Drinking and diabetes

Here's what the NIH says about alcohol

Alcoholic Drinks
Alcoholic drinks have calories but no nutrients. If you have alcoholic drinks on an empty stomach, they can make your blood glucose level go too low. Alcoholic drinks also can raise your blood fats. If you want to have alcoholic drinks, talk with your doctor or diabetes teacher about how much to have.

I'm presuming that they don't really mean that, that when they say alcoholic drinks they mean distilled spirits, whiskey, vodka, gin, rum, that sort of thing. I presume that because most people think of beer and wine as alcoholic drinks and they aren't empty of nutrients. They even have carbs.

The National Institute of Health is supposed to be able to get this stuff right. But it seems that getting the little facts right is just too much for them.

You're on your own. You can't rely on a word they say.

The Diabetes Blog

I have an RSS feed of the most recent post on The Diabetes Blog on my sidebar. It's a product of 5 bloggers who collaborate to blog on recent news and/or science related to diabetes. It's a worthwhile blog to keep up with. Here is a feed of the the title and lead sentence of the most recent 10 posts in that blog.

I just don't get it

I really just don't understand what goes through the minds of the people at American Diabetes Association. I just don't get it.

Today's recipe of the day is for cornbread.

One box of corn muffin mix, one egg, one can of creamed corn. Mix and bake.

They are suggesting that diabetics take cornbread and add some corn to it because twice the carbs is better?

Are they drunk?

How about jalapeno cornbread? Did they ever think of something like that as a substitute for more corn? It just seems insane to me. Maybe somebody can explain it to me?

A cup of creamed corn has about href="http://www.carb-counter.org/veg/search/Corn/1100">46g of carbs.

A cup of chopped pepper (green peppers or jalapenos) is about 7g of carbs.

Their recipe makes 8 servings, and they estimate 26g per serving. That's about double what a typical carb serving is. If instead of adding corn to the corn meal mix you add a mixture of peppers (mix of green pepper and jalapeno depending on your taste) you can cut that about in half.

So why don't they suggest that? Diabetes is about carbs. Carbohydrates. We're supposed to pay attention to that stuff.

I don't understand it.

If I was paranoid I'd think they are getting donations from drug companies and want to encourage everyone to be drug and insulin dependent.

Sleep Apnea and Diabetes

There appears to be some sort of relationship.

People with type 2 diabetes who drag themselves through the day may be among the 36 percent of diabetics suffering from obstructive sleep apnea, according to new research.
Sleep apnea occurs when impaired breathing due to collapsed airways triggers multiple nighttime awakenings.

Chocolate bad, Dark Chocolate Good

At least that's what the research is suggesting about chocolate (or actually about cocoa). Here's a short summary of some of the recent observations.

Dark chocolate lowers blood pressure (which is a risk for diabetics)

Dark chocolate -- not white chocolate -- lowers high blood pressure, say Dirk Taubert, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Cologne, Germany. Their report appears in the Aug. 27 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

But that's no license to go on a chocolate binge. Eating more dark chocolate can help lower blood pressure -- if you've reached a certain age and have mild high blood pressure, say the researchers. But you have to balance the extra calories by eating less of other things.

Chocolate can lower cholesterol

In another study conducted at Pennsylvania State University by study leader Penny Kris-Etherton, a group of participants, split into two groups, ate the same low fat diet except for one of the groups got a chocolate bar and the other group received a high-carb snack. The groups later switched snacks. Total blood cholesterol and LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels didn't vary with either snack. But, increases in HDL ("good") cholesterol and reductions in triglycerides (a heart-risky type of blood fat) were found in the people eating chocolate.

However, it is important to note that these health benefits are seen for people who eat traditional chocolate bars that include minimal amounts of heavily processed cocoa that have been blended with large amounts of sugars, dairy products, and artificial flavorings. But rather, to benefit from eating chocolate, one should be eating dark chocolates that have a high percentage of cocoa content.

And the holy grail for diabetics --- it helps process sugar

A new study in Italy suggests that consuming flavonoid-rich dark chocolate instead of flavonoid-free white chocolate could not only lower blood pressure and cholesterol—benefits suggested by some prior studies—but also improve the body's processing of sugar. That, in theory, could guard against diabetes. Is dark chocolate emerging as a health food?

Diet Tips

The diet blog offers some diet tops for diabetics, and backs it up with research references.

Eat food rich in Magnesium
Eat omega-3 fatty acids
Eat food with low Glycemic Index
Eat complex carbs
Eat fiber

See the blog for details.

TV show on diabetic lifestyle

I haven't seen the show but apparently CNBC has a Sunday evening show for diabetics.

dLifeTV is the first and only national, weekly, lifestyle series devoted to living with diabetes, and www.dLife.com is the largest, independent website with diabetes information. The dLife.com Viewing Room offers original streaming video content — unique and entertaining information for people with diabetes, with prediabetes, or who have a family member with diabetes. Produced by LifeMed Media, dLife is the first-ever multimedia platform for diabetes information, inspiration, and connection. dLifeTV airs every Sunday on CNBC at 7:00pm ET, 6:00pm CT, and 4:00pm PT. The dLife Diabetes Minute is heard on radio stations around the country and on XM Satellite Radio.

Coffee for diabetics

Is coffee good for diabetics?

It has no carbs. That's sure a good thing. Diabetes is about the body not being able to process carbs. If you have no carbs, then no problem.

But, interestingly enough, coffee does have fiber.

Already recognized as a source of healthful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds, coffee also contains significantly higher levels of soluble dietary fiber than other commonly consumed beverages, scientists in Spain report.

I'm guessing that no carb fiber content has something to do with the reason coffee appears to be a good diabetes preventive.

And although popular medical beleif is that caffaine raises blood pressure, recent research creates some doubt about that.

Low-Carb Lunch

Chop up a bunch of cilantro, a bunch of parsley, mix it up with some cottage cheese and some black pepper, lots of pepper.

You're often on your own during a hospital stay.

Here's a breif article that drives home a very important concept to retain -- if you're a diabetic don't expect the hospital medical staff to pay any attention to the management of your diabetes during a hospital stay.

Even if they're checking your blood sugar regularly, the nurse taking the readings is not talking to the person preparing yor meals.

During one short hospital stay of my own I was actually intially hospitilized because of very high sugar and high blood pressure -- a direct result of the diabetes. And the only way I was able to finially get the sugar back under control was to just leave the hospital. Hospitals just aren't set up to manage chronic conditions.

American Cheese

I looked at the package nutrition information on some packs of sliced American Cheese at the store today.

Three different packs, all off-brand, stuff, had 3 different carb contents. The slice size was the same for each, 19g, one had 6g of carbs, one 3g, and one 0g.

The difference seemed to be the use of soybean oil. The zero carb package used skim milk and didn't have soybean oil on the list of ingredients, the 6g one had it listed first.

The zero gram package was also the most expensive. It appears that soybean oil is a cheap ingredient of fake cheese, but it's also full of carbs.

Diabetes as a community health problem

We tend to think of diabetes as a personal health issue to be treated with medication, diet, and exercise. Treated with both medicine and lifestyle controls.

But, as this article points out, when diabetes becomes a community health issue it sometimes calls for a very different kind of treatment approach.

When loss of habitat resulted in a decline in the moose population in the Opasquayak Cree Nation in Manitoba, hunters were unable to provide for their families. They went on welfare and began drinking. The women no longer had the work of preparing meat or hides. Sons no longer had pride in going out with the men. Rates of abuse, crime and diabetes went up.

The government poured money into diabetes prevention programs – toward monitoring symptoms and glucose in the blood. The rates of diabetes and of crime continued to rise.

"But as we watched the moose population go up after a moose management program was instituted in 1975, we saw the diabetes and abuse go down," said Henry Lickers, ...

What they leave out of diabetic diets

Here's the details of a 1200 calorie diabetes diet that just looks to me like it has way too many carbs.

The 1200 calories is intended to weight loss, which is certainly going to be a good thing for most of us. But they're recommending 50% or more of that diet come from carbs? Huh? What is that all about.

They just gloss over it when they talk about the diet, but it's actually about two things not directly related to diet -- the form of your medical treatment, and the amount of regular exercise built into your lifestyle activities.

They assume you're taking insulin and that the amount of insulin is enough to process the recommended 10 or so carbohydrate servings per day. If you aren't taking insulin then you're depending on your medications to stimulate insulin production. They are right in their analysis of this diet when they say that you should spread out your carb intake over the entire course of a day to even out your need to process the sugars, but, I'm not so sure about the levels.

They do mention their assumptions about taking insulin, although they only do so in passing. What they don't mention at all is the need for exercise. And that's a very critical factor in how much sugar or carbs your body is going to be able to process.

Some of us don't get regular physical activity throughout the day. I'm a writer for a living, which means a good bit of my day is spend sedentary. I do work at home, and have a large yard, so I can take frequent breaks to go outside and do a little yardwork. But the weather doesn't always cooperate with that. And, one of the complications of my diabetes is high blood pressure and a corresponding lack of stamina. So I can only tolerate exercise for short bursts.

Ten servings of carbs per day? If you take insulin and get regular brisk exercise, that's probably a good idea as long as the servings are spread out. But, if you don't take insulin and aren't able to get regular brisk exercise then that's probably at least twice the level of carbs you need to be ingesting.

Diet needs to be part of your lifestyle planning. That doesn't just mean you have to adjust your lifestyle to your diet. Sometimes you have to adjust your diet to your lifestyle. And too much of the published recommendations for diabetic diets just simply ignore that.

Lunch

A packet of Punjab Eggplant mixed with a small handful of sliced jalapenos, a couple of Roma tomatoes cut into chunks, a little picante, some powdered curry, then microwaved for a couple of minutes, served with a Mission Carb Balance tortillas.

Should diabetics eat bananas?

My guess is that diabetics really shouldn't eat bananas.

They're a healthy food generally, but the sugar content is just too much for the typical diabetic. At least that's the general impression I have. Like almost everything else related to diet for those with diabetes, it's never clear cut.

If you think of the carb content of an "average" serving of food as about 15 grams, then the 27 grams in a banana is pretty high. I'm not positive that 15 grams is the right per serving benchmark but it's the rule-of-thumb they taught in the VA hospital sponsered seminars on diets for diabetics that I went to a couple of years ago.

The party line is that a serving of fresh fruit is a serving of fresh fruit, but I'm not convinced.

Banana is a very sweet fruit (even if it doesn't taste sugary) and some of the more rational advisors suggest keeping those serving sizes of very sweet fruit small and limiting them to inclusion with meals that have some fat and protein (fat and protein help the body process the high sugar).

Some thoughts on diabetes and sugar

Last year I was kind of depressed for a while and wasn't taking my medications regularly.

I even engaged in some really stupid behavior like buying a box of Raisin Bran and half gallon of whole milk and just pigging out on all those carbs and fat in one evening.

I started feeling real bad, my back was hurting, it got really bad. Bad enough that I decided to take a trip to the emergency room. Even driving was difficult for me.

I had very high blood pressure and high sugar. The high sugar wasn't surprising, given my recent binge eating of high carb foods, but the high blood pressure was something new.

But that's not really what this post is about. It's about the food they gave me while I was in the hospital (they admitted me). Carbs. Lot's of carbs. Breakfast with grits, biscuits, fruit, milk. Lunch with corn, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, cornbread. Carbs.

And, of course no exercise. Even though they were giving me insulin shoots (I don't normally take insulin) my sugar levels stayed high. The diet they give diabetics seems to have a focus on the nutrition side of the diet (and of course that's important) but they ignore the sugar side of the diet. With diabetes I don't think that's a good idea, even though that seems to be the approach recommended by the American Diabetic Association.

What the hell did they expect?

Coffee and milk

Coffee seems to be a good thing for diabetes prevention.

Adding some milk to that coffee seems to be a good idea also.

Again, it's not clear what the deal is if you already have diabetes.

Selenium

Selenium is a trace element that finds it's way into the food supply via the soil.

Small amounts of selenium help improve sugar processing, which is a good thing, and has some other good effects.

Taking supplemental amounts with multivitamins can help ward off prostrate cancer, which is also a good thing.

But, at the same time, those increased levels of selenium combined with multivitamins can increase the risk for diabetes, which is not a good thing.

It's not clear what effect, if any, it might have if you already have diabetes.

Dark Chocolate

Small amounts of dark chocolate, eaten regularly, have recently been found to lower blood pressure. There are other health benefits to dark chocolate.

High blood pressure is a risk for diabetics, but diabetics need to be careful with the dark chocolate becuase of the sugar.