compasswellnessinstitute

Eating healthy as a diabetic can be quite challenging especially for a newly diagnosed diabetic. Here are a few tips on how you can eat healthy as a diabetic.

One of the challenges for a newly diagnosed diabetic is to find out how to eat healthy after finding out he or she is now diabetic. One solution would be to completely give up on carbohydrates and become completely vegetarian. However, the reality is that it takes time to change your eating habits.It takes time and perseverance to be able to change the way you have been used to eating before you became a diabetic.

Instead of simply sharing with you how a few tips can help deal with this important challenge, I will share with you how three different newly diabetics dealt with their own problem. First, it it important to remember that  eating healthy would help diabetics reduce the metabolic pressure on your pancreas  to produce insulin more effectively. After all insulin is a hormone that plays a significant role in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fat and even proteins.

Jaunita was only an eighteen year old girl when she was diagnosed as a diabetic. She did two things to help stay healthy after she was diagnosed. First she cut down her food portion by half. She reduced her food portion by about 5o% of what she used to it before she found out she was diabetic. She did this by completely removing carbohydrates like bread and rice from her food. She replaced them with beans . She said it was initially difficult to get used to the “beans diet”. However, after about six months of eating half her usual portion and more beans, she  found she required less insulin while feeling more energetic. The second thing she did was to completely stop taking soda . Each time she felt like taking soda she drank water.

The second diabetic , I spoke with she said she modified everything she ate. She said though she loved peperroni pizza, she gave it up for mixed veggies pizza. She added vegetables and fruits  to all her meals .

The third diabetic said that she improved her eating habits by doing everything in moderation. She started eating cucumbers  and nuts for snacks. She stopped eating cakes and cookies. She said prior to be diagnosed as a diabetic  she used to drink a lot of soda and plenty of cookies for snack. She said she used to take about five cans of soda everyday. She said she was both surprised and happy by how much weight she lost by simply giving soda and eating cucumbers and nuts for snacks.

I certainly hope you will find these tips helpful as you try to find out what will work best for you as a newly diagnosed diabetic. Finally, whatever modifications you make to your eating habits, make out time to exercise more. Even if it simply means walking at least 30 minutes everyday.

Dr. Chio Ugochukwu

Did you know it is possible to get your total recommended daily fiber with one drink?  According to the CDC the daily recommended amount of fiber is 14g per 1000 calories of food eaten. Since the average daily food consumption is 2000 calories, this means the recommended total daily fiber will be 28g.

On the other hand Mayo Clinic makes its recommendation of total daily fiber based on age and sex as the following: 38g for men 50 years old and younger, 30g for men older than 50 years of age. The recommendation for women 50 years old and younger is 25g and 21g for older women. This means a woman needs to consume at least 25g  of fiber , everyday to meet this recommendation.

There are many ways this can be accomplished. In the past, I used to get my total daily fibers through eating whole wheat bread and some apples. The problem with this approach is that while on the average each serving of whole wheat contained 2g of fiber, it also contained about 170 mg of salt.  I liked getting fibers from wheat but not the sodium that came along with it.

This was one of the reason’s why I was very excited to find out that with a fruit drink , I could get my total daily fiber recommendation without worrying about sodium. This is where Carol’s fruit juice recipe comes in. Just by taking one drink from this recipe you can get all your total fiber recommendation.

Fortunately,Carol was kind enough to share her recipe with me so that more people can learn how to make the same fruit juice for themselves. This drink is something you can make at home using your regular food blender or grinding machine.

CAROL’S FRUIT JUICE RECIPE

3 cups of blueberries

3 cups of strawberries

3 apples

1 banana

1 handful of carrots

Put all of the above in your blender and grind them to a pulp. This gives you a drink with 29.7g of fiber. This total was calculated by adding (blueberry(3×3.6=10.8),strawberry(3×3=9), and apple(3×3.3=9.9) . This is because a cup of strawberries contains 3g of fiber, a cup of blueberries contains 3.6 g of fiber, and an apple contains about 3.3g of fiber. This numbers are for a medium sized apple and a small cup.

Blueberries are particularly important because they contain anthocyanins  which help the brain to clear the toxic byproducts of metabolism through the process of autophagocytosis. This helps to protect against Alzheimer’s dieases. In addition to having antioxidants, blueberries are also good sources of soluble fiber  which helps the body reduce cholesterol level and control blood sugar level.

On the hand ,insoluble fibers, which are found in the skin of apples and other fruits like berries and carrots is important for moving digestive waste products through the body. This helps to keep a healthy colon and regular bowel movement.

Blueberries also contain vitamin C and manganese in addition to the dietary fibers and antioxidants already discussed.Drinking fruit juices and eating fruits are examples of ways to stay healthy without medications. to find out more ways to live healthy without medications read 21 Ways To Transform Your Health Without Medications: The Compass Health Transfer

by Dr. Chio Ugochukwu

People sometimes fail to realize that their personal relationships can affect their health in a negative manner. Even without a detailed analysis it is easy for most people to recollect how they seemed to have more episodes of the common cold or other illnesses whenever they were dealing with more problems in their relationships.

According to John Stewart, a Professor of interpersonal communications, inadequate or poorly done interpersonal relationships can lead to death. Families who openly communicate with each other and support each other emotionally were found to be less likely to have changes to blood pressure due to stress,while families in which people were emotionally less expressive had more increases in blood pressure.

This study suggests that we all need to learn how to communicate with those closest to us in such a way that our personal relationships become a source of family strength and joy. The key was to find ways to make even the most common daily activities enjoyable.

The idea that how we talk and communicate with those we meet on a daily basis can affect our health, is not as far fetched as it may seem to some people. A  1962 in  study by Meyer and Haggerty, found that respiratory illness were many times more likely to occur in families who have stressful interactions.

Research in the past 30 years has shown that chronic stress can lead to reduced immunity which has been associated with a variety of interpersonal problems like family conflict,role conflict and bereavement to name a few.Research even shows that those with an autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis have a quicker progress to a more disabling form when their disease is associated with other interpersonal problems like anger or stress(Latman & Walls,1996).One of the most important sources of stress for such patients is the presence of disruptive relationships between spouses or between parents and their children.On the other hand people in supportive relationships are better able to cope with their illness.

Role conflicts can occur both at home and work. A few years ago while at a medical clinic that took care of a lot of politicians, there was always a significant increase in patients suffering from the common cold and the flu during election campaigns.

Other areas in which poor personal relationships or poor interpersonal relations affect one’s health are in the area of risky health behavior. According to Stewart (2012), people with little or no family support from friends are less likely to succeed in quitting smoking, taking good care of their high blood pressure,losing weight or taking care of diabetics. Death from drug and alcohol is also more common among those with disordered or disrupted interpersonal relationships.

Surprisingly despite the importance of relationships to our health few medical doctors or other healthcare providers make building relationships an important part of their interaction or consultation with their patients.Instead there is a dichotomy in the medical field in which, psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors talk about relationships and others talk about medications and treatment.This is clearly a disservice to patients.This is particularly true in this modern world where fewer patients have access to traditional family support.

Better interpersonal relationships is just one way to improve your health without medication. For more ways to improve your health without  medications read 21 Ways To Transform Your Health Without Medications: The Compass Health Transfer

Resources

Latman, N.S.& Walls, R.(1996).Personality and stress:An exploratory comparison of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.Archives of Physical and Medical Rehabilitation,77,796-766.
Meyer,R.j.,& Haggerty, R.J.(1962).Streptococcal infections in families.Factors affecting individual susceptibility. Pediatrics, 29,536-549.
Stewart, J.(2012). Bridges Not Walls:A book about interpersonal communication.New York,NY: McGraw Hill