Diabetes: Treatment and Prevention

This is sort of important to me, because I'm starting to feel like I might be developing diabetes (if so, currently in the pre-diabetic stage). Unfortunately, in the US, it's very, very difficult to avoid, thanks to our lovely "healthy" food.

Basics of Diabetes

Fixing Your Diet
It sounds like if you start to be diabetic, what you should really do is fast at least three days, rather than continuing on with normal 3-meal-daily routine. Since the body is making sugars, in response to "low blood sugar" which is actually insulin resistance, due to too much sugar. During sleep it returns to normal, but because there's so much extra, it actually needs extra time to get rid of all the excess, and return to normal. Unfortunately, you're kinda screwed, because your body is mixed up. Exercise lightly to medium, and try to get the muscle and etc back into working order, and give yourself time to get out of this cycle. Keep hydrated during this entire fasting period, you want your body to use up what sugars it produces and flush them out of the system.

"But carbs are bad, and proteins are okay, right?" No. Just no. The high protein diet is messed up in at least two major ways. One, when the body doesn't get enough carbs, it begins using fats and such (let's be real, protein diet is not going to involve you eating beans and lentils, the whole appeal is because you think you can get away with eating sausages all day. You can't! Atkins was a hack!) into sugar and such by way of ketosis. The other reason, is many processed meats contain nitrates and other additives to keep from getting rancid (good for the meat, but not designed for your body).

But right now, blood sugar is so messed up, that eating virtually anything will probably boost it way up. So mainly drink water, and if you must eat something, have some nice kale. Steamed not cooked with oil (again, avoid fats while this is going on). A few of the natural sources of oil are good to have, such as eggs, fish, nuts (in a bag with the shell, in a jar like not peanuts, as they tend to be "roasted" in trans fats and have corn syrup solids and maltodextrin), and olives (again, be careful as many olives are preserved in some kind of oil). Eat plenty of fiber.

Very slowly after doing this for awhile, try to reintroduce food into your diet. One meal a day, plain brown or white rice, with some grilled or steamed veggies, and some fish or beans (again, avoid dry roasted peanuts). You should do this for awhile, to get your body used to dealing with slight boosts in sugar/insulin, gradually raising the size of this one meal. Then move after maybe a few weeks to a month, back into two meals, and after a month back into three meals a day. But not into your normal eating habits! It is possible to relapse into as bad or worse.

Yes, it actually is possible to treat even diabetes, without insulin. (Though you should probably still take it, so I don't get sued.)

It involves giving your body a rest from this whole cycle, by producing low risk reactions. Also, the real trigger for diabetes is fat rather than sugar, since once you reach a state of unhealth, it turns fats into sugars (or tries to). But things like trans-fats, and saturated fats can gum up the works even more.

(Why am I at risk if I know all of this? Well, mainly, because I'm human, and these substances are all-pervasive)

Without spending more pages, than you could count, I'll outline the basic diet:

• High fiber
• Fairly high carbs (CARBS not refined sugars, white bread, or substitute sugars. Pretty much all of them are bad). Actually, stick to brown, black, or red rice and other grains that look whole. Eat cereal grains like rolled oats, or Uncle Sam. Avoid bread (whole grain is not really whole grain, and in the past 10 years, it's gotten so many fillers like molasses, high fructose corn syrup that there's barely any grain in it. And once you turn grain into flour, it is by definition not "whole" anymore. If you must buy bread, get Ezekiel 3:17 or whatever, it has few ingredients and seems pretty healthy)
• Low to moderate saturated fats, raw "expeller-pressed" or "extra virgin" oils. Which may be impossible (oil companies use a ton or questionable processes without marking correct details, and trans-fats are made when oils reach the smoke point, so no, don't cook with olive oil, use a small amount of butter, and use the raw oil as salad dressing). Cook using the leftover grease from the pan, not cooking spray.
• Fish, boiled, raw, or baked (dunno either way about smoked). Flax and fish (and eating the original sources of most vegetable oils, rather than pouring the refined ones from a package, which often contain trans-fats, from the attempts to heat this up and prevent rancidity) restore essential oils to your body.
• Lentils, beans, nuts, or eggs. A low amount of red meat is permissable, but raise it and cook it yourself. Grass fed only.
• Stay the hell away from processed meats, and processed foods in general. Avoid trans fats (read for "partially hydrogenated" companies can and do put 1/2 g per serving of trans fat in and still call it 0g), canola oil (due to the refining process canola oil is stripped from the high acid rapeseed oil, to CANadian Oil Low Acidity, and given alot of filler in the process), agave nectar (it sounds natural, but it's processed even more than corn syrup), refined grains, artificial anything, and high fructose corn syrup (or any of the clever euphemisms, like "cultured corn..." or "corn syrup solids").
• In summary, saute using either butter, or leftover fat from cooking meats. Low your intake of meat in general (and stick to grass fed or organically raised, not candy fed), and eat more grains and much much more in the way of leafy green "cruciferous" vegetables. Raise intake of fish (high in good fats) and beans and nuts. Cinnamon, cloves, and fresh fruit. Eggs are pretty good for you, as is milk (with milk you run into the same problems as "grain"-fed cattle though, reason two I'm probably doomed if I do develop diabetes, I like milk too much). Check ingredients, don't rely on the side of the box.

Basic diet is pretty simple, it's pescolactovovegetarian organic.

Now to segway, I'm going to talk about all the things that can mess you up, in detail.

Grain Fed Cattle
Corn-fed cows are at best fed corn, meaning they are raised on growth hormones (to help them grow up big and strong... in like 5 days or some other obscenely unnatural short amount of time). And more importantly, antibiotics. Why antibiotics? Because corn contains many bacteria (some of which from sitting on the feed floor, and some like that producing smut, found inside the corn itself). These bacteria, because the cow is not designed to be eating nothing but corn provides quick bloating (sounds good except the cow can die from killer gas). So they give it antibiotics. Unfortunately, you forgot to take your antibiotics before eating this burger, so it gives you gas and bloating (and eventually obesity). This is the best case, the worst is that like the video link above, they actually feed the cow a number of fillers (at one point, this involved actual meat, mercury, and other such substances, but after mad cow it's mostly candy and chocolate).

High Fructose Corn Syrup/Agave

Supposedly according to commercials "your body can't tell the difference."

Sorry, this is not really true. While it is true that eating a pound or six of sugar and HFCS will both technically give you diabetes, HFCS is a starch, sugar is well a sugar. Perhaps you forgot science class where they talked about how starches are stored longer in the body. Now add to this fact this is what's called a "freed" sugar/starch, meaning like alcohol it's enzymatically refined, and (possibly unlike alcohol) it's been stripped from its plant chemical bonds, meaning the body can't really metabolize it, it just sorta flushes in (ever wonder why diabetes equals trouble with alcohol? We're getting to that...)

But agave is natural, right? Wrong. Processed agave "nectar" has also been artificially freed of fructose in much the same way, and in much high concentrations, and freed this way, the product as well as HFCS have been shown to produce what is called fructose intolerance, which, (guess what?) wreaks havok on the body's ability to control blood sugar. Without the complex chains found in fruit, the fructose is processed in the liver and takes several days to break down (remember the long fasting period? this is why) In particular for agave nectar, it's sometimes derived not simply from the safe blue agave, but from the poisonous other varieties (lovely...) I'm posting this link twice, because it also has a list of other bad sugars.

Trans Fats
Unlike the above, which is obscenely difficult to avoid, trans fats are (in theory) much easier to avoid.

Only, they're not, because of the prevalence of store-bought goods, and due to the fact that most of the population doesn't know how they're produced.

Found it:
-Vegetable oils (especially canola), can be made hydrogenated by overheating them and passing hydrogen molecules through them. These are not necessarily marked as such, though it's sometimes a good sign that you don't have them if it says "keep in a cool dark place".

One thing that can be agreed upon, as that saturated fat is not great for you, but trans fats, not only clog the arteries, but actively interfere with insulin receptors. Virtually any website I go to, (because unlike corn, there's no real "margarine lobby") admits the fact when a link is known, that at the very least it does clog arteries.

Since the origin may vary, it's probably a good idea not to make your own. Use flaxseed oil for salad dressing (possibly mixed with other substances like ground herbs and veggies), and never ever fry using vegetable oil (it bonds with substances in the air and pan, and becomes very impure, and can become trans fat by accident if used enough). If you're gonna fry, at least be consistent and use lard or something.

By the way, read this article, and all links therein. It gives more information than I can remember about why trans fats mess up your system, and what you can do to reverse them (mainly, replacing the oils in your body with decent ones).

(Yea, I'm sorry for all the in paragraph links, I don't like bibliography sections. Also, I apologize for this entry not being exhaustive, this has been the result of extensive but original research, as I am not a doctor nor scientist, just a person interested in not dying horribly)