Ketogenic Diet For Diabetes And Prediabetes – A Beginner’s Guide

Ketogenic Diet for Diabetes and Prediabetes – A Beginner’s Guide

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat low carb diet which can offer you many health benefits.
More than 20 separate studies have proven that this diet can not only help you lose weight but also get healthier.
Its many benefits revolve around cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and epilepsy, to name a few.
This article is perfect for those getting acquainted with this diet, since it tells you everything you need to know.
What is the Ketogenic Diet?
As we mentioned, it is low on carbs and high in fats and rather similar to the Atkins diet (as well as other low carb diets). It is often called keto, for short.
It’s name comes from the fact that your body enters a state of ketosis. It’s a metabolic state which occurs from the reduction of carbs and their replacement with fats.
When this occurs, one’s body becomes very efficient at burning fat for energy.
The keto diet also greatly reduces one’s blood sugar and insulin levels. Those are just some of the many health benefits it offers.
Several Types of Ketogenic Diets
There are a few versions of this diet, including:
SKD (Standard Ketogenic Diet) – this diet is high in fats(75%), moderate in protein(20%) and low in carbs (5%).
CKD (Cyclical Ketogenic Diet) – this diet has periods of high-carbs, such as 5 ketogenic days and 2 high-carb days
TKD – this diet allows one to take carbs around exercises
High-protein ketogenic diet – similar to the standard version, only includes higher amounts of protein. The ratio is about 60% fats, 35% protein and, once again, 5% carbs.
Keep in mind that the CKD and the TKD are usually more adva Continue reading

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13 Ways to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

Simple, straightforward steps you can take to ward off a diabetes diagnosis.
By Franziska Spritzler, RD, CDE
Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects millions of people worldwide. Uncontrolled cases can cause blindness, kidney failure, heart disease and other serious conditions. Before diabetes is diagnosed, there is a period where blood sugar levels are high but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. This is known as pre diabetes. It’s estimated that up to 70% of people with prediabetes go on to develop type 2 diabetes. Fortunately, progressing from prediabetes to diabetes isn’t inevitable. Although there are certain factors you can’t change — such as your genes, age or past behaviors — there are many actions you can take to reduce the risk of diabetes.
Here are 13 ways to avoid getting diabetes.
1. Cut Sugar and Refined Carbs From Your Diet
Eating sugary foods and refined carbs can put at-risk individuals on the fast track to developing diabetes. Your body rapidly breaks these foods down into small sugar molecules, which are absorbed into your bloodstream. The resulting rise in blood sugar stimulates your pancreas to produce insulin, a hormone that helps sugar get out of the bloodstream and into your body’s cells. In people with prediabetes, the body’s cells are resistant to insulin’s action, so sugar remains high in the blood. To compensate, the pancreas produces more insulin, attempting to bring blood sugar down to a healthy level.
Over time, this can lead to progressively higher blood sugar and insulin levels, until the condition eventually turn Continue reading

Ketogenic Diet for Type 2 Diabetes

Any diabetic will tell you: following a healthy diet is vital to maintaining a healthy lifestyle when you have diabetes. While it is contrary to what we traditionally believe to be “healthy”, the ketogenic diet has become increasingly popular among diabetics.
What is the Keto Diet?
The keto diet involves a very high consumption of dietary fats, and very low carbohydrate consumption. Through these nutritional changes, the body reduces its use of glucose for fuel, and increasingly uses ketones (derived from fats). The diet was first used to control epileptic seizures, but there is growing body of research showing positive effects on Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, inflammation1, and diabetes.
Benefits of the Keto Diet for Diabetics
When you are diabetic it is vital to discuss nutritional changes with your doctor prior to starting a new diet. If you are a diabetic considering the ketogenic diet, here are a few potential benefits to bring up with your doctor:
Weight Loss on the Ketogenic Diet
Type 2 diabetes and obesity are closely linked: 90% of people with type 2 diabetes are also overweight or obese2. The CDC recommends weight loss as a means to maintaining a healthier body for those struggling with diabetes because it can positively affect blood sugar levels and reduce risks of other related health conditions3.
Because weight loss can have such a dramatic positive impact for those struggling with type 2 diabetes, most of the diets prescribed to diabetics focus on weight loss. The ketogenic diet is no exception, and often leads to su Continue reading

Smoking & Diabetes: A Deathly Combination

Smoking kills. Diabetes kills silently. Smoking over Diabetes kills quick, out of the blue.
In cinema commercials, in a mall, inside our office, almost a million times over we encounter these two words ‘Smoking Kills’. Smokers or non-smokers, we all know how smoking is jeopardous to life. Still and all, the risk multiplies profoundly when smoking follows diabetes. Let’s see how.
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a metabolic disease characterised by increased levels of sugar in the blood. Blood sugar or blood glucose is the primary source of energy for the body. A healthy human body has a normal blood sugar level of 5.5mmol/litre; with minor fluctuations depending on the person’s diet. This sugar is regulated by a hormone called insulin, which is produced by pancreas. When the body receives glucose from food, insulin carries this glucose to cells where it is absorbed and further released as energy.
And so, when the body is suffering from diabetes, the level of sugar crosses the normal limit. This happens due to either of the two reasons:
1. Insulin Deficiency
In this case, pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin. This results in Diabetes Type 1.
2. Insulin Resistance
Also known as Diabetes Type 2, this is the most common type of diabetes. It develops when the cells stop responding to the insulin produced.
In both the cases, the glucose, instead of absorbing in the cells, starts accumulating in the blood leading to dis functioning in blood flow.
Both smoking and diabetes are causes of cardiovascular diseases. When combined, they can only aggravate the disease. But this Continue reading

Final piece of type 1 diabetes puzzle solved

A complete picture of the areas that the immune system attacks to cause type 1 diabetes has finally been revealed by scientists.
The study, published in the journal Diabetes, discovered the fifth and final critical target at which the immune system errantly takes aim.
The team at the University of Lincoln say the findings could help develop new ways to prevent and treat the disease.
Diabetes UK said the findings were "impressive".
In type 1 diabetes, the immune system destroys the beta cells that make insulin - the hormone needed to keep blood sugar levels under control.
Studies looking at the unique antibodies made by patients with type 1 showed there were five key targets that the immune system attacked.
But working out exactly what they were has been like identifying someone from their silhouette.
Studies long ago discovered some of the targets, but the final one has proved elusive for two decades.
Dr Michael Christie, who led the research at the University of Lincoln, told the BBC: "With this new discovery, we have now finished identifying what the immune system is targeting - we have the complete picture."
The targets are:
Insulin
Glutamate decarboxylase
IA-2
Zinc transporter-8
And the final piece of the puzzle, tetraspanin-7
The more technically named ones are largely involved in secreting or storing the hormone insulin.
Knowledge of some of these targets is already being used in a trial at King's College London that is aiming to stall the progression of type 1.
But Dr Christie says having the complete picture could help transform care for type 1 patients.
He said: "O Continue reading