Divide And Conquer: How Portion Control Can Help You Manage Diabetes

Divide and conquer: How portion control can help you manage diabetes

When it comes to diabetes, portion control is key for keeping steady blood sugar levels and maintaining a healthy weight.
Using just a standard-size 12-inch dinner plate, you can learn to determine correct portion sizes of a typical meal.
Vegetables
About half of your plate should be filled with non-starchy vegetables, like spinach, cabbage, bok choy, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, or peppers.
When it comes to these types of vegetables, you can't really go overboard, so portion sizes here matter less than with proteins or starches. Just make sure you're careful about your intake of more starchy vegetables, like potatoes or root veggies, as these have a higher glycemic index and will raise your blood sugar more rapidly.
Meat
About one-fourth of your plate can be filled with proteins, preferably lean options like turkey, skinless chicken, salmon, or other cold-water fish. As a general rule, one serving of cooked meat should be about the size of a bar of soap or deck of cards. For fish, aim for a serving that is close to the size of a checkbook.
Starches
Grains are easy to go overboard on, so try to measure things out when you eat rice, breads, oatmeal, or other starches. Recommendations vary, but The American Diabetes Association suggests that your starches fill about one-fourth of your plate. This roughly equals about one slice of bread, one tortilla, 4-6 crackers, 1/3 cup cooked rice, 1/2 cup of potatoes, or 1/2 cup of cereal or pasta.
Dairy
For dairy, it's important to opt for low-fat choices. Portion sizes are roughly equal to one cup - so one cup of low-f Continue reading

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Apple Developing Diabetes Treatment Sensors (AAPL)

As more technologies are developed for health and wellness, Apple Inc. (AAPL
) is secretly working on developing glucose sensors to treat diabetes, reports CNBC, citing unidentified sources. (See also, Fitbit, Apple Still Dominate in Wearables.)
The project was originally the vision of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs before his death and involved use of wearable devices, like a smartwatch, that will be capable of tracking and reporting vital heath data including heart rate, oxygen levels, and blood glucose levels. The technology involves using non-invasive sensors capable of regular and continuous body monitoring to help in early detection and timely treatment of diseases, including diabetes which has a large patient population.
Similar attempts have been made several times in the past by many other firms. However, the difficulty of monitoring blood sugar levels without piercing the skin often prevented the success of those initiatives. (See also: Michael Kors Launches New Smartwatches)
The technology giant has confidentially formed a team of biomedical engineers who are working on developing the monitoring sensors. The team is staffed with biomedical experts hired from companies including C8 Medisensors, Masimo Corp, Medtronic PLC (MDT
), Sano, and Vital Connect. According to the sources, the work has been going on for at least five years and the iPhone maker has been performing feasibility trials for the path-breaking concept. Also, consultants have been hired to work through the necessary regulatory requirements, according to the report.
The development is linked to Apple’ Continue reading

This Oil Leads To Heart Disease, Diabetes and Cancer. What You Should Use Instead…

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In a 2010 review at Tufts University, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian concluded there is a clear benefit from cutting out saturated fats and increasing our intake of PUFAs. However in 2014, the very same scientist reviewed all of the literature again. This meta-analysis, which reviewed 72 studies, found no benefit to reducing saturated fats or increasing PUFAs, except for omega 3 fats.
Is it any wonder we are so confused? If the experts can’t even agree and they change their perspective every few years, what are the rest of us to do?
Let me cut through this confusion. The very idea that vegetable oils are better than saturated fats (like butter and lard) comes from the belief that they lower total and LDL cholesterol, so they presumably reduce our overall risk of heart disease.
Following this type of ad Continue reading

Iron Man Joins The Fight Against Diabetes

Marvel Comics is helping raise awareness on childhood diabetes with a special Iron Man comic book.
In a partnership with Siemens, a medical diagnostics company, the publisher has released “Iron Man: Early Warnings.” It’s your typical PSA-powered comic, for the “Become a Diabetes Hero” program. The program helps raise awareness towards diabetes in young children, and what patients can do to treat the condition.
In the comic, Iron Man cracks down on the two-bit villain Aqueduct while developing a Stark Industries-powered device known as the “Health-Y-Meter.” The device detects when a person—you guessed it—isn’t feeling so healthy, as evidenced through the comics’ diabetic child, Daisy. After Iron Man whips Aqueduct, he and Pepper teach Daisy that all diabetics need to eat right and exercise for a healthy lifestyle. You can read the entire comic here.
The comic is written by David Liss with interior art by Kev Sharpe. Ari Granov provides the cover, which is actually pretty awesome. And hey, the Bleeding Edge armor makes a return! Continue reading

Engage Your Willpower to Manage Diabetes: Five Proven Ways

Willpower, according to several dictionaries, is an energetic determination; the ability to control one’s thoughts, behavior, impulses or actions; and the strength of will to carry out one’s decisions, wishes and plans. Phew!
Exercising willpower is a tall order when needed to accomplish something we really want to do. It is a gargantuan order when required for something we never asked for in the first place, such as monitoring glucose, following strict dietary guidelines and losing 30 pounds.
Our Wayward Willpower
You would think healthy lifestyle choices would come naturally to humans, since most of us want to live long, productive lives and feel good while doing it. Yet we have evolved with a pleasure center in the brain that seems to make its own rules with a dubious regard for our health.
So how are we to care for ourselves when our willpower does not match the task given us, such as diabetes management? In her book, The Willpower Instinct, Kelly McGonigal gives us some clues:
The biggest enemies of willpower: temptation, self-criticism and stress ... these three skills – self-awareness, self-care and remembering what matters most – are the foundation for self-control.
The secret for greater self-control, the science points to one thing: the power of paying attention.
Five Ways to Engage Your Willpower
To shift our willpower into drive, we need to disengage ourselves from stress, self-criticism and temptation. Scientists are discovering the best ways for us to accomplish this, and the first thing to do is dump the guilt.
Willpower Engagement #1: Be Easy on Your Continue reading