The Best Snacks To Eat If You Have Diabetes

Diabetes is one of the most debilitating diseases, inflicting an estimated 415 million people worldwide. It greatly affects your ability to enjoy many different kinds of foods, not to mention you can’t eat anything containing sugar. So what does a diabetic person snack on, keeping in mind that almost all packaged snacks are high in ‘bad sugar’ content? It’s imperative for a diabetic to keep their blood sugar levels in check and eat a balanced diet.
It’s important to prepare healthy and balanced snacks in addition to the 3 big meals of the day because you have to keep your glucose levels in line. Reaching for a candy bar or a pack of chips instead of a healthy salad or smoothie will make your glucose and sugar levels fluctuate and effectively send you to the hospital.
The following is a compilation of the healthiest and tastiest snacks for diabetics from around the world. They will be sure to suit every palette because they are packed with good sugar, protein and fiber that will keep your blood sugar levels in check and you healthy:
Homemade Popcorn – Store bought popcorn, in one of those microwavable bags, is full of additives and artificial flavoring that is extremely bad for you. Make your own popcorn by mixing one tablespoon (14 grams) of Canola Oil and ½ cup (75 grams) of popcorn kernels in a pan with a lid. According to Health magazine, if you crave a little more flavor in your homemade popcorn, add a pinch of salt, garlic powder or a little parmesan cheese.
Protein Rich Smoothies – Smoothies are a perfect combination of the best of fruits and vegetables Continue reading

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Turmeric Extract May Prevent, Even Reverse Diabetes (Type 1 and 2)

Leave your drugs in the chemist's pot if you can cure the patient with food."
-Hippocrates, 420 BC
Slowly but surely the world is waking up to the reality that diabetes is not only a preventable but a reversible condition, and that the drug-based model of symptom suppression and disease management has fatal flaws. For instance, some of the drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes actually increase the risk of death, with a recent study showing GMO insulin given to type 2 diabetics may lead to the development of so-called "double diabetes": type 2 and type 1 diabetes, together. Clearly, if medicine can't at least abide by its founding principle to "do no harm," it must seek the answer somewhere other than from the "chemist's pot."
As the pharmaceutically-driven medical paradigm continues to lose adherents by the droves, and the public seeks a system that identifies and resolves the root causes of disease, interest is growing in the use of natural substances and lifestyle modifications to prevent and treat blood sugar disorders. And unlike a few decades ago, where most of the evidence for "natural healing" was anecdotal, there are now thousands of studies on hundreds of natural substances and therapeutic activities that may ameliorate blood sugar disorders and their complications. You can check out a good portion of the relevant research on the topic on GreenMedInfo.com's blood sugar disorder database.
While plants like cinnamon and gymnema sylvestre have received plenty of attention for diabetes over the years, one special plant extract that is beginning to stand out from the cro Continue reading

FDA approves mid-stage trial of vaccine to reverse type 1 diabetes

Diabetes researchers are hoping that an almost century-old vaccine for preventing tuberculosis may also reverse type 1 diabetes.
The FDA has approved a mid-stage trial to test the vaccine, called bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), in 150 adults with advanced cases of the disease.
The approval was announced Sunday at the 75th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association by Dr. Denise Faustman, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Immunobiology Laboratory in Boston and principal investigator of the study.
According to the American Diabetes Association, 5 percent of people with diabetes - or roughly three million individuals - have type 1, in which the immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.
Faustman told Reuters Health that the BCG vaccine temporarily raises levels of a substance called tumor necrosis factor, or TNF – and the higher TNF levels can eliminate the damaging T cells in the blood of individuals with type 1 diabetes.
In a small preliminary trial, Faustman’s team found that two BCG injections given four weeks apart temporarily eliminated diabetes-causing T cells. Patients also showed evidence of small, temporary return of insulin secretion.
This summer, she and her colleagues will begin enrolling patients ages 18 to 60 in a larger five-year trial. Participants will have low but detectable levels of insulin secretion from the pancreas. They'll receive two injections, four weeks apart, of either BCG or placebo, and then annual injections for the next four years.
If this trial is successful, the next step w Continue reading

Under-skin transplants show promise for type 1 diabetes

In theory, transplanting insulin-producing cells into the body should work as a treatment for type 1 diabetes. However, in practice, researchers face many challenges, especially in finding a non-hostile environment for the cells. Now, a new study describes a tissue engineering approach that may create a suitable environment under the skin.
In the journal Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) at the University of Toronto in Canada describe how they developed and tested their subcutaneous transplant method in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes.
A significant feature of the study is that the transplant method uses tissue engineering to generate blood vessels that integrate with the host's blood supply.
Insulin-producing cells are very sensitive to lack of oxygen, and inadequate blood supply is a problem that has dogged previous attempts to transplant them.
Type 1 diabetes destroys islet cells
Diabetes is a chronic disease that develops when the body cannot stop blood sugar or glucose getting too high.
If untreated, high blood sugar, or hyperglycemia, damages many parts of the body, including the heart, kidneys, eyes, nerves, and blood vessels.
Insulin - a hormone that is produced in the pancreas - is the body's main regulator of blood sugar. It helps cells to take in sugar and use it for energy.
In people with type 1 diabetes, their immune system destroys the islet cells in their pancreas that produce insulin. In type 2 diabetes, the body produces insulin but cannot use it effectively.
Ther Continue reading

For 26 Years, I’ve Managed Type 1 Diabetes With a Plant-Based Diet

Until age 35, my health was very typical for an American. Then in November of 1988, all that changed: my immune system suddenly decided that my insulin-producing pancreas beta cells were foreign and attacked and annihilated them, leaving me with type 1 diabetes.
In less than 30 days, I lost 45 pounds and grew deathly weak. Eventually, I was found barely conscious at my work desk and rushed to the hospital, where I immediately received my first shot of insulin. My doctor’s grim prognosis hit like a ton of bricks: even with the best possible diabetic control, I would still suffer many debilitating, chronic complications of the disease. I envisioned myself disabled, blind, amputated, and living in a wheelchair. More on that later…
A few days into my hospital stay, a fill-in doctor literally saved my life with a very simple short statement. He said, “No doctor can manage your diabetes.” He explained that the insulin doses are dependent on metabolism which changes from minute to minute, and so are too variable to be predetermined or managed by any other person. He recommended that I keep a log and learn the effects of everything I ate and did, and adjust my diabetes control and lifestyle accordingly. The geek in me took that advice to heart. Back home, I immediately bought a glucometer, a kitchen scale, a nutrition facts book, and a notebook in which to begin logging my new life. I began to learn how to match up the food I ate, my activity levels, and my insulin intake to keep everything in sync.
My Doctors Prescribed a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet
All of the nutritional info Continue reading