I was reading this article published on ScienceDaily and couldn’t help but wonder about our diets. It’s not the first time I read something like this, but in the past it had been a little more on the speculative side of things: back in the early days of the Atkins diet, etc. (which was the first “diet” I was put on by my primary care physician back when I was diagnosed).
So, do you guys eat like stone age people? (or, if you prefer, do you lean towards a more Mediterranean-like menu?)
I know that my husband, T2, does better when he lays off the processed foods. We try…
I try to eat as healthy as possible. I stay away from fried and fatty foods and for the most part pasta and anything extremely high in carbs. I try to eat lots of fresh raw veggies and fruit and tend to eat things like tofu, soy milk, and salad. As long as I get enough protein and dont chow down on high carbs all day my blood sugar levels are at their most level. I think I tend to support the Mediterranean diet more than any other. It seems like you get everything you need without completely cutting out one food group.
Also frozen dinners kill my blood sugar because of all the sodium…even if they have no carbs. I had to learn that the hard way when I was firts living by myself. I thought I was eating healthy!
I’ve read about this before, and the Pima & Tohono O’odam tribes in the American southwest are good examples.
http://www.spmesquite.com/articles/ancientfoods.html
http://www.turtletrack.org/Issues03/Co11152003/CO_11152003_Native_Cure.htm
The rule in our house is simple: Nothing from a box.
Avoiding processed foods helped bring my mother’s T2 under control. Her A1C has gone down to 5.7 after two years of eating my cooking and modifying her habits accordingly. Her favorite snack foods are bananas, peaches, and nectarines. She also loves grapes, but they have higher sugar content and have to be eaten in smaller amounts.
There are exceptions, of course. Everything in moderation. She still eats Cheetos, and Pop Tarts recently came out with a whole wheat variety. What is life without a few indulgences?
I pretty much follow the “caveman” way of eating, reversing 20+ years of being a lacto-ovo vegetarian who avoided fat like the plague and ate vast amounts of carbohydrates. Now I eat meat, poultry, seafood in abundance, lots of non-starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, small amounts of fruit, small amounts of dairy (cheese), natural fats like olive oil and unsalted butter. I avoid cereals, grains, legumes. No sugar or artificial sweeteners. Nothing from a box, basically. It’s brought my A1c from 9.1 to between 5.0%-5.2% and given me the best lipid profile in my life. For me, it’s the way to go. Never felt better in my life and I’m getting on in years.
Sarah