: The vitamin prevents development and progression of diabetes. Take at least 1,000 IU daily Up to 10,000 IU daily is safe.

Fish oil and CoQ10: Both of these protect the heart, which is at risk when prediabetes or diabetes exist. Take 1-3 g of fish oil daily, or if you’re vegan, get 1 g daily of omega-3 from algae. Take at least 30 mg of CoQ10 daily.

Magnesium: Most diabetics are deficient in magnesium. Take half as much as your daily calcium dosage, in divided doses for better absorption. Up to age 50, take 500 mg magnesium with 1,000 mg calcium. After age 50, take 600 mg magnesium with 1,200 mg calcium.

Special formulas: Look for combinations of ingredients that are designed to improve insulin sensitivity and/or enhance cells’ ability to convert glucose in the blood into energy. These may be added to multivitamin/mineral products or sold in separate combination formulas. “Glucose” in the product name or description usually identifies these specialty formulas, which may include biotin, vanadium, and Gymnema sylvestre, in addition to chromium and alpha-lipoic acid.

Starch blockers: Using a starch blocker such as Phase 2 (see sidebar) can be helpful as long as it is used in addition to, rather than in place of a I healthful diet. Studies have shown that 1 g of Phase 2, usually taken as two 500 mg capsules with a meal, or as powder mixed with or sprinkled on food, blocks approximately 75 percent of starch calories. For anyone taking diabetes medication or insulin shots, starch blockers should be used under the supervision of a health care professional, as medication or insulin dosages may need to be reduced to avoid lowering blood sugar levels too much.

If an improved lifestyle and basic supplements don’t keep you healthy, see a health professional who is well versed in nutritional healing to resolve your individual situation.

AN UP-TO-DATE LOOK AT HOW TO PREVENT AND ADDRESS TYPE 2 DIABETES BY FOLLOWING A BLOOD SUGAR-BALANCING DIET AND USING INNOVATIVE NATURAL PRODUCTS

Diabetes Facts

Diabetes makes heart disease at least twice as likely and shortens life expectancy by approximately eight years, according to a study of more than 5,000 people published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And because it damages the nervous system, the disease leads to numbness of extremities, increases risk for infection, and is the leading cause of lower limb amputation.

Chef Gerard Viverito recommends adding Phase 2 powder to virtually any recipe or seasoning mix.

BLOCKING STARCH

“We all want to eat approximately the same amounts and types of foods that our ancestors ate, even though we’re not as active,” says Steven Rosenblatt, MD, PhD, coauthor of The Starch Biocker Diet. “We’re programmed for potatoes.” The net result is that we eat too much starch, a key contributor to diabetes, and cutting back is very difficult for most people. To make the process easier, Rosenblatt recommends Phase 2, a proprietary extract of white beans, which blocks absorption of approximately 75 percent of the starch we eat.

In the case of Charles Galletta, a Chicago-based Italian chef and restaurateur, bread and pasta were difficult habits to break after he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Mixing Phase 2 powder into homemade pasta helped him lose more than 20 pounds and embark on a more healthful path. Recently, Galletta developed his recipe into a commercial product, Carbolina, available in Chicago-area stores.

New York-based chef Gerard Viverito has used the starch blocker in many recipes and recommends adding Phase 2 powder to virtually any recipe or seasoning mix. “It has no texture, aroma, or taste,” he says, However, it slightly enhances flavor and can be used in “place of a pinch of salt in a piecrust or similar type of recipe (although Phase 2 doesn’t contain salt). Pizzas, cakes, muffins, and breads made with Phase 2 have received top marks in consumer taste tests.

Copyright Active Interest Media Nov 2007

(c) 2007 Better Nutrition. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Not so long ago, carbohydrates were commonly referred to as “simple” or “complex.” Protein built strong muscles, and fat was, well, fat. Lately, the makeup of nearly every food has been dubbed “good” or “bad.” We’ve been told a low fat and high carbohydrate diet was best. Then we were told to eat a high protein and low carbohydrate diet. Some people advocate a very low calorie diet. Others subscribe to a plan in which food is never cooked.It’s no wonder people are confused about what to eat.

The truth, according to nutritionists, is that while nutrition is a complex topic, eating well doesn’t have to be complicated.

“For years, people have survived and thrived on real food,” says Nancy Clark, author of “Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook” and a registered dietitian and nutrition counselor.

One of the advantages of today’s world, she says, is that it is easier to get a wide variety of real food at all times of the year, which should make eating well easier, not harder.

In her book, Clark espouses three keys to healthful eating: variety, wholesomeness and moderation.

“Unfortunately for their health, many of my clients eat a flat diet that contains very little variety: pasta, pasta, pasta, apples, apples, energy bars, energy bars, pasta, pasta and pasta,” she says. “And while this keeps life simple, it can result in an inadequate diet and chronic fatigue.”

Her definition of “wholesome” is whole or lightly processed foods, such as whole-wheat rather than white bread and apples rather than apple juice.

As for moderation: “Rather than give food a ‘bad’ label, think moderation. Even soda and chips (in moderation) can fit into a healthy diet,” she says.

Counting carbs

Phil Block, a health educator at Sandia National Laboratories and a Ph.D. candidate in exercise physiology at the University of New Mexico, says active people today — he defines active as those who get 40 to 60 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week — don’t get enough carbohydrates.

“Low carb diets, like Atkins, South Beach and others, really gave carbohydrates a bad name,” Block says.

“But really, carbs are fuel. And maintaining energy to be active can be really hard to do on limited carbs.”

And what about that glycemic index issue? The glycemic index is theoretically based on how 50 grams of carbohydrates in a food will affect blood sugar levels. For example, white bread is high on the glycemic index and causes a rapid spike in blood sugar, while beans are considered “low glycemic” and cause a more gradual increase in blood sugar levels.

The glycemic index was developed to help people with diabetes better regulate blood sugar.

According to Kathy Beals, associate professor of nutrition at the University of Utah, athletes can disregard the hype about the glycemic index and simply enjoy fruits, vegetables and whole grains without fretting about their glycemic index.

“Too many factors influence a food’s glycemic effect, including where the food was grown, the amount of food eaten, the way food is prepared and even whether it is eaten hot or cold,” she told a group attending the American Dietetic Association conference last year.

“To make the glycemic index even less meaningful, each of us has a differing glycemic response. Also keep in mind that well-trained muscles can readily take up carbohydrates from the blood stream. Hence, athletes have a lower blood glucose response to what would otherwise create a high blood glucose response in an unfit person.” That’s the reason exercise helps manage blood sugar and helps prevent Type 2 diabetes.

“All in all,” she concluded, “you, as an athlete, have little need to concern yourself with a food’s glycemic effect.”

Clark says a good diet should be about 60 percent carbs, with about half coming from whole grains.

Her simple guidelines are to eat one or two servings (a medium piece of fruit or one-half cup fruit or juice) with breakfast, a pile of different vegetables with lunch, and half of grains (bread, pasta and cereal) should be whole grains.

Block says another trend is to focus too much on proteins. The amount of protein needed in the diet is based on body weight: 0.8 gram for each kilogram of body weight for sedentary people and 1.2 to 1.8 grams per kilogram of body weight for active people, he says.

An adult male who should weigh about 154 pounds, or 70 kilograms, requires about 56 grams of protein daily while someone whose best weight is 110 pounds, or 50 kilograms, needs about 40 grams a day.

Too much protein can increase the risk for kidney disease.

As for fat, Block says there’s no research to support that eating less than 20 percent of your total calories from fat is beneficial; guidelines are generally from 20 percent to 30 percent with no more than 10 percent coming from saturated fat.

“Fat is necessary,” he says, “in providing vitamins A, D and K.”

When to eat

While the mainstream wisdom on fat, carbohydrates and protein has stayed consistent for many years, one area in which research is showing interesting findings has to do with “when” athletes consume those nutrients.

Dan Benardot, an associate professor in the Division of Nutrition, School of Health Professions, and an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health at Georgia State University, has done extensive research into “energy balance.”

“For years, energy balance has been assessed in multiples of 24 hours,” he says in an interview. “That is, if you take in more calories than you burn in a day, you will put on weight. Take in fewer calories than you burn and you will lose weight.”

What that approach fails to explain is why some people, who seem to have a perfect energy balance at the end of the day, have fluctuating amounts of body fat and lean muscle mass.

To illustrate what he calls “withinday energy balance,” Benardot uses a car metaphor:

“Say you’re taking your car, which has a 15-gallon fuel tank, on a trip which requires 45 gallons of fuel … trying to provide all 45 gallons at once would be impossible without increasing the car’s fuel storage capacity. (If it were a person, that would be enlarging the fat mass.)

“Now, imagine that you want to take the trip with only the existing gas in the tank, with the idea you’ll give the car all it needed for the trip at the end of the trip.”

The car will need to become far more efficient to do that by going slower or using only two cylinders rather than the eight it has. In human terms, that translates into losing muscle mass.

Compounding that, once you provide all the gas it needed after arriving, the car has more problems, like where to put all that gas and how to burn it (remember, it became more efficient and needed less fuel to travel those miles).

Frequent meals

The third strategy — and one people should consider, according to Benardot, is to give the engine the fuel it needs when it needs it. In human consumption words, that means eating smaller quantities more frequently.

A typical person who eats breakfast at 7 a.m. is ready for more food by 10 a.m.

“But many people mask that hunger with coffee or other nutritionally void items,” he says.

“By lunch, they really are in a deficit, the brain does not like the drop in blood sugar and starts taking energy from lean muscle mass.”

His best advice is “eat on a schedule. Plan out calorie and nutrient requirements and distribute them throughout the day.” Take note of when you’re most likely to use the calories and “fuel up the tank” before doing so. Therefore, if you work out at noon, eating a few more calories for breakfast and then eating a snack an hour or so before the workout would be good.

As for fueling energy needs before and during exercise, that could be another story.

Clark maintains it is important to look at when you last ate to help determine what you should eat before a workout.

For example, if you work out in the morning, it might have been 12 hours since your last meal, so fueling beforehand is critical. “The amount and kind of food tolerated varies from individual to individual, so experiment with things like fruit, yogurt and cereal to find what works for you.”

Athletes who exercise for more than an hour at a time will need to take in some calories and electrolytes during the activity, says Benardot.

“You need to prevent dehydration and prevent blood sugar from dropping,” he says.

Again, athletes vary on what they can tolerate, but consuming 100 to 250 calories per hour of exercise after the first hour is recommended.

Block recommends seeking professional advice to get started on an eating program that will adequately fuel activity and promote desirable body composition.

(c) 2007 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Source: Victoria Advocate, Victoria, Texas Publication date: 2007-10-21Halloween is about more than haunted houses and scary decorations. It’s also about miniature superheroes and princesses running around on a massive sugar high. Handing out candy to costumed little tykes each Halloween is a long-standing tradition that has changed little over many years. But one Victoria man is wondering why it hasn’t changed when the times have. With incidences of childhood obesity and diabetes rising each year, Don Smith wants to know why local stores don’t sell sugar-free Halloween candy.

“Why are people feeding kids huge amounts of sugar on Halloween? So many kids today are obese or have diabetes, and yet you can’t find sugarless candy at the stores,” said Smith, a diabetic himself. “And then we wonder why our kids are getting sick.” Calls to some of Victoria’s major stores revealed that of those that do carry sugar-free candy, often it is not in the same aisle as the Halloween candy aisle. There is also less variety of sugarless candy as opposed to regular candy.

Victoria’s Wal-Mart SuperCenter does not carry any sugar-free Halloween candy, candy department employee Shane Deaton said. Target does carry sugar-free candy, although not necessarily for Halloween, an employee said. Mainly they carry bagged sugar-free candies from Russell Stover. Managers at both H-E-B locations said they carry a variety of sugar-free candies. At the Rio Grande Street location, Jacob Lyra said the sugar-free candy is located in a small section of the regular candy aisle. They carry everything from sugar-free chocolates to sugar-free hard candies like LifeSavers.

Joe Farias, non-food leader at the Navarro Street H-E-B said they too carry sugar-free candies, but it’s not especially for Halloween.

Dick’s Crestwood Food Store carries small bags of sugar-free candy, although it is not on display with the rest of the Halloween candy, an employee said. Smith said he has had trouble finding sugar-free candy at local stores, but he refuses to buy the regular candy for trick-or-treaters.

“We keep giving kids sugar, sugar, sugar, but I’m not handing out sugar for Halloween. It’s killing our kids. Stores ought to throw all sugar candy in the garbage and only sell sugarless. It tastes the same, and store managers need to realize what all this sugar is doing to our kids,” he said.

Other tips for a healthy Halloween, according to a news release from Texas Children’s Hospital are to hand out packages of low-fat crackers with cheese or peanut butter filling, single-serve boxes of cereal, raisins and packets of microwave popcorn.

Candies with lower contents of fat and calories are Peppermint Patties, Junior Mints, 3 Musketeers and Raisinettes. Aprill Brandon is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6514 or abrandon@vicad.com.

—– To see more of Victoria Advocate, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, Victoria Advocate, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.