Diet Wallets

A diagnosis by your doctor of pre-diabetes or an existing diabetic condition conjures up a number of not too pleasant visions. Among the many are thoughts of having to give up many of your favorite foods. In fact this need not be so, you can find an assortment of diabetic recipes that you can wrap your taste buds around. You do not have to start eating special foods nor do you need to follow any complicated diet. For most people, eating at regular intervals and sticking to a varied diet in moderate quantities will go a long way towards avoiding many of the serious complications associated with diabetes. Eating approximately the same amount and at the same time each day is a major step towards keeping blood sugar levels stable.

Your first critical step towards formulating a diabetic diet plan must be with the assistance of a dietitian. The dietitian will consider your lifestyle, your medication, your weight and any other existing medical conditions in order to tailor a plan which is just right for you. It is not inconceivable that this plan could also include your favorite foods, thus you will still be able to derive pleasure from your meals. The focus of your plan will be on consuming foods which are high in nutrients, low in fat, and moderate in calories. There are numerous diabetes cookbooks available with nutritious yet tasty meals to assist you in this endeavor.

GETTING STARTED

Not always do we pay close attention to what we eat, our focus is more on pleasing our palate rather than nutrition. For the diabetic this will be a major but critical adjustment. Heres the ABC of making those adjustments as suggested by the American Dietetic Association:

(A) “Moderate sugar, fat and carbohydrates” Typically carbohydrates take from five minutes to three hours to be digested, fats can take eight or more hours as opposed to proteins which take three to six hours. Therefore the reason why foods high in fat (ice cream) raises blood sugar level more slowly than vegetables (carrots). It is recommended that fat intake should be less than 30% of your daily calories. Desserts and sweets do not have to be completely eliminated from your diet but can be eaten once or twice per week, in moderate amounts.

(B) “Eat five fruits and vegetables every day” Replace your sugar producing foods with fruits or vegetables, these are good sources of vitamins, minerals and fibers. Soluble fibers found mostly in fruits, vegetables and some seeds, trap carbohydrates and slow the absorption of glucose. Vegetables which are highly recommended are: cooked kidney beans (rated among the highest soluble fiber foods) and carrots which are also highly rated for having a positive effect on blood glucose levels.

(C) “Eat more starches” Starchy foods are an important part of a healthy meal plan. Whole grain breads, cereals, pasta, rice and starchy vegetables like peas, corn, potatoes and yams can be included in your meals. Your portion though must be moderate, 3 to 4 daily servings of carbohydrate-containing foods are considered adequate.

The Atkins diet is really called the Atkins nutritional approach. It’s a low-carb diet created by Robert Atkins. He had gained a lot of weight in medical school. A medical Journal had an article about a diet. He built on that diet and eventually made it popular.

Dr. Atkins had rather radical theories about the nature of weight gain as expressed in the Atkins diet. He held that saturated fats weren’t as bad as people claim. Carbohydrates, found in potatoes, and breads, were the real problem. In Atkins theory eating too little fat make things even worse. He pointed to all the low-fat foods that were high in carbohydrates. That meant people on a diet often ate foods that were worse than they normally ate.

The Atkins diet shifts the focus. He shifts dieters’ metabolism to burn body fats by cutting out carbohydrates from their diets. Lose the fat lose the weight. The goal wasn’t necessarily to take in fewer calories. The diet would work because it burned calories. The Atkins diet supposedly burned an extra 950 calories everyday. That sounded good but it wasn’t true.

The Atkins diet also could help people with type 2 diabetes.. As opposed to type 1 diabetes, type 2 is often closely associated with diet and people who weigh too much. So in general any diet that helps decrease weight will help address type 2 diabetes. But the Atkins diet is also low in carbohydrates, which must be avoided with type 2 diabetes regardless of caloric intake, so by means of this aspect of the diet Atkins claimed those who suffer type 2 diabetes would no longer need medication such as insulin. But that’s counter to the prevailing medical theories regarding type 2 diabetes which, although recommending that lowered intake of carbohydrates and weight loss help manage diabetes, ascribe no causal relationship between carbohydrates and type 2 diabetes.

What steps does one take to follow the Atkins diet? Induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance are the four necessary phases of the diet. Here are more details of Induction which is the most crucial of the phases.

As the first phase, Induction is the most crucial and most restrictive portion of the Atkins diet. It lasts for about two weeks. Carbohydrates are nearly removed entirely from the diet, only 15-20 grams can be consumed each day. The goal is to enter a fat burning metabolic phase called ketosis when the body, starved of glucose, will begin converting stored fat into fatty acids needed to power the body. Weight loss of 20 pounds over this period isn’t uncommon – that’s a staggering amount.

Learning the ideal carbohydrate levels for weight losing and for day to day intake after the weight loss ends are the purposes of the final three phases in the Atkins diet. Dr. Atkins himself died of complications of increased fat intake in his diet, which is something to keep in mind when choosing this diet.

People live extremely fast paced lives and have little or no time to take care of their health. However, nobody is safe from the poisonous fumes of car engines, cigarette smoke, greasy fast food and easy-to-make processed food that have become such an integral part of lives today.

Living in this world, it is your job to make sure you keep your body free from the toxins present in the air around you and the food you eat. Once you know of the benefits of keeping your body clean, it is very easy to drift from a damaging, dangerous lifestyle into a healthy, long-lived one. People die from obesity, heart attacks, food poisoning, and other illnesses day after day and it is not very easy to imagine that you can be one of them. Try making a change today so that you do not regret your tomorrow.

The initial and most important step towards a lifestyle suited for a longer life expectancy and long term fitness is planning a healthy diet menu for yourself. This does not only mean that you intake good nourishing food stuff, but it also means for you to cut down on the stuff that is harming your body. That means a big no-no for fast food! Once you decide, and are mentally prepared, to make a healthy diet menu, you have to make sure it is lenient enough for you to follow it. You cannot expect yourself to live on vegetables for the rest of your life. Add a variety of flavors and taste so that you do not get bored of the idea and revert to the ‘easy way out’. That path takes you onto a rough road filled with problems, diseases, ailments, and lower life expectancy. Live longer by eating healthier today.

A healthy diet menu consists of various antioxidants that help to detoxify your body, a sufficient amount of clean water, fruits, vegetables, whole grain cereals, etc. It sounds very dull at first, but you can make this work for you. Drinking lots of water should not be a problem. If you really cannot handle drinking several cups a day, you can, and probably should, add some herbal tea to add some flavor to your drink. Herbal tea has antioxidants on its own that help remove toxins from your body. Food rich in fiber and vitamins are considered to be helpful in removing pollutants from your body too. Naturally, this implies natural, organic fruits. With the wide variety of fruits available from all over the world today, your healthy diet menu can have zeal of its own. You can also make different styles of dishes with fruits, or squeeze out the pulp and make yourself some cocktail. Replace your white bread and rice with bran bread and brown rice. These are necessary additions to a healthy diet menu as they contain a lot of fiber that helps cleanse your digestive system.

Not only does this healthy lifestyle clean your body and make it healthier, it also helps you lose weight. You cannot ignore the benefits of a lifestyle that saves you the worry of inflicting damage to your own body. A healthy diet menu should be your first step to a vigorous, flowing personality.

The most important step to a healthier life is the change to a healthy diet. Get more information from the free copy of my e-book report to make better choices!

Tips For Fast Weight Loss

Check out our 10 tips for fast weight loss if you want to lose a few pounds quickly. There’s no need to starve yourself or go hungry. Simply be more aware of what you eat, reduce your intake of fat and sugar, and fill up with vegetables and fruit. Here’s how:

1. Write down everything that you eat or drink that contains calories, even if it’s just a splash of milk in your coffee. You don’t need to count the calories. Simply writing everything down will help you to see when those sneaky high calorie foods are creeping in and sabotaging your fast weight loss.

2. Make your own meals instead of relying on TV dinners and other packaged foods. Food manufacturers add salt and sugar to almost everything to make us want more and more.

3. Include at least two servings of vegetables in every main meal (not counting potatoes), or add a large salad with low fat dressing. Aim to eat more green, leafy vegetables. Fresh vegetables will help you to feel full and satisfy your body’s need for vitamins and minerals, reducing cravings.

4. Cut your fat intake in half. Since you’re not eating packaged foods any more, it’s easy to do this. Measure the oil that you use for cooking and only use half as much. Spread butter very thinly. Switch to low fat milk. Cut visible fat off meat before cooking, and don’t eat the skin.

5. Have sweet treats containing sugar no more than three times a week. If you are a sugar addict you may find this difficult at first but you will soon have much more appreciation for the sweetness in fruits and vegetables, and fast weight loss may be your reward.

6. Indulge yourself with plenty of fresh fruit. Grapes, cherries, berries, apples, mangoes and bananas are delicious replacements for the unhealthy desserts that most of us eat. Try them chopped into low fat sugar-free yogurt.

7. Try grated carrot for a snack. Mix in a chopped apple if you want. Grated carrot takes longer to eat than a whole carrot and because of this, it’s way more satisfying.

8. Choose food that you can chew, and eat it slowly, putting down your fork between bites. Go for brown rice instead of white, whole fruit instead of juice, chunks of whole foods in your soup. The added fiber will fill you up and help the body to eliminate waste, and the act of chewing will make you feel more satisfied with your meal.

9. Plan your meals and your shopping. Think ahead and make a list of what you will need, then stick to it. To make this easier, never go to the grocery store when you are hungry. Or order your shopping online for delivery.

10. When you eat, just eat. Sit at the table, even if it’s just for a snack. Don’t eat while doing something else at the same time (watching TV, driving, reading, checking email). If you eat with others, of course you may talk, but try to avoid bringing up heavy or contentious subjects at meals. Arguments are not good for anybody’s digestion and won’t help your fast weight loss.