Peace Wellness Center, PLLC
DIABETIC DIET PLAN
CONTROLLING DIABETES IS THE KEY: Since you have diabetes you must realize that you cannot handle carbohydrates and proteins (as they are turned into carbohydrates a little, too) metabolically or hormonally, as you have a problem of not producing insulin or having your body not respond to the insulin you do make. Insulin helps the body clear blood sugar from one's blood; if there is a problem making or using it, your blood sugars will stay high and cause grave damage to your body over time. THIS IS PREVENTABLE. Even patients on insulin MUST decrease their intake of carbohydrates; only if your carbohydrates are few and your protein is modified can we hope to remove you from your medicines (Type 2) and/or enable you to use the LEAST amount of injected insulin to control your blood sugar. It is only by using the least amount can we ensure you'll have the best chance to keep your blood sugar around 100 mg/dl 24 hours a day. You can live a long healthy life as a diabetic if your blood sugars are well regulated and they CAN be well regulated.
Let’s Talk About Exactly What You Can Eat
READ LABELS ON EVERYTHING YOU PLAN TO BUY—you want to check the ingredient list but also the column above that lists the grams of carbs, protein and fats.
In general regarding ORGANIC FOOD, the rule is if it is AVAILABLE AND AFFORDABLE, buy it. If not one or the other, then don’t and just bless and eat your normal food.
640 W. Maryland Ave., Suite 3, Phoenix, AZ. 85013 (602) 439-0000 Fax: (602) 439-0021
Abbreviations: HFS stands for Healthy Food Stores and includes Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Gentle Strength Coop, Trader Joe’s, AJ’s Fine Foods, and others of the same sort. SHA—stands for supermarket healthy aisles
Here is your Daily Amounts for Carb Grams and Protein Grams:
Nota Bene: 1 oz of protein=6 grams of protein. Animal flesh comes in ounces, but protein on packaged food is listed in grams. The above ratio tells you how the two are related.
Breakfast: 6 grams of Carbs and ___ oz of protein/___ gm of protein
Lunch: 12 grams of Carbs and ____oz of protein/____gm of protein.
Supper: 12 grams of Carbs and ___oz of protein/____gm of protein.
There are less carbs allowed in the morning, because blood sugar tends to rise naturally in the morning.
Basic Dietary Ideas
BREAKFAST: Berries 2 egg omelet with an ounce of cheese and some veggies. Rye Krisp cracker with turkey breast, sardines, cheese, etc. Organic bacon or sausage with an egg.
LUNCH: SALAD Try some chicken salad, or salmon salad, or egg salad on it. Use walnuts and feta cheese, or grated cheese, or cubed cheese with ham. Try some herring, or turkey, or sunflower seeds, or a mixture. Add in olives, pickles, radishes for different flavors. Eat crackers with it.
SUPPER: MEAT AND VEGGIES Stir fry a couple of cups or more of any type of veggie: peas, broccoli, cauliflower, red or green peppers, any type of mushrooms, zucchini, garlic, and add Italian spices or Curry spices. Add in a lamp chop, or a piece of flank steak, or a salmon filet. How about shrimp, or red snapper, or scallops, or orange roughy? How about an almond chicken stir fry using soy sauce for an Oriental meal.
There are recipes to use in the back of Bernstein’s book and at various websites—Here are four really good recipe websites to make use of (there are others you can google plugging in “Low Carb Recipes”: http://www.lowcarb.ca/recipes.html http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/lowcarb-recipes.html http://www.recipegoldmine.com/lowcarb/lowcarb.html http://photopics.com/lowcarb.html
640 W. Maryland Ave., Suite 3, Phoenix, AZ. 85013 (602) 439-0000 Fax: (602) 439-0021
GRAINS
This is your biggest restriction
You need to avoid: Hot cereals, cold cereals, pasta/noodles, bread, pancakes, pastries, rolls, rice, and other products made from grains.
DO NOT EAT “LOW CARB” grain products unless your doctor allows you to do so.
You figure out how many Carbs are in a serving of crackers by taking TOTAL CARB GRAMS and SUBTRACTING FIBER GRAMS (we do not absorb fiber)— the end result is the grams you must count for your meal. 1. Eg: Two Rye Krisp have 11 grams of Total Carbs, but three of those are fiber grams. 11-3=8. You then tally the two Rye Krisp as having 8 gms of Carbs for that meal.
YOU CAN EAT CRACKERS: Buy whole grain ones without partially hydrogenated oils: Many at HFS/SHA. Eg: Plain Rye-Krisp/Rye-Vita, WASA, Ak-Maks, plain rice cakes. A study showed RYE raised blood sugar less than wheat.
OILS
It is very important to eat good oils--they contain essential nutrients in them that nourish us and are requirements for us to be healthy and stay healthy. Good oils help with insulin SENSITIVITY, help lower lipid levels, decrease inflammation, help us lose weight easier, are anticarcinogenic, and help us in numerous other ways.
Neutral oils, found in dairy and meat, are okay usually in moderation.
Oils do NOT need insulin to metabolize them, so we do not count Fat grams in daily intake.
1. Avoid Partially Hydrogenated Oils (PHOs)--Also listed on food labels as Vegetable Fat, Trans Fat, and Vegetable Shortening. This type of oil is the number one food additive in our foods, and is VERY UNHEALTHY TO EAT.
2. READ LABELS!!--Basically most anything that has oil in it in the SHA will have PHOs in them: margarines and other fake butter products, Crisco/shortenings, crackers, peanut butter, Cool Whip, non-dairy creamers...essentially most frozen and prepared foods.
3. At good stores--you can buy most of the above foods, but without the PHOs in them. It's not really the food category that's bad, just those specific products that contain the PHOs. Any other oil on a label aside from PHOs is okay to eat.
640 W. Maryland Ave., Suite 3, Phoenix, AZ. 85013 (602) 439-0000 Fax: (602) 439-0021
4. Good Oils To Use In Your Home: Butter (organic at health food stores), extra virgin olive oil, and unrefined, high oleic (those word MUST be on the label) safflower oil. I have arranged to have Gentle Strength coop carry Unrefined High Oleic Safflower Oil. Coconut oil is also good to use and now is sold in some Health Food Stores. If you are dairy sensitive, you can buy Earth Balance (very tasty) at HFS, or Smart Balance at SHA instead of butter and margarine. Canola oil is NOT a good oil, unless you must buy a refined oil. DO NOT EAT SOY MARGARINE!
5. Refrigerate all oils but the extra virgin olive oil, which you can just store in a cool, dark cabinet.
Vegetables
Potassium is a vital nutrient to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure. Veggies also contain antioxidants and other nutrients that keep our bodies strong and protect them from suffering damage from diabetes.
1. Eat at least 5-9 servings of vegetables everyday (a serving is ½ a cup)--They can be either fresh or frozen. No canned veggies, no boiling of veggies, no head/iceberg lettuce: use only red or green leaf, romaine, spinach, kale, cabbage, collard green, beet greens, mustard greens, etc. The darker the green the better. CHARD was found in a study to lower blood sugar levels—simply stir fry it with olive oil. Ideally, the best way to eat veggies is to stir fry, steam them, or bake them. If you steam them, drink the water that's left over. It contains most of the potassium and several B vitamins that get leached from the veggies when they are cooked.
2. Especially healthy veggies are those from the cruciferous family--broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, radish, cabbage; onions and garlic; the orange veggies--carrot, squash, tomatoes; and the deep green leafy ones. But, ALL veggies have their worth and you should strive both for frequency of intake and variety.
3. Avoid these veggies: potatoes of any sort, yams, sweet potatoes, corn, tomato paste/sauce. Eat only a little of these at a time: onions, carrots, tomatoes.
4. Salads can be interesting and fun: Try adding pickles, olives, sunflower seeds, grated cheese, ham, turkey, salmon salad, tuna salad, walnuts and feta cheese, herring—there are LOTS of ways to add protein to salads. For salad dressings use olive oil with vinegar or lemon juice. A great dressing is flax seed oil and any vinegar BUT BALSAMIC. DO NOT USE FAT FREE DRESSINGS! Good oils help people with diabetes get better.
640 W. Maryland Ave., Suite 3, Phoenix, AZ. 85013 (602) 439-0000 Fax: (602) 439-0021
5. If you have a salad at lunch, and then, for example, steamed or stir fried veggies with your protein at supper, that will give you lots of great veggies in a day and really help get your diabetes under control.
FRUIT
1. Pretty much the only fruit one should eat a day is ¼ cup or ½ cup (max!) of berries.
Fruit simply is too full of carbs to be helpful to you right now.
PROTEIN
**MEAT:
1. Game meat and/or organically grown meat is the BEST meat to eat regularly. On the internet there are organic ranchers selling organic buffalo, venison, chicken, beef, ostrich, lamb, pork at cheaper prices than in stores. Right now, though, to be honest, if eating supermarket meat is easiest and cheapest and works best for you, that’s okay. Optimally, we shouldn't eat meat more than once per day. Roasting/baking meat is the healthiest way to prepare meat--frying and barbecuing are the worst. A. Try chicken breast or turkey breast B. Flank steak, burgers, beef ribs, etc. C. Lamb chops
2. High processed meat products are healthiest when prepared by an organic rancher: hot dogs; sausage, pepperoni, bacon (the three pizza meats); bologna, salami; and beef jerky. Health Food Stores and Trader’s Joe’s sell these sorts of meat. These meats from regular supermarkets tend to be less quality meats, full of nitrates, and other chemicals/hormones/etc.
3. Organic meat contacts—make sure meats aren’t “finished” with grains, that they are grass Fed AND grass FINISHED: a. Contact AERO—Alternative Energy Resources Organization: [email protected] or www.aeromt.org and ask them to send you their booklet “Abundant Montana”. There are many ranches and farms listed in there that support well done organic farming. I can personally vouch for the first ranch listed below. Remember to ask them if they grass FINISH their animals. b. http://organic-meat.com/index.htm --this is a great website through which on can order a variety of excellent, all grass fed and finished meat products. c. Wayne and Sue Arnold: [email protected] (grass fed bison, bison jerky) d. www.mercola.com (organic bison and ostrich; pure pacific salmon) e. www.Vitalchoice.com sells wonderful wild salmon products from Alaska
640 W. Maryland Ave., Suite 3, Phoenix, AZ. 85013 (602) 439-0000 Fax: (602) 439-0021
f. Daily Blessing Foods: 888-862-5785. [email protected]. www.YC2.net/organics. These folks sell certified organic beef, pork, lamb and poultry. Try the bison!
**OTHER PROTEINS FOODS TO SUBSTITUTE FOR MEAT:
1. Beans, peas, lentils--Right now you CANNOT eat these proteins, but you may be able to do so once you are in better control. WAIT ON THESE FOR RIGHT NOW.
2. Raw nuts (Peanuts should be eaten roasted, but other nuts should NOT be roasted or dry roasted except occasionally)—Trader Joe’s sell raw nuts cheaply. All nuts BUT CASHEWS are good to eat: walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pecans, filberts, almonds, brazil, etc.
3. Nut butters—Any nut butter BUT CASHEW BUTTER is fine: peanut butter, almond butter, hazelnut butter, tahini, etc. You can get good peanut butter with no added sugar or partially hydrogenated oils in Trader Joe’s brand, at the health food stores. Store these upside down in the fridge for easy use; that way the oil will naturally be mixed in with the nut butter and not sit on top.
4. Soy products--If you start eating a lot of soy foods, then you should begin eating seaweeds, too, as soy can lower the functioning of the thyroid, and seaweeds will help prevent that. Here are the various categories of soy:
a. Tofu (firm or baked), miso soup. The Tofu Handbook is a good book to learn how to use tofu in cooking. Basically getting firm or baked and slicing and dicing and adding to soups, stir fries, etc. is an easy way to go. Miso soup comes in paste that is simply reconstituted with water. b. Soy meat analogs-- READ THE LABEL—SOME OF THESE ARE GOING TO HAVE TOO MANY CARBS IN THEM. (name in parenthesis suggests which company’s product to try first): YVES hotdogs or Canadian bacon; Boca Burgers; etc. c. Soy dairy alternatives: UNSWEETENED soy milk (Soy Silk, West Soy, etc), soy sour cream. d. Roasted soy nuts and Edamame (cooked soybeans ready to eat). e. Soy Nut Butter
5. Fish--Eat oily fish 2-3 times a week: salmon, herring, cod, trout, sardines, halibut. Canned fish is fine, although don’t get too much tuna that way; cook fresh fish lightly (broiling, microwave, bake). Avoid tuna steaks, mackeral, catfish, sturgeon, swordfish, and shark due to high environmental toxin content and worries of extinction. All fish are a bit contaminated, but some more than others. Other fish, such as perch, red snapper, orange roughy, tilapia, etc., do not contain good oils in them, but are not overly polluted, so are okay to eat. Shrimp, clams, mussels, crab, lobster and so
640 W. Maryland Ave., Suite 3, Phoenix, AZ. 85013 (602) 439-0000 Fax: (602) 439-0021
forth are also okay to eat. Avoid FARMED FISH if at all possible—“Atlantic Salmon” is farmed salmon and has little health benefits. a. How about mixing canned salmon with 100% regular Hellman’s mayonnaise for salmon salad to put on veggie salad? Tastes GREAT and avoids the use of too much tuna fish. b. But, tuna fish is okay now and then.
6. Eggs—All healthy food stores and many supermarkets generally carry organic eggs, not just “free-range”. We can get organic Omega-3 eggs at Trader Joe’s and other places. Organic is the word you want to see on the container. Cook for breakfast or make egg salad with mayo, celery, dill and put on salad or Rye Krisp. a. How about egg salad?
7. Dairy
a. DO NOT EAT ARTIFICIAL CHEESES--Velveeta, Pasteurized Process Cheese Foods, American cheese.
b. Cheeses: Avoid Cottage Cheese, ricotta, farmers. Other cheeses are fine. Try to buy organic.
c. Milk—You cannot drink milk!
d. Yogurt--Use PLAIN regular fat (NOT low fat). All fruited yogurts are highly sweetened.
e. Creams—You can use REAL cream as a flavoring in certain things.
FAST FOODS
People should eat out no more than 5 times a week.
**AVOID FAST FOODS and DEEP FAT FRIED FOODS—You would only be eating burgers without buns, or salads without prepared dressings as many of those are LOADED with Carbs.
**REGULAR RESTAURANTS: Get a piece of meat, fish, or chicken, with salad and veggies. Avoid dinner rolls, baked potatoes, pastas, etc. Most restaurants now have Low Carb meals that will fit your diet.
DRINKS
1. DON'T DRINK THESE: Sweetened ice tea drinks (Arizona, Lipton, Snapple), sweetened fruit drinks (Ocean Sprays, Lemonade, Kool-Aid, Powerade, Gatorade, Sunny Delight, Hawaiian Punch, all the other sugar
640 W. Maryland Ave., Suite 3, Phoenix, AZ. 85013 (602) 439-0000 Fax: (602) 439-0021
water products in pretty bottles on the supermarket shelves, cocoas/hot chocolate/chocolate milk. Those “healthy herbal” drinks are also very sweetened. Avoid!
2. Coffee/Decaf--If you can have it, please limit the amount to a maximum of 1-2 cups a day. 1. You cannot have coffee/decaf
3. These are okay to drink: water; soy milk; herb teas; Green tea; plain sparkling mineral waters/club soda/seltzer water (add lemon juice or fruit juice to); Diet pop/fruit drinks; Coffee substitutes: Pero, Cafix, Roma, etc. (instants); Teechino (brewed, expresso, or French press)—use 1 TBS per 10 cup pot to start with; diet pop.
4. Alcohol--you can have 1) None or 2) one drink a day.
SWEETS/SUGAR
1. AVOID WHITE AND BROWN SUGAR, HONEY, AND ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS! Honey is not this freebie sweet that is okay to use all the time--use minimally. A little mannitol or sorbitol in gum is fine. Stevia is not recommended. Sugar in any form, “healthy” or otherwise, promotes the need to have things taste sweet to be good.
2. Synonyms for white sugar: sucrose, glucose, fructose, dextrose, maltose, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, high fructose corn syrup solids.
3. Sweets that are okay to eat daily: fruit—berries.
4. WATCH OUT FOR HIDDEN SUGARS!!--LOW FAT AND NONFAT FOODS ARE ALMOST ALWAYS VERY HIGH IN SUGAR. Avoid packaged low and non-fat foods. READ LABELS!!
SNACKS
You should not have to eat snacks regularly; if you do, then we do not have your meals in balance with your insulin intake, or with your caloric needs vs. physical activity. However, every now and then snacks are fine. Pork rinds are a fine snack, being made of all fat so they won't affect your blood sugar or insulin needs, plus they are crunchy and there are few crunchy foods you can otherwise eat. Sugar-free jello is fine, too, with some cream on it. You can also drink diet pop a little, which is not very healthy for you, but is one of the only other things you can drink aside from water, club soda/sparkling mineral water, teas, a little coffee. Eating lots of veggies as a snack is great: lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, zucchini, little cherry tomatoes, jicama, turnips, etc.
640 W. Maryland Ave., Suite 3, Phoenix, AZ. 85013 (602) 439-0000 Fax: (602) 439-0021