The Skinny On Shakes For People With Diabetes
1 / 6 Learn All About the Best Weight Loss Shakes for Diabetes Diabetes is an increasingly common condition that causes blood sugar levels to rise higher than normal. There are several types of diabetes, but type 2 diabetes is the most common form. Type 2 diabetes is often linked to being overweight or obese and must be medically managed to prevent serious diabetes complications. Along with making lifestyle changes and taking medication, people with diabetes must keep a watchful eye on their blood glucose levels and the foods they eat throughout each day. Whether you’re watching your weight or looking for a quick diabetes-friendly meal on the go, a meal replacement shake may be a good — or not so good — option for those with diabetes. Of course, a healthy diet of whole foods is always best, but shakes can provide a nice “safety net” for when a healthy meal is not an option. While meal replacement shakes may fill you up, even the best weight loss shakes don’t provide complete dietary nutrition. If you rely on weight loss or meal replacement shakes regularly, you will still need a healthy balance of real food each day, including: Fat-free or low-fat dairy Fresh fruits and vegetables, especially nonstarchy vegetables Lean protein Legumes, like beans and peas Nuts Seafood Soy Whole grains Also, not all meal replacement shakes are created equal; even the best weight loss shakes designed for people with diabetes may fall short when it comes to complete nutrition. For example, the Glucerna Rich Chocolate Shake is gluten-free and great for people who are lactose intolerant. But the Glucerna Shake is only enough to replace a moderate snack or part of a meal — not an entire meal. You will need to read the label and find out what’s missing when it comes to fat, pro Continue reading >>
Discover A Low Carb Diabetic Diet And Low Carb Recipes For Diabetics
Many people incorrectly believe that only sugar causes type 2 diabetes. In reality, the insulin resistance associated with type 2 diabetes can be thought of as carbohydrate intolerance; type 2 diabetes is a side effect of consuming too many carbohydrates relative to a person's carbohydrate tolerance, which can cause blood sugar to spike. While diabetics should be mindful of sugar intake, it's possible to manage type 2 diabetes by living a low carb lifestyle. Some people with type 2 diabetes have found low carb living to be so effective that they can manage their condition without medication. A low carb diabetic diet is a great way to manage your weight and blood sugar levels. If you have type 2 diabetes use the following tips to avoid eating more carbohydrates than your body can tolerate, help keep stabilize your blood sugar level and try these delicious low carb recipes for diabetics: Using a carb counter to monitor your carb intake is a great way to stay on track. Non-starchy vegetables such as colorful salad vegetables , broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, and asparagus tend to have lower glycemic indexes, making them perfect to for a low carb diabetic diet. Make sure to get plenty of fiber—high-fiber foods like vegetables are a necessary component to a low carb diabetic diet. Avoid foods with added sugars and high fructose corn syrup. If you have a sweet tooth , try sugar-free desserts Don't skip breakfast! To keep your blood sugar levels steady, make sure to eat regularly throughout the day, starting in the morning. Try to fit in three meals and two snacks each day and pace yourself. Not all fats are bad for you. Healthy low carb recipes for diabetics often feature good natural fats like monounsaturated fats, such as the ones found in olive oil, which can help lower Continue reading >>
Atkins Induction Diet Improves Glycemic Control In Diabetes
Diabetes is a disease of uncontrolled sugar. In a nutshell, uncontrolled sugar is also a huge contributing factor to obesity and heart disease. When your blood sugar goes too high, insulin comes in to escort that extra blood sugar into the cells where it can be burned for energy. But if insulin doesn’t work effectively, you wind up with too much blood sugar and high levels of insulin and you’re on your way to big health problems down the road. The technical name for this ability of the body to regulate sugar effectively and efficiently is glycemic control. So what’s the number one thing that raises blood sugar anyway? Clearly it’s carbohydrate. And study after study has shown that low-carb diets improve the ability of the body to effectively deal with sugar. Previous research(1) has shown that a low-glycemic diet (i.e. one high in beans, lentils and breads made with flaxseeds) does much better at managing glycemic control for Type ll diabetes than the “traditional” high fiber diet based on whole grain breads and breakfast cereals (which are often loaded with extra sugar). Now a new study shows that when it comes to controlling blood sugar, the Atkins Induction phase program does even better. Eric Westman, MD and his research team put 84 community volunteers with obesity and type 2 diabetes on one of two diets- either a very low carb (Atkins Induction Phase) or a low-glycemic, reduced calorie diet. After 6 months, there was improvement in both groups in glycemic control. But the Atkins Induction group improved more. The main measure of improvement was a blood test called hemoglobin A1c, which is a kind of “Rolls Royce” of blood sugar measurement. While blood sugar levels at any given time fluctuate, Hemoglobin A1c gives us a much more realistic reading of Continue reading >>
- The effect of a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-glycemic index diet on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus
- Association of Glycemic Variability in Type 1 Diabetes With Progression of Microvascular Outcomes in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial
- Does Gestational Diabetes always mean a Big Baby and Induction?
The Atkins Diet For Type 2 Diabetes
Learn About the Book 'Atkins Diabetes Revolution' The book Atkins Diabetes Revolution, published in 2009, is based on the practice of the late Robert C. Atkins, MD, and written by colleagues Mary C. Vernon and Jacqueline A. Eberstein. Dr. Atkins was instrumental in popularizing the connection between obesity and insulin and the importance of limiting carbohydrates, particularly refined sugar and grains, for preventing and managing type 2 diabetes. Written partly in response to what have been termed the twin epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes, the book offers a comprehensive program based on Dr. Atkins' low-carbohydrate diet, for losing weight and preventing or improving type 2 diabetes. People with type 2 diabetes (which used to be called adult-onset diabetes or non-insulin-dependent diabetes) have insulin resistance , which means their bodies can't use the insulin they produce. Normally, insulin goes into cells and helps them process blood sugar ( glucose ) into energy. Insulin resistance keeps insulin from getting into cells. As a result, blood sugar rises to unhealthy levels. When that happens, the body's cells may be starved for energy. Over time, high blood sugar levels can damage a person's heart, kidneys, nerves, and even eyes. Dr. Atkins' well-known diet is presented in this book as a way to help people with (or at risk for) type 2 diabetes help their bodies 1) to begin producing and using more insulin and 2) to do a better job of maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. The book's authors say that the key to achieving this goal, as you might expect, is controlling carbohydrate intake. It's also true that most people, whether they have diabetes or not, can benefit from limiting their intake of refined sugar and some grains, as Dr. Atkins' diet recommends. Continue reading >>
Is The Atkins Diet Good For Type 2 Diabetes?
For people with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), losing excess weight can lead to lower blood glucose, triglyceride and cholesterol levels along with reduced blood pressure. Of the many low-carbohydrate diets, the Atkins Diet is among the most restrictive -- allowing only 20 grams of carbs per day in the first of its 4 phases, or 40 grams if you have less than 40 pounds to lose. Other daily calories come from fat and protein. Very-low-carbohydrate diets like Atkins trigger a metabolic state called ketosis, in which the body burns fat for energy instead of blood sugar, or glucose. Understanding the possible benefits and drawbacks of the Atkins Diet is important, especially if you have T2DM. Video of the Day People with diabetes do lose weight with the Atkins Diet, but keeping the weight off in the long run is less certain. A study involving of 34 overweight or obese adults with T2DM or prediabetes published in the June 2014 in "PLoS One" showed that people on a very-low-carbohydrate diet similar to Atkins lost 5.5 percent of body weight in 3 months. These results were consistent with a prior 6-month study of 49 obese adults with T2DM published in the June 2008 "Nutrition and Metabolism," which was funded by the Robert C. Atkins Foundation. However, a November 2014 "Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes" review of 12 studies involving long-term weight loss with low-carb diets reported that much of the weight lost in the first 6 months on the Atkins Diet was regained at 1 year. The Atkins Diet has been consistently shown to lower blood glucose levels people with T2DM. This may be because weight loss itself leads to lower blood glucose levels. The virtual elimination of foods that would contribute to blood glucose due to the strict limitation of carbohydrates would also l Continue reading >>
How Atkins Can Stop Or Reverse Diabetes
Numerous studies in a variety of settings show dramatic improvements in blood glucose control and blood lipids in type 2 diabetics consuming a low-carb diet.(1–5). When these studies included a low-fat, high-carb comparison group, the low-carb diet consistently showed superior effects on blood glucose control, medication reduction, blood lipids and weight loss. Weight loss is particularly important because treatment goals for patients with type 2 diabetes always emphasize weight loss if the individual is overweight, yet the drugs used to treat diabetics can increase the risk of weight gain. Unlike medications, a low-carb dietary approach to type 2 diabetes can deliver improved blood sugar control and weight loss. Weight Gain as a Side Effect On its surface, the management of type 2 diabetes seems pretty easy: just get your blood glucose back down into the normal range. But insulin resistance characterizes type 2 diabetes; put simply, the glucose level “doesn’t want” to go down. This means that the body is less responsive to the most powerful drug used to treat it: insulin. So the dose of insulin that most type 2 diabetics are prescribed is sometimes very high. Moreover, because insulin not only drives glucose into muscle cells but also accelerates fat synthesis and storage, weight gain is usually one side effect of aggressive insulin therapy.(6) Other pills and injected medications have been developed to reduce this effect, but on average, the harder one tries to control blood glucose, the greater the tendency to weight gain.(7) Hypoglycemia as a Side Effect The other major side effect of attempting to gain tight control of blood sugar with medication is driving it too low, resulting in hypoglycemia, which causes weakness, shakiness and confusion. If these sympt Continue reading >>
Do Low-carb Diets Help Diabetes?
diabetesdiabetes follow very low carbohydrate diets? The American Diabetes Association (ADA) says "no", but a small study from Sweden suggests such a diet may be one of the best ways to manage the disease and reduce the need for medication. In the study, 16 obese patients with type 2 diabetes followed a calorie- and carbohydrate-restricted diet for 22 months. Most showed continuing improvements in blood sugar that were independent of weight lossweight loss; the average daily dosage of insulin among the 11 insulin-dependent patients was cut in half. "Many people are essentially cured of their [type 2] diabetes by low-carbohydrate diets, but that message is not getting out," says low-carb proponent and biochemistry professor Richard Feinman, PhD, of the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. While agreeing that carbohydrate restriction helps people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar, ADA spokesman Nathaniel G. Clark, MD, tells WebMD that the ADA does not recommend very low-carb diets because patients find them too restrictive. "We want to promote a diet that people can live with long-term," says Clark, who is vice president of clinical affairs and youth strategies for the ADA. "People who go on very low carbohydrate diets generally aren't able to stick with them for long periods of time." In the Swedish study, obese patients with type 2 diabetes were asked to follow two different low-calorie diets for 22 months. Sixteen patients were told to restrict carbohydrates to just 20% of their total calorie intake, with carbohydrate consumption limited to vegetables and salads. Bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, and breakfast cereals were not allowed. Fifteen more patients were asked to follow a low-fat diet, which had the same number of calories -- 1,800 calories- Continue reading >>
The Low-carb Diet That Helped One Woman Lose 120 Pounds And Reverse Diabetes | Everyday Health
Tina Marcus, 55, poses for a photo in late 2017 at 140 lbs (right) and about two years earlier at 260 lbs (left). Tina Marcus doesnt have a magic pill. She doesnt have a secret menu or a special culinary hack. But Marcus, 55, has lost more than 120 pounds (lbs) and returned her A1C to prediabetes level by following the Atkins diet and shes maintained those improvements over the last two years. Sheer willpower, a regular exercise regimen, and the low-carb eating plan put her on a track to successfully managing type 2 diabetes , she says. RELATED: 7 Ways to Stay Motivated to Exercise if You Have Diabetes Taking the First Steps Toward Making Lifelong Changes Marcus, a church office manager in Arlington, Virginia, knew it wasnt healthy or effective for her diabetes management to weigh 260 lbs. Shes right: Extra weight can increase insulin resistance (the hallmark of type 2 diabetes), making it harder to control blood sugar and increasing the risk for health complications, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) . But her biggest push toward healthy living started with a jarring doctors appointment, she says. She had been living with prediabetes, the precursor to type 2 diabetes, for a few years, and had put her health on the backburner while caring for her mother, turning to convenient but unhealthy snacks for fuel. She went to the doctor in January 2016 and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. [My doctor] was very concerned, says Marcus, noting her A1C a two- to three-month average of blood sugar levels was 11, indicating full-blown diabetes. Marcus explained her doctor wanted to put her on a few kinds of medication, including Glucophage (metformin) , right away. I said, Can I have a couple of months and see if I can turn this around on my own? Marcus recalls. Continue reading >>
Low Carb Vs. High Carb - My Surprising 24-day Diabetes Diet Battle
Twitter summary: What I learned from doubling my carb intake: the same average blood sugar, but four times as much hypoglycemia, more work, stress, & danger. As a teenager, I ate a high carb diet that included lots of Goldfish crackers, white sandwich bread, pasta, and white potatoes. It was tasty, but it put my blood sugars on a wild roller coaster every single day. Things turned around in college when I learned about nutrition, got on CGM, and spent time with health conscious friends. I soon realized that eating less than 30 grams of carbs at one time was a complete gamechanger. I’ve stuck with that approach ever since. But is this lower carb method actually better for my blood sugars, or have I just been fooling myself? To find out, I took on a somewhat terrifying self-tracking experiment: 12 days of my usual, lower-carb diet, which averaged 146 grams of carbs per day (21% of daily calories). My carbs were primarily from nuts, seeds, vegetables, and a bit of fruit. 12 days of a higher-carb, high whole-grain diet, which averaged 313 grams of carbs per day (43% of my daily calories). My sources of carbs were NOT junk food: plain oatmeal, whole wheat bread, quinoa, wild rice, and fruit. Neither of these was unrealistic. My lower-carb diet was nowhere near Atkins level (20 grams per day), and the higher-carb diet was consistent with the “average” 45% carb diet in people with diabetes (according to ADA). Even though this was a one-person (n=1) experiment, I wanted to be as scientific and fair as possible: eating whole, unprocessed foods in both periods; counting and tracking every single gram of carbohydrate (LoseIt! app); wearing CGM 24/7 and downloading the glucose data to document what happened (Dexcom G5 and Clarity); taking insulin before meals (5-15 minutes pr Continue reading >>
How To Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
Do you have type 2 diabetes, or are you at risk for diabetes? Do you worry about your blood sugar? Then you’ve come to the right place. The disease diabetes (any type) means that you have too much sugar in your blood. This page will show you how to best check this. You can normalize your blood sugar naturally as needed – without pills, calorie counting or hunger. Many people have already done so. As a bonus, a normalized blood sugar usually makes you healthier and leaner. Table of contents: A disastrous epidemic Two types of diabetes Normalize your blood sugar Become your own evidence A disastrous epidemic What’s wrong? Why do more and more people become diabetic? In the past, before our modern Western diet, diabetes was extremely rare. The disease is now becoming more and more common. Around the world, more and more people are becoming diabetic: The number of people with diabetes is increasing incredibly rapidly and is heading towards 500 million. This is a world epidemic. Will someone in your family be affected next? Your mother, father, cousin, your child? Or you? Is perhaps your blood already too sweet? Those affected by the most common form of diabetes (type 2) normally never regain their health. Instead, we take for granted that they’ll become a little sicker for every year that goes by. With time they need more and more drugs. Yet, sooner or later complications emerge. Blindness. Dialysis due to faulty kidneys. Dementia. Amputations. Death. Diabetes epidemic causes inconceivable suffering. Fortunately, there’s something that can be done. We just need to see through the mistake that has led to the explosion of disease – and correct it. This can normalize your blood sugar. Many have already succeeded in doing this. If you already know that you are diabe Continue reading >>
The Best Diet For Diabetes
World Diabetes Day, the world’s largest diabetes awareness campaign, is focused this year on Women and Diabetes. According to the International Diabetes Federation, 199 million women have type-2 diabetes, and that is projected to increase to 313 million by 2040. In fact, diabetes is a leading cause of death among women. And that’s a scary fact. Diabetes has always been a hot topic for me, because it’s a worldwide epidemic that affects everyone, not just women: It’s estimated that 552 million people could have type-2 diabetes in the next two decades. Currently, half of the U.S. population is diabetic or pre-diabetic. It’s more important now, more than ever, to get the word out on what causes type-2 diabetes, and what you can do to prevent and control it. What Causes Type-2 Diabetes? There are two main types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. In addition, there is gestational diabetes, which occurs during pregnancy in some women when hormone changes prevent insulin from working properly, but the condition usually resolves after childbirth. Meanwhile, both types 1 and 2 are chronic diseases that affect how your body regulates blood sugar, or glucose, which is the fuel that feeds your body’s cells. Insulin is needed to make this happens. People with type-1 diabetes can’t produce insulin at all, People with type-2 diabetes can’t control their insulin levels and eventually may not produce insulin at all. This starts with insulin resistance, and it may happen gradually over time. While type-1 diabetes can’t be prevented or reversed, type-2 diabetes can. The Best Diet for Preventing and Controlling Type-2 Diabetes There continues to be a compelling research-backed argument that shows that cutting back on carbs has the greatest effect on regulating blood sugar lev Continue reading >>
Atkins For Diabetics
Over the past few years, a significant amount of research- much of it reported in this newsletter- has shown that low-carb diets are effective not only for weight loss, but for improving many measures of risk for heart disease and diabetes. Now a new study from the prestigious Albert Einstein College of Medicine shows that a low-fat diet has no advantage over a low-carb diet modeled on the Atkins Advantage program in the treatment of diabetes. In fact- as we’ve said before- the low-carb diet actually has some significant advantages. This is important news since many conventional doctors have continued to believe- despite considerable evidence to the contrary- that low-carb diets are “dangerous”. In the current study, researchers studied 105 adults with type ll diabetes. The participants had a body mass index of 25 or more (overweight to obese) and Hemoglobin A1C levels between 6-11%. Hemoglobin A1c is a measure of blood sugar control over time, and a reading of over 6% is generally considered problematic and a good indication of diabetes. Half the subjects were put on a low-fat diet modeled after the standard diet outlined in the Diabetes Prevention Program, while the other half were put on a diet modeled after the Atkins program. Both groups lost weight and reduced their A1c levels. The low-fat diet- long considered the ‘gold standard’ in the treatment of diabetes- had absolutely no advantage over the Atkins program. Both groups of patients lost a similar amount of weight, but the Atkins dieters had an additional benefit- their HDL (“good”) cholesterol went up. Both groups saw the most weight loss- and the most reduction in their hemoglobin A1c levels- in the first three months. There was no significant reduction in A1c levels after a year, but this doesn Continue reading >>
How To Start A Low-carb Diabetes Diet
There is strong evidence that eating fewer carbohydrates helps improve blood sugars. This makes sense intuitively: carbohydrates are broken down by the body into sugar, directly leading to high blood sugars. Eat fewer carbohydrates and you will typically end up with less sugar in your blood. For those with type 2 diabetes or are newly diagnosed with type 1, fewer carbohydrates mean that your body’s natural insulin production will have an easier time processing your blood sugars. If you take insulin, you will have a much easier time taking the appropriate amount of insulin. Before you start a low-carbohydrate diet, talk with your healthcare provider. If you are taking blood sugar-lowering medications, then eating fewer carbohydrates without lowering your medication dosage may cause dangerous low blood sugars. There are studies that show that people with diabetes can achieve success on both low-carbohydrate and high-carbohydrate diets. Those pursuing high-carb diets are often primarily eating more vegetarian or vegan diets that are high in complex carbohydrates and fiber. They are also frequently athletes who burn large amounts of sugar during exercise. We will look at other dietary approaches in a future article. If you would like to dive into the research on low-carb diets for diabetes, please skip to the last section in this article. Also, be sure to read Key Facts About Carbohydrates Everyone with Diabetes Should Know. What Is a Low-Carb Diet? There are many different ways to define and follow a low-carb diet. In this article, we are generally looking at people who wish to eat fewer carbohydrates than they are currently eating. There is no one way to follow a low-carb diet. Generally, people try different amounts of carbohydrates until they reach an amount per day t Continue reading >>
Keto, Paleo, Or Atkins: Which Low-carb Diet Is Best For Diabetes? | Everyday Health
Avocado, salmon, tomato, and certain nuts are considered low-carb. Youve probably heard about the current low-carb diets that have become fads in the diet industry, specifically the ketogenic diet, the low-carb paleo diet, and the Atkins diet. But for some individuals with type 2 diabetes , this way of eating may not be a passing craze. While the American Diabetes Association notes that many individuals with the disease or its precursor, prediabetes , employ carb counting to control their blood sugar on a regular basis, others have turned to ultra-low-carb diets as a way to manage their symptoms. These diets are highly restrictive and often limit followers to consuming no more than 20 grams (g) of carbs per day, usually with no added sugar, and, depending on the diet, increased protein and fat. Experts say they rarely have patients who ask about following a ketogenic diet or a modified paleo diet long term, but they can be useful for short-term weight loss if done properly. RELATED: 10 Popular Low-Carb Diets, and Their Pros and Cons Keto Diet for Type 2 Diabetes: Pros and Cons Ketogenic diet (keto diet for short) is a catch-all term for any diet that pushes your body into the natural metabolic state of ketosis , which means burning fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates. Though theres no set formula for keto, generally, the diet works by cutting back on carbohydrates, to about 20 g of net carbs to start, and replacing those with mostly fat and a moderate amount of protein, according to the popular website Keto Connect . Net carbs are the total number of carbs minus the fiber and sugar alcohols, according to the Atkins website . (More on this diet later.) When Stephanie Lofton was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2015, she knew she needed to make some big changes to her Continue reading >>
A Guide To Healthy Low-carb Eating With Diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic disease that has reached epidemic proportions. It currently affects over 400 million people worldwide (1). Although diabetes is a complicated disease, maintaining good blood sugar control can greatly reduce the risk of complications (2, 3). One of the ways to achieve better blood sugar levels is to follow a low-carb diet. This article provides a detailed overview of low-carb diets for managing diabetes. If you have diabetes, your body cannot process carbohydrates effectively. Normally, when you eat carbs, they are broken down into small units of glucose, which end up as blood sugar. When blood sugar levels go up, the pancreas responds by producing the hormone insulin. This hormone allows the blood sugar to enter cells. In healthy people, blood sugar levels remain within a narrow range throughout the day. In diabetes, however, this system doesn't work the way it is supposed to. This is a big problem, because having both too high and too low blood sugar levels can cause severe harm. There are several types of diabetes, but the two most common ones are type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Both of these conditions can be diagnosed at any age. In type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune process destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Diabetics must inject insulin several times a day to ensure that glucose gets into the cells and stays at a healthy level in the bloodstream (4). In type 2 diabetes, the beta cells at first produce enough insulin, but the body's cells are resistant to its action, so blood sugar remains high. To compensate, the pancreas produces more insulin, attempting to bring blood sugar down. Over time, the beta cells lose their ability to produce enough insulin (5). Of the three nutrients -- protein, carbs and fat -- carbs have the grea Continue reading >>
