Diabetics – Body Information Markers Help 2

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

In last week’s article I introduced the idea of B.I.M. (Body Information Markers) which you can use to help you assess your own Health or that of your children. As a diabetic, you are used to self-measurement, but these are new tools, and they work for everyone!

So, here are some new B.I.M.s and the link to last week’s article is below.

___ Neck circumference has been explored in studies as a B.I.M. for potential obesity and heart problems in adults and the information below also applies to children.

One of Body Mass Index’s (the usual method) shortcomings is that it “does not accurately define central body fatness,” said Dr. Nafiu (an assistant professor of pediatric anesthesia at the University of Michigan School of Medicine Health, Ann Arbor).

Neck circumference could give better clues to actual body fat composition.

Additionally, Dr. Olubukola Nafiu and his colleagues examined 1,102 children and recorded their heights, weights and neck circumferences to determine whether this measurement could be another way to assess obesity in children. It can.

At the link below, you can get relevant charts for neck circumference guidelines. Help you and your child by referring to them often.

The doctors measured necks using a flexible tape at the most prominent part of the neck for young children. For older males, that area was around the Adam’s apple level (larynx bump, in the front of the neck).

But common sense also indicates the connection between a large, fatty neck circumference and ill health.

It was particularly poignant to see this research as in a recent week’s “Losing It With Jillian”,  trainer Jillian Michael’s intervened to save the health of a Miami 9 year old, who was already pre-diabetic and almost at full-blown Type 2 diabetes, which is at epidemic levels among juveniles.

___   David Alvarez, Jr. was a miniature, thick-necked version of his severely overweight father and somewhat overweight Mom. He was already having to monitor blood sugar, and the terrible thing about juveniles who are getting Type 2 diabetes is that food can either create or obliterate the condition!

If a family will choose healthy foods and use it and exercise to get the weight off, then you are on your way back to Health. But, children are at the mercy of their parent’s ignorance or lack of concern or both.

Children don’t buy or prepare the food they eat; adults do that, and it is up to the adults to validate and encourage healthy exercise and other healthy habits.

Jillian courageously told the Alvarez family that they were causing their son’s ill health.

So, Jillian showed them how to eat better and exercise properly and efficiently and choose time to have fun together. By the time 6 weeks had gone by, little David had lost 25 pounds and he was most of the way to becoming a normal-sized kid again.

He was no longer being taunted; he had a new lease on life, as he wanted to make sure his new friends stayed healthy or the ones who needed help learned what he had. Talk about paying it forward!

Jillian supported little David’s after school program so he could continue to help the other kids learn how to live a healthy life. Brava! and Bravo!

___ And, you need a test like the neck  B.I.M.  above to help gauge your children’s weight well being, as the usual growth charts (which are based on BMI) may not tell the whole story, yet another article suggests. However, the medical profession does consider Body Mass Index a B.I.M. and uses it in all childhood assessment of weight.

And, importantly, the article says it  seems that the vast majority of pediatricians are NOT willing to discuss or intervene in juvenile weight control — I just couldn’t believe what I was reading!

___   More than 20 years ago, the alarm bell rang on the childhood obesity epidemic. Now, 17% of American children and adolescents are officially “obese“, triple the rate in 1980.

And nearly 33% more children are also now considered “overweight“, according to the latest government data.

Importantly and shockingly, in a 2006 study surveying the parents of the obese children, one-half of those parents did NOT recognize that their child was even overweight (some studies show it as high as 90%).

Less than one-third of parents said they were “worried” about their child’s weight!

In another survey, only 38% of parents had taken steps, or were planning to take them, to help their obese child lose weight.

Parents should be concerned, because although some overweight kids do outgrow their baby fat, roughly two out of three are likely to grow up to be obese adults! And along with that sentence comes a slew of serious health problems, including: diabetes, asthma, heart disease and depression. Who would wish that on their child!

The failure of parents to accurately assess their child’s weight is also partly due to changing social norms — not only are kids heavier than ever before, but roughly 2/3 of adults are also overweight.

Parents who are overweight themselves are less likely to identify their children as overweight and similarly, some studies suggest that parents of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds have different conceptions of body type and overweight.

___   BMI might be a better B.I.M. if it was looked at with a CRITICAL eye. Be aware that steadiness in the relationship between weight and height on the graph are crucial.

Dr. Samuel Gidding, MD says studies show that there is a serious concern when lots of weight comes on rapidly, at any time. If so, regard that as a possible problem showing up in metabolism or biochemistry.

Use Body Mass Index (BMI) as a signal to monitor your child, consult a pediatrician who is active and aware, and double your effort to give your child proper amounts of only healthy foods.

Monitor your children from birth. Use the charts below and the neck circumference charts already mentioned (link in Reference section below).

And, as children get older, parents should teach them about:
___ nutrition
___ appropriate portion sizes
___ healthy eating habits (such as sticking to regular meal times)
___ and the importance of being active.

Here’s your access to the scientific basis for a healthy child’s growth assessment and normal weight to height ratios — by gender.

Girl’s Height and Weight Charts

Boy’s Height and Weight Health Chart

Neck Size as a Diabetes Indicator

Diabetic Body Information Genes, Bellies and More – Part 1

Best to all — Em

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Diabetics – Body Information Markers Help

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

Here’s a new diabetes update about how your own Body Information Markers (B.I.M.) can help you assess your status, at any age, and make better food choices. You’ll also learn new diet information which has profound impact on your body, which I mentioned last time, but it was buried in my gardening article and so I am alerting you here.

From: Science Daily – Diabetes and Heart Disease Surprising Clinical Studies.

Most of us know that extra-virgin olive oil and a Mediterranean diet are associated with a lower risk for cardiovascular disease and more, but a new July 2010 research report published in the FASEB Journal offers a surprising reason why: These foods change how genes associated with atherosclerosis function.

“Knowing which genes can be modulated by diet, in a healthy way, can help people select healthy diets,” said Maria Isabel Covas, D.Pharm., Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work. “It is also a first step for future nutritional therapies with selected foods.”

Yes, Hippocrates and my views are finally scientifically validated!

“Let food be your medicine!”

In the Spanish study, scientists worked with three groups of healthy volunteers:

___ The first group consumed a traditional Mediterranean diet with virgin olive oil rich in polyphenols. (Extra-virgin would even be better.)

___ The second group consumed a traditional Mediterranean diet but only with an olive oil low in polyphenols — the generic,  non-virgin, inexpensive, light-in-color olive oil.

___ The third group followed whatever their habitual diet was.

After three months, the first group had a lessened activation (“down-regulation”) in the expression of atherosclerosis-related genes – helping to curb the condition of inflexible arteries.

Additionally, the olive oil polyphenols made a significant impact on the expression of genetic changes influencing coronary heart disease, itself, that is a difference in clotting and closure, and the helpful polyphenols continued into  reducing inflammation and excessive blood sugar levels.

Results definitely showed that the consumption of virgin olive oil in conjunction with a Mediterranean diet can positively impact lipid and DNA oxidation, insulin resistance, inflammation, carcinogenesis and tumor suppression.

This news should encourage you to start using organic virgin and organic extra-virgin olive oil as your main fat source. Daily use should be in the realm of 1 – 2 tablespoons, total, as your portion, depending on your recipes. It’s best to use it in dressings, but this oil can be used in cooking, as can the organic coconut oil below.

This leaves room for another Tablespoon of other healthy oils you need, like: Omega-3 oils from cold-water fish or hempseed or flaxseed (walnut oil, somewhat) and the medium-chain essential fatty acids from organic coconut oil (yes, I know it’s “saturated”, but in this case, in moderation, it is important to use for your body so it can make important hormones. There are very few foods that already are in medium-chain form, and I believe that coconut is a basic human food).

Omega-3 hemp and flax should only be used cold; never cook with them.

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Now to learning more about Body Information Markers (B.I.M.).

___ Dr. Gupta on CNN reports that most of us have been gaining weight in our 50s and early 60s and if so, after age 65, that can double your risk of diabetes later in your life, according to a new University of Washington study.

“Prior to the study it was well established that adiposity [fat tissue] was a strong risk factor in young and middle-age adults, but there was limited information on older adults”.

As seniors are the fastest growing segment of most Western populations, more geriatric research does have to be done, as we have never had this many older humans living to such age before.

In the United States, we know that 12.2 million people or 23.1 percent of the people age 60 or older already have diabetes, according to the National Institutes of Health. A lifetime of poor choices or uneducated choices catches up with us.

As we age we tend to experience loss of muscle mass (and therefore reduced and altered metabolism) (some of this could be mitigated by life-long exercise or starting an exercise program at any time), I believe.

So Dr. Biggs wanted to find out whether the risk factors for determining diabetes in older adults would be the same as younger adults.

The University of Washington study looked at more than 4,000 participants and found 339 new cases of type 2 diabetes over an average of 12 years, between 1989 and 2007. That’s nearly 10% of the group becoming diabetic in early old age, and more could still become so.

Dr. Biggs and her fellow researchers examined height, body weight, waist and hip circumference, body mass index (BMI), and body fat composition of the participants

The study is published in the Journal of American Medical Association and it found that those who were obese in midlife were more likely to develop diabetes later in life. Researchers also found if people gained substantial weight between age 50 and older, then after 65, they were more likely to develop diabetes.

So it’s really a combination says Dr. Biggs: Higher body fat AND gaining weight are pretty strongly related to diabetes in older age and are a double whammy.

Therefore,  use your weight as an indication and perform at least the “pinch” test as a B.I.M. — you can do a Pinch Test on the back of your upper arm. Gently gather that tissue until your arm is taut back there. If you have an inch or more of raised flesh gathered between your 2-finger “pinch”, then you are carrying too much fat.

Knowing that, helps you decide to start a walking program (with your doctor’s permission and guidance). If you do well, you may be able to incorporate more vigorous exercise, at your physician’s discretion.

The exercise will build muscle, make for a more efficient metabolism and help you detoxify, which diabetics need to do! If you do a long, slow exercise, like walking for 45 minutes, at that point you should have finished burning your liver’s short-term glycogen carbohydrate stores, and you will burn fat until your next meal.

Be sure to have a small, balanced snack before you exercise. For me, I find that Balance Bars are an important buffer to give me safe-space to exercise. You will find them in the health sections of all good stores or online. This nutritional profile is very carefully calibrated and they are the only bar I recommend for diabetes control.

The study suggests that losing weight when you’re over 65 doesn’t reduce the risk of diabetes, as studies in younger people have shown it does for them. I know that is what they “say”, but I don’t believe it!

I believe that our bodies always have the capacity to heal, but that it happens best when we give the right environment. Otherwise, it may seem that we are not able to heal.

If people in the study were left to choose the same poor foods, even if in smaller amounts, then I would expect no change. BUT, if the pH correct foods are chosen and ALL the bad foods are eliminated, and the emphasis is on healthy vegetables as the diet foundation and only drinking spring water or alkaline waters, then I know much of diabetes can be mitigated and in the case of Type 2 diabetes, it can even be reversed.

Several enlightened physicians reversing diabetes all the time, so I think that “research” statement is lacking and disingenuous.

Certainly, stopping or slowing weight gain as you age may contribute to diabetes prevention.

Consistent exercise can help reduce abdominal fat, even when your scale doesn’t register that you are losing, as your body is importantly modifying its tissue composition.

The researchers  suggest to maintain weight, but reduce belly fat, activities such as strength training can help reduce your waistline.

And, more about that waistline number next time! It is an important B.I.M. as is your neck size! Read about these in Part 2.

Best to all — Em

REFERENCE:
University of Washington Diabetes Study

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Diabetics Need To Garden – Part 7, Choices

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

Yes, you need a garden and there are choices to make so that you can fully enjoy its Health benefits, especially if you are a diabetic. Diabetes is definitely helped by eating more fresh, low-glycemic, pH alkaline vegetables. What are those?

I have charts to help you understand in the Archive Tab above. But, today, as promised a fortnight ago, here are the plants which Oprah’s group chose to help save $800 on a family food bill by growing their own food. For every $1 invested in seed, fertilizer, potting mix, there was a $9 value return in the food produced.

Using mostly seed, they planted:
___ Arugula: With 5 square feet and $1, you can grow 10 pounds, worth $40.

___ Basil: With 5 sf and 50 cents, you can grow 4 lbs, worth $20.
___ Beets: With 5 sf and $2 , you can grow 40 plants, worth $40.
___ Bell peppers: With 10 sf and $3, you can grow 20 lbs, worth $40.

___ Butternut squash: With 5 sf and 50 cents, you can grow 10 plants, worth $20. This can be stored.

___ Chard: With 10 sf and $1.50, you can grow 25 lbs, worth $50.
___ Green beans: With 15 sf and 50 cents, grow 10 lbs, worth $20.

___ Spinach: With 10 sf and $20 (probably used transplants here), you can grow 30 lbs, worth $90.

___ Strawberries: With 45 sf and $10, you can grow 25 pints, worth $50. Again, they must have purchased plants. Strawberries are the least alkaline pH berry.

___ Tomatoes: With 15 sf and $3, you can grow 100 lbs, worth $320.
___ Turnips: With 5 sf and $2, you can grow 40 bulbs, worth $20.
___ Yellow squash: With 10 sf and $3, you can grow 20 lbs, worth $40.
___ Zucchini: With 10 sf and $3, you can grow 25 lbs, worth $50.

By spending $36 and using 150 square feet, you’ll grow $800 worth of fresh vegetables!

Now, lets discuss this Plan.

___   Firstly, most of these veggies are on the pH alkaline side of the charts, in varying degrees. That’s good.

If they had chosen them, snow pea pods and peas would be on the pH acidic side, as would be dried beans and dried peas (black-eye peas are the least acidic). Carrots are also high acid pH.

However, the spinach they chose IS mildly pH acidic, as are zucchini squash, chard and fresh green or wax beans. The regular tomatoes are also quite pH acidic unless you grow the sweeter varieties like grape tomatoes.

___   In this garden, they used no seaweed fertilizer which is organic and very pH alkaline. They also did not grow the most pH alkaline vegetables: onions, white daikon icicle radish, burdock root, sweet potatoes, kohlrabi, kale, parsley, endive, broccoli, (asparagus in Spring), garlic or parsnip (not low glycemic).

The bitter arugula is the most pH alkaline plant they grew and as I hate the taste, I would be substituting equal or better alkaline pH greens for it, like: sweet potato leaves, parsley, kale, endive and frisee.

As diabetics are overly pH acidic in their cellular tissues already, (due to metabolism and diabetic medications), it crucial to eat pH alkaline foods to start to neutralize the acids! pH alkaline waters, like Essentia, can aid this process.

___   I was disappointed that there was not much emphasis on container gardening and the more intensive gardening methods that I have shown you in this series. My methods have high yield with less physical work and less need for “space”, which you may not have in the first place.

___   But this was a worthwhile exercise to show you “yields”. A few seeds that sprout or a few transplants which survive, with care and watering can give you an amazing harvest!

___   Now, another item which disappoints me about these choices from Oprah’s staff is that a lot of these plants cannot be easily preserved in any healthy way.

So, as soon as the weather allows, choosing plants that freeze well or will not rot on a shelf are important. Freezing broccoli, pickling cabbage and storing gourds like pumpkins in a good, cool, dry place will let you have food beyond the growing season outside.

Choosing these kinds of plants needs to be part of the Plan.

___   I mostly want to eat my summer garden produce fresh! Plant accordingly or plan on sharing extra food with a Food Bank.

___   Personally, I don’t want to be canning gallons of tomato sauce when the weather may be hot. Dehydrating tomatoes is one option. That’s what the Italians chose to do with sun-dried tomatoes, but you must know how to dehydrate properly (in the sun or in a machine), so that the food will not mold from still being too moist.

___   Discussing safe, acceptable ways to freeze pureed tomato would be a question I would ask of my County Extension Agent or the Food Technology department at my state university.

___   I would have grown lots of different lettuces and cilantro, for sure, and instead of so many tomatoes, I would have included some bell peppers and eggplant. Grow just bell peppers if you don’t like eggplant, but try it, as it is a very pH alkaline veggie.

___   Potatoes should have been grown, too, in a tower. When stored properly an acre of ground can feed a family of 4 on just potatoes, for a year. They are amazing. So, putting a much smaller area in will still give you a good harvest and you can choose varieties unavailable in the store.

Potatoes are actually quite nutritious, but you must always eat them with their skin on, for them to be pH alkaline, and in moderate amounts.

___   Freezer jams might be able to be made with excess strawberries, but I would never want to use artificial sweeteners or sugar. I would ask my extension agent how to make it with lemon juice and honey or agave nectar added. This  could not work for canning, but it might work for freezer jam.

You must as the experts ahead of time if you want to do something different in a recipe, when you want to preserve food. Canning recipes are critical to follow as they are, unless you get help to change them. Each item is there in that quantity for a reason if they are truly professional recipes which give you the best chance for safety.

And, for pickling, get the proper, designated % vinegar. Too weak is not good!

___   If you are in the right climate, it is worth investing in one or more permanent bearers like: an avocado tree, a grapefruit tree (if your medications allow it), a lemon tree, an apple tree, nectarine and dark plum tree, persimmon tree and a black cherry tree. These could be dwarf varieties. All of these are alkaline fruits.

___   I would always find a way to grow one dwarf watermelon vine, supported on a trellis if needed, with the growing fruit encased in a gentle mesh bag, attached to the frame. Watermelon is the only really healthy melon. Honeydew is next.

___   And make room for berries and grapes – raspberry, then blackberry and less pH alkaline, blueberry and red grapes.

___   In reasonable quantities, all these fruits are healthy for diabetics. But, vegetables should be the foundation of any diabetic meal. About 80% of your plate should be low glycemic, pH alkaline veggies. Then a palm-size piece of protein or a couple of ounces of cheese or 2 organic eggs from veg-fed, free-range birds.

___   And the last item in every meal is healthy oils. About 2 teaspoons to 1 Tablespoon, depending on the way the menu is. Organic, extra-virgin, cold-pressed olive oil and walnut oil and non-GMO, organic canola oil or macadamia nut oil are the best choices, along with hemp oil and flax oil (these last two can never be heated).

And, on the importance of olive oil, Science Daily writes:

“Everyone knows olive oil and a Mediterranean diet are associated with a lower risk for cardiovascular disease, but a new research report published in the July 2010 print issue of the FASEB Journal offers a surprising reason why: These foods change how genes associated with atherosclerosis function.”

Em: this is part of the science called epigenetics.

Continuing – “”Knowing which genes can be modulated by diet in a healthy way can help people select healthy diets,” said Maria Isabel Covas, D.Pharm., Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Cardiovascular Risk and Nutrition Research Group at the Institut Municipal d’Investigacio Medica in Barcelona, Spain. “It is also a first step for future nutritional therapies with selected foods.”

Scientists worked with three groups of healthy volunteers.

___ The first group consumed a traditional Mediterranean diet with virgin olive oil rich in polyphenols.

___ The second group consumed a traditional Mediterranean diet with an olive oil low in polyphenols.

___ The third group followed their habitual diet.

After three months, the first group had a down-regulation in the expression of atherosclerosis-related genes in their peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Additionally, the olive oil polyphenols made a significant impact on the expression of genetic changes influencing coronary heart disease.

Results also showed that the consumption of virgin olive oil in conjunction with a Mediterranean diet can positively impact lipid and DNA oxidation, insulin resistance, inflammation, carcinogenesis, and tumor suppression.

Em: so eating moderate amounts of organic, extra-virgin olive oil and the Mediterranean diet will also help diabetes, protect heart as well as other organ systems.

Continuing – ” “This study is ground breaking because it shows that olive oil and a Mediterranean diet affect our bodies in a far more significant way than previously believed,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal. “Not only does this research offer more support for encouraging people to change their eating habits, it is an important first step toward identifying drug targets that affect how our genes express themselves.” ”

As Hippocrates said, and the foundational premise of my approach”, “Let food be your medicine!”

All of these suggestions and actions will help you and your children and your elders have a healthier longer life. What could be more rewarding or important than that! Start planning your fall garden now! In some regions of the country, that planting will start next month.

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Diabetic Summer Lemonade

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

Back to Basics for a heatwave hit America this week. You need healthy diabetic beverages and that means NO soda pop in any form!

Three years ago, I posted my original recipe for Em’s Honest Lemonade, along with an important article. I’ll link to that so you can read the information, but I’ll cut and paste my recipe with new suggestions, here.

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Em’s Alkalizing “Honest Lemonade”(c)

1 bottle Minute Maid Premium Lemon Juice* OR juice of 7 organic lemons

2T   agave syrup **

1T   organic maple syrup, Grade B ***

4 C   alkaline water: either Evamor or Essentia or Vivo  (Dasani as a far last choice), chilled

ice cubes (optional when serving, but they water it down)

fresh mint (optional)

This recipe makes about 40 ozs, so choose the appropriate size pitcher or bottle.

Combine all the ingredients and stir well. Chill. Taste when cold and adjust sweetening, if needed, but err on it being not super-sweet! You should want the lemon to be the primary flavor.
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Other (mostly pH alkaline) organic foods to add to my Honest Lemonade are:

___   Key Lime slices or juice and Mint
___   pureed watermelon
___   culinary-grade dry lavender or fresh lavender leaf – just for flavor
___   equal parts lemonade, peach juice (nectar), green tea (cold)
___   fresh blackberry puree with a sage leaf
___   honeydew puree and kiwi
___   strained fresh raspberry juice
___   ginger root thin sliced with fresh pear puree
___   guava juice and papaya
___   papaya puree

When you add the fruit, add the agave or maple syrup last. Hopefully, you will not need any extra sweetening from them.

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* Minute Maid Premium Lemon Juice comes in a small, yellow plastic bottle in the freezer section and it is PURE lemon juice, with no sugars added. It is not organic. Do NOT use cans of frozen concentrate in the freezer as these have lots of sugar added!

Read about Vivo water. I found it to be excellently hydrating when I was using it first, in 1994. Vivo – clustered water from Dr. Lee Lorenzen

** Agave Nectar is the sweet, yet excellently low-glycemic syrup which comes from the agave cactus plant. It is helpful for diabetics and is a natural sweetener. I never use synthetic sweeteners! However it is a highly acidic pH food, which means use just a little or balance it with alkaline foods (lemon and alkaline waters, as in this recipe).

Learn more at: Madhava Agave

I use the Amber version. Agave has a glycemic index of 46; honey is 58 and glucose (like sucrose – table sugar type) is 100; the lower the number the better it is for you. Never use high fructose corn syrup, for anything.

*** Organic Maple Syrup, Grade B has all the minerals still intact, whereas “Grade A” does not. This is one case where B is better for you! This amount of maple syrup should not be a problem, but check your own blood readings. Getting organic is important, as otherwise “regular” maple syrup is a very high pesticide produced food, bad for the land and bad for you.

Use the lemonade to help you keep cool. Do monitor your blood levels. Even the stress from the heat can effect your biochemistry and blood sugar levels.

Here’s the link to the original article with extra information:

Em’s Alkalizing Honest Lemonade.

I’ll resume the diabetic gardening series next week.

Best to all — Em

(c)2010  Em at https://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com

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Diabetics Need To Garden – Money Saved Part 6

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

Health for diabetics and everyone else comes from a variety of fresh, organic, alkaline food, and if you have not been able to afford it or buy enough of it, the secret is to grow your own — whether that’s organic sprouts all year, an indoor gardening system during any season and a water-conserving one outside in summer. You can do it, and to show you that it’s worth your time, get an idea of the money you can “save”, for all the other important bills, including your diabetic medicine and equipment purchases, and as a nest-egg in case unemployment hits.

See how much all of the following actions can help you have more and better food and help to keep a roof over your head.

The average American family of 4 people spends at least $100 a week on groceries  and  two hours shopping for them.  This nets out to about 104 hours shopping and more than $5,000 per year.

Of this total, roughly $560 pays for fresh produce … while more than $1,100 goes toward sweets, packaged snacks and other processed foods!

What’s wrong with that picture — it’s fundamentally what’s causing the global diabetic and obesity epidemic!

Instead, using these suggestions below you can get a total minimum savings of more than $3,000 per year, and be healthier!

Oprah magazine reported the following savings by the methods stated:

___   Plant your own edible garden – save at least $800 dollars a year. “For every $1 you put toward your edible garden (including bags of compost, soil, pots, water, organic fertilizers, cages, netting, seeds, seedlings, etc.), you’ll get an average of $9 back in produce.” Next week, I’ll give you a more complete listing of the plants they used in their estimate.

___   For the food you buy in a market, only buy what is “in season” in your region; no imported foods. Save $130.

___   Saving leftovers is second nature for some people, but a surprising number of Americans consider leftovers waste and automatically toss them in the trash.  The USDA estimates the average American family throws away 14 percent of their food! Using all the food you prepare will save you about $600  per year.

___ I hope that you are already just using fresh, filtered water as your only beverage, but if you do only one thing about beverages, do this — cut out soda pop!  Oprah Magazines figures are only based on a reduction; you’ll save LOTS more by eliminating it completely! How much more?

Well, soft drinks are Americans’ most-consumed beverages. They are followed by, (in descending order), bottled water, coffee, fruit drinks and juices, beer, milk, tea, wine, spirits and, finally, vegetable juice. The average American drinks 50 gallons of soda per year.

You could save up to $650 per year by reducing your soda purchases by just two 12-packs per week. Think even more by eliminating this junk “food”! You could save about 20% of your food budget if you consume these “average” amounts and then eliminate soda!

___ Use a Pressure Cooker, Save $35
Using an electric pressure cooker instead of your stove top or oven to cook meals saves money on energy costs, as well as time. If you use pressure cooker instead of your electric range (for an average of three times per week), you’ll save roughly 165 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

I tend to think this figure could be better, as it is based on only doing it 3 times a week, but even at that rate, you’ll have the equipment pay for itself quickly, and you will have much more TIME to do other things while your food is cooking faster, too. That’s PRICELESS.

___   If you eat chicken (same idea applies to any animal, proportionately), then buy whole chickens and cut them up yourself. Save $600!
This assumes you use about 4 pounds of chicken per week. It is fast once you learn how. Just see how quickly butchers and chefs do it; there’s no reason you can’t learn. Just be fastidious about handling raw meat.

This process also helps to reduce consumption of energy, resources and waste involved with processing, packaging and transport. If you are allowed to farm chickens in your locality, you can use them for eggs and meat (that’s what my maternal grandparents did in their huge, modern city in the 1940s and 1950s).

___   Take a re-usable thermos for your water, and use filtered water from your local supermarket’s sophisticated machines or tap water (if your local tap water is safe).  I find filtered supermarket water costs me just about the same as my tap water, which I will not use (due to my city fluoridating otherwise pristine water!).

Drinking these filtered or safe tap waters,  will save $200 if it means that you are no longer grabbing a diet soda, iced tea, energy drink or bottle of flavored vitamin water the next time you feel parched.

You could save up to $200 per year or more, just by cutting your commercial beverage consumption by $4 per week.

The forms of water I describe are best for many reasons.  And, I say ‘use a stainless steel thermos’ because I do not want you to buy water in plastic bottles, either (although their plastic, PET, is considered “safe”, it’s an environmental nightmare because people are not recycling water bottles).

Some sources for stainless steel thermoses (the best kind) are Stanley brand (American), Sigg (Swiss – that quietly had been using Bisphenol A plastic as an inner coating, but say it has now been removed) and one which I have just found and it looks really good: KleanKanteen.

KleanKanteen specifically states NO Bisphenol A or coatings. See their FAQs page. Plus, Klean Kanteen uses food-grade stainless steel, which is an important commitment. (Most of the metal made in China will not be checked for metal content, especially nickle content, and whether that alloy is appropriate for food use). So, KleanKanteen is getting high-marks in my book, so far. KleanKanteen is also willing to discuss its plastic caps on the FAQs page, and I liked their answers.

For Stanley, ask about coatings (but remember, Sigg didn’t readily tell consumers, either!). The wide-mouth Stanley, which I have had for years, doesn’t appear to be coated, but I don’t know about their sports bottle. I believe I saw one recently and did not buy it as it was made in China. If Stanley is now manufacturing in China, then you need specific answers. My equipment is old enough to be American-made.

Stainless steel will last a lifetime, and more, so choose well.

Back to gardening. It’s not to late to plant some of the types of food plants for the summer season, and for sure you can plan and plant a full-choice fall garden at the appropriate time (as early as next month in some areas) and a winter indoor garden (now in the Southern Hemisphere), so get started!

You have to become much more proactive and independent of the vagaries of today’s economy.

And for those of you who take diabetic medication, then this fresh food will help to combat the tissue acidity the medications cause. pH balance in your cells is critical to Health. Fresh veggies will help you to detoxify, and eating lots more organic produce may prevent diabetes and obesity in your children, as well as yourself.

Read the rest of the Series. See the Links in the Titles Archive on the upper navigation bar. You can read more of my pH articles there, too.

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Best to all — Em

(c)2010 Em at https://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com

If you desire to quote from my article, please write for permission unless it is only two short paragraphs. Contact me at the About Me page. Thanks.

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