There is a strong connection between carbohydrates, high blood sugars and diabetes. Carbohydrates give your body the energy, or fuel, it needs to function properly.

There are two types of carbohydrates; simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates are in foods such as fruit sugar, corn or grape sugar and table sugar. They are single-sugar molecules. Complex carbohydrates are the foods that contain three or more linked sugars. So carbohydrates create blood sugars and that’s where the problems start for diabetics. Understanding more about the connection helps to control your diabetes…

A Personal Experience

I am a diabetic type 2 and, at the moment, I control my blood sugars through tablets and diet. Blood glucose control is extremely important for any diabetic – it is the only way of minimising future health complications; heart disease; neuropathy resulting in amputations; kidney disease and early death.

Four years ago my A1C sugar levels were starting to get out of control – they weren’t massively high but were creeping up. My Doctor increased my medication – with no real satisfactory results, my blood sugars were all over the place; I could go from a high reading at night and be woken by a hypoglaecemic low blood sugar in the early hours.

Then I discovered the Atkins diet and, because I wanted to lose weight, I started to follow the low carbohydrate, high protein menus.

That’s when I discovered the real connection between complex carbohydrates, high blood sugars and my diabetes. Suddenly my blood sugars stabilised and it was because I was no longer piling in huge amounts of carbohydrate, which were pushing my blood sugars far too high.

This seemed to fly in the face of conventional advice on the right diets – complex carbohydrate rich – for diabetes. You see, I already understood I had to avoid sweet, sugary food – these contained simple carbohydrates. I hadn’t realised that the more complex carbohydrate of bread, potato and cereals affected my blood sugars as well.

But there’s always a ‘but’ isn’t there? the Atkins diet did not really suit me. I had constant diarrhea which was stressful and debilitating. So I came off that diet after 3-4 months and, of course, my blood sugars began to get out of control again.

But now I knew about the connection, all I needed to do was find the right program for me that followed the low carbohydrate principle.

And just recently, whilst doing research for my diabetes website, I discovered a program that suits me, and which I describe in more detail on my website for diabetics.

My advice to any diabetic and pre-diabetic, do your research! Understand the close connection between the complex carbohydrates you eat, how they affect your blood sugars and how it can make it difficult to control your diabetes. Once you understand that link, look for a diet or system that you can adapt to safely bring your blood sugars back under control.

Remember, too many carbohydrates complex or simple give you high blood sugar levels and if you have diabetes it means your body cannot cope with the additional overload.

I was told in rapid succession that I was suffering from intermittent claudication thats blocked arteries in the legs, high blood pressure, Diabetes Type 2. and that I was overweight.

Not a lot of pleasure there! The intermittent claudication made it increasingly difficult to do much, so that in effect I had become a prisoner to my house and garden. Exercise was out of the question, my legs simply couldnt cope, but it was hoped that angioplasty to each leg would cure the problem. It didnt.

My high blood pressure, I was assured, could be treated by a cocktail of drugs and by weight loss. The cocktail of four different drugs worked, but I could not seem to lose weight.

So I was given a choice the blood sugar levels could be controlled either by drugs or by diet. Since I was already taking four different drugs for blood pressure, I thought it best to try diet control. I was also hopeful that this might help me to lose weight. But where to start? My diabetic nurse provided me with a blood sugar monitor and said I should aim to stay under 9 as my reading. My Doctor said to stay under 7. Now she has reduced this to under 5. My current long-term reading is 5.3. A big drop from the high readings I used to produce.

So what did I do? At first I was taking blood samples three times a day and was truly astonished at how my blood sugar jumped about. Plain porridge and water, which I absolutely loved, would produce a reading of 16 and yet, being a slow release multigrain, I had always assumed it would be good for my health. A single apple, showed a reading of 12! Tea with milk but no sugar, 10. Obviously there was more to this than met the eye.

The first learning point was that the body needs water and lots of it. Out went sugared fizzy drinks and in came plain boiled water. The Swedes call it Silver Tea, Im told, and it is very refreshing. Now a cup starts every day and two or three more follow. Low calorie tonic water is also useful the quinine helps prevent cramps, mineral water I especially like carbonated forms, low calorie Ginger Beer and cold filtered tap water.

The next, crucial, learning point control your carbohydrate intake, in my case to under 40gms a day. Eliminate bread, cakes, sweets, pasta, rice, cereals, biscuits, sugars, fruit juice, potatoes, honey, jam, marmalade, baked beans. Reading the food labels is a real eye opener!

Instead, increase your intake of vegetables and low carbohydrate foods & fruits. All of the following are particularly good Broccoli, cabbage, spinach, runner beans, brussels sprouts cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, swede, squashes, celeriac, green salads. Fruit can be very high in sugars, so use in moderation. Choose rhubarb, grapefruit, raspberries, loganberries, strawberries, blueberries, all of which are O.K. Do not add sugar, of course, so sweeten with cinnamon instead. Avocadoes are low in carbohydrates, but high in fat, so eat no more than half a fruit a day. Add nuts and seeds to your diet, again in small amounts.

As far as alcohol is concerned, all beers are out. One or two glasses of red wine a day are acceptable.

Avoid processed foods as much as possible and certainly do NOT eat hydrogenated fats of any kind. They are to my mind a food industry con. and of no use to any one other than manufacturers of processed food.

Buy only genuine, non-reconstituted lean meat, poultry, game and fish. Reduce your saturated fat intake by cooking on a griddle and cutting off any excess fat. Cook with olive and nut oils, as these unsaturated fats are good for you. Never use lard. Add game to your repertoire of ingredients, along with plenty of oily and white fish such as salmon, haddock, tuna, swordfish, mackerel & kipper.

I have never once felt hungry with this change in my eating habits to simple whole foods. I still find I miss eating plain yoghurt, vanilla ice cream and various cheeses. But then I occasionally do give myself a small treat – provided I stay within my allowance.

The results are good for my health

My good cholesterol is high
My bad cholesterol is low
My type II diabetes blood sugar is well controlled by diet alone
I have lost 10 lbs in weight.

My next task is to lose another 30 lbs. I know now that this is achievable. The more weight I lose, the more able I am to increase my activity levels – and the more incentive I have to control my calorie intake. At last I feel that I am taking back control of my body and discovering that you really are what you eat!

What if you are diagnosed with diabetes? Are you going to stay indoors and just inject yourself with insulin everyday? Maybe you need to understand the facts about diabetes and accept it wholeheartedly so that it can’t be a heavy burden in your part.

Let us start from defining what diabetes really is and the probable causes that brings this disease. Diabetes is a disorder which is the misuse of the digested food for growth and energy by our body. The food that we take in is broken down into glucose, the simplest form of sugar in our blood.

Glucose is the main source of energy of our body. And diabetes actually causes the glucose to back up in our bloodstream, and as more of it is present in our bloodstream, our blood sugar can rise too high.

There are two types of diabetes the type 1 and type 2. The first is also called juvenile-onset diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes where the body stops any further production of insulin. Insulin is a hormone that allows the body to use the glucose to produce energy. Persons diagnosed with this type are required to take insulin injections daily in order to survive. Children or young adults are likely to develop this type of diabetes.

The second type is also called the adult-onset diabetes of non insulin-dependent diabetes where the body does not produce insulin or unable to use insulin properly. It also consumes injected insulin for survival.

Diabetes is a life-long condition. So understanding the facts about this disease is important, so that the person affected can sustain his life throughout, despite the presence of diabetes. This allows you to live a full and enjoyable life.

Diet is a quite important matter for diabetic people. Everything they eat may have a consequence positive or not in their disease evolution. According to researchers from Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, overweight Latino children show signs of beta cell decline, a precursor of type 2 diabetes because they are consuming lots of sugar especially in sugary drinks.

Nowadays, statistics show that nearly one out of four Latino children in the United States is overweight, and the problem appears to be worse over the future. Obesity rates are increasing along with the incidence of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes within overweight teens. Under a researchers’ report published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, high sugar consumption during childhood may play an important role in the development of diabetes in this population.

According to experts in preventive medicine, overweight and poor diet among these children could have disastrous consequences for minority health and the health-care costs for future generations, if they are left untreated.

The research called Study of Latinos at Risk SOLAR Diabetes Project is conducted by the research team from the Keck School. This project examined 63 overweight Latino children in Los Angeles from 9 to 13 years old and do not have diabetes.

Beta cells in the pancreas, experts explain, create the hormone insulin in response to sugar from food. Energy is something necessary to cells in the body’s tissues, so they need sugar, or glucose, and insulin helps cells grab and take up glucose in the blood.

Diabetes is a serious disease that needs to have medical attention as soon as some symptoms begin to surface. The reason why diabetes is serious is because it will cause the body to shut down and you will go into sugar shock. After sugar, shock the body will go into a coma and a person may never come out of the comatose state. Diabetes, in general, can cause the body to stop circulating the blood flow properly and thats why many diabetics have to have parts of their body amputated. Diabetics also have a higher change of developing kidney, pancreas, and other organ diseases.

Type two diabetes will usually affect people much older than that of type one. It is the most common type of diabetes and effects thousands of people each day. It is also referred to as adult onset diabetes.

Typically, it is due to being overweight, but there are exceptions to the rule. Type one is where your body lacks insulin and type one is where you body will begin to resist insulin. This type is developed by usually genetics and often is passed down through generations. The insulin levels with type two diabetics are sometimes normal, but the body wont respond to it. This will create higher blood levels because the body is not using the glucose up. When you have type one you are considered to have symptoms of hyperglycemia, however you will have the opposite reaction with type two and have hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemia is where you have low blood sugar. It is from the fact that your body cannot provide enough energy for the activities of the body. It will cause you to be hungry much like type one. It will also make you very nervous or shaky. You will perspire more than the average person and you will become dizzy or light headed. You will become over anxious or weak which will cause you to have difficulty speaking or feeling restless. You will also become confused and possibly hallucinate. Because of your anxiety, you may have nightmares or perspire so much during sleep that your entire bed becomes wet or damp. You will often wake up tired, irritable, and confused.

Type two is the most common type of diabetes and exists in all cultures. It is often the result from obesity and it is doesnt discriminate ethnically or racially. Obesity has become a problem for todays world and has been found as a tendency to promote diabetes rather its genetically enhanced or not.

The causes of the disease have many factors to blame, but genetics seem to be the strongest factor. Obesity is also found to be genetically enhanced and the two could be related somehow. Treatment is simple, it is taken orally to lower the blood sugar which can cause hypoglycemia and at some point insulin injections may be needed.
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