Controlling Blood Sugar With…

Have you ever paid attention to some of the ads for drugs that help control blood sugar? Have you noticed the short amount of time that is spent on the list of benefits, with the majority spent on warnings about side effects and potential side effects? Example: (Invokana/canagliflozin) has a list of 43 potential side effects.

Would it not be better for our body, to simply quit eating foods that spike our blood sugar? Would it not be better to avoid sweet foods when it isn’t just before or right after periods of intense activity? Does it not make sense to control blood sugar through our diet (given the fact that sugars are much more the problem in causing cholesterol and fatty deposits then the fat in our diet)?

Excerpt from Dr. Osborne: Diabetes is an epidemic in the US. The condition can cause obesity, kidney damage, blindness, loss of limb, neuropathy, and much more. Unfortunately most doctors deal with this condition like this: “Mrs. Jones, your blood sugar levels are high. I am going to prescribe you a medication to help you control them. I will need you to watch your diet closely. Limit your sugar intake; eat plenty of whole grains and vegetables. You will also need to exercise more. Because diabetes runs in your family, you will probably need to take this medication for the rest of your life. In addition, to this medicine, I am going to also prescribe you a statin to ensure that your cholesterol stays low. Studies show that managing cholesterol aggressively helps with people who have blood sugar problems.” You see, the drugs don’t fix the problem, they only mask the diabetic condition while silently wrecking your nutritional status~ Dr. Peter Osborne is a Chiropractor and Board-Certified Doctor of Clinical Nutrition in Sugar Land, Texas.

This epidemic of Type 2 Diabetes is primarily caused by the types of food that we eat and low levels of activity to burn off the resulting blood sugar spikes. These constant spikes in blood sugar lead to insulin resistance and when our trillions of cells become insulin resistant our pancreas has to produce more insulin to be able to forcefully cram this extra sugar into our cells. Are we wearing out our pancreas by the type of foods we eat?

Low blood sugar is oft times caused by excess sugar: strange as it may sound, low blood sugar is often caused by excessive sugar and starch intake. When we take in foods that cause our blood sugar to spike, our pancreas has to produce a lot of insulin to bring the sugar down to safe levels. Insulin is a sugar hungry hormone that lowers blood sugar, so when there is an excessive spike in insulin, it causes our blood sugar to drop much lower than it should. Keep in mind that excess insulin also turns off the body’s fat burning mechanisms.

This is a winnable war that we can win with a simple 2-prong strategy.
1. Increasing activity levels.

2. Having 4–5 grams of fiber per serving in our foods (except for some of the foods that we get our protein and fat from).

Given the role that excess sugar plays in diabetes, LDL cholesterol, obesity and all the potential side effects that can accumulate throughout a lifetime of controlling blood sugar with drugs), we have plenty of reason to want to do this the right way!

Foods that are great for healing the pancreas: mushrooms, cherries, garlic, turmeric, tofu, yogurt, red grapes and spinach. Keep in mind that eating foods that break down slower also can be a big relief to the pancreas and in this way can have a healing effect as well.

Herbs, supplements etc. to control blood sugar: cinnamon, apple cider vinegar, bitter melon, ginseng, chromium, bilberry, alpha-lipoic acid and fenugreek.

When we take the lazy way out by controlling our blood sugar for a lifetime of using a medication (so that we can continue to make the same food choices), we are simply setting ourselves up for failure.

When we control blood sugar spikes through food choices, activity and exercise, we also reduce excess fatty deposits and cholesterol.