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Nutrition Fighting Diabetes With Diet

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Bonkin

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Hey everyone! I'm new to the forums and based on some of the stuff discussed in my Introduction Thread, I decided to collect the links, articles, and book recommendations here, so that I and others with diabetes and pre-diabetes can find everything in one place.

At heart, I'm a big fan of "Eat Less. Do More". I'm not trying to push any particular diet over others and am open minded and interested in what others are doing to come up with what will work for me over the long term. I hope you find what works for you too. As @Abdul Rasheed says below: "We can fix it! It is mostly diet." I think there's a LOT of wisdom in both of those sentences.

For now, I'll just collect things from my Intro Thread and will update as I learn more and others post in this thread to help collect things in a semi-organized fashion.

Books
Strong Medicine
I just finished the reading this today and in my opinion it does contain some strong medicine. As @TravisDirks mentioned in the post below, it teaches a lot more about the "why", which I found very educational. In particular, about how inflammation due to poor eating, stress, lack of fitness is thought to be primary with several diseases, including diabetes. This echoes my last discussion with my doctor, who explained his thoughts on inflammation, but I was too uninformed to really understand completely. After reading this book, I plan to have a more in-depth discussion about it on my next visit with him. While many of things, are "common sense" as @Steve Freides mentioned in his post below, the book also has some interesting things I hadn't thought of regarding blood glucose levels. In particular, rather than just checking blood glucose 2 hours after eating, the book proposes checking both at 1 hour and 2 hour post-meal to help you learn how much starch YOUR body tolerates at meals. For example, my recent testing indicated that when I eat my usual breakfast of two eggs and a piece of cheese on two pieces of wheat toast falls inside the parameters at 2 hours - it falls way outside the parameters at 1 hour. When I switched it up to the same contents in a single tortilla, I was inside the parameters at both 1 hour and 2 hours. I am continuing to try this protocol with other meals to increase my knowledge of how MY body deals with starch/sugar loads at meal times. YMMV, but I also highly recommend this book. Thanks for the recommendation, @TravisDirks !

Warrior Diet
I have not read this. But it was suggested by Abdul in my intro thread and it's on my reading list.

Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Diet for Total Health and a Longer Life
I have not read this. But it was suggest by Pavel Macek in this thread and it's on my reading list.

The 4-Hour Body
I just finished this today (10/16/16) and I really liked the chapters on the Slow Carb Diet. For me the big take away was adding more beans into my diet. While I really like how he dives head first into self testing to experiment on himself - by then end of the book I started getting tired of it. I also thought the book tried to cover way too much - I felt like was bouncing around a bit once I got past the diet part. While he covers a lot of good stuff, I put this book below Strong Medicine when talking about treating Diabetes with Diet.

Practical Paleo
I've not read this. Recommended by HenningB.

Carb Backloading
I've not read this. Recommended by kettlebelephant.

Articles and Links
Dietary carbohydrate restriction as the first approach in diabetes management: critical review and evidence base
Diabetes and Your Diet: The Low-Carb Debate
How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat
We're So Confused: The Problems With Food and Exercise Studies AKA You Can’t Trust What You Read About Nutrition
Super Juice Me! Documentary
Minding your Mitochondria

Other Good Stuff
On Diabetes: I'm assuming you have TypeII - That is your body is making plenty of insulin, but your receptors have become desensitized.
  • As you seem to be well aware, your first line of defense is your diet. If you limit your consumption of insulin spiking foods (and food combinations) you can likely live without medication.
  • Your strength training will also help, as it is a conscious activity you can use to "manually" open the cellular doors (that are missing the insulin signal to open) and let sugar out of your blood stream.
  • If you severely limit you exposure on the scale of months you can probably regain some sensitivity to insulin and work your way back into the "pre-diabetic" range and perhaps better. See this paper: Dietary carbohydrate restriction as the first approach in diabetes management: critical review and evidence base.
  • I also highly recommend the book Strong Medicine.
One Final note: Focus your energy on making permanent upgrades to your life (Start with the notion of lasting change) and on making the upgrades to your life permanent (Put daily effort into build and nurturing the new habits).

Just chiming in on the type 2 diabetic (or pre-diabetic) topic. I was diagnosed pre-diabetic (hba1c was 5.9) , after several months of strength training and reasonably strict diet my hba1c has come down to 5.2 last week. So it is doable. We can fix it. It is mostly diet. I am sure the exercise helps it along. Eat carb only as last resort. Stay away from sugar by all means. Follow perhaps a carb-free flavor of Warrior Diet for a few months.

Good on both of you! I've taken lately to having a carrot I chew on during the day whenever I'm hungry - works pretty well, would be easy to take to work, has a nice nutritional profile and, unlike lettuce, it has a little bit of sweetness to it that, at least for me, makes it work better in terms of being satisfied after eating it.

-S-

I don't have a dog in the diabetes diet fight, but here's an article I happened to read in this morning's New York Times, asserting that the evidence for low carb diets as an effective treatment for diabetes is weak (beyond the effects of losing weight on any diet):

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/health/type-2-diabetes-low-carb-diet.html?_r=0

Here's another tangentially related article about how the sugar industry influenced research connecting saturated fat and heart disease as a way of directing attention away from connections between sugar and heart disease:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-to-fat.html

I take any nutrition related research with a grain of salt...or whole grains...or fish oil...or...oh, never mind ;-).

You Can’t Trust What You Read About Nutrition

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/u...-problems-with-food-and-exercise-studies.html

Just to add to @Steve Freides's advice about a carrot as a snack - 1 carrot with 1 teaspoon on nutbutter (currently on almond, homemade with a tiny pinch of salt) is aa great filling snack. The nut butter adds a "meaty" element to the whole mix. Approved by at least 1 dietician I know who does a prediabetes clinic in an area with a very high prevelance of type 2 diabetes.
 
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I have heard Strong Medicine get thrown around quite a bit as a fantastic resource - anyone else who has read it have any comments?
 
I have heard Strong Medicine get thrown around quite a bit as a fantastic resource - anyone else who has read it have any comments?
I have not, and while I have great respect for the author as a powerlifting coach and, indeed, a life coach for many of his trainees, I don't think this subject requires a book.

Start with eating better versions of what you eat now - whole foods or as close to that as reasonably possible, and it's possible to get very close. Grass fed beef, fresh vegetables and fruits but mind the fruits for their calories.

Continue with eliminating excesses in whatever forms you find them - keep carbs moderate, keep sugar and alcohol to absolute minimums and try to eliminate them.

Learn to live with less food overall - look into intermittent fasting programs like the Warrior Diet, and learn to be a little hungry without panic.

Remember that any dietary changes will take time to get used to - a few days is unlikely, a few weeks common, a few months possible, and never getting used to them is also possible but eat better because you are interested in the bottom line of being around and healthy for your loved ones.

-S-
 
I have heard Strong Medicine get thrown around quite a bit as a fantastic resource - anyone else who has read it have any comments?

I loved it. I think it's main strong point is that it does a great job of explaining the underlying biological mechanisms that tie together most of chronic disease. It also does a good job of explaining what you can do about it in the context of the underlying mechanism. For me that is WAY more powerful. First you leave understanding WHY you should do or not do something. Second and probably more importantly, you have a model you can use to think with. So when any of the infinite things not directly prescribed comes up in life you can reason through what you should do. It's the difference between printed out directions from mapquest in the early 00's and googlemaps live on your phone. (Or maybe just an old fashion map... you still have to be willing to think to get this second benefit after all)

The one minor con I would point out, is that the book as a very self published feel, which can hurt the, for lack of a better word, first-impression-credibility. That said I understand it, because I don't think you could get a major publisher to really back a book like this, as the book commits the modern publishing gaff of failing to assume that you are stupid.
 
Yes there are plenty of excellent choices. But you made a very important point about eating 'better versions' of what you do now. I could not agree more. This is 100% spot-on. And that applies to all of the food groups. (including coffee)
 
Start with eating better versions of what you eat now - whole foods or as close to that as reasonably possible, and it's possible to get very close. Grass fed beef, fresh vegetables and fruits but mind the fruits for their calories.
This is a great way to go. With two caviates 1) that we define better as closer to something living and growing - whole foods as Steve said. 2) Some diets cannot be made good enough. If you find yourself picking foods further from whole foods to make you diet "more healthy" you might have this problem.
Learn to live with less food overall - look into intermittent fasting programs like the Warrior Diet, and learn to be a little hungry without panic.
This was huge for me. I wasn't diabetic, but I was 50lbs overweight and probably headed there. Learning to ignore the thing we call hunger is crucial. I found the mental imagery of the stoic observer to be helpful. Take a step back or up in your mind and just observe what your body is feeling. Then (at the risk of making it sound bad for the sake of clarity) you essentially mock and belittle your weak animal self. Remind yourself how much others have and are going through. Remind yourself what your body is built to endure. And glory in the unaffected strength of your mind/"trueself" - this self that is free to simply observe the feelings.
Remember that any dietary changes will take time to get used to - a few days is unlikely, a few weeks common, a few months possible, and never getting used to them is also possible but eat better because you are interested in the bottom line of being around and healthy for your loved ones.
Yep, big time. This means several things. First, when you fall off the wagon, it's know excuse to quit. It's expected, so stop feeling bad and get started again. Second when you are STILL fighting these things years later you have to remember you are retraining an old dog. Those habits are deeply en-grained and they will comeback, especially when you are tire, hungry, or in a new situation that demands more attention than normal e.g. traveling, or taking a new job.
So spare your mental energy when you can, by making the habits you want much easier to follow than the old ones. For example I had a habit of FILLING my plate. I bought "appetizer" plates (which older people tell me are what plates used to look like).
 
If we start with the assumption that the best scenario is: grass fed steak plus plate of organic veg is optimal but this has to balanced with cost and convenience. At the other end of the scale is industrialised cheap grain soaked steak and a plate of non organic veg drenched in pesticides. What if a compromise needs to be met based on cost and/or convenience, grass fed steak but non organic veg or grain fed steak but served with fresh organic veg?
If grass fed is less inflammatory, the potential inflammatory effects of grain fed could be mitigated by anti inflammatory organic spinach and broccoli.......choices, choices. But in the context of a healthy balanced diet, does grain v grass fed matter that much? I dunno. Equally go out for a fine grass fed steak, wash it down with 10 pints of beer and get into a fight with a vegan and end up in a cell......there are other lifestyle factors to consider!
Having an idea of where your food comes from helps to make informed choices. I tend to buy cheaper cuts of meat and offal but spend more on veg quality. And also slower cooked bone in meat v pan fried steak. But who knows if that is best or not?
 
In Carb Backloading John Kiefer justifies his diet advice with the way our bodys and especially people with diabetes react to to weight training. He gives lots of studys and sciency stuff about how you can increase your insuline sensitivity with weight training and how it can be used as "medicine".
Sure it's not really about dieting, but since you can find the information in a work about diet I thought to share it with you.

FWIW I strongly believe a proper diet containing "real", unprocessed, natural food combined with physical activity can cure a lot of diseases and allergies that people suffer from in todays world.
If you haven't done it yet, watch Jason Vale's "Super Juice Me documentary" and Terry Wahls "Minding your mitochondria". Both are mindchanging.
 
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@Henningb Thanks, I've added it to the book list!

@Steve Freides Thanks for moving it - I didn't mind the conversation in this thread - but after you moved it I agree it makes better sense to have a separate thread.

@Kettlebelephant Thanks for the info - Ive added them to the book and links section as appropriate. I tried juicing a few years ago - felt great, lost some weight fairly quickly. I did not find it very sustainable and from the little bit of research I've done and on my doctor's advice I don't know that juicing is the best avenue for diabetics. I will however watch the documentary with an open mind when I get a chance. I'm always up for learning new things.
 
@Kettlebelephant, please summarize the approach in the book you mention, Carb Backloading.
Ok...
First of all I wouldn't recommend Carb Backloading to anyone dealing with diabetes!
I only mentioned the book (it's only an ebook) because of the research on diabetes it contains.

CBL is a version of intermitted fasting combined with timed carb consumption. IIRC you fast for 12 hours and during the phase before training you only consume protein, fat and a limited amount of carbs (>25g in the form of vegetables). After your training session you basically go crazy on carbs. Eat as much as you like in a 4-5 hour window and then you go to bed. During this carb backloading, as he calls it, you eat only protein and high-glycaemic carbs. Yes, he tells you to eat pizza, ice cream, cake, donuts and stuff like that.
According to Kiefer you can do that because training (bodybuilder style -> depleting your glycogen stores) increases your insulin sensitivity by a huge amount and the carbs are only transported into your muscle cells and not your fat cells. You need the high-glycaemic carbs a) for the huge insulin spike and b) they shouldn't be slow digesting, because your body should go into fasting mode (GH hormones etc.) as fast as possible after your high carb eating window in the evening.
The diet also relies on ketosis and you need to go through a 2 week low carb phase and things like that.
As I said, to justifiy this approach he uses research on diabetes (insulin sensitivity response to weight training etc.).
There's more to this, but it's been years since I read it, so this is all I can give you.

FWIW If your goal is to gain muscle and lose fat/maintain current fat level while at the same time still be able to eat your favorite junk food, the diet really works.
I didn't experience any bad side-effects during my test run with the diet, but stuffing your face with highly processed, high glycaemic food is just against my believe of proper nutrition and I think you'll run into some kind of troubles down the road with this approach.
 
@Kettlebelephant and anyone interested, another book along these lines it Natural Hormonal Enhancement. It's a ketogenic diet with carb loading and written, if memory serves, by a bodybuilder.

-S-
 
Updated to include my review of Strong Medicine as I just finished reading it today.
Very cool how you are keeping the top post together! It hadn't occurred to me to use the forum that way before. I think it will really help folks, thanks!

Ill be looking for an opportunity to emulate.
 
4-Hour body is such a cool book. Big fan of the work Tim Ferriss does, he seems very inquisitive, open to what works, willing to test on himself, always looking for a better/more efficient way.
 
So I thought I'd give you guys an update on Fighting Diabetes with Diet. Of course, exercise played a big role, but I believe diet played a bigger role.

I went to the doctor today and had an A1C test. The results were 5.5 (normal range) - down from 7.4 (diabetic range) on 8/15/16. I also lost 20 pounds along the way (for a total of 35), although I still have 20-25 more to go.

So here's what I did:
  • Got involved in the forums (education, surrounding myself with successful people who are good influences, accountability)
  • Booked a session with an SFG (awesome to know where my form was good and where it needed correction)
  • Simple and Sinister ~5 times a week (although I went down to 3x/week since starting judo 3 weeks ago)
  • Cardio 3-4 hours/week (mostly walking, some biking, a little running, and last month some rucking - 85-90% of all the cardio would be considered easy)
  • Increased sleep from 4-5 hours up to 7-8 hours
  • Cut out (almost) all processed food
  • Cut out (almost) all starchy carbs
  • Cut out all added sugar
  • Increased veggie intake by a lot
  • Added beans to some meals
A lot of the above was influenced by encouragement and direct advice from folks around here or indirect in the form of book recommendations (Strong Medicine and 4-hour Body in particular). A big thanks to everyone at StrongFirst for helping me get on and stay on the right path. I still have a lot of work to do, but it's awesome hitting a milestone like this and knowing it's only going to get better from here.
 
Congrats @Bonkin ! well done... you deserve it, you have been work incredibly hard and it is showing up.
You have to be on cloud nine right about now....
 
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