The best diet for optimal blood sugar control & health
This is a really easy-to-make treat when you want something sweet, but would like to make it keto friendly. I usually eat a chocolate fat bomb mousse or popsicle if I need to add a little more fat to my daily macros and/or want a sweet treat. If I am in the mood for mousse, […]
For the Red Pepper Sauce
1 red pepper – deseeded and roughly chopped
Splash olive oil
½ yellow pepper – deseeded and roughly chopped
165g cherry tomatoes – halved
2 cloves garlic – left whole
75ml red wine
Pinch sugar
1 tbsp tomato puree
150ml vegetable stock
For the courgetti
2 courgettes – spiralised
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 pinch sugar
To serve
1 red onion – finely sliced
Splash olive oil
200g raw king prawns
1 handful fresh basil
Parmesan shavings – to serve
Pre-heat the oven to 180’C
Toss the pepper in the olive oil and roast for 20 minutes
Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook for a further 20 minutes
Squeeze out the garlic from their skins and return to the dish. Stir in the red wine, sugar and tomato puree and cook for a final 10 minutes
Once cooked, blend the mixture together with the stock until smooth, and then push through a fine sieve to make even smoother.
Set-aside until ready to serve.
Spiralise your courgettes and then toss through the lemon juice and sugar and set aside.
Heat a large pan with a splash of oil and fry the onion until soft.
Add the sauce and once bubbling stir in the prawns
Cook through until the prawns have turned lovely and pink and then turn off the heat.
Fold in the courgetti and then plate up, sprinkling over your basil leaves and parmesan and enjoying with salad.
Nutritional Info:
Calories – 316
Fat – 9g
Carbs – 26g
Sugars – 15g
Protein – 28g
The Freestyle Libre blood sugar monitoring system has been out for about a year now. It consists of a sensor that you put in your upper arm and a reader, a bit like a mobile phone, that tells you the blood sugar, whether the trend is rising or falling, and what your blood sugar pattern has been like over the last eight hours.
I haven’t met anyone who has tried it who didn’t prefer it to finger pricks. About the only situation that it is no good for is driving. You need to have proof of your blood sugar on a regular meter should your ability to drive while under the influence of injected insulin comes under scrutiny.
The NHS is a big organisation and no doubt funding for this will vary from area to area, but in Scotland at least, there is no prospect of my son getting one on the NHS.
The main people who will be able to get the device are pregnant women and those women who are planning a pregnancy. Since these women ideally have to get their Hbaic down to 6% or under to ensure a healthy baby, then you can see why they have the greatest need. You are looking at two patients in one and complications that can affect a child lifelong.
The other groups that are eligible are those with very frequent admissions for diabetic ketoacidosis or severe hypoglycaemia. By this is meant three times in a single year. Both these complications of diabetes can result in sudden death or brain damage and often in young people.
Those people whose HbA1cs are over 8.5% or who test their blood sugars more than six times a day will also be considered. Since most people attending hospital diabetic clinics will have blood sugars over this threshold it is a big group. Perhaps diabetic athletes will also be considered.
The group that won’t be given the device and sensors on the NHS are the ones who are already making great efforts to reduce complications by eating low carb diets, exercising consistently and monitoring frequently. Using the Freestyle libre should help this group adjust their insulin and food more finely, in particular avoiding hypos, since their blood sugars are wiggling around normal much of the time anyway. As they are already at much lower risk for complications they are saving the NHS a great deal of money just by being so committed to their task, yet something that would make the job easier is denied them because they are not “bad enough”.
So, I’ve just bought my son one. So far he is thrilled with it. The sensors are £45 (VAT exempt) a fortnight and the initial outlay is £137 (VAT exempt) including two sensors.
There are two great advantages as far as I’m concerned. Peace of mind. And Christmas and Birthday presents for the foreseeable future are sorted.
More than a third of patients who had bariatric surgery got back to a BMI of 30 or less after one year. Some patients respond better than others, and some operations are more effective than others.
Having a BMI of less than 40 made it more likely for the person to reach their goal weight. Obviously, they had less to lose. Only one out of ten patients who had a BMI of 50 or over got down to a BMI of 30, which corresponds to the limit between being considered overweight and being considered obese.
Sleeve gastrectomy, gastric bypass or duodenal switch operations were the most effective. Adjustable gastric bands were less effective.
BMJ 9 Dec 2017 from JAMA Surg 2017
Looking for something sweet to eat that still works with your diabetes? Try this…
150g almond flour
100g desiccated coconut (unsweetened)
1 tsp baking powder
120g butter (softened)
60g inulin powder (or granulated sugar substitute)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
30g 72% dark chocolate (chopped)
Pre-heat your oven to 160°C and line a baking sheet. In a bowl mix together the almond flour, coconut and baking powder. In a separate bowl cream the butter with the inulin, then beat in the vanilla and egg until well combined. Add the dry ingredients and the chocolate to form a dough. Divide the dough into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Press each ball gently with the heel of your hand to flatten to about 1/4 inch thick. Bake for 12-14 minutes until just browning. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet. Option – drizzle with melted chocolate for decoration!
(NB: Don’t try to cut up the chocolate in a mini chopper. I broke one attempting this. Katharine)
Are you physically active and do you have diabetes (of any type)? Now is your chance to share how you manage your diabetes regimen while doing a variety of activities! A new edition of Dr. Sheri Colberg’s book, Diabetic Athlete’s Handbook, is coming out in Spring 2019. Please complete the diabetic athlete survey at the link below no later than […]
Adapted from BMJ 10 Feb 18
A large population based cohort study showed that patients who started canagliflozin had a markedly reduced risk of being admitted to hospital with cardiac failure compared to three other types of anti-diabetes drugs. There was no increase in heart attacks or stroke.
The study was based in the USA and the comparative drugs were DPP-4 inhibitors such as Victoza and Byetta, Gliptans such as Linagliptan and Sitagliptan, and sulphonylureas such as Gliclazide. There was a 30-49% decrease in hospitalisations for cardiac failure.
None of the patients had a history of cardiac failure or cardiovascular disease at the start of the study and the patients were compared to others with the same HbA1C to ensure a fair comparison.
The reduction in cardiac failure could be a class effect of the Flozin drugs but further studies would be needed to find out. No other Flozins were used in the study as comparators.
Between 17,354 and 20,539 pairs of patients were matched for each comparison making this a very large study indeed.
If you eat one or two portions of green leafy vegetables a day you could have a brain 11 years younger than you otherwise would.
That is the conclusion of a longitudinal study of almost a thousand elderly people in the USA. Compared to people who rarely or never ate green vegetables there was a very marked difference in brain function over time.
This seems to be due to the folate, phylloquinone and lutein in the foodstuffs.
So eat up and protect your brain. If like me, you prefer your salad well dressed and your vegetables laced with fat and garlic and spices look around the site for our recipes. Spinach in a cheese and garlic sauce, and buttered peas and leeks are my favourites.
Adapted from BMJ 13 Jan 2018 from an article in Neurology
Adapted from BMJ 27 Jan 2018 from a study reported in PLOS Med
The UK Food Standards Agency uses a scoring system of their own devising to determine whether a food is “healthy” or not. Fruit, vegetables, fibre and protein get top marks and saturated fat, sugar and salt get a fail.
When 25 thousand participants in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer study completed a seven day food diary at the start of the study, and their food choices were marked on perceived health benefits, there was no difference in the incidence of cardiovascular disease over the next 16 years.
Time to lay the Eatwell Plate advice in the bin?
A super-duper low-carb options for chicken fans from Yummy Lummy…
Super hot and spicy chicken wings that are low carb too Spicy chicken wings were on my mind all day after I watched Megatoad (aka Matt Stonie) eating sixty-five (65) chicken wings on his YouTube channel. He starts mild and steps up to the really hot and spicy chicken wings towards the end and then […]
via Super hot and spicy chicken wings that are low carb too — Yummy Lummy
