In this chapter you’ll see an emphasis on some of what we’ve already touched on. For instance, you’ll read more about red meat, eggs, and nuts. But, again, I want to be sure you have all the benefit of recent research as you make the commitment to change your lifestyle choices, including what you eat, as well as some tools to help make the best food choices.
I recently visited a hospital in a primitive area of New Guinea. The capital city was like many of the larger cities in America. They were building a new Hilton hotel and had several skyscrapers, and the people who lived and worked there made a good living. But out in the countryside, life was different.
One Sunday we drove to a little church two miles out on a dirt road. Passing one little village after another, I was informed that the people lived off the land, eating primarily what they grew in their gardens. Some had a pig or two, but they didn’t eat them because that livestock was like a bank account. If an emergency came up, they could sell a pig to get the money they needed.
I asked the doctors at the mission hospital if they had many diabetics. Their response was that heart attacks and diabetes were seldom seen fifteen years ago, but now that the smaller towns were becoming more westernized, they were beginning to see more of those medical problems.
“When all they had to eat were the vegetables out of their garden, we didn’t see diabetes or heart attacks. But now a typical lunch a worker buys in town consists of a soda and three or four flour balls.”
When he explained what a flour ball was, I understood why they were beginning to treat more diabetics. To make a flour ball, people took a handful of flour, added a scoop of butter, mixed it all together, and then dropped it into a pot of grease and fried it. Three of them, along with a sugary soda, would fill them up for the day. The weight of the people who became “westernized” began to increase, and as the economy improved, the diet changed. What one eats definitely plays a role in diabetes.
That’s a good example of how not to eat to defeat diabetes, but the question remains, What should someone with diabetes eat?
Although several diets for diabetics are out there, not one represents a conclusive approach. Some say to eat as few carbohydrates as possible because the carbs cause the glucose to be high and require extra insulin. Others say it’s not the carbohydrates, but the high-glycemic carb foods that break down quickly and cause a spike in blood sugar. Some say you should carry with you some foods with extra sugar to eat in case your sugar gets low during the day. Others say never take in extra sugar; lower your insulin dose instead.
Multiple approaches to losing weight also exist. Some say rather than eating three meals a day, eat small amounts of food throughout the day. Some advise eating a low-carbohydrate/high-fat diet, while others emphasize a high-fat diet. Hopefully, this chapter will help clear up some of the confusion about what foods you should eat to lose weight, but whatever diet you adopt, look for foods that have fewer calories while also keeping you from being hungry all the time.
It’s confusing when some people say a high-fat diet is better but others maintain that a high-carbohydrate diet is better. Both are wrong, and both are right! The reason is because there are both good fats and bad fats and both good carbs and bad carbs.
People who advocate a high-fat/low-carbohydrate diet don’t distinguish between good fat and bad; they just say to eat fat instead of carbs. A diabetic once explained to me how she followed this plan. Her normal breakfast included two eggs with bacon or ham. Because of her medication, she was even able to include biscuits and gravy on occasion, but she stayed mainly with the high fat in the bacon and ham.
Her diet was low in carbohydrates, but here’s the problem: it didn’t address foods that affect the arteries of the heart and brain. Never forget the associated risks you have if you’re diabetic. Everyone with diabetes has a significant increase in the risk of death or health problems related to the health of the arteries in their heart. Don’t address one problem and ignore the other risk factors. The low-carb/high-protein diet may keep your glucose low, but it’s playing havoc with your arteries in the meantime.
Other people maintain that eating carbohydrates is a good approach, but they caution you to focus on the type of carbohydrates you eat. They say to avoid the refined sugars found in sodas and sweets like cakes and donuts, and to eat a diet consisting of the carbohydrates found in high-fiber foods, like many vegetables and fruits and whole grains. Carbs higher in fiber are released slowly and digested without the spikes in glucose, which require your body to produce large amounts of insulin quickly.
To make this simple for you, let me put it this way: avoid the bad fats and eat the good fats instead. The same with carbohydrates: avoid the bad carbohydrates and eat the good carbohydrates instead. The fats bad for your arteries are the saturated fats found in red meat, cheese, egg yolk, butter, cream, and most fried foods. The good fats are found in fish, nuts, olive oil, and avocados. Good carbohydrates are high in fiber, like those found in vegetables, whole grains, and fruit. Of course, the refined sugars are the bad carbs found in things like desserts and packaged sweets.
Just remember this the next time you hear the two diets debated: it’s about good and bad fats and good and bad carbs. Keep this in mind and develop your eating plan around both. By doing so, you can develop a plan that both controls your glucose level and protects the arteries of your heart and brain.
Everyone is different, and that’s why I recommend working out your personal eating plan with your doctor. You will need to balance the glucose in the foods you eat with the number of medications you take and the timing of them. When you understand how your body handles different foods, you can understand what you should eat and what you should avoid.
Changing your diet involves more than learning how to keep your insulin in check. If we back up a step and learn how to address the two main risk factors associated with diabetes, then you’ll find controlling your insulin level much simpler. Learning how to protect your heart with lifestyle changes gives you a double bonus.
The Most Nutritious Foods with the Fewest Calories
What you eat doesn’t affect only your glucose and arteries; it also plays a role with your weight. Your weight-loss eating habits boil down to one issue: calories. Whatever diet you follow, the number of calories you take in must be fewer than the calories you burn. It doesn’t matter what foods you eat or how much food you eat, if you put more calories into your system than your body uses, you will not lose weight.
The key is knowing which foods provide the most nutrition with the fewest calories. Keep in mind both the effect of the foods on your blood sugar and their effect on your arteries. This is not an either/or diet. Develop eating habits that protect your glucose level and your heart.
What are the best foods to fill you up with the least number of calories, so you won’t feel hungry long before your next meal? The answer is vegetables, fruits, and beans. That’s why it’s so important to make salad a major part of your eating habits. A salad alone or with a small portion of fruit or beans or grilled chicken or fish added can fill your stomach. That makes a great lunch, and you can get all the vegetables you need by beginning your evening meal with a salad and variety of vegetables.
Is Red Meat Really Bad for You?
An article in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition presents a good study on whether red meat consumption is associated with increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes. The beginning of the report emphasizes what we’ve been discussing, pointing out that “although obesity and physical inactivity are major determinants of type 2 diabetes . . . dietary factors also play an important role in its development.”
So what about red meat?
The researchers examined the effect of eating certain foods other than red meat. When comparing one serving of red meat per day to one serving of nuts, they found an associated 21 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes among the participants who ate the nuts.
When comparing one serving of red meat per day to a serving of whole grain, there was a 23 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes in those who ate the whole grain.
Poultry and fish each showed a 10 percent lower risk over red meat.
Researchers even broke it down into unprocessed red meat as well as processed meats, such as sausage or hot dogs, and found that both processed and unprocessed red meat are associated with a higher risk of diabetes. They noted that eating red meat is positively associated with a future risk of weight gain.
No risk stands alone. Being diabetic carries a number of factors you can control. Eating red meat is connected with becoming overweight, and that’s associated with increasing your odds of having high blood pressure. As you read studies like these, notice that the various risk factors relate to lifestyle choices you can change.
Why would red meat be bad for a diabetic? Remember, we keep two things in mind: glucose and the heart. Saturated fat is strongly associated with red meats. And as you will recall, saturated fat is the one bad fat we eat the most of in America, which causes a rise in LDL cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is a primary cause of inflammation and plaque buildup in our arteries. Saturated fat stimulates the liver to produce more LDL cholesterol splinters. Therefore, don’t eat the saturated fat. Avoid it. Don’t eat it even in moderation; just avoid it. Don’t eat red meat, cheese, egg yolk, butter, cream, and fried foods.
Don’t focus only on the sugar you eat; think also about the fat. I sometimes wonder why God didn’t place pain fibers in the walls of our arteries. I know it’s far-fetched, but I also know we wouldn’t eat the bad fatty foods that cause LDL splinters if we experienced pain every time we ate a bite of bad fat. Can you imagine how your diet would change if every time you ate red meat, you began feeling splinters all through your body? I suspect you would never eat that food again.
Unfortunately, we don’t experience pain with every bite of bad food. But down the road, we might have the pain of a diabetic foot problem, or experience the pain associated with heart attack symptoms, or know the numbness and tingling pain of a developing stroke.
Since you don’t experience immediate pain when you eat the wrong foods, let me draw a mental picture to remind you what can happen down the road if you continue to consume a lot of saturated fat.
The Carbohydrate Factor
Different types of carbohydrates are processed by the body in different ways. Some carbs are immediately absorbed with a resulting spike in the blood glucose level. This requires an immediate supply of insulin to help get the glucose out of the blood and into the cells. As you recall, with diabetes you have a resistance to insulin, and even if your pancreas increases the amount of insulin needed, the insulin key can’t unlock the cell’s door to let the extra glucose in.
The foods immediately absorbed are called foods with a high glycemic index, meaning they are quickly broken down and absorbed, resulting in that spike in blood sugar. These foods are often called “white foods,” and include food like white bread, baked goods, juices, baked potatoes, and white rice.
The Fiber Factor
Fiber plays an important role in the foods we all choose, but particularly for diabetics. You should eat a diet high in the kinds of carbohydrates that don’t cause a flush effect on your blood glucose after a meal. High fiber content helps control your blood sugar level. Choose foods that have the highest nutrition with the fewest calories that don’t flood your bloodstream with an abundance of glucose. As previously mentioned, fiber content in a food is digested differently and releases glucose into your system much more slowly. The carbohydrate in fiber is compacted so tightly that it’s digested much more slowly or not at all.
Different foods have different amounts of fiber. Many vegetables and fruits contain the fiber that protects you against glucose surges. Begin focusing on vegetables and beans as mainstays. You don’t have to become a vegetarian, but a major part of your diet should include these foods.
An article in Diabetes Care gives good insight into the importance of vegetables. A study that compared vegetarians with nonvegetarians examined which group developed diabetes more frequently. The study concluded the half of participants who ate the vegetarian diet had nearly 50 percent less diabetes, compared to the participants who ate a nonvegetarian diet.
We can learn several significant factors from this. First is the weight factor. In comparing the BMI of the vegetarians to the BMI of those who ate a typical American diet, the BMI was 23.6 for the vegetarians and 28.8 for the nonvegetarians. That’s a five-point spread that tells us a lot about how eating more vegetables is a substantial protection against obesity. Researchers mentioned that other studies confirmed that BMI increases when a wider spectrum of animal products is eaten.
The study also makes an interesting point concerning oxidative stress and chronic inflammation and antioxidants.
Being overweight causes an increase in oxidative stress, which results in chronic inflammation, which in turn causes an increase in insulin resistance. Antioxidants found in vegetables, as well as in fruits, can fight this oxidative stress. This report also found that those who ate the vegetarian diet consumed about one-third more of these protective substances than those who ate the typical American meat diet. Such eating of antioxidants was found to result in a reduction in type 2 diabetes by approximately 40 percent. Rather than taking a pill, you can just eat your vegetables.
One other significant finding concerning the advantages of eating a lot of vegetables centers on the associated arterial heart disease most diabetics develop. The people who ate mainly vegetables also ate substantially less saturated fat than those who ate the typical American diet. Saturated fat has been shown to increase insulin resistance. Therefore, eating less of the saturated fat so common in meat and dairy products resulted in being more insulin sensitive and less insulin resistant.
I reference this study not to try to get you to become a vegetarian but to emphasize the importance of eating vegetables. It’s important to develop this better lifestyle choice now so you can follow it the rest of your life.
High-fiber foods generally let you eat more while consuming fewer calories than those of other foods. If you choose high-fiber foods, you won’t have to count calories and you won’t have to keep records. You’ll base your eating habits on foods that give you the greatest sense of satisfaction as well as having the least number of calories.
The Fat Factor
Remember, there are bad fats and good fats. If you choose a diet based solely on eating protein and eliminating carbohydrates, you open yourself to the associated danger to your arteries from bad fats contained in certain proteins. On some high-protein diets, you can eat all the ham and red meat you want while avoiding most all carbohydrates. Such a diet sounds like a good idea because you’re avoiding foods that cause insulin to have to be produced. However, you may be ignoring the risk factors that can cause associated health problems. High-protein foods rich in saturated fat will eventually affect your arteries to the point of risking a heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s, or even an amputation, as well as putting stress on your kidneys.
An article published in Diabetes Care covered an average of 8.8 years and over 37,000 participants who did not have diabetes at the beginning of the study. They found that the ones who ate a higher consumption of total red meat, especially various processed meats such as bacon and hot dogs, had an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
Why Eat Nuts?
Each gram of fat contains nine calories, and each gram of sugar or protein contains only four. So while you substitute good fat for the bad, you should keep in mind that you’re eating more calories when you eat a fat. That aside, several studies point out the advantage of eating nuts if you’re diabetic. Nuts are so much better for you than those donuts you used to eat. Just remember to limit the amount because of the calorie content.
The good polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat in nuts are known to protect against heart attacks in the general population, but what about the diabetic group? Remember that diabetics are at a higher risk of heart attacks than the general population, with more than 80 percent of deaths caused by diseased arteries, resulting in heart attacks or strokes. In contrast, the number of deaths in the general population in America from heart attack or stroke is more than 50 percent. Being diabetic increases those chances significantly.
A study published by the American Society for Nutrition compared diabetics who ate at least five servings of nuts per week to those who ate less. Researchers found a significantly lower risk of heart artery disease and heart attacks in the ones who ate more nuts than the ones who ate less. The ones who ate nuts had a higher HDL cholesterol and a lower LDL cholesterol. There was about a 50 percent lower risk of heart attack. Walnuts and almonds are two of the best of the good fat nuts, but peanuts, including peanuts in peanut butter, are the most commonly consumed type of nut in the United States. Peanuts are low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat, which have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol. Remember, the good fats increase the HDL cholesterol “patrol cars” that drive around and pick up the LDL “splinters” out of the walls of the arteries and carry them to jail, the liver, to be disposed of.
It appears the protective effect of nuts is even greater for diabetics than for nondiabetics. The good fat not only decreases the LDL cholesterol causing plaque in the arteries but also decreases the inflammation associated with the disease process going on in the body. This results in a decrease in insulin resistance, which you’ll recall is the number one damaging process in the diabetic process.
Researchers concluded that frequent consumption of nuts and peanut butter was associated with a significantly lower heart arterial risk in the individuals who had type 2 diabetes.
A similar report in Current Diabetes Reports states that nut consumption was inversely associated with the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Individuals who consumed one serving of nuts five times per week had a 25 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared with the ones who never ate nuts. The study pointed out that one of the protective actions of nuts is reducing insulin resistance.
Why Not Eat Egg Yolk?
For many years, experts told us the dietary cholesterol in egg yolk would cause an increase in our blood cholesterol. Egg yolks were off limits to protect the arteries of your heart. In the past few years, however, that emphasis has been relaxed to some degree, as it became evident that if you’re going to concentrate on the culprit of disease of your arteries, you should focus on avoiding saturated fats. Even though the dietary cholesterol may not play as significant a role as once thought, as a diabetic trying to avoid as much saturated fat as possible, you should note that the saturated fat content of egg yolks is higher than you should be eating.
But something about egg yolks in relation to diabetes is not yet completely understood. They have an effect on diabetics different than the effect they have on nondiabetics.
Studies show that if you’re diabetic and eat the yolks of eggs, your risk of heart disease significantly increases. This increased risk is substantiated in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. A study involved thousands of patients who did not have diabetes, artery disease of the heart, or high cholesterol at the beginning of the study. Their egg consumption was broken down to compare the outcome of heart disease in those who ate one egg per day versus those who ate less than one egg per week. The results showed that the ones who ate one egg yolk per day doubled their risk of having heart disease.
It’s worth noting that a big part of such an increase in heart risks of diabetics who ate egg yolks is related to the eating habits of people who eat eggs for breakfast. The ones who ate eggs every morning also had the most bacon intake. Also, they were more likely to consume whole milk, red meat, and bread, and less likely to consume skim milk, chicken, vegetables, and fruits.
My mother always told me not to hang around with the wrong crowd. She pointed out three steps to getting into trouble. The first step was just being with boys who may be having a “good” time at a party. “You’re in the wrong crowd,” she would say. The second step was looking at what they were doing. “Now you’re showing interest in the wrong things,” she would add. The third step was joining them, becoming part of the wrong party.
The same could be said for eggs. You shouldn’t be eating the egg yolk in the first place, but now the crowd that hangs around with the yolk is a problem as well—that bite of bacon or ham, that white-bread toast soaked with butter, and, of course, that cream in your coffee. The best defense is to take my mother’s advice. Don’t go the egg yolk route to begin with. Eat steel-cut whole grain oatmeal rather than the egg. Add three fruits to the oatmeal and you will be with the right crowd. If you still desire an egg, try a veggie and egg-white omelet. The egg white gives you the taste but doesn’t have any saturated fat.
Another article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports a similar study of the consumption of eggs as related to the risk to the arteries of your heart. It stated that dietary cholesterol found in egg yolk does raise the levels of your LDL cholesterol in your blood, but the effects are relatively small compared to the effects on your arteries caused by the saturated fat found in red meat, cheese, butter, whole milk, and most fried foods. They reported an increased incidence of coronary heart disease, which means disease of the arteries of the heart, among people with diabetes. They pointed out that the consumption of eggs was more detrimental to diabetics than to nondiabetics, and was strongly associated with the mortality of diabetics, especially as related to deaths secondary to heart problems.
One more article that shines a comparable light on whether diabetics should eat eggs was published in Diabetic Care. They reviewed several studies, collectively, and concluded that “daily consumption of at least one egg is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in both men and women, independently of traditional risk factors for type 2 diabetes.”
An equally significant part of their report is that daily eating eggs not only increases the risk of diabetes but also increases the risk of heart attacks. The study found a twofold increased risk of disease of the arteries of the heart in diabetics.
Again, I suggest a high-fiber breakfast such as steel-cut whole grain oatmeal to start your day. You could put a little skim milk on it, of course, plus some high-fiber fruit. And have a cup of coffee rather than the pulp-free orange juice that has no fiber in it.
If you’re filling up on vegetables and fruits as the largest percentage of your nutrition, what about protein? Most people think meats are the main source of protein in our diet. That’s true, but it’s a half-truth. Remember that little sign in front of the church that read, “A half-truth is still a whole lie”? Many foods other than animal products have protein, including vegetables, beans, and peas. Weight for weight, a similar amount of protein is in such foods as is found in meat.
In deciding what diet you’re going to develop, keep in mind that the cause of death for most diabetics is a heart attack or stroke from disease of the arteries of their heart or brain. Also realize that red meat contains the deadly saturated fat that affects your arteries. Therefore, reduce—or even better, eliminate—red meat protein and replace it with vegetables, beans, and peas for protein.
In summary, focus your new eating habits on getting protein from salads, vegetables, and beans, rather than from meats. Completely avoid red and processed meats, cheese, egg yolks, cream, butter, and fried foods to protect your heart and glucose levels.
Building New Eating Habits
It would be simple if diabetics all had one specific diet plan to follow, but that is not the case. On their website, the American Diabetic Association doesn’t give hard-and-fast rules about what foods to eat. Diets like the Mediterranean diet receive favorable reports, but different views on the best diet for diabetics also exist.
Meanwhile, changing habits takes more than dropping a bad habit. You must replace bad habits with good behaviors or you’ll return to the bad ones. The best way to change a habit is to choose an alternative, so choose an alternative for each bad food you currently eat.
It helps to record these choices. Write down your menu for each meal of the day. Make your decisions before mealtime. Go over your plans again and again until they become habitual in your mind. Every time you want a snack, know what you’re not going to let yourself eat even one bite of. If you’ve been snacking between meals and supplementing it with medication to control the extra sugar you’re taking in, get with your doctor and work out a plan where you don’t eat the snacks and therefore don’t need the extra medication. Plan the amount of food you’ll put on your plate in advance, and don’t go back for seconds. Decide before each lunch and dinner that you will not have dessert.
Let me give you a couple of tools to help you in the process of changing your eating habits.
Bad Fats Picture
Visualize a waiter placing a platter with a nice juicy steak in front of you.
Next he places a fried egg, sunny side up, on the steak.
Then he adds a large slice of cheese on top of the egg, and the yolk breaks and runs down over the steak.
To the upper right of the platter is a glass of whole milk, 4 percent of it cream. Such cream represents ice cream, cream-based soups, and the cream sauces restaurants so often place on your food.
To the upper left of your platter is a pat of butter or margarine.
The last part of this mental picture is a small bowl placed at the top of your plate, filled with grease. This last visual represents all fried foods, because most such foods are fried in animal fat.
This whole picture is your saturated fat picture of what causes an influx of the LDL splinters you want to avoid. Begin developing the habit of avoiding such foods like the plague.
Good Fats Picture
Here’s a picture to help you remember the good fats. Start with a piece of grilled fish in the center of your plate. Fish such as salmon have the good omega-3 fatty acids. When you think of monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat, think of fish.
Think of your plate as a clock. At twelve o’clock, you see a small cluster of nuts. It could be almonds or walnuts or peanuts, but just remember that all nuts have good fat.
At the bottom of the clockface, at six o’clock, is an olive. In the Mediterranean diet, a large part of the good fat comes from olive oil. Use olive oil or canola oil when you cook.
At the three o’clock spot are slices of avocado.
In the nine o’clock space are vegetables, high-fiber fruit, beans, or peas.
These are the foods that will help you lose weight and protect your arteries.
Can You Eat Bad Foods in Moderation?
Many articles about diabetes talk about eating certain foods “in moderation.” But the only road to successful weight loss and maintaining the loss is abstaining from certain foods, not just eating them in moderation. You must beat the desire for bad foods.
My feeling is that you must beat the desire for dessert, for instance, or you will forever be wanting dessert after each meal and will have to rely on your ability to avoid it. You will have to refight the battle every time you eat lunch and dinner.
To me, the word moderation is a trap. It doesn’t make sense to “reward” yourself occasionally with the food you’re trying to avoid. Most overweight people, diabetic or not, realize the dangers of eating the wrong foods, whether refined sugars in donuts or saturated fat in a nice juicy steak. But what they don’t realize is that eating those foods is an addiction. They continue to have a strong desire for that donut or steak and think they can reward themselves occasionally by eating those foods only in moderation. The time eventually comes when they fall back into their addiction and return to eating such foods much more frequently.
The only way to beat an addiction is by abstinence. I remind you, you have to beat the desire or you will return to eating the addictive foods you now love to eat. I’m hopeful you’ll eliminate the desire for such foods because after reading this book you’ll know what each bite is doing to your insulin resistance, blood sugar, and arteries.
General Guidelines for Eating
As mentioned before, even the American Diabetic Association doesn’t give a specific diet plan for all diabetics to follow. Individuals are different and may react differently to a specific diet plan laid out for all diabetics to follow. But you can learn general principles to develop a diet that both covers the glucose problem and protects your arteries.
The Archives of Internal Medicine reported on multiple studies that covered almost seventy thousand women who did not have diabetes or heart disease. They were followed for fourteen years to see which type of diet led to becoming diabetic over another type. The diets were divided into two major groups. One group was what they deemed the Western pattern, which included foods such as red meat, processed meat, fried foods, desserts, sweets, French fries, and foods containing refined grains. The other group consisted of the foods you ought to eat—fruits, vegetables, beans, peas, fish, poultry, and whole grains.
You guessed it. The ones who ate the first group of foods had an increased incidence of diabetes of approximately one and a half times more than that of the group who ate the foods you’re learning to eat in this book.
Another article published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition looks at recommendations from several diabetic organizations worldwide, not just the American Diabetic Association. It takes clinical trials from American, British, and Canadian diabetic associations concerning diets recommended for diabetics and gives us a general overview of the results. No single diet was advised, but in general, most diabetic authorities emphasize:
We talked about fiber earlier in this chapter, but note the emphasis on fiber in those results, indicating that a diabetic should consume more fiber than the general population. Again, recall that fiber releases carbohydrates more slowly and allows for easier control of released glucose. If someone recommended a high-carbohydrate diet that included refined sugars found in sweets, drinks, pastries, and desserts, you would never be able to choose that diet.
Remember that whole grains contain the fiber covering of the particular food source. The same is true of many fruits and vegetables that contain integrated fiber. This article specifies that “whole grains, vegetables and fruits are an integral part of the high carbohydrate, high fiber diet.”
The key to a carbohydrate diet is the fiber. Write down this list: whole grain breads, cereals, brown rice, beans, peas, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. These foods give you a full feeling with the fewest calories. When you eat this way, you’ll see your weight decrease.
Make What You Eat a Habit—and the Right Choice
Breakfast is the easiest meal to make a habit of what you eat. Lunch is almost as easy. If you’re eating out, don’t look at a menu to choose something new. Look at a menu to find what you’re in the habit of eating. The day will come when you won’t look at a menu for ten minutes. You’ll look at it for one minute, and then out of habit, choose what you’ve been eating for months or even years. The key is to learn alternatives, and to make your decisions automatic.
But those alternatives must be the right ones. Replace steak with fish. Let a green leafy salad with beans, nuts, and peas and some fish or grilled chicken replace that hamburger for lunch. Choose high-fiber cereal or steel-cut whole-grain oatmeal instead of bacon and eggs and biscuits and gravy. Replace bad with good. Create new eating habits so you won’t have to “decide” whether you want steak or fish. You won’t have to think about whether to eat the cheese, or the buttered toast, or the high-fat salad dressing.
Your new habits will change what you want to eat. I assure you, it will be surprising how your desire for certain foods changes. You may find it hard to believe now, but the day will come when someone brags on how good a cinnamon roll is, but you won’t have a moment of desire to taste the icing. The habits you begin developing now will make it easier and easier to defeat those moments of temptation.
Rules of Thumb
Again, you will read conflicting information about high-carbohydrate/low-fat diets as well as low-carb/high-fat diets. Whichever diet you follow, the important point is to control your sugar and protect the arteries of your heart.
Below are some dietary “rules of thumb” Dr. Ross Tanner, a physician in Alaska who treats diabetics, has developed to help his patients not only control their sugar but also protect their arteries. It’s good reading for them, and I think it will be for you also.
The three basic nutrient groups are carbohydrate, fat, and protein. Each group has health advantages and disadvantages. If you’re diabetic, carbohydrates can raise your blood sugar. Whether or not you’re diabetic, eating too much carbohydrate and fat will make you gain weight. Eating too much carbohydrate and fat can also make your blood cholesterol numbers worse, which is bad for your heart. As you know, there are good fats and bad fats, good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates. The good fats are in fish, nuts, and olive oil, while the bad fats include the trans fats found in red meat, cheese, cream, butter, and fried foods. The good fats are heart healthy while the bad fats play havoc on the arteries throughout your body.
Remember, ounce per ounce, beans have as much protein as red meat. The good carbohydrates are in the foods with high fiber, while the bad carbs are found in refined sugar foods.
Try to follow the guidelines below when planning your menus.
1. Bad carbohydrates (watch the portion sizes of all carbohydrates)
Avoid white starches: sugar, bread and other flour products, rice, potatoes, pasta, noodles
Avoid root vegetables: potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, parsnips, turnips, and beets
Avoid high-sugar, low-fiber fruits: watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, grapes, pineapple, raisins, dates, mango, papaya, kiwi, commercial fruit cocktail, and fruit juices
Avoid sweet corn, pumpkin, and squash
Avoid does not mean abstain; it means better choices exist with regard to consuming certain carbohydrates based on glycemic index and fiber content.
2. Good carbohydrates
Good vegetable choices: baked beans, other legumes (butter beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, lima beans, lentils, pinto beans, peas, and others), broccoli, cauliflower, string beans, spinach, cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, peppers, radishes, celery, and other green vegetables
Good fruit choices: apples, pears, apricots, peaches, plums, cherries, grapefruit, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries
3. Good fats
Good fat choices: salmon, olive oil, canola oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, olives, nuts, peanuts, and avocados
4. Proteins
Good protein choices: beans and other legumes, egg whites, soy and tofu products, fish, white meat poultry
| Breakfast |
| Steel-cut oatmeal with whole-grain toast |
| Raspberries |
| Bananas |
| Blueberries |
| High-fiber whole-grain cereal with skim milk |
| Peaches |
| Strawberries |
| Raspberries |
| Lunch |
| Green leafy salad with fat-free dressing |
| Beans |
| Nuts |
| Peas |
| Pears |
| Apples |
| Add salmon or grilled chicken |
| Dinner |
| Salad |
| Salmon or grilled chicken |
| Vegetable plate from high-fiber table below |
High-Fiber Foods
| Almonds 18 grams per cup | Apples 4.4 grams |
| Asparagus 4 grams per cup | Avocados 13.6 grams |
| Bananas 3.1 grams | Black beans 15 grams per cup |
| Blackberries 7.6 grams per cup | Broccoli 5.1 grams per cup |
| Brussels sprouts 4.1 grams per cup | Carrots 3.6 grams per cup |
| Collard greens 8 grams per cup | Green beans 4 grams per cup |
| Green peas 14.4 grams per cup | Kale 3 grams per cup |
| Kidney beans 11.4 grams per cup | Lettuce 1 gram per cup |
| Lima beans 13.2 grams per cup | Navy beans 19.2 grams per cup |
| Pears 5.5 grams | Peas 8.8 grams per cup |
| Raspberries 8 grams per cup | Spinach 4 grams per cup |
| Steel-cut oats 20 grams per cup | Whole-grain bread 4–5 grams per slice |