The diabetic vegetarian
The first line of combat when dealing with diabetes has always been diet. But research has been hit-and miss over the years, with nutritionists and doctors radically changing their opinions on diabetics’ best dietary options. For a long time it was believed that carbohydrates were the culprit, with doctors advising diabetic patients to limit their carb intake to just 20 percent of their total calories. Yet many cultures that eat diets high in carbohydrates have much lower rates of diabetes than Western societies. So what’s the deal?
Current research indicates that it’s not carbs that are the problem, it the type of carbs we eat. Simple carbohydrates, like those present in sugar and processed flour, raise the blood sugar so quickly that the pancreas has to create the hormone insulin to process it; complex carbohydrates, the kind found in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, take longer to break down into glucose, so the body doesn’t have the extreme insulin-producing reaction as with the simple sugars.
The American Diabetes Association now recommends that diabetics eat a diet that features a generous amount of slow-burning complex carbohydrates – including lots of fiber – with a moderate amount of protein and a low percentage of fat. Well, guess what? The vegetarian diet fits that prescription better than any other! In a study at the Pritikin Longevity Institute, a diet with 10 percent fat and just three ounces of meat per week was shown to radically help patients with Type II diabetes , allowing many of the diabetics to stop using medication to treat the condition.
Slimming down on a meat-free diet
Believe it or not, there are fat vegetarians – just as there are thin people who eat a lot of red meat. It’s possible to have a terrible diet that just happens to preclude animal proteins, and then there are complex issues of body type and metabolism as well. But there’s still some truth to the stereotype – a vegetarian eating a healthy diet consisting of a wide array of whole foods is unlikely to be overweight, and so are those who eat meat now and then but subsist mainly on plant foods.
If your omnivorous lifestyle has left you with more pounds than you’re comfortable with, then your new vegetarian diet is a great way to lose the weight. We’ve already talked about how the foods you eat provide your body with the various nutrients it needs to build strong bones, organs, skin, etc. And plant foods are easier to digest than animal foods – so you’re saving energy that you can use to be more active. Most people who switch to vegetarian diets notice that there’s more pep in their step because of the more efficient manner in which they’re fueling their body. So use that extra energy to get up and get moving – it’s an important step in weight control!
You’ll also find that your appetite is under control on a vegetarian diet. When you feed your body foods rich in the nutrients it needs, in an easily digestible form, you won’t find yourself with those mysterious cravings for more and more food at inappropriate times. When we eat a lot of animal foods, our colons become congested with mucous, toxins and the detritus of decaying flesh, limiting the absorption of nutrients from our food.
Removing that blockage from the lower intestine is why many people swear by regular cleansing of their colon, either through professionally administered therapeutic enemas or by treating yourself to a do-it-yourself colon-cleansing. Two or three weeks after transitioning to your vegetarian diet, mix a morning drink of apple juice with a tablespoon of aloe vera and liquid chlorophyll. Along with it, take two to four psyllium capsules and two capsules of cascara sagrada – everything you need is readily available where nutritional supplements are sold. Be warned, though – this will have a invigorating effect on your bowels, so do it on a day that you’re at home and close to the bathroom!
It’s not the quantity, it’s the quality
Weight loss diets for omnivores usually involving restricting something – fat, or carbohydrates, or calories. These diets are great for losing weight quickly, but most people gain weight back after their initial weight loss for two reasons – their diet wasn’t something they could stay on for the rest of their lives, and extreme diets ultimately slow the metabolism.
Let’s face it – anyone can lose weight by cutting back on the amount of food they eat. It’s called starvation! If you’ve ever been on a severely restrictive diet and felt cranky, light-headed and low on energy, it’s because your body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs. Burning stored fat is necessary for weight loss, of course, but there’s a lot of other things that you need from the food you eat just to get through the day. And eventually, restrictive diets actually have the result of making you fat.
Our bodies were ingeniously designed to survive in times of famine. When the eating’s good, we store extra energy for use later in the form of fat. When the pickings are slim, however, and we’re eating less than we need to survive, our bodies kick on the emergency backup system, burning the stored fat for energy. This worked brilliantly when man foraged for his food, eating whatever he could find – when he went for long periods with nothing to eat, he got thinner but he didn’t die because of the stored fat reserves.
Your body does the same thing, even though you aren’t foraging for food and going through long periods of famine. Every time you go on a restrictive diet, your body thinks that it’s starving. So your metabolism slows down, burning less energy, keeping you alive in the face of starvation.
When you try to go back to eating “normally,” your body leaps at the chance to store fat for the next time starvation comes – so you gain weight even faster than before. Your metabolism is slower, so you have less energy and you’re less inclined to exercise and your body holds onto what you give it for even longer.
So what’s the solution? Eating healthy foods, in moderation, to keep your metabolism chugging along like a well-oiled machine. And stay away from the junk food – just because those chocolate-covered granola bars and cheese puffs are meat-free, that doesn’t mean they’re good dietary choices.
Now that you’ve successfully given up eaten animal protein, take this opportunity to pick up other good habits, too. Drink water instead of sugar (or asparytame) loaded sodas. Satisfy your sweet tooth with fresh fruit instead of candy, eat whole-grain baked goods instead of white bread, and start using soy or rice milk instead of dairy. Your body will thank you!
