Diabetes – The Holidays 4

“Everyone Knows Someone Who Needs This Information!” (TM)

Not wanting to be the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, it is still necessary to discuss a few important relevant topics for diabetics as you go through a round of parties and holiday eating, especially if you want to be reasonably healthy at the end of this Season! How do you do it?

___   Be open to a wake-up call!

Example 1:  What do I mean by that? Well, for example, I just gave my sister, who had spent the summer and fall successfully losing weight by increasing exercise (swimming) and cutting back on food quantity and making smarter food choices, a copy of Dr. Rosedale’s landmark book about diet biochemistry. Bad choice. She wouldn’t read it.

I backed off as she’d been self-motivated and was being successful. She’d just asked for and received a pair of top-notch running shoes and was prepared to start her running regimen in winter. But, the information I was trying to share with her would have made it all “easier”, as she would have been learning how to work WITH her body, instead of trying to bash-it-into-compliance.

She’s off to California. The book is here. I’m sad. I wish her well, and I know I was helping. She doesn’t know what she missed. I think she will succeed, but it will be harder than it needed to be.

Example 2: You all know that I try to respond to the good and the bad on the TV program “The Biggest Loser”. Next week will be this season’s finale, and America is voting for the last of the three contestants who will make it to the finale. I am voting for Ada, as she has had the bigger obstacles in her life, least support from family and shown herself to be a person of great determination and fortitude which I want to reward. She just made a new record when winning the Biggest Loser Marathon! Brava! You can vote, too, here Biggest Loser Vote.

Surprisingly, I am proud of Americans. They are starting to get the wake-up call and starting to see that, especially in tough economic times, their Health is even more precious and in need of protection by their own Good Choices! If we lose our health insurance (which I did for the second time, several years ago and still have none), all you have is Knowledge and good judgment to protect you! Many more people are in that boat now.

Being practical — going in to try to apply for a job looking overweight and unfit is not going to “cut it” when employers are concerned about health costs and there are 5 times more applicants for every job, than usual. Time for you to start to re-invent yourself, with your doctor’s permission and guidance.

If you have no physician, then my suggestion is to just walk for at least an hour, everyday, at conversation pace (not being breathless, but being able to constantly talk to a companion, comfortably, if you wanted to for the whole time). You need to try to carve out the whole hour, as biochemical steps “kick-in”. But, if you can’t do the whole hour at once, then next-best choice is to cut it into either 40 minutes at lunchtime, 20 minutes in the morning or evening OR 20 minute chunks: morning, lunchtime and evening. Do this everyday. Walking isn’t strenuous enough to say “one day off, one day on ” or using “cross-training” rules, as we were meant to walk everyday.

___   Learn all you can about your body, food and exercise!

You’re here, so I am patting you on the back! Stay away from the American Diabetes Association food pyramid like the plague. Remove most grains from your diet (even if whole-grain). Get celiac, non-gluten recipes and start to try them. Use quinoa and wild rice (this is not a grain) as your main “grain” substitutes; both are very good for diabetes.

Use no artificial sweeteners. Use low glycemic stevia and agave nectar for natural sweetness and maple sugar, prudently. All these are good for diabetics. Eat way more than the 5 a day vegetables and fruits recommended by the US Government health bureaus. Eat less fruit, more vegetables. Include Vitamin C veggies and fruits everyday – kiwi is a good choice as it has Omega-3s, too.

Learn how to make your body pH alkaline everyday. I’ve written about this many times and have given you charts of pH alkaline foods. Look in the Titles Archive on the navigation bar above.

When you go to holiday parties, eat ahead at home, first. Then, at the party, with the roster of good pH alkaline foods remembered, indulge moderately. Also, calculate the empty calories of alcoholic drinks, the seriously acidic pH of any soda pop. Consider club soda with a twist and a shot of lemon or lime juice and 2 T of a little sweeter juice like pomegranate — with beneficial ellagic acids. It looks festive and has beneficial aspects to it. Do NOT use Seltzer Water. On the Club Soda label, look for either sodium bicarbonate or potassium bicarbonate, only.

If it’s a sit-down dinner, enjoy the healthiest parts of it.

There is time for celebration on the Middle Path. But, it’s important to know just when and how much is the time to choose. Not every office and collegial friend’s party is an “excuse”, but maybe you just really enjoy the time you spend on your main meal with family.  Choose a time to truly celebrate, in a moderate way.

___   Become a role-model for others!

The severely overweight, morbidly obese contestants who succeed on The Biggest Loser are very aware about Pay It Forward actions. You can too. Here are some amazing numbers about global obesity. These statistics come for  the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), but they are not perfectly meshed (as the country details are sometimes from different years and vary in sample size). But this is the best snapshot we have, so far, for the Globesity Epidemic.

The “healthiest” countries, which have at least 70% of their population still at “normal” body-mass index are, in order (best first): Laos and Ghana

The next tier has 60% – 70% of their populations at normal weight, in order (best first):  Madagascar, Japan (mostly because of Okinawa), Viet Nam, Mongolia, Philippines, South Korea, India, Kyrgyzstan and  Estonia

This third tier has 50% – 60% healthy weight, in order (best first): Morocco, Switzerland, China, Singapore, Thailand, Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, Romania, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, France, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Cuba, Iran, Latvia, Norway, Colombia, Bulgaria

The fourth tier has only 40% – 50% of the population at normal body mass index, in order (best first): Cyprus, Iceland, Malaysia, Vanuatu, Slovakia, Lithuania, Canada, South Africa,  Czech Republic, Poland, Spain, Hungary, Portugal, Jordan, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Turkey

This next group is in serious trouble, with only 30% – 40% of their populations at normal weight, in order (best first): Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, United States of America, Croatia, Malta, United Kingdom, Kuwait, Panama

And, the worst country in the world, for obesity, where only 18% of the people are at normal weight, is Kiribati.

Next week, I’m going to give my thoughts as to why these numbers and what more can be done, but find your country of residence; find your ethnic heritage and start thinking about where you get your food behaviors from and exercise outlooks from. Then, you’ll be ready to take part in next week’s important conversation.

Meanwhile, prepare for your holiday season carefully and thoughtfully.

I sincerely wish all of you a Happy, Peaceful, Secure Holiday Season and I fervently hope all will be much better when I write, again, this time next year.

Best to all — Em

REFERENCE:
W.H.O. stats Global Obesity
21 Fattest Countries with great photos!

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(c)2010 Em at http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
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Diabetes – Waiting It Out

“Everyone Knows Someone Who Needs This Information!” (TM)

At the moment my only daughter is in labor. I am trying to stay steady, but for diabetics, this is not always easy when emotionality is involved. So, among everything else, I am trying to remember to take care of me. Staying up most of last night won’t help that, unless I get some good naps today, and eat as close to regular timing as possible.

Sooner or later we are all in these circumstances. The choices we make are what counts. But, that also applies to the Larger Picture. Most of us are over-weight to some degree, diabetic or not. However, it’s part of the nature of diabetes to cause obesity issues, as metabolism is awry.

So, when we see evidence like The Biggest Loser that diabetes can really be turned around by weight-loss, it prompts us to start thinking.

But, please remember:

Firstly, the show is a game, and I think that undermines it. We’ve talked about this before. It shows the way, but in not enough detail. How valuable the online and CD resources are — I don’t know, but I believe they will be better than most. Both Bob and Jillian are now more familiar than most trainers are about working with over-weight, ill people, but the show FORCES too far, too soon, in my opinion.

However, the value of a balanced regimen between aerobics and strengthening muscles really showed up in the shows finale last week, in Jerry and Estelle’s case. More on that at the end.

Meanwhile, secondly, Helen won the prize, at 117 pounds, but she still had the midriff bulge that shows she’s still not down to her ideal weight, even after all that effort. Different body types have their first overload of fat in different places, and as she seems one of the same types as I am (Thyroid or a sub-set of it). I remember that first roll. She will need to pay attention, and at 48, her metabolism is a lot better than it had been, but only if she keeps exercising decently.

For Mike and Tara and Kristin — 5 pounds made the difference between “winning” and “losing”. How absurd. They are all winners! But, what damage did the show’s dumb format do to their self-image, even subconsciously.

It will still be a long journey for Kristin, and I sincerely wish her well. I think she can DO it!

For Tara, she continues to need social network and support until she really is sure of the tremendous Power she has. Once she’s constantly connected, and leaves self-doubt behind, she’ll be able to live a charmed life. Just look how much she accomplished — winning just about every challenge. I admire her efforts very much.

For Mike, I think taking responsibility for walking away from his father’s shadow is what is naturally part of his growth cycle, and before he heads off to college, I hope he really helps his younger, still-severely-obese brother, Max, get help. Become an advocate for local college resources to help your brother, if your family can’t afford a personal trainer for him. Enjoy your new body, but your life needs to be balanced, not just having body-image consume you. And, take the responsibility this summer, before you leave home, to learn how to cook properly and maintain proper portion control.

Thirdly, there is not enough information to tell about the root causes of diabetes in any of these participants, but if you’ve read my articles long enough, you know that the acidic biochemistry of stress and wrong-food choice, leaves it very hard to get to the daily alkaline pH goal.

Take the time to get a moderate exercise program started, after you get permission from your physician, and learn more about pH alkaline foods. Include both aerobic and strength-building approaches. Jerry may have won the at-home prize, but without the personal trainer’s guidance, just walking didn’t leave him (or Estelle) toned and with muscle-powerhouses to keep weight normalized in the future.

Both Estelle and Jerry were kicked off first and second. They deserved more help than they received from the show. Their dedication, doing it all at home, should have been supported with the same knowledge given participants at the Ranch, so their results were the same firm bodies, for the same effort.

Instead, they look older, and the skin is hanging off them. That’s not fair. It may have happened less, if they had not had the artificial deadline of the show’s final weigh-in, but it showed me that even a faithful, effective walking program did not produce a well-toned body, and underscores that fast weight-loss is not a good idea, and especially if muscle isn’t built all over one’s body!

So, I hope the show inspired people, but I also hope it’s lessons or lack of lessons aren’t “lost” on the general public. I keep wondering when the show’s producers will do a better job. It shouldn’t just be about their getting money from advertising to fill their coffers. In a fair exchange, our time for their knowledge, it can be a win-win.

The stakes are really high for the health of whole nations. Step up, Biggest Loser! Otherwise, I’ll be sure to NOT support ANY of your sponsors. How’s that for a deal.

(c)2009 Em http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
If you want to quote from or use my article, please respect its copyright, and include the citation and website address in your footnotes or Reference section. Thanks!

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Diabetes Gone – Biggest Loser’s Trainer Answers

 

 

 

 

 

“Everyone Knows Someone Who Needs This Information”(TM)

The cat is out of the bag about The Biggest Loser, backstage. Trainer Bob Harper answered many of the 65 questions posed to him about the show,  at the New York Times. TBL is one reality show which many overweight and obese people use as inspiration and to try to glean knowledge from, when they do not have money for a personal trainer. With the nation’s obesity rate rising to even new, extreme levels, and when many other countries, worldwide, rich and poor alike, are facing severe overweight, anything we can learn about this flagship, high-profile show is important. Is it realistic; is it setting reasonable goals? Is it detrimental, in the long run?

As The Biggest Loser is in its 7th season (I’ve missed only one season — maybe #4, so I speak from my own opinion and experience with it too), they are taking on older and more massive, sick, people. So, I was especially interested when they showed just about all the contestants in physical rehab after daily sessions of  4 -6 hours of exercise in nearly 400 pound bodies.  Bob says they do 1 -2 hours of it as intense cardio exercise per day. This is the first time they have ever shown the physical daily toll.

Massive physical therapy is needed apparently, and when injured, Bob says they still do low-impact water aerobics and chair weight work until well enough for more varied exercise.

It appears that as they lose weight, then exercise time will increase, but with this biggest group, ever, that’s where they are starting.

Interestingly, Bob says that at TBL, just as much time as exercise is spent re-educating the people about food and healthy food preparation! We KNOW that food is key, if you are a regular reader of this blog. Wrong foods undo right exercise (tm).

Many participants do not cook or don’t know how to cook! And, in that sense, they are all too representative of current America. In 1965, the family chef (usually a woman, still) spent an average of 13 hours a week preparing food for the family. Now, we are lucky if ANYONE spends even 30 minutes a day!

We just can’t be healthy with those priorities (or rather lack of priorities!).

A current researcher even goes as far as to say:

“Even if home cooking is of the fried-chicken-and-mashed-potatoes variety, it rarely produces extreme obesity, said Barry Popkin, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Almost any kind of cooking you can produce in a kitchen is healthier than fast food.” The decline of home cooking worldwide, he said, is an underlying cause of obesity.

In that same time period, from 1965 to now, the percentage of women who are overweight has risen to about 65 percent from about 30 percent in the 1960s.

The chef of The Biggest Loser cookbooks also says that 20 minutes of proper healthy food preparation in your home kitchen will save you 3 hours on a Stairmaster. So, make better choices about your food, period!

Cooking at home and eating well is being perceived as much harder than just eating less. But, cooking at home really can be very time and health effective, and it holds the key to being able to truly satisfy hunger.  Because the food is healthier, you can have reasonable portions, and you can stage your eating into the “every four hours” scenario Bob suggests, while awake (as does Dr. Barry Sears, PhD of The Zone Diet system) to retune your metabolism and have your insulin and glucagon balance be better controlled.

Bob Harper says that many of TBL participants arrive diabetic, and in the course of their physical training, losing weight, food re-education, they manage to get off medications for diabetes and often for other medical issues, too.  We highlighted that for 400+ pound Dan, at 19 years old, last week.  See link below.

This also happened a few weeks ago for the Dad on the father-son team. When the Biggest Loser’s physician announced that, he stated, that even for a guy in his late 40′s or so, not only was he healthier, but at today’s costs, he’d save $176,000 just by no longer needing these drugs — and it would all be saved from his own pocket, for as we know, too many morbidly obese and diabetic people can’t get health coverage.

What a difference to not have to pay $176,000 and know that you were now HEALTHIER than you ever were on the drugs. Lifestyle changes get to the root cause of these dis-eases, and have the only chance to cure them. Drugs never do. But, if you aren’t willing to make the exercise and eating changes, then you have only 2 choices: take the meds or die. Please choose life.

Bob says the calorie amounts daily are personalized to each participant’s height, weight, age and gender. Bob stocks his team’s kitchen cupboards, and they spend a lot of time learning in the kitchen every day, even though this is NOT seen on television (what a pity!).

They have to make all their own meals, when they are beat, injured, whatever. I think the team concept would help here; hopefully it does, anyway.  Everyone spends a great deal of time rehabbing old favorite re ipes to become healthier, learning new recipes and altogether new ways to shop, cook and eat. Guest chefs appear once in a while to really show more of what can be done; that’s an inspiration and an eye-opener, as many don’t even know what fresh vegetables are or what to do with them!

As a vegetarian, Bob found that eventhough he had been in great shape, when he became vegetarian 3 years ago, he got even stronger and has better endurance now.  Unless he’s Blood Type O, then vegetarianism is productive, if it is not the fake-soy, heavy cheese and crunchy cereal version.

If the foundation of any diet is pure spring water, then fresh vegetables (especially the leafy ones), then whole grains (cooked only as grains — not made from flours), then healthy oils, a bit of fruit and a moderate amount of protein a day,  that sets the stage for health.

Remember, you must have carbohydrates for Health, but they are the food group you must be most careful about with your choices. Bob says that Atkins, low-carb diets will never be sustainable, and certainly not while doing heavy exercise. (I would say that may be possible to a great degree for Blood Type O, but even so,  fresh vegetables should still form the foundation of everyone’s diet).

In his report, Bob says that these massively clinically obese people arrive addicted to junk-foods and to fast-foods. Part of his strategy is to break that cycle, because otherwise, the recetivism will be tremendous. As it is, several of the prior years’ participants have been chefs. They have sold their businesses. You do what you need to do to get your life turned around. For one, it worked; for the other, it didn’t.

Looking at TBL site, digging deeply, I found out that many of the contestants (even the doctor, two seasons ago) re-gain about 40 – 50 pounds. I think this is too much of a bounce-back, and I would encourage anyone this large to never let themselves go beyond a 20 – 25 pound buffer zone. I don’t think it is reasonable to think that you can keep working out 4 – 6 hours a day, so knowledgeable food choice becomes even more imperative.

I think we all need to realize that we must exercise and eat decently if we expect to regain and keep our Health. There are NO short-cuts; Bob emphasizes that. The past participants who stay in their target zone, varying no more than 10 pounds from what they achieved on the show, do so because they stay focused and committed. There are quite a few of them, and that shows that life-long change is possible, with determination and then acceptance of a new, healthier way to guide your life — respecting your body, mind and spirit — dealing with stress in more constructive ways.

As far as artifically sweetened foods which are touted on the show, Bob gets no money from advertisers (but, I’m sure the show does). His rationale is that he is gradually changing their palates and reducing their cravings, but he says he would NEVER use artificially sweetened anything, himself, and neither do I.

Over time, their body starts to get rid of the massive, toxic load they are harboring, mostly by sweating it out. Then, as they eat more fresh, healthy food, that and the metabolism kicking-in to burn up toxins, too, starts progress toward some better Health, not just weight-loss. And, Health should be the goal.

To jump-start yourself, Bob suggests getting rid of all artificially-sweetened food, using no sodas of any kind, getting further and further away from eating fast foods (except for salads) and then MOVING – walk, walk, walk everywhere. Try to get your 10,000 steps a day built up (over time, maybe a month or more if you are very heavy).  Get a pedometer and use it to keep the step tally.

Make sure to check your blood sugars if you change your activity level.

Many people expressed the same frustration that I have with the show, and wanted to know if the rejected teams get any help after they are sent home. Many also said they did not feel this should have people being sent home. This and more concerns me too. There were a few bright spots.

All participants still have access to the show’s physicians and their trainer — online or by phone — after they head home, before their season ends. The sponsor 24 Hour Fitness gives them a year’s free membership (but acknowledges that only works if a facility is nearby). As many of these people come from tiny communities, they end up being dependent on the goodness of their neighbors. Bob says many local trainers have stepped in to help them for free, once they have been eliminated from The Ranch.

In one case, last season, the Physical Education coaches at the University of Michigan stepped in to help one of the moms, who was local for them, and she succeeded very well.

The show also fails to offer psychological support (other than the layman type provided by Jillian and Bob), but for binge eaters, this would be essential, I think.  However, I also opine that far too many people think that obese people cannot control their food intake, and I think that is very inaccurate. Study after study shows that often obese people eat way less food than regular weight people, but their biochenistry is SO out of whack, that even that bit can make them balloon.

Plus, many overweight people have a very efficient Thrifty Gene, which would have helped THEM to be the humans who survive. The skinny people sure won’t in times of famine.

So, all in all its a delicate dance of genetics, metabolism, exercise,  food choice and amount. We know that. The show should help people learn what they are showing participants better, but as TBL has published cookbooks and the trainers have written their books, maybe that’s the better way to go to learn, if you have massive weight to lose. They also have exercise DVDs.

For me, the show is there for inspiration and for warning. NEVER let yourself get into the terrible health bind these people did, because you see how HARD they have to work to undo it all.

Best to all — Em

P.S. – If you want to learn more, then use the Titles Tab on the upper Navigation Bar. If you learned a lot, please share this and any of my other articles at your favorite Web 2.0 site. Thanks!

REFERENCES:
http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/diabetes-gone-biggest-losers-dan-and-dave-a-new-start/

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/q-and-a-with-bob-harper-of-the-biggest-loser/?ref=dining 

BOB’S RESPONSES: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/how-losers-lose/

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/more-from-bob-harper/

(c) 2009 Em http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
If you desire to share any of my article, please respect my copyright and include the copyright citation and my web address in your footnote or reference section. Thanks.

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