Robert A Barnett - Diabetes Quick-Fix with Magic Foods: Balance Your Blood Sugar to Lose Weight and Supercharge Your Energy!

A READERS DIGEST BOOK

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Photos: Elizabeth Watt (Food Stylist; Anne Disrude)

This is an updated and revised edition of Magic Foods for Better Blood Sugar. The Library of Congress catalogued the previous edition as follows: Magic foods for better blood sugar / (editor, Marianne Wait).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-62145-404-5 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-62145-405-2 (epub)

1. NutritionPopular works. 2. FoodCompositionPopular works. 3. Blood sugarPopular works. I. Wait, Marianne, 1967-RA784.M285 2006

613.2dc22

2006026505

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NOTE TO OUR READERS

The information in this book should not be substituted for, or used to alter, medical therapy without your doctors advice. For a specific health problem, consult your physician for guidance.

Its been brewing for decades and is ruining our health at an alarming rate. Its a major contributor to our growing national waistline (2 of every 3 adult women and almost 3 of every 4 adult men are now overweight or obese, according to current figures). Scariest of all, if not controlled, this condition can trap us into chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. What are we talking about? Its out-of-control blood sugar, and you may have it without even knowing it.

Chalk it up to our modern-day diets, which are loaded with foods that send blood sugar soaring, only to crash in short order. When the crash comes, you may feel listless, irritable, headachyand ravenously, must-eat-something-sugary-this-minute hungry. Riding this blood sugar roller coaster is a sure way to send your hunger up, your energy down, and your waistline out.

Our love affair with blood sugarraising foods, especially white foods such as white bread, white rice, French fries, and sugary baked goods, has led to an outbreak of insulin resistanceessentially, what happens when the bodys system for managing spikes in blood sugar gets worn out from overwork. Insulin resistance is linked to serious problems ranging from heart disease and memory loss toyou guessed itdiabetes. About 25 percent of older adults have it. If youre overweight and over 45, the chances that you have it are nearly one in two.

Fortunately, insulin resistance is reversible. If eating the wrong foods can cause it, eating the right ones is a major part of the cure. And its not that hard to do. We designed this book to help you get off the blood sugar roller coasterwithout turning your diet upside down.

In Diabetes Quick-Fix with Magic Foods, you wont find strict eating regimens or crazy rules about carbohydrates. What you will find are 57 foods that can help you nudge your diet into sugar-friendly territory. Add just one to your plate (for instance, try barley instead of white rice), and you could see results right away. Add a few more (like avocados, which contain fats that actually improve insulin sensitivity), and youll really be on the road to feeling better and staving off killer diseases.

Even if you already have diabetes, these strategies can help make your cells more sensitive to insulin and keep blood sugar swings in check.

You can still eat steak, if you keep it lean, as well as pasta and other carbohydrate foods if you choose the right ones (whole grains actually reduce your diabetes risk). Well also show you how adding a few secret ingredients like cinnamon and vinegar to your dishes can yield amazing results.

Diabetes Quick-Fix is based on the latest nutrition science, but its designed for regular folks like you who just want to know what to eat. For instance, you wont have to look up numbers before you choose a food. Our recipes, meal makeovers, meal plans, and cooks tips make it incredibly simple to get more of the 57 Magic foods onto your plate. Your meals will still taste deliciousand theyll leave you more satisfied, so you wont be hunting around for something else to eat.

At Readers Digest, we take your health to heart. Heres something you can do to rein in insulin resistance, offload dangerous belly fat, and guard yourself from diabetes and prediabetes or help reverse it. In the process, you will feel more fully charged and ready to embrace life every day. Dont wait for your doctor to say you have a problem. Turn the page now and start discovering the good foods and fun tools that await you.

DIABETES QUICK-FIX

If youre like most people, youve probably never given your blood sugar a second thought unless you have diabetes. But doctors and researchers have recently discovered a shocking truth: If your blood sugar levels regularly soar and crash like an out-of-control drone, your body may sustain damage, just as the unmanned vehicle does over time. Of course, in your case, the damage will occur on the inside, where you cant see it. The consequences, like low energy or weight gain, can be bothersomeor they can be deadly.

Whether or not you have diabetes, a diet loaded with foods that send blood sugar up high and down low can jack up your risk of heart disease by damaging your blood vessels and raising your cholesterol. It may even chip away at your memory and increase the risk of certain cancers. You may not notice a problem, but that doesnt mean its not there. You may have started on a path that can shave years off your life.

Its no longer just certain people who need to worry about their blood sugar. Its pretty much everyone .

This realization is nothing short of a revolution in the way we understand diet and health. Fortunately, none of the damage happens overnight, and even modest changes in the foods you eat every day can start you on a healthier path and make you feel more alert, alive, and energized right away.

When you need a quick pick-me-up, what do you reach for? Maybe a candy bar, a handful of crackers or pretzels, or a box of raisins. It makes sense. These fast-acting foods take no time at all to dissolve in your stomach. Quick as light, they race into your bloodstream, flooding your body with blood sugar (glucose), and youre raring to go! The trouble is, the surge doesnt last long. In fact, its over just as quickly as it started, leaving you feeling worse off than beforeand hungry again well before your next mealtime.

Without knowing it, you may even be starting your day with foods that fizzle out in a hurry, leaving you in a slump. Think back to the last time you ate a bagel for breakfast, or a bowl of cornflakes, frozen waffles with syrup, or white toast with jam. You probably felt fine at first, but later in the morning, you may have noticed your energy level beginning to sink. Maybe you started to get irritable. Once your energy hit bottom, you may have found yourself hungry againno, starving! So naturally, you ate a big lunch and probably a fast-acting one to boot: maybe a sandwich on an oversized white roll, with a few handfuls of pretzels, a large soda or fruity drink to wash them down, and a cookie (or two) for dessert. And the cycle started over again.