8) THE RECOMMENDED DIABETES DIET
e) Good Foods to eat Regularly
1) Allowed in very small amounts (one small handful only, loaded with "good" oils AND calories):
walnuts, cashews, peanuts, pecans, avocados, Flax seed oil, olive oil (no hydrogenated oils, palm oil or coconut oil at all, try to avoid safflower, peanut, sunflower, and corn oils, flax seed oil is by far the best oil, with canola oil being the best for cooking). If you're on a diet, try to avoid these foods, they have too much fat and calories.2) Allowed with a lot of caveats:
Very high fiber cereals (Bran Buds™ and Fiber One™ high fiber cereals are two), half cup servings of home prepared beans (make your own baked beans using naval beans, artifical sweetener and maple flavoring), home prepared Lima beans, sugar beans, (no sugar, etc.), carrots, (no butter sauce, even if it is "low fat"), non-fat dairy products (less that 30 grams carbohydrate per serving) such as non-fat aspartame sweetened yogurt with 17 grams carbohydrate and no fat (this isn't easy to find, most groceries don't carry it! You can make your own from a recipe found at the end of this chapter), skim milk (two cups, 16 ounces, as a meal or snack by itself), very small amounts of butter substitutes with high phytosterol content.3) Allowed in moderate amounts (a cup is one serving):
salmon and grilled white meat chicken or turkey white meat (some saturated fats), low fat lunch meats (Make sure the lunch meat package says 99% fat free or "fat free"), 99% fat free turkey burger (be very careful here, turkey bacon gets 85% of its calories from fat, "standard" turkey burger is just about as bad!), lobster, crab, mussels, shellfish (fresh shell fish sometimes have a sweet taste because they have a high level of glycogen, something which the body rapidly converts to glucose, so keep the portions of fresh shellfish small), shrimp (Shrimp contain high levels of very beneficial plant sterols which registered as cholesterol in earlier tests. Shrimp do not contain cholesterol; note that shrimp sauce is loaded with sugar! Make your own shrimp sauce with sugar free catsup, artifical sweetener and horseradish),4) Allowed in unlimited amounts:
Spinach (by far the world's best food, Popeye was right!), most fish (especially "white" albacore tuna, just watch the serving size and the calories), lettuce (the darker the green color the better), greens, celery, cucumbers, green beans, snap peas, snow peas, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, summer squash, zucchini, peppers, asparagus, artificial sweeteners (No, they don't cause cancer! If you use the Ames mutagenicity test, broccoli and mushrooms both cause more mutations than artificial sweeteners). With any of these, if you must add butter, use small amounts of an phytosterol butter substitute.One serving of beans or peas per day is a very good idea. Research by Lydia A. Bazzano, B.S., of Tulane University in New Orleans confirms the health benefits of beans:
"Over the course of the study, we discovered that the people eating legumes at least four times each week had a 19 percent lower incidence of heart disease compared to those who ate legumes less than once a week. In addition, the frequent bean-eaters also reduced their risk for all forms of cardiovascular disease by 9 percent compared to the others.
Researchers looked at the effects of legumes on various forms of cardiovascular disease - including heart disease and stroke. They examined 19 years worth of data gathered on 11,924 U.S. men and women who participated in the NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study.
The participants were between the ages of 25 and 74 when the study began, and free of cardiovascular disease. They were divided into several groups: those who ate beans less than once per week; those who ate beans once a week; those who ate beans two or three times a week; and those who ate beans at least four times per week. The beneficial effects of bean consumption were seen regardless of an individual's age, race, gender, blood pressure, total cholesterol, body mass index, alcohol consumption, physical activity level, smoking habits, and other risk factors for heart disease, researchers say."
Most beans are good if they are just beans. Canned "Baked Beans" have large amounts of sugar in them, often high fructose corn syrup, so they need to be avoided. Good "Baked Beans" can be made at home from dried beans and artifical sweeteners. It is important to select an artificial sweetener which can used for baking (most artifical sweeteners decompose at the temperature of an oven. Splenda™, SucraPlus™, Altern™ are three which can be used for baking). There is a recipe in the recipes section (next chapter) of this ebook for homemade baked beans.
Note that if you are a person with diabetes and you are out to dinner and you can only chose either a meal high in carbohydrates or a meal high in saturated fats, chose the saturated fats. A diabetic's major short term concern is blood glucose level control, not blood lipid chemistry. One lean steak will not permanently damage your body very much; a large helping of mashed potatoes or a baked potato can do a lot of damage, damage which could take a long time to be reversed. A high blood glucose level of 180 for just 90 minutes can damage the arteries for 24 hours. And this artery damage is very slow to reverse. The nerve damage that will occur takes much longer to reverse, up to two years. And there are some indications that blood glucose control will control blood lipids better than control of saturated fat input for most persons with type 2 diabetes. Just avoid the "Blooming Onion" or anything else deep fried. Note most restaurants have broiled or grilled fish and vegetables on the menu, so this quandary should be a rare occurrence.
Current Chapter: 8) THE RECOMMENDED DIABETES DIET
a) Moderation Type 2 Diabetes Diet
b) Moderation Food Pyramid
c) Foods to avoid
d) Foods to eat in Moderation
e) Good Foods to eat Regularly
f) Recipes
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