Diabetes isn’t the end of the road. You can still enjoy food. However, it is important to broaden your diet. You need to stress the fruit and vegetables, and these need to be integrated in a far larger proportion of your diet than meat and simple proteins from refined sources, better known as snack foods. Yes, there are simple carbohydrates in fruits and some vegetables, but these foods are also high sources of fiber. Fiber helps your body control blood sugar levels. So you get a little sweet with a whole lot of good-for-you fiber. Besides, fiber helps you feel full. Feeling full longer helps to manage your cravings. However, before making any major change to your diet, it is best to consult your doctor.
Increase Fiber Intake
To maximize the fiber and nutrients you are getting from your fruit and vegetables, try raw food recipes. This doesn’t limit you to eating fruit and veggies plain. You can try lettuce wraps and even smoothies. Toss your fresh fruit, chopped in tiny bits, into a high performance blender with some yogurt, and voila you have a treat! You can search for “raw smoothies” on Google or peruse this site for more recipes that will help you increase fiber, satisfy that sweet craving, fill you up in the morning, lose weight and even fight diabetes.
The Raw Fruit Advantage
Drinks that are 100% juice help, too. You can buy them, sometimes for a bit more than you may like to dish out, or make them at home. Raw fruit blended to a pulp can be a good basis for a smoothie. Or you could use a blender to make a whole range of fruit-based sauces and dressing. Frozen fruits can be okay. Sometimes, if you stumble upon a sale (especially with berries) it can be hard to pass up buying a lot of fruit all at once. If you wash and freeze them, you can use them for a wide range of dishes at a later date. If you are trying to lose weight, this can be especially helpful.
Tiny berries are fine to freeze as they are. Strawberries, though, should be cut up first. It is especially helpful to use zip lock bags and measure out 8 oz of strawberries into each bag. Then you have a full cup of berries all ready for munching or cooking or baking. If you’ve got frozen berries stored in your freezer and you want to make a smoothie the next day, just transfer your baggie to the fridge. The ice should be mostly gone, and some soggy slices should be left. Add a banana, fresh blueberries, and yogurt into your blender and switch it on. Then you’re good to go. Trying to avoid dairy? Opt for almond milk and ice. If you choose this method, be cautious because the soggy slices of strawberry have a fair amount of water in them, so you don’t need as much added liquid as you might with fresh-out-of-the basket strawberries.
Raw Veggies and Smoothies
Raw veggies can be added to smoothies too! There is far more you can do with raw vegetables than merely dip in ranch dressing as a snack. Carrot-Orange juice is a delicious drink you can make at home. Use a juicer to turn one whole carrot into juice. Use a citrus juicer on one orange. To make into a smoothie, add a ripe banana, ice, your two homemade juices, and mix in your high performance blender.
Another excellent raw vegetable recipe is the raw lettuce wrap. In this dish, you combine veggies to make a salsa-like filling and wrap the mixture in fresh lettuce leaves. You can combine different ingredients for different tastes. Wraps are a good alternative if you’re looking at that salad and groaning. It’s okay, there are more ways to eat the same foods, and versatility in your cuisine will help you maintain an enjoyment of the foods that you are eating. Diversity in dishes is key to making certain that you maintain healthy eating patterns.
So if you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, don’t see it as a prison. Look at your daily food choices, and find ways to experiment. Healthy eating is not limited eating, it is merely informed eating. Your options are still numerous, but you now are encouraged to play with your choices and find or rediscover things you have forgotten or did not even know were delicious. Remember to discuss proposed changes to your diet with your doctor first.
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With so much information on cable TV and on websites competing for attention, it is sometimes difficult to sort nutrition facts from fiction. The advocates for each new product or fad diet make claims that really need to be examined in light of scientific facts.
Whether you use your high performance blender to make raw fruit or vegetable smoothies, or you prefer to make soups, sauces and dips, debunking these top 4 myths will give you some information about ingredients you use.
#1 You shouldn’t eat eggs because they raise your cholesterol
It is true that a regular chicken egg contains 200 mg of cholesterol and 1.6 grams of saturated fat; most of the cholesterol is in the yolk. But egg consumption alone does not raise one’s cholesterol levels.
An individual person’s cholesterol level is due to a number of factors, including heredity and activity level. Anyone who has quizzed a doctor about the components of cholesterol test results learns that there are at least three separate measurements: low density lipoproteins (LDL) or “bad” cholesterol, very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) also known as triglycerides, and high density lipoproteins (HDL) or “good” cholesterol. It is the interrelationship of these three components along with the overall total that doctors consider before prescribing medication, dietary changes or
While eating high cholesterol foods can contribute to higher cholesterol levels, it is important to eat them in moderation and make sure you are getting plenty of exercise and that your diet is consistently healthy overall.
#2 A vegetarian diet is a healthy diet
Not all vegetarians or vegans have healthy diets. A person attempting a vegetarian diet must find alternative sources of protein and make sure that sufficient levels of calcium, vitamin B12 and omega-3 can be found in non-meat products and non-animal products, as well. While it may appear on the surface that a vegetarian diet is healthier, it is up to the individual to pay attention to daily requirements and select meals that provide the necessary nutrition. By including veggie burgers, lentils, beans, tofu, nuts and seeds in the vegetarian diet, you will reach the recommended level of protein.
If you are staying away from dairy completely, include kale, spinach and collard greens to ensure that you are getting the proper amount of calcium. Miso, seaweed and nutritional yeast are good sources of vitamin B12.
Green smoothies, soups or sauces made with your high performance blender can help you achieve the right nutritional balance needed in the vegetarian diet.
#3 All sugar is unhealthy and should be avoided
The body converts all sugar, whether processed or fructose from fruit, starches and carbohydrates into glucose, which is needed for energy. The insulin our bodies produce carries the glucose into the cells to be used for energy or stored for later use. Too much sugar overloads the body, causing weight gain, hyperactivity and the infamous “sugar crash” when the energy is expended and the sugar level plummets.
Sugar from fruit is digested and enters the bloodstream at a more even rate than sweets and processed sugar. As a result, the body’s sugar level does not tend to spike and crash when it creates glucose from fruit. Another obvious benefit from fruit is that you receive vital vitamins and minerals not present in other sugary snacks.
Fruit smoothies provide energy, and a smoothie base of dairy milk or soymilk gives you a protein boost.
#4 Organic foods have higher nutritional value
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defined the processes that must be followed in order to earn the “organic” label. Organic fruits and vegetables must be grown without the use of chemicals or synthetic material. Fertilizers must be natural, and farmers use beneficial insects instead of insecticides. Weed growth is controlled through crop rotation and weeding instead of spraying herbicides. Organic meats must come from animals that have not been given antibiotics, hormones or any other medications that would prevent disease or encourage growth.
According to an article published on the Mayo Clinic’s website ***, a study that reviewed articles and papers written in the last 50 years was not able to conclude that organic foods are more nutritious than food grown using conventional methods. Organic fruits, vegetables and meats are more expensive, though, due to the labor-intensive processes that must be followed in order to earn the distinctive label.
Whether you make raw smoothies from organic or conventional produce, you will receive the same nutritional benefits. It is the ingredients you choose that determines health value, and not the way the food is produced.
Consider these myths officially debunked and most all-or-nothing statements; all generalized bits of knowledge should be closely examined. When it comes to nutrition, it is important to gather as much scientifically valid information as possible because good health depends on good choices.
*** Reference Mayo Clinic's website: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/organic-food/NU00255
