Is there such a thing as a special diet for diabetics?

It can be argued that there are really only TWO types of diets in this world: one that is health promoting and the other one that ultimately leads to disease.

So in that sense, there is really NO SPECIAL DIET or SPECIAL FOODS for diabetics. This is really what we all shoud be eating, if we want to enjoy good health and general well-being.

We need to accept the responsibility for our actions and realize that everything we put into our bodies contributes to our health or sickness.

With diabetes, adopting proper diet is the single most cruicial thing that you can do to control or even reverse this condition.

Our bodies are simply not designed to deal with all the processed foods, saturated fats, and chemically engineered substances that people have been eating for the past hundred years or so. When consuming unnatutral diet full of refined sugars, refined grains, saturated fats and processed meals, our bodies begin to break down.

Diabetes is just one – albeit very common – manifestations of this breakdown.

All diabetics must control their refined carbohydrate intake. Carbohydrates can come from a variety of souces including healthy fruits and vegetables; and not so healthy ones. It is advised diabetics avoid white bread, rice and pasta, along with any foods containing added sugars. The body will convert all types of refined carbohydrates into glucose. Eating extra servings of rice, pasta and bread will make blood sugar rise. Just because an item does not contain added sugar, does not guarantee it is a safe food.

Diabetics should eat carbohydrate-rich foods that are in their natural state. These items have higher nutrient density.

Many high-fat, low-carb diets, like Atkins and The Zone, tell us that carbohydrates are the root of all evil. In the view of their promoters, one needs to limit carbohydrate intake in order to limit insulin secretion. What they don’t tell us is that protein-rich and fat-rich foods may cause substantial insulin release as well.

For example, a quarter pound of beef raises insulin levels in diabetics as much as a quarter pound of a straight sugar.

This would mean that eating a high-fat diet contributes directly to all of the so-called blood sugar metabolic disorders.

The mechanism that causes blood sugar to rise out of control is simple. Let’s begin with an easy to understand explanation of how our bodies process sugar.

Our bodies use sugars as fuel for our cells. The sugars we eat travel a three-stage journey though our bodies:

1. When we consume our food, sugars start out in the digestive tract.

2. Sugars pass through the intestinal wall, into the bloodstream.

3. Then they move out of the bloodstream and into our cells. This occurs quickly, often in minutes.

When we eat a diet high in fats, the sugar gets trapped in stage 2, and the body works overtime, sometimes to the point of exhaustion and disease, to move the sugar out of the bloodstream. Meanwhile, the sugar backs up in the blood, creating elevated blood glucose levels that have devastating effect on the body in the form of diabetes, Candida, fatigue, etc.

What happens in the presence of fat that causes the sugar spike? It has to do with the insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas. One of the insulin’s functions is to attach itself to sugar molecules in the blood and then find an insulin receptor in the blood-vessel wall. The insulin can then take the sugar molecule and transport it through the blood-vessel membrane and the cell membrane into the cell itself.

Our bodies need fat for many insulating functions, including conserving body heat, protecting nerve fibers, and preventing too much water escaping through the skin.

However, when we eat too much fatty food, the excess dietary fat in our bloodstream IMPEDES the movement of sugar out of our blood. What happens is a thin coating of fat creates some negative insulating effects. It lines the blood-vessel walls, the sugar molecules, the cell’s insulin receptor sites, and the insulin itself. These fats stay in the bloodstream for many hours, inhibiting normal metabolic activity.

This results in an overall rise in blood glucose levels, as sugars continue to travel from the digestive tract (stage 1) into the bloodstream (stage 2), but they are trapped in the blood for too long waiting for fats to clear the way, before they can be delivered into the cell itself (stage 3).

Our bodies have been designed by nature to thrive on natural foods, mainly on fresh ripe fruits, vegetables, and young greens, with very limited consumption of animal foods or whole grains.

Fresh, raw vegetables. Eat a big raw salad once or twice every day. Throughout the day you can snack on vegetables any time you feel hungry. Greens such as lettuce (including iceberg lettuce), spinach, arugula, kale, collard greens, and other, make excellent basis for any salad. Add other vegetables: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, zucchini, radishes, carrots, beets, etc. You may add some fruits for variety: blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, pieces of oranges, apples, pears, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Avoid adding any fatty dressings to your salad – even the consumption so called “healthy fats” should be limited; no cheeses, fatty dressings, cold cuts, or croutons. For a simple fat-free dressing blend together some ingredients of your salad, for example try pepper with strawberry, strawberries with almonds, or pinapples with macadamia nuts, or other combinations, depending on your salads components.

Vegetable soup. Once or twice a week prepare a big pot of vegetable soup to be eaten throughout the week. Again the possibilities are endless. Find a basic recipe to start with, and use your creativity and whatever you have in your pantry and fridge to guide you.

Fresh, raw fruits. If you wish to have something sweet, have a piece of fruit. Fruits are some of the most wholesome and easily digestible foods available to humans. Even the American Diabetes Association says that there is "no reason to recommend that people with diabetes avoid naturally occurring fructorse in fruits, vegetables, and other foods."

You can read more about normal blood sugar levels and early symptoms diabetes on my blog. Also read my article explaining what are normal blood glucose levels.