Metformin, the most common medication prescribed to patients with type 2 diabetes, is not especially tasty. Let it sit on your tongue for a while, and you’ll see what I mean. And its most common side effect is digestive upset. It does reduce your blood sugar a bit, and some people certainly do benefit from metformin and other diabetes medications. I don’t mean to suggest that you shouldn’t use them. But the foods you are about to try taste a whole lot better, and their combined effect is much greater than any effect oral medications could ever hope to have. And when it comes to healthful, plant-based foods, their side effects are ones you actually want: a slimmer waistline, more energy, and better health.
A diet for turning diabetes around should do three things: set animal products aside, keep vegetable oils to a minimum, and favor low–Glycemic Index (GI) foods. Let me show you how this works. Along the way, you’ll notice what we are not doing: We are not setting any limit on calories, and we are not avoiding carbohydrates. Instead of focusing on how much you eat, we will focus on what you eat. The idea is to eat until you are satisfied and to be sure that the foods on your plate are healthful.
Here are the three keys to this diet.
1.SET ANIMAL PRODUCTS ASIDE • We are going to skip meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, and eggs. That means there will be no animal fat on your plate at all, and no cholesterol. Because everything you eat comes from plant sources, your foods will be loaded with fiber and vitamins, which is a great advantage for your health.
“What, no fish?” you might be asking. That’s right. Fish is much more like beef than it is like broccoli. It has no complex carbohydrates and no fiber, but it does contribute fat and cholesterol to your diet. In fact, some people choose fish precisely because it is fatty. They are piling on the salmon, imagining that its omega-3 fats will work some sort of biological magic. And salmon really is loaded with fat. Atlantic salmon is about 40 percent fat, as a percentage of calories. Chinook salmon is more than 50 percent fat. That is a lot. And while some of that fat is indeed omega-3, most of it is not. Salmon and other fish contribute a load of saturated fat, and, like any other fats, fish fats are dense in calories—which is why salmon lovers often have trouble with their weight. As a group, they are significantly heavier and have a higher risk of developing diabetes than people following plant-based diets.
If you are wondering how you’ll get enough calcium on a dairy-free diet, you’ll find plenty in green leafy vegetables and beans. (More on this in the next chapter.)
2.KEEP VEGETABLE OILS TO A MINIMUM • Although vegetable oils are much more healthful than animal fats—they are typically much lower in saturated fat—they are still high in calories, and it pays to keep them to a minimum. That means using fat-free food preparation methods.
3.FAVOR LOW–GLYCEMIC INDEX FOODS • the Glycemic index (GI) is a guide to how foods affect your blood sugar. For example, white bread tends to make blood sugar rise significantly. Rye bread is gentler on your blood sugar, and pumpernickel even more so. So white bread has a high Gi, while pumpernickel has a lower GI.
Researchers have tested the GIs of hundreds and hundreds of foods. But let’s simplify things. Here is all you really need to know.
•Instead of processed foods containing sugar, have fruit. Yes, fruit is sweet, but it has much less effect on your blood sugar.
•Instead of wheat breads, choose rye or pumpernickel.
•Instead of white potatoes, have sweet potatoes.
•Instead of typical cold cereals, eat oatmeal or bran cereal.
Beans and green vegetables are GI stars, having very little effect on your blood sugar. And surprisingly, pasta (even white pasta) has a low GI because, unlike bread, which is light and fluffy thanks to the yeast used in the baking process, pasta is more dense and compact, so its natural sugars are released only very slowly.
So now that you know what you want to eliminate from your diet, it’s time to talk about what to include. As you build your meals, you’ll start with four healthful food groups: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes (beans, peas, and lentils). Think of them as the palette from which your meals will be created.
VEGETABLES • There is an endless variety of vegetables. You want to get to know cruciferous vegetables, so named for their cross-shaped flowers. This group includes broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, Brussels sprouts, and many others. They are rich in highly absorbable calcium and have been shown to help prevent cancer.
You’ll also want to eat plenty of orange vegetables, such as carrots and sweet potatoes. They get their color from beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant.
Although many people treat vegetables as an afterthought, our meals put them front and center. And why not have two or more vegetables at a meal, such as broccoli and carrots, or sweet potatoes and asparagus?
FRUITS • Fruits are the original fast foods. They are loaded with vitamins and antioxidants and are great as snacks, desserts, or full meals, if you like. You are already familiar with apples, bananas, oranges, peaches, pears, and other grocery store staples. But branch out and try tropical papayas and mangoes, if you have not already, as well as berries, including blueberries, raspberries, etc.
Despite their sweet taste, most fruits have a low Glycemic Index. Although watermelon and pineapple have somewhat higher GIs, they are mostly water, so there is really not a great deal of sugar in them, and I suggest enjoying them just like you would other fruits.
As you select your vegetables and fruits, look for color. Orange, red, and purple—these colors mean antioxidants. (Orange means beta-carotene, red means lycopene, and purple means anthocyanins, to be specific.) And green leafy vegetables are typically rich in iron and calcium.
WHOLE GRAINS • Rice, oats, barley, and dozens of other grains—and the delicious foods made from them—are loaded with healthful complex carbohydrates and fiber. Whole grains have health advantages that refined grains don’t. When a grain’s outer bran coating is removed, it loses its fiber, as, for example, when brown rice is converted to white rice or when whole wheat is converted to white flour.
Even so, when researchers have tested white pasta, they’ve found its GI to be remarkably healthy, as I mentioned earlier—even though it has very little fiber. The reason, again, is that pasta is highly compacted and digests slowly, so it has less effect on blood sugar than white bread, which has air pockets and therefore releases its sugars more quickly than pasta does.
Some people are going gluten-free. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. About 1 percent of the population has celiac disease (a sensitivity to the gluten protein), so they really do need to avoid these grains. Some other people—perhaps 1 in 10—feel better when they avoid gluten, too. Their digestion is better and they feel better mentally. But most people can eat wheat, barley, and rye with no problem.
LEGUMES • “Legumes” is a fancy word for beans, peas, and lentils. Pinto beans, black beans, chickpeas, navy beans, soybeans—these simple foods were staples for our grandparents but have been forgotten in recent years. You’ll want to bring them into your life. They give you protein without cholesterol, calcium without saturated fat, and plenty of soluble fiber, and they boast a remarkably low Glycemic Index.
Try lentil or split pea soup as a savory start to a meal. Pinto or black beans can fill a burrito or taco, and chickpeas can top a salad or turn into hummus to spread on a sandwich or use as a dip. Soybeans have been turned into everything from soy milk and tofu to yogurt, cheese, bacon, and sausage. All of these soy alternatives are far healthier than the products they replace.
By the way, if you have bought into the “soy is unhealthy” myth, let me say a quick word to try to make sense of it for you. A century ago, researchers discovered compounds in soybeans and many other foods called isoflavones. Because their chemical structure looked vaguely like testosterone, estrogen, and other hormones, some reasoned that isoflavones might act like hormones, impairing fertility and promoting cancer.
The opposite is actually true: Soy products have no harmful effect on fertility at all. And a 2014 meta-analysis summarizing the results of 35 prior studies showed that women who consume the most soy products (soy milk, tofu, etc.) have about a 40 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer, compared with their soy-avoiding friends. Similarly, in a report based on the experiences of 9,514 women who had been previously treated for breast cancer, those who consumed the most soy had about a 30 percent reduction in their risk that the cancer would return, compared with women who generally avoided soy products. Among men, soy products appear to reduce the risk of prostate cancer.
Soy products are not essential for good health, but they are handy, and evidence suggests that they may help prevent cancer. As we saw above, women who include soy milk, tofu, and other soy products in their diets are less likely to develop breast cancer. If they had previously been treated for breast cancer, these same foods are also associated with better odds for survival.
Vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes are ingredients. On your plate, they translate into angel hair pasta topped with artichoke hearts and seared oyster mushrooms, a chunky vegetable chili, butternut squash soup, Cuban black beans and rice, and many other possibilities.
Page through the recipes. You’ll find a Caesar dressing that is lusciously creamy but that doesn’t contain a drop of dairy or oil, as well as the most delicious chili you’ve ever tasted. No one has to know that cauliflower and carrots are hidden inside. How about a burger and onion rings? We’ll show you how to make them in a healthful way, without a speck of meat or dairy products. Or savor our Cocoa Carrot Muffins or our Strawberry Chia Pudding. Even as your taste buds are rejoicing, your body is regaining its health.
Two more bits of advice:
•Incorporate raw foods into your diet. For some reason, raw foods seem to add extra weight-loss power. Most fruits are great raw, and many vegetables are, as well. (By the way, this is not true of broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, which need to be cooked to be digestible.)
•Also, do not avoid carbs. Some chronic dieters have trouble freeing themselves of the “carbs are fattening” myth. But when you cross rice, pasta, and sweet potatoes off your shopping list, you are missing out on the foods that have kept populations thin and healthy over millennia—and condemning yourself to a lifetime of weight struggles. Take an orange crayon and write on your refrigerator door, “Carbs have only four calories Per gram; fats have nine!” And enjoy healthful, carbohydrate-rich foods. These foods are modest in calories and will help you stay slim.
In the next chapter, we will look at getting complete nutrition. It’s easy. And be sure to pay careful attention to the section on vitamin B12.