Reversing Type 2 Diabetes
Diabetes affects a growing number of people around the world, and a lot of it has to do with poor lifestyle and even poorer food choices.
When you eat excess calories and fat, your body responds by creating an undesirable rise in blood glucose. If blood glucose isn’t kept in check, it can lead to serious problems, such as a dangerously high blood glucose level (hyperglycaemia) and chronic complications, such as nerve, kidney and heart damage, not to mention Type 2 Diabetes.
So before we investigate the reversal of type 2 diabetes, what is it?
The insulin hormone is produced by your pancreas. When your blood sugar (glucose) levels rise, the pancreas releases insulin. This causes sugar to move from your blood to your cells, where it can be used as an energy source. As glucose levels in your blood go back down, your pancreas stops releasing insulin.
When average blood sugar rises to harmful levels (usually described as 6.5% or 48mmol/moll HbA1c, a measure of long-term blood sugar control), people are diagnosed with diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes impacts how you metabolise sugar. Either your pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin or your body has become resistant to its effects. This causes glucose to build up in the blood. This is called hyperglycemia.
Whilst it is imperative to improve your diet and improve exercise, medication is often prescribed to help prevent the ailments associated with diabetes. These include heart disease and damage, vision problems, ulcers, weight gain and or loss.
And now for some good news!
In recent years, doctors have noticed that a vast majority of their obese patients who manage to lose excessive of weight, have blood sugar levels that drop back to normal, and stay that way without diabetes medicines. This has fuelled interest in “reversing” diabetes through major weight loss.
Professor Roy Taylor at Newcastle University, UK has spent almost four decades studying the condition, his findings show that excess calories lead to excess fat in the liver. As a result, the liver responds poorly to insulin and produces too much glucose. Excess fat in the liver is passed on to the pancreas, causing the insulin-producing cells to fail. Losing less than 1 gram of fat from the pancreas through diet can re-start the normal production of insulin, reversing Type 2 diabetes. This reversal of diabetes remains possible for at least 10 years after the onset of the condition.
It is important to know that this ONLY applies only to type 2 diabetes. It is not an option for people with type 1 diabetes, which is an auto-immune disease
Enjoy a treat with NZFOS+ ingredients:
COFFEE AND RASPBERRY TIRAMISU
10ml instant coffee
250ml hot water
60ml brandy
125g finger biscuits
100g no-fat cream cheese
150g ricotta cheese
80ml NZFOS+ Yacon Concentrate
350g fresh raspberries
Method:
- Line the base and sides of a 24cm spring form tin with paper. Combine the coffee and water in a small bowl and stir until dissolved, add the liqueur.
- Cut the biscuits to fit your mould, dip them into the coffee mixture and cover the base of the mould with half the biscuits. For the filling, blend the cream cheese and ricotta together and process with 40ml NZFOS+. Stir the remaining NZFOS+ into the raspberries.
- Spoon on half of the cheese mixture onto the boudoir biscuits, cover with half the cheese mixture and half the raspberries. Cover the raspberries with the remaining half of the biscuits which have been soaked in the coffee and brandy mixture followed by the remaining half of the cheese mixture.
- This recipe can keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. To serve : un mould the torte and cover the top with the remaining raspberries. Sprinkle on extra sweetener if necessary.
Here are some healthy, blood-sugar stabilising meal ideas:
TIP: Use NZFOS+ to replace all sugar and sweetener
TIP: the healthiest carbohydrates are fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (beans, peas and lentils) and low-fat dairy products.
* For breakfast have a whole-wheat pancake or waffle, a piece of fruit or bowl of chopped mixed fruit and a cup of low-fat milk.
* Make Asian-style eggs by adding hard-boiled organic eggs to cooked brown rice. Add a few drops of olive oil and raisins or currants and lightly sautéed chopped apple.
* Spread reduced-fat cream cheese onto tortillas. Top with thinly sliced vegetables, roll up and refrigerate. Cut into pieces and secure with toothpicks. A plate of red beans and sticky paw paw.
* Make a pasta prepared with broccoli, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash and Parmesan cheese, mixed in with 1 cup of low-fat cottage cheese.
* Snacks. Dip crispy corn tortilla chips and assorted, chopped fresh vegetables into low-fat cottage cheese flavoured with chilli, coriander or chives.
* Nuts, especially unsalted cashews and almonds, are a great diabetic snack. Also go for low-GI popcorn, but not with too much salt or butter.
TIP: Alcohol lowers blood sugar levels, and diabetics must take this into account and eat plenty of food, preferably carbohydrates, to make sure their blood sugar levels stay steady.
If you do choose to drink alcohol, daily intake should be limited to one drink for adult women and two drinks for adult men; to reduce risk of hypoglycaemia.
* Meat doesn’t influence blood sugar levels, but limit it as especially non free-range meat can be high in fat and the added growth hormones the animals are fed is stored there. Rather go for free-range beef, lamb, chicken and pork as this meat is healthier, tastier and has a more favourable fatty acid profile.
Try chicken kebab, 1/2 cup steamed green veg, 1/2 cup cooked brown rice and 1/2 cup of fresh fruit juice.
* Sprinkle flour tortillas with herbs, bake until crisp at 200 degrees C. Spread with low-fat cottage cheese and sprinkle with chopped veg and/or beans or grilled chicken strips.
* Puree some butter beans with a can of artichokes, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. Serve with wholegrain toast.
* Mix together whole, drained, tinned chickpeas with crushed garlic, grated ginger, chopped chilli, lime juice and soy sauce and serve over mixed greens.
* Soak couscous in hot apple juice instead of water and use in salads.
* Toss lentils in low-fat cream cheese, creamed horseradish and chopped chives. Add some feta and olives and whatever veggies you have at hand.
* Toss roasted peppers with wholewheat pasta, olive oil and rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes.
