News Release: Research Evidence Affirms that Good Nutrition Can Help Prevent and Control Type 2 Diabetes

Read the entire article, its too important to miss!

http://www.joslin.org/news/Research-affirms-good-nutrition-can-help-prevent-and-control-type2-diabetes.html

One major finding was that certain foods and dietary patterns can help prevent type 2 diabetes even without weight loss. “People who eat a Mediterranean diet, with foods such as olive oil, whole grains and leafy vegetables and fruits, have a lower risk of developing diabetes even when they don’t lose weight,” Dr. Hamdy says.

Foods such as oat cereal, yogurt and dairy products, green leafy vegetables, grapes, apples, blueberries and walnuts were associated with reduced diabetes risk. Drinking coffee and even decaffeinated coffee were also associated with lower type 2 diabetes risk.

Participants who followed a Mediterranean eating plan — without restricting calories — showed a greater improvement in glycemic control and insulin sensitivity than participants who ate other popular diets. In addition, overweight patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes who followed the Mediterranean diet had less need for antihyperglycemic medications compared with participants on a low-fat diet.

Overall, a variety of eating plans, including the Mediterranean, low-carbohydrate/low glycemic index and high-protein diets, improved glycemic control and cardiovascular disease risk factors in patients with diabetes compared with control diets. This offers patients a range of options for diabetes management.

Foods associated with a higher risk of diabetes include red and processed meat, sugar-sweetened beverages, alcohol in excess quantities and refined grains, such as white flour.

Low Carb Pie Crusts - Two to Choose From!

 

Low Carb Pie Crusts: 

Here's a couple you can choose from:

Healthy High Fiber Pie Crust

2 C. Fiber One cereal ground/crushed
3 T. melted butter
2 T. granular Splenda

Mix ingredients well, press into a lightly greased pie plate.

Bake 10 minutes @ 350 degrees F

Cool. Add filling of choice. I like to add a sugar free vanilla pudding filling with some fat free cream cheese stirred into it to make it taste like cheesecake. Then I top with strawberries if they are in season.


Almond Meal Pie Crust

This works best for a 9" pie pan. If you have an 8" one, the crust will be a little thicker, or you can cut back on the ingredients a bit. Very easy to make, tastes a lot like shortbread and its gluten free too!

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups almond meal or almond flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
Artificial sweetener equal to 3 tablespoons sugar

Preparation:
Heat oven to 350 F. Melt the butter (if the pie pan is microwave safe, melt the butter in it) and mix the ingredients up in the pan and pat into place with your fingertips.

Bake for about 10 minutes until the crust is beginning to brown. After 8 minutes, check every minute or so, because once it starts to brown it goes quickly.

Nutritional Information: The whole pie shell has 11 grams effective carbohydrate2 plus 17 grams fiber and 30 grams protein.

You can find lots of ideas for pie crusts and even recipes without crust, that are lower in carbs. Just Google it! 

Em's Diabetic Friendly Bran Muffins

Em's Diabetic Friendly Bran Muffins   Here's my recipe for Bran Muffins, for diabetics or those on a low carb diet.  These muffins are not as large as regular muffins, but this means that they also don't have as many carbs per muffin as regular muffins either!    1 1/3 cups prune juice 1 1/2 cups Fibre One cereal , OR unprocessed bran 2 cups Buttermilk OR 2 cups milk + 4 tsp white vinegar 1/2 cup Vegetable oil 2 whole eggs (or egg whites to make same quantity) 1 tsp Vanilla extract 1 Tbsp Ground cinnamon 2 cups Whole wheat flour 1 cup Oat Bran (the type you have to cook) 1/2 cup Splenda (granular Splenda for baking, no sugar added) 1 Tbsp Baking soda Optional flavours to add 2 Tbsp Unsweetened cocoa (substitute for 2 Tbsp of the flour) OR 1/2 tsp Powdered ginger 1/2 OR cup Unsweetened coconut flakes OR 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (must be thawed  first) To make the batter: Heat prune juice in microwave until hot but not boiling, in a large Pyrex measuring cup. Add bran and let sit 10 minutes. Stir in buttermilk or milk with vinegar, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract. In separate large bowl stir together cinnamon, flours, oat bran, sugar, Splenda, and baking soda. Mix together gently and pour into greased silicone muffin pans suitable for your microwave. To use: Medium muffins: Spray microwavable silicone muffin pan with Pam, and measure 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin cup. Microwave on high for 3 to 5 minutes or until done. Each muffin will have approximately 15 EEC (carbs minus fibre) or less. Let cool for a few minutes before removing from pan. For mini-muffin pan: measure 1/8th cup of batter into mini-muffin cups, and cook on high for 3 to 4 minutes. Each mini-muffin will have about 8 carbs each, (EEC – carbs minus the fibre). You can freeze after cooled, in  a ziplock bag. Just thaw in the microwave when you want a treat. Or you can bake in a regular oven, set at 375 F for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on how hot your oven is. Spray the muffin pan first with a non-stick spray such as Pam and fill each muffin cup about 2/3's full. Enjoy!

Low Carb Chocolate Almond Torte

Low Carb Chocolate Almond Torte

 (Also known as Chocolate Cake!)

This is a yummy treat for diabetics, or anyone on a low carb diet. I adapted this recipe from one I found on the web years ago. Sorry, I don’t recall where. Its not only rich and delicious, its also gluten free!

You can make this in just one bowl if you prefer, or even your food processor.I like to use two bowls, one for wet and one for dry ingredients. Either way, it doesn’t take long to mix and it tastes great. It has a slightly different texture from cake mixes and scratch cakes, but is still delish!

This torte (cake), is made from almond meal, which can be bought at health food stores and sometimes can be found in the bulk food section of your grocery store. If you can’t find ground almonds, you can use ground pecans. I store my almond meal in my freezer to keep it fresh. Since my diagnosis of diabetes, this is my favourite birthday cake.

DRY INGREDIENTS:

2 cups ground almonds or pecans
1/3 cup cocoa 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 cup granular Splenda for baking 

WET INGREDIENTS:

4 eggs 
1/2 cup (I stick) butter, melted 
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1/2 cup water

PREPARATION:

Heat oven to 350 F. Spray an 8 or 9 inch round cake pan or spring-form pan with PAM. If you don’t have Pam, use margarine or butter to grease the pan well.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, using with a spoon.

Mix all the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, and mix until well-blended.

Pour mixture into greased pan and bake. The exact time will vary with the size of your pan, and the material (metal, pyrex, etc). Start checking at about 25 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cut when cool.

If desired, serve with home-made whipped cream sweetened with Splenda.

NOTE: I like to use a Pyrex cake pan that has a snap on plastic lid, so I can leave it in the pan and just cut and serve as needed. It’s a bit crumblier than regular cake, so serving it in the baking dish is easier than trying to turn it out onto a plate to serve. Do not store it in a metal cake pan, they can go rusty.   Once its baked and cooled, cover and keep it in the fridge. It freezes well, as long as you wrap it well to prevent drying out.   If you plan to freeze it, cut into serving size pieces and freeze 2 per package so you can thaw out only what you need.   The following is only an approximation - nutritional Information: Serves 8, each piece has approximately 2 grams of NET (effective)  carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 6 grams of protein, 334 calories.


Low Carb Chocolate Icing

Mix one tub of Philly 95% fat free cream cheese, with 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder and 3 to 4 packets regular Splenda (to taste). Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and stir in well

This spreads better when at room temperature, but it must be kept cold after spreading. You can soften it slighlty in the microwave on the lowest setting, till it becomes more spreadable.

This icing must be kept refrigerated, so once you have iced your cake, cover and put in fridge right away. This is great on the low carb Chocolate Torte. Spread it thin, its rich tasting. If you need to make it go further you can mix in a couple of tablespoons of soft margarine, which also makes it easier to spread.  If you don’t care about the fat content, you can use regular Philly cream cheese, instead of the low fat version.

Please remember to store the torte, (especially the iced version),  in your fridge, so it won’t go bad. Cream cheese must be kept cold, and almond meal tortes do not stay fresh as long as flour based cakes because of all the eggs, and the nuts. This is not a flour based cake, so keep it cold!

I like to freeze about half of the torte (cake) it for another occasion. This torte is low carb, but still pretty rich, so I don't eat too much of it at one time. Its also a bit pricey to make, but well worth it and you can make it last quite a while if you freeze most of it and just thaw out a piece or two for a special treat now and then.

 Enjoy!

Why Do I Have To Watch My Carb Intake?

Carbs! They’re our primary source of energy from food. We need carbs, but when you have diabetes, your body can have difficulty dealing with them, causing a rise in blood glucose  that can lead to complications and organ damage, or even unconsciousness and death. 

Some diabetics can control their blood glucose by reducing carb intake and getting more exericse, or with oral medications. Others may need insulin. There are various types of diabetes, and you'll need to follow your doctor's advise on how to keep your blood glucose levels within healthy limits. 

Type 1 diabetics and Insulin Dependent Type 2 diabetics must take insulin to stay alive. Type 2's in the early stages may be able to manage with diet and exercise alone, but later in life progress to oral medications and finally, insulin. Type 2 is a progressive disease.

Other types include gestational diabetes, brittle diabetes, LADA, and MODY.


So which carbs should we eat?  

Carbs or carbohydrates, are either simple carbs like sugar, honey, white flour, white rice, etc. or complex carbs like whole grains, starchy fibrous veggies, etc.  
 

I'd recommend that you stick with the complex, high fibre whole foods type of carbs as much as you can and limit your intake of sugars and starches.

Processed foods such as cookies, donuts, cake, pie, candy and other treats are very bad choices as they contain a lot of sugar, white flour, and fat, and contain may contain no vitamins, minerals or fiber. They consist mainly of simple sugars that make your blood glucose go sky high fairly quickly and provide little if any actual nutritional benefit. There are healthier alternatives you will discover along the way.

When you choose a meal or snack ingredient, stick with healthy whole foods, as much as possible. In other words, eat for health, not for convenience. Avoid fried foods, processed foods, frozen convenience meals, sugar, salt, and most white foods, including most baked goods.

Processed foods provide  “empty calories”. They don’t have vitamin, minerals or even fiber in them. All they do is make your blood glucose high, and contribute to weight gain and disease. Most will also contain unhealthy levels of sodium (salt) and will raise your blood pressure, which is a dangerous condition, especially when combined with diabetes.

You should also cut back on fruit until things are under control. Fruit is high in fast carbs (simple sugars, which are the ones you want to avoid). You can eat some fruit when your diabetes has stabilized, but you’ll find that fruit will not stick with you as long, and you’ll tend to get hungrier faster when eating simple sugars like those found in fruits.

When things are under better control you can start to add in fruits that are high in fibre and lower in carbs and therefore better choices from this food group. These include: FRESH berries such as strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, also watermelon, fresh pineapple, pears, and apples. The fiber in them will slow down absorption of the carbs a little bit, so you won’t get hungry so fast.  They are rich in nutrients.

Also look for high fiber veggies, and whole grains. If you eat potatoes limit the amount and avoid fried potatoes except for an occasional treat once or twice a year. Eat potatoes with the skins on for more fiber and a sensation of filling full longer.  There are some vegges which are low in carbs and high in nutrition: broccoli, greens, green beans, yellow wax beans, mushrooms, the list goes on.

Eat limited amounts of grains, as they are starches.  When you do choose grains, go for whole grains, not refined grains. Avoid white pasta, white bread, white rice, etc.

For treats, you can find recipes for low carb treats online. Just Google "low carb recipes".

I've learned to make cakes and muffins from almond flour, coconut flour, flaxmeal, and other high fibre/low carb ingredients. It takes time to get used to them and learn to bake with them, but its worth it for guilt free, healthy eating. I don't eat them very often, but at least when I do, I can stick with my carb count for the meal and eat in a healthy manner. I'm sure you'll find some new and healthier favourites when you have been doing this for a while.

I'd recommend the South Beach Diet Cookbook as a starting point for finding low carb recipes. There are several different version, all with different themes. You can probably borrow a copy from your local library. I haven't had to buy one, as I found all the recipes I needed online and then adapted them to suit my needs.

For example, my chocolate birthday cake is made from almond flour, and is very low in carbs, but still very rich tasting. Its a real treat!

And here's a couple of links on carb counting to get you started: 

http://www.diabetesnet.com/food-diabetes/carb-counting/how-count-carbohydrates

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarb101/a/carbintro.htm



I hope this information is helpful. Please always follow your doctors advice first, and take it slowly. 

YMMV
(Your Mileage May Vary)

I wish you success!

  The above information is my opinion, and should not be taken as medical advice. It is for entertainment purposes only. Always follow the advice of your doctor and medical team.