Eat Quality Fiber and Protein
Do you know that both fiber and protein can work to lower your post-meal blood sugar levels?
They can also aid long-term fasting glucose levels!
FIBER - It's actually a type of carbohydrate which your body can't digest. Instead, it's passed through your body. But it can do you a whole lot of good in the process.
Fiber comes in two different forms.
Soluble fiber dissolves in water. This form of fiber moves through your digestive system, it attaches to cholesterol particles. So when soluble fiber exists in your body, it lowers both total cholesterol and harmful LDL cholesterol levels while reducing your risk for heart disease. Consuming soluble fiber can help you feel fuller, quicker, which can aid weight loss, and it also works to lower glucose levels!
Soluble fiber-rich foods include oats, beans, apples, citrus fruits, carrots, and barley. Insoluble fiber cannot dissolve in water. Instead, it aids your digestive system by adding bulk to your stool, and it helps you avoid constipation, hemorrhoids, and incontinence.
just like soluble fiber, insoluble fiber can quickly fill you up, which will help you avoid overeating, and can thus contribute to weight loss and consuming insoluble fiber can work to lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Insoluble fiber-rich foods include. Nuts, cauliflower, wheat bran, potatoes, whole wheat flour, and green beans. In general, a huge benefit of fiber comes from its ability to slow your digestion.
That means it will help your body moderate the release of glucose into your bloodstream, which will help you avoid a blood sugar spike. So both soluble and insoluble fiber can be incredibly valuable for health, especially if you are currently managing diabetes.
WHAT ABOUTPROTEIN?
Is the basic building block of life is essential diet but if you are vegetarian. Protein is not just found within meat, but also in certain plant-based foods.
Protein-rich foods include. Meats, beans, tofu, nuts, seeds, eggs, cheese, and even milk. Consuming a high-protein diet, even for just 5 weeks, can significantly lower blood sugar levels.
How does protein provide anti-diabetes benefits?
Much like fiber, consuming protein can slow the digestive process, thus helping you reduce the risk of a post-meal glucose spike. Consuming a protein-rich food directly before eating a carbohydrate-rich food can result in lower post-meal blood sugar levels than by eating the carb-heavy food alone. Protein also has the effect of making you feel fuller, quicker, just like fiber! That means it can also be a perfect tool for quick satiety, and it can help you avoid over-eating other less-healthy foods.
Meanwhile, multiple studies have found that increased protein intake can stimulate insulin secretion, which also helps to better control post-meal glucose levels.
what can you do AWAY from the kitchen to help you beat diabetes?
Take Post-Meal Walks
Did you know that going for a 20 to 30 minute walk after eating can help lower blood sugar?
Physical activity is one of the quickest ways to bring down glucose levels, especially if you get active within 3 hours after eating. Even simple, moderate walking will make your heart beat faster, and it will make you breathe harder.
This has the effect of making your muscles contract, and moving your muscles forces your body to utilize insulin. As your muscle cells require glucose as their main form of energy, your pancreas will release insulin, which will attach to glucose molecules. Then, insulin delivers that glucose to your muscle cells, instead of it becoming stored as fat
INTROMYOCELLULAR FAT, and it can make your muscle cells more receptive to insulin. In other words, exercise, especially directly after eating, helps to increase insulin sensitivity.
This means that subscribing to a daily post-meal walking regime can work to reduce long-term fasting glucose levels, while also helping you manage your immediate post-meal blood sugar. But, beware - more rigorous, anaerobicmovements, like weight lifting or sprinting, can actually cause your body to produce more stress hormones. This may then lead to increased glucose levels.
However, keeping it leisurely, with a short, pleasant walk, can achieve the goal of avoiding a post-meal blood sugar spike. It can also help to improve heart health, lower LDL cholesterol, aid with weight loss, and it has even been shown to decrease stress and improve your mood.
Now let's look at another powerful diabetes-lighting step you can take by staying away from your kitchen!
Utilize Intermittent Fasting
Lots of different diets focus on what you eat But intermittent fasting is an eating method which focuses on WHEN you eat or rather, when you do NOT eat.
There are many styles of Intermittent Fasting, or I.F, but there are 3 specific methods which have gained notoriety of late.
The EAT-STOP-EAT I.F.
Method involves fasting for 24 hours, once or twice a week. The 5:2 I.F. diet is all about limiting yourself to 500 to 600 calories for two days per week. But the most popular I.F. method, and the style most commonly associated with diabetes-fighting benefits, is the 16:8 I.F.
Method.
This lifestyle change does not actually require you to burden yourself with seemingly difficult fasting windows. It simply means that you avoid eating for 16 hours of the day,
While if you limit yourself to an 8 hour eating window.
Therefore, many have found lasting success simply by skipping breakfast and eating dinner about 3 to 4 hours before bedtime. When you eat, and in fact, even before you take your first bite, your body readies itself to process the incoming food by releasing insulin into your bloodstream.
Chronically high levels of insulin can result in ever-increasing insulin resistance. But, when you fast, your body won't have glucose to process, which, in turn, will result in less insulin floating through your blood stream. Over time, this can help your muscle cells become more sensitive to insulin. But studies show that even short-term fasting can help type 2 diabetics better manage their glucose levels.
Medicine revealed that a significant percentage of type 2 diabetic participants who utilized,
Short-term I.F. routines lost weight while reducing their insulin resistance. Those who did not lose weight still had notable improvements in their glucose control. And recent laboratory tests showed that diabetic mice who were put on fasting regimes had improved beta cell function and had overall healthier gut microbiota, both of which can work to improve blood sugar balance. Plus,
According to the.
National Center for Biotechnology Information,
Intermittent fasting may allow some type 2 diabetics to lessen or even completely discontinue their prescription insulin use. Meanwhile, research has shown that I.F. protocols can lead to other health benefits, including lower blood pressure, reduced appetite, and decreased oxidative stress. However, in the grand scheme of things, the various methods of intermittent fasting are all still generally new and not fully vetted.
Therefore, it's best to discuss the pros and cons of I.F. with your doctor before you give it a go. Well, now that we've shown you some important steps you can take away from your pantry, we are going back to the kitchen.
The Final Step!
Consuming simple-carb foods will force your body to release excessive quantities of insulin in short periods of time to deal with the large glucose load. So it's no wonder why eating bad carbs can lead to weight gain, increased insulin resistance, heart disease, and, of course, they are a main driver of the modern diabetes epidemic.
We need carbohydrate diet but we can transfer from carb to fats use a energy source.
But they are the predominant source of energy for your muscle cells and your brain! It is time for you to switch from your typically tasty but empty-calorie, simple-carb goodies to nutrient-rich, blood sugar balancing complex carbohydrate natural foods.
For example, while there are 52 grams of carbohydrates in one cup of cooked brown rice, higher-starch white rice still only contains 53 grams of carbs. But brown rice is higher in fiber, magnesium, and other beneficial ant diabetes, pro-heart health nutrients.
That's why eating white rice can lead to a significantly higher and faster blood sugar spike then you'd get by eating that same amount of brown rice. So Instead of your usual white bread sandwich, why not utilize 100% whole wheat slices? Swap out your normal starchy white flour spaghetti for bean-based organic pasta.
Ditch the chips and try seaweed sheets, kale chips, or simply snack on a few baby carrots. While some of these foods may not be much lower in the overall carb amounts, they will contain more beneficial nutrients and higher levels of fiber, which will aid you in weight loss, improved heart-health, and they will help you to better manage your blood sugar.
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