In a world where 1 in 10 people have diabetes, you may be wondering if there is anything that can help? The answer to this question could not only include the use of medication, maybe for short term. What we eat with some plant-forward eating, our exercise, how we sleep and manage stress have all been shown through many clinical trials and observational studies as effective aspects of a winning lifestyle to manage diabetes naturally.
Is what you’re doing now working to stave off diabetes?
You’ve noticed that the last several years you’ve eaten fast food more often. Your portions of the good stuff have gotten bigger along with your waistline and your weight. At the end of the day, that cold sugar sweetened soda tastes so good as you relax on the sofa instead of going to work out. This is your normal. You look forward to it until you go to your doctor for your yearly physical. They surprise you and tell you that you have Type 2 Diabetes. They say: “Don’t eat rice, bread, fruit or sugar, only meat and vegetables.” Right now, your world looks bleak, and you wonder how you’re going to kick this? You remember your grandma who struggled with diabetes, but you always assumed that in this age of expert medical care, you would avoid that family trouble. Maybe nobody’s had it in your family! How can you see Diabetes, and yourself, differently so you can naturally live the life you aspire to?
Type 2 Diabetes comes when you and your body get things out of balance! Yes, for most people, there is a family history of diabetes, a gene involved. Type 2 Diabetes usually develops slowly over time in a process of metabolic stress. With competing demands, you notice less ability to follow through with what you know is healthy. As your weight creeps up, and your consumption of starchy foods like rice, pasta, and sweets becomes unbridled, you start a chain reaction in your metabolism. By turning on certain genes that change how you respond to the carbohydrate you eat, these genes tell your pancreas to make less insulin, the hormone that lowers your blood sugar. Moreover, in lock step, the protein on the cell stops working as an entrance for fuel so sugar stays circling in your blood stream instead of being burned for energy, while your muscles start taking in less fuel/sugar to run on. These genes amp up certain chemicals, like a light switch turning on your liver to make excess sugar right when you can’t process it well. With repeat precision, often in response to emotions, you falter in holding yourself back from cravings for comfort foods.
You can take a stand to rebalance your body and grow into the person you hope to be!
A natural method to turn around Type 2 Diabetes involves challenging yourself in three ways. You step out and try on each suggestion so you can fine tune them into familiar habits without losing how you’ve done things. It’s a process of coming into your own, of maturing, of not being passive in self-care.
Step one is to zero in on your portions including protein, some meat, colorful veggies and satisfying high fiber carbohydrate foods. (Carbohydrates are starchy foods from grains like rice, pasta, certain vegetables, fruits, and milk products.) Some you’ll like, some you won’t but experimenting gives you self-knowledge. By finding your personal balance, you eat to meet your bodies needs and find enjoyment while ultimately downward trending your weight.
By eating whole, unprocessed foods, learning to cook and buy less packaged processed foods you more easily lose the recommended 5-10% of body weight. Small changes in weight can start to turn the offending genes for Type 2 diabetes off.
Step two, get moving! Insulin resistance, that process where insulin doesn’t open the door of your cells for glucose very efficiently, starts diminishing when your muscles get more active. With activity, you burn more sugar for fuel and respond naturally to the insulin you already make. Your sugars go down because of your lifestyle! It’s a metabolism and a motivation thing!
Step three for re-balancing your life to reverse Type 2 diabetes, is to go green and colorful. Try plant forward eating. This means more than just having green beans or corn twice a week and calling it good. And it does not mean that you have to become fully a vegetarian or vegan. Food is medicine we are finding. Whole foods contain natural compounds that impact our genes and bodily responses.
Experiment with going green: plant-forward eating!
In addition to meat, try some high fiber whole grains, as a side dish spicing them up if you like, adding a sprinkling of cheese, foods like brown rice, sweet potatoes, Kamut, an ancient variety of wheat that’s rich, buttery, and pleasantly chewy. Spice up farrow, quinoa, or brown rice along with lean meats, colorful vegetables. Add them to salads along with some dried fruits. Include colorful fruits like blueberries, raspberries, eggplants, and drink green tea smoothies, along with some coffee. These healthy foods contain polyphenols and other natural antioxidants that sweep up the metabolic bad stuff to turn down the problem genes. You also ramp up production of healthy anti-inflammatory products from your gut so you can naturally manage blood sugars over time and feel more yourself in amazing ways. These healthy plant foods, along with managing your weight and activity, help your body to experience more robust energy and begin to reverse Type 2 diabetes naturally. In these ways, many people put Type 2 diabetes into remission, which means being able to go for a year with normal blood sugars without relying on medication.
You can do it by taking on the challenge, one step at a time!
I challenge you to include one new colorful plant food twice each day. Keep a list of vegetables and grains that you like and eat them often. In being faithful to this, you become able to base your choices today, on what you know to be true about yourself and your adult preferences. Sometimes we avoid good self-care for several reasons, one being our experiences as kids with tasting plant foods we may not have like. To re-balance ourselves for health, we have to
become mature in our choices, follow through on what our bodies need from us even when we don’t feel like it and taste new things.
To find your lifestyle stride, you have to regather yourself and personalize your plans, often with the support of your health care team. Take risks, to try food you’ve never tasted and eat less of the over processed fatty refined carbohydrates that kept you captive and away from all you could be. Diabetes can be an impetus to being healthy and kick complacency aside.
