When a Low Carb Diet Backfires for Type 1 Diabetes was written by Christina Crowder Anderson for DiabetesMine.com, 4 March 2020. 

Low carbohydrate diets can work really well for type 1 diabetes. A plant-based low fat, high carbohydrate diet can also work really well for type 1 diabetes. Adults are entitled to choose whichever dietary pattern fits best with their life.  Most studies on restrictive diet interventions, whether for weight loss or diabetes control, show deteriorating compliance at the 1-year mark if not earlier.  So … why can low carb diets fail?

    • The protein problem:  When eating very low carb or “keto” over time, you may start to see high post-meal glucose numbers resulting from digesting so much protein. Many studies have sought to create a standardized method for insulin dosing for protein, but to date there is no recognized “best practice.” 
    • Rigid dietary restriction vs. flexible eating: The mental struggle that comes with a rigid diet has also been studied knowing that diabetes distress is a real thing.  Swearing off any one food group can lead to dichotomous thinking or the “what the heck effect” — the moment you “slip” and enjoy some carb-laden food, you can’t stop and then decide to throw in the towel because you’ve “already failed.”
    • Binge eating:  For someone who has struggled with an eating disorder, great care needs to be taken to avoid triggers like the notion that they are “on a diet” rather than a long-term approach to balanced eating.
    • Poor treatment of lows:  T1Ds are taught that if blood glucose is less than 70 mg/dL, he/she must consume 15 grams of fast acting carbohydrate, wait 15 minutes, then recheck blood glucose. At least one study has shown that using a body weight-based approached to treat lows, 0.3 g/kg glucose, is more effective.

If your low carb diet is disappointing, you could try the following:

    • Consider ‘lower carbohydrate’ versus strict low carb:  Shoot for ~90 to 130 grams per day.
    • Improve the quality of your carbs:  Aim for whole foods, rich in fiber to help buffer glucose spikes that result from carbohydrate-containing foods. Add protein and fat to your meal  and aim for most of the carbohydrates you consume to be vegetables and fibrous fruits/grains.
    • Spread carbs throughout the day:  Keeping carbohydrates to ~30 grams per meal rather than eating 60 grams in one sitting is a much better way to limit post-meal BG spikes.

Read more: When a Low Carb Diet Backfires for Type 1 Diabetes


The newest fake meat startup wants to make the ‘world’s favorite protein’ a plant, not a bird was reported by Talib Visram for FastCompany.com, 4 March 2020. 

Daring is an imitation chicken, which replicates the taste and texture of the familiar fowl, and which is targeted specifically at people who love eating chicken. While many carnivores have reduced their red meat intake, on health grounds, chicken has not similarly been caught in the firing line. After all, chicken breast is “the cleanest protein on the market, other than egg white,” admits Ross Mackay, age 28, one of Daring’s two cofounders, referring to minimally processed food that is closest to its natural state, and with high nutritional value. That’s why the company is focusing on sustainability, at a time when that particular message has the attention of the masses—even those diners most disinclined to put down the drumstick.

“We have a large mission, and it’s to reduce the amount of chickens that are consumed on the planet,” Mackay says.

Originally a U.K. business, Daring moved to set up as a U.S. company because of the demand for sustainable eating, bigger market opportunity, and proven presence of plant-based products. On this side of the Atlantic, it’s attracted investors, including a major meat processor, which has helped achieve its goal to introduce e-commerce sales with next-day delivery, as well as to gain restaurant and supermarket partners.

Read more:  Plant-based chicken company Daring is going after the chicken industry

 

 

 

Switching off Cow’s Milk was discussed by Jordan Fraser for Health Tonic/Medium, 15 January 2020. 

Milk uses an enormous amount of land and water to produce, making it one of the least sustainable animal sourced products we produce.

Additionally, a cow is a very expensive animal to produce large quantities of. The expense is only made worse by the unbelievable amounts of carbon they belch into the atmosphere. The planet was never meant to house the amount of cows we’ve produced for our dairy needs.

As is the case with most things, we drink conventional milk because it’s what we’ve always done.

The recipe below froths up like conventional milk and doesn’t have any added oil, it’s really great. Use cheesecloth to strain the ingredients (might need to double layer the cheesecloth, but it works great).

Click here for recipe: 


Brain Aging Tied to Leisure Time Physical Activity was reported by Judy George for MedPageToday.com, 6 March 2020. 

More leisure-time physical activity — walking, gardening, swimming, or dancing, for example — was associated with larger brain volume in older adults, a cross-sectional study showed.

Adults with an average age of 75 who had the most physical activity had a total brain volume that was 1.4% larger than those with the least activity, reported Yian Gu, PhD, of Columbia University in New York City, and co-authors, in an early-release abstract from the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, which will be held here in April.  The effect was equal to about 4 years of brain aging, Gu noted. 

“These results are exciting, as they suggest that people may potentially prevent brain shrinking and the effects of aging on the brain simply by becoming more active,” she said in a statement.

Read more:  Brain Aging Tied to Leisure Time Physical Activity

Share This
Skip to content