Diabetes – The Holidays 2

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

Thanksgiving is usually respected as a “time-out.” It’s a break from the distractions, delusions and crassness which prevent us from remembering that everything we have in this life —  every single breath, every ounce of health and every person we love — is a pure Gift.

Some of us even allow ourselves to be humbled a bit by how good we have it. How can we not bow our heads in Gratitude? Sometimes all I can do is shed a tear, because there just are no words to describe how much I appreciate those I have in my life and the talents and gifts I was given to use well. I try.

And all the financial turmoil, which we think of as travail, will help Americans and other Westerners understand and be more empathetic to those on the planet who still have FAR LESS than even the poorest among us has. In the blather of “our” nation’s financial turmoil, it is incomprehensible, but true, our “poor” are wealthier than most of the rest of the world is in their “normal” lives. All these people need help to better lives — those suffering at home and abroad. Don’t be stingy, if you have resources, please share.

This year a couple of things troubled me. I think people have to stand-up for principles. So, I’m spending part of my Thanksgiving on this Food for Thought.

A few weeks ago on November 11, in Canada, there was a hue and cry when retailer Eddie Bauer (an American company) had the audacity to tarnish Remembrance Day in an attempt to “commercialize” it with a “holiday sale”.  I hope they learned their lesson. The day is not for commercial interests; it’s for remembering those who died to help keep us free.

Are Americans going to be principleD or the usual under-thinking herd? Today, is the first Thanksgiving I can remember when commercial interests (Sears, K-Mart and WalMart, for sure) decided to open stores from around 5AM – noon so people could come “buy”. Instead of being together, helping to cook a family meal and spend time with one another, commercial interests are invading — for the good of THEIR finances.

They have made their workers give up their holiday or chance to have anything other than a haphazard celebration, with little time to dwell on Gratitude. Shame on them!

We’ve always understood that a few gasoline stations and a few supermarkets stayed open, and we hoped that they worked things out fairly for their staff, but this widening commercialism needs to be criticized heavily, and stopped in its tracks, economy or no economy!

It is especially egregious if the worker has to get up again on Black Friday morning and be at work at 2 am for the store to open at an insane 3am (that’s the earliest ad I saw). Ridiculous. Unsafe. Crass. And, for any consumer taking the carrot — shame on you too.

Life is not about THINGS! It is not important if you are “saving” money to bring more Things into your life or others lives. What is important is sharing yourself and making your money do Good in the world for others more desperate than you are. And, to spend your mind’s capital on THINKING how to make a better world and then acting on your ideas.

Excess is rampant in our society, except for the items that really count. Do we ever have an excess of Love? Do we have an excess of Caring? Do we have an excess of Gratitude. I think not.

What our minds dwell on, become actions or inactions, and we become the sum of that. We need quiet time to contemplate a course through Life, and time to make adjustments when necessary. Make sure you make that time. Society is not giving it to us. We must choose to find it and guard that time.

If you are under great stress, you need Your Plan in place. So start. Respect your needs. Don’t live in limbo or be tossed in the storms of others making without any choices.

So, if you are alone today, use the day well for this project. If you are with family, enjoy and maybe even see how you can support one another in these tumultuous times by a larger family Plan as well as your own.

Be sure to eat moderately for this and the successive Holidays between now and the end of the year.

And, if you are one of the diabetics who get tough news in this holiday season, especially the dreaded, silent pancreatic cancer diagnosis, I pass along some news from Dr. Robert Jay Rowen, MD.

Dr. Rowen’s news is particularly poignant for me, as a good friend died of pancreatic cancer about 6 years ago, and my husband and I often spent some of the holidays with her and her husband (my husband’s best university friend) for decades.

I hope you do not need this information, but Carolyn had the best care in the world (Stanford Medical School) where she was on staff, for decades, and yet, she did not have the open-minded, full-choice therapies like this one, below, and several more I know about.

A diabetic’s pancreas is hard-pressed to keep up with excessive acidic foods and drinks during the holidays. The pancreas’ job is to produce “alkaline buffers”. We can help this over-worked organ. Everyone needs to, whether diabetic or not.

Here’s Dr. Rowen’s news:

There’s a nutrient/drug combination that cures Pancreatic Cancer, which is one of the hardest cancers to cure. Traditional oncologists really have nothing to offer to treat it. (In fact, the honest ones won’t even treat you because they know they have nothing in their arsenal that will work.)

But now I know “a very simple treatment on terminal pancreatic cancer that’s just astounding”.

Case reports for 3 patients with stage-4 pancreatic cancer, involving spread to the liver or beyond, received intravenous alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) and low-dose Naltrexone. Their cancers disappeared and did not return, even on long-term follow-up.

Why it works: ALA reduces oxidative stress from natural metabolism and from free-radicals. It stabilizes NF(k)B, a potent inducer of inflammation*. It encourages apoptosis in cancer cells (cell suicide) and it discourages their proliferation.   * Em: the pH acidity in tissues causes inflammation — these 2 states are the root-cause of all disease.

Naltrexone is a “narcotic antagonist”, and when you take low doses (4.5 mg at bedtime), it blocks your production of endorphins (your own self-made narcotics — Em: like the “runner’s high”). When the naltrexone wears off, your brain responds by making an incredible explosion of endorphins.

“These molecules directly talk with your immune cells.” When this happens, your brain and immune system actually become more integrated, like a greater, unified organ. This activation of your immune system may enable it to overcome the defenses cancer puts up.

Dr. Rowen says this is a very easy to do treatment that’s “quite safe”; show the protocol to any alternative physician or holistic physician. It’s not going to help everyone; no cure does that. But it sure beats the chemotherapy and radiation “poisons the conventional pundits will pump into you.”

“The dose of Naltrexone is only 4.5 mg” and it is at bedtime. Any compounding pharmacy can make it for your doctor (Em: I just saw a sign at my local Walgreen’s saying they could compound medicines; I am not sure if all branches do).  “The dose of the intravenous ALA starts at 100 mg per treatment and works up to 600 mg if well tolerated. And you have to do it just twice weekly.” Thanks, Dr. Rowen!

And, I suggest that you can also read about Dr. William D. Kelley, DDS who cured himself of Pancreatic Stage 5 cancer about 60 years ago (his protocol is online) (he is the one who found all the different Metabolic Types — to have his work stolen by his lab-tech son-in-law) and Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez, MD – Park Avenue, NYC (who was trained by Dr. Kelley and who has expanded on Dr. Kelley’s protocol); learn more at Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez, MD.

Some more background for why this Kelley-Gonzalez alternative medicine protocol successfully treats pancreatic cancer: Dr. Jeffrey Dach, MD

Hopefully, you will always be able to be Thankful for not needing this information, but I think it is important to know about, and I am Thankful for the brave doctors out there who are insisting on cure, not cover-up, and not slash-and-burn “medicine” which favors Big Pharma, and which cost Carolyn her life. My gift, as a legacy for Carolyn, is to give you this better information.

Try to stay pH alkaline everyday. This will also help your pancreas need to produce less alkaline buffers, in addition to making insulin. Help your pancreas heal in every way you can.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

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

Please respect my copyright. You can quote 2 short paragraphs. For more, please write for permission to the About Me page, on the upper navigation bar. Thanks.

Advertisements

Read Full Post »

Diabetes and the Holidays – 1

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

I can’t believe that it’s Thanksgiving in one week and Hanukkah begins December 1. That has really caught me off-guard. I already have a husband who’s ill with some kind of influenza, it seems, and I am trying to get him on-the-mend. Everything is always in flux; now it’s even more so. What to do? How can diabetics weather the peaks and valleys and stresses of this spate of seasonal celebrations?

I do it by being organized, which is why it’s a little more scary this year. Another thing I do is trust to my experience, which I will definitely need this year. One more tip, is that I am always paying attention and gathering through the year. I never wait until just Holiday Time.

So, I took my husband to the clinic 2 days ago and will bring him back today.  Hopefully, the physician will see some progress, as we really want to avoid him getting pneumonia from the grungy, small cough that appeared 2 weeks ago, just after he got his flu shot.  It has just slowly progressed to show some lung changes on Wednesday’s  x-ray. So, yesterday, I made him a mighty healing soup.

I am including the recipe here, as I do not want you to get ill if you stress or obsess over the holidays. My soup recipe will help give your immune system the ammunition it needs to kick into high-gear.

My husband is not diabetic, but has other health issues which I have to be careful of, too, which share diabetics’ usual “concerns”.

As Hippocrates said, “Let Food Be Thy Medicine“. That’s a treatment your body knows how to use and you have to be knowledgeable these days or get counsel. I have been taught by family experience and my own use of Food As Cure has been for multiple decades. Now that I am without medical insurance, it’s even more critical knowledge.

One consistent place to find a tradition of using Food As Cure, is in the Chinese Culture. You will be able to find many recipes, some of which may have been used as food cures for thousands of years. I have many Chinese Food Cure books on my shelves, and hopefully you have some family traditions, too.

Many of the things called “old wives tales” in the past are being shown to have a solid basis when science catches up. The grandmothers and mothers of the past were the Healers, and they were good at observing what worked. Even what we think of now as “witchcraft” and “herbalism” were female scientific endeavors which males either didn’t understand or didn’t like handing over any Power to a woman. That’s true, let’s face it.

But, now, it is everyone’s responsibility to be a Healer — and that’s especially true when American medicine and much of western medicine is going in the wrong direction, becoming a spineless shill for Big Pharma. If you can find a more holistic physician, you are lucky.

I’ll be suspending my series about a few of the good doctors out there while we talk about the holidays, and I may resume the series sometime on the New Year. I will return to a couple of the first few physicians, too, Dr. Timothy Harlan, MD, especially, who is just starting to produce a TV series, so he may get wider exposure as “Dr. Gourmet”.

Pay attention to whom you get counsel from, but be proactive and DO learn what you need to know.

Now, on to today’s recipe.

===================================================================

Em’s Mighty Healing Soup

For 4 servings — in a large soup pot, combine:

1 1/2 cartons of free-range, organic chicken broth – about 1 1/2 quarts

1 medium sweet potato, scrubbed, peeled, diced in 1/2″ slices

1 medium Yukon Gold potato, scrubbed well with peel on, 1/2″ dice

3 large beet leaves and stems, shredded, then diced 1/2″ lengths

about 1/2t  each of dried: garlic powder*, turmeric, oregano, thyme

1/4 C Turkish red lentils, rinsed

1 large piece of kombu seaweed (Eden brand)

1 large piece of Nori seaweed, (Eden Brand)

Add these and bring to the boil, then immediately reduce heat and simmer for approximately 30 minutes.

Then add:

1/2 C well washed organic quinoa

(1)  20+ ounce can organic diced tomatoes (Muir Glen Brand^)

Cook another 10-15 minutes once the pot has returned to heat. You may have to turn it up to boil again and immediately return it then to a good simmer.

Because I kept the heat low for most of the time, I did not need to stand and stir the soup. In fact, I just kept an eye on it while I did more things in the kitchen.

At the end, place the following in a bowl:

about 1 t – 2t of organic extra-virgin olive oil (bowl size determines how much to use)

same amount of Organic, apple cider vinegar with the “mother” enzymes (Eden or Bragg’s or Spectrum Brand)

a tiny pinch of Celtic Sea Salt

splash of lemon juice

about 1/4t Kelp Granules (Maine Sea Vegetables Brand)

Pour in the desired amount of soup and enjoy!

=====================================================================

* I will be explaining why I use each ingredient, and I want to say that I will also be adding fresh garlic cloves next time, and I had wanted to add finely diced fresh onion as garnish, but had used my last one! Onions provide quercetin, an important factor.

If you take coumadin or warfarin or another blood thinner, then pay attention as seaweed will affect your numbers. Seaweed is Nature’s blood thinner. You will need less medicine if you use seaweed regularly. See my previous articles about Seaweed, and Iodine, in the Titles Archive, above.

Many of the ingredients that you can’t find in your local stores, especially if you live outside the United States, you can buy at the companies’ websites.

___ Free-range Organic Chicken Broth – is the best form of “Jewish penicillin”. Science has found many immune-stimulating or modulating substances in chicken soup — as Jewish Mamas have always known!

___   organic sweet potato – this is a very alkaline pH food which will help to “neutralize” some of the pH acidic tissues which is where pathogens hide. Viruses and bacteria require an acidic pH environment to live. If you remain pH alkaline, you are not a host. Sweet potatoes also have good fiber to try to help the gut keep moving even though you may not be physically active as much, if unwell. They are filled with pro-Vitamin A phytosterols which help your body to fight (and protect your eyes).

___   organic Yukon Gold Potato (or white potato) – again, another pH alkaline food, if eaten with the skin and there’s actually a fair amount of Vitamin C in them, too.

___   organic beet greens – these dark green leafies have lots of Vitamin B’s to help us handle stress, which being ill certainly is. They also have lots of Vitamin A which is being covered up by their dark color. I was also hoping that there’s still naturally-occurring nitrates in the leaves and stems, not just the beet bulb. Natural nitrates help to produce nitrous oxide, needed to dilate your vascular system which means more oxygen can be brought deeply into tissues. Oxygen is another “killer” of most pathogens – which tend to be anaerobic organisms. (Natural nitrates are very different as opposed to man-made ones in deli meats, which are cancer-causing.)

___   specific dry herbs: garlic, thyme, oregano and turmeric are all either antivirals, antibacterials or both.  Don’t underestimate the power of these plants. They’ve been used by herbalists for millennia because they work. Science is now just catching up. Fresh herbs are best, but you can use dried to lesser effect.

___   Turkish red lentils – these are acidic pH, as all beans are, in varying degrees, but I needed to add more protein to help tissues repair themselves in the battle with the pathogens, so the pH alkaline foods will help neutralize these beans, too. I chose these lentils because they cook very quickly, but true French green lentils have some remarkable qualities, due to the volcanic soil they are grown in, so I might consider using them, too.

___   organic seaweeds — I used kombu and nori – large leaf portions. They provide Iodine, an essential anti-viral and anti-bacterial and also the full range of minerals. The key here is to use a brand like Eden which is fastidious about the cleanliness and safety of the ocean water where these are harvested. Do not buy Chinese products.

___   organic quinoa — a high protein food to aid tissue renewal and it’s a very alkaline food to help raise pH to levels where pathogens cannot survive. It is also the original alkaline fast-food, as it cooks in about 10 minutes. Use it as a substitute for grains, all of which are pH acidic foods.

___   organic tomatoes — source of lycopene and lutein — important phytonutrients to help with immunity and eye health, and there’s some Vitamin C, but, again, that’s being lost when exposed to heating — so I try to keep the cooking temperature as low as possible and add the Vitamin C foods as late in the process as possible. ^ I use Muir Glen because it has an enameled interior to the can. Most companies use Bispenol A treated liners for canned food, especially tomatoes, which are sub-acidic fruits and can corrode the can. Bisphenol A is now banned in Canada and should be, everywhere. Children, especially, should not be exposed to Bisphenol A.

___   olive oil — source of important essential fatty acids and it’s a healthy food to help with joint pain and heart health — both of which are stressed when dealing with the flu. I prefer organic, but that can be hard to find. Make sure the oil is in a dark glass bottle, and buy a small size. Keep refrigerated or in a cool spot.

___   organic apple cider vinegar with the “mother of vinegar” enzymes — it leaves alkaline ash, so it is considered to bring alkalinity in your body. It is the only vinegar which does this. This vinegar is very good for diabetics and it it aids digestion, so the food value is more available with less work for the ill person

___   Celtic Sea Salt — supplies the full range of ocean minerals, and it is the only one which is assured to have been harvested in truly pristine ocean waters. Get it at Trader Joe’s or from the original preferred source – The Grain and Salt Society. Look them up in Asheville, NC.

___   splash of organic lemon juice – again, lemons may have citric acid, but they leave alkaline ash after metabolism is complete, so they are an alkalizer. Of course they are also a source of Vitamin C, but it is best not exposed to heat. You’re better off having a  real, organic lemon squeezed into pure spring water to drink before your soup or along side – sweeten with a little stevia.

___   kelp granules — more iodine in an easy to use anywhere, anytime format. Even though heat does not deactivate Iodine, I wanted some fresh, just at serving. Iodine is a potent pathogen killer.

Put some of my Mighty Healing Soup into a thermos to take to work if your co-workers are hacking and coughing. And, if you decide to take an Echinacea preparation, which IS effective (contrary to the “science” “reported” in the media where it is being “studied” for “off-label” uses), then be sure to take Echinacea for a maximum of 2 weeks on, then 2 weeks off. Your thymus has to rest and not be constantly stimulated. The traditional use adheres to that timetable and Russian research confirms that wisdom.

Well, I hope you stay well, and we’ll see if I get a post done next week — maybe on Friday. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Best to all — Em

Please use my Titles Archive Tab on the upper navigation bar to learn lots more!

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

Please respect my copyright. You can use 2 short paragraphs, but to quote more, please write for permission at the About Me tab above. Thanks.

Read Full Post »

Diabetes – Physicians’ New Ideas – Dr. Victor Marchione, MD 5

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

I get angry when I see people’s choices in the supermarket. Why should I be SO concerned? Well, if you saw people spending their precious food dollar on worthless food, thinking they were nourishing themselves and their children, when they are NOT, then wouldn’t you be upset? Wouldn’t you want to unveil the lies that con people into buying products because of convenience, but at the total detriment of their and their childrens’ Health? I bet you’d want to speak out! So, do Dr. Marchione, MD and myself. Here goes!

Dr. Marchione reports that food manufacturers’ claims and the truth aren’t always the same. As The Food Doctor, he has exposed foods such as:

___   so-called “fresh” deli turkey or chicken or whole turkeys excessively high in sodium – which has been used as a preservative, in the basting solution

___   most commercial granola bars are high in trans fat and calories

___   dairy foods are often rampant with fillers – this is especially true of many commercial yoghurts and processed cheeses

He and I expose these pretenders and he names the brands so you can avoid them. You can learn more at his site: Dr. Marchione’s homepage.

At the crux of the current, wide-spread problems is the issue of hidden toxic food ingredients. This is well illustrated by the excellent case-study by Hannaford Brothers, a New England grocery chain.

Hannaford Brothers devised a star-rating system for identifying the nutritional value of all food and beverages which were in its stores. Based on the ingredients used and the nutrition, each food would get a rating from zero to three stars. What the company found was amazing …

Of 27,000 products reviewed, a whopping 77% received a “Zero” Health Rating. NO stars at all. None!

That means that nearly 8 out of 10 products on the store shelves were judged to be unhealthy due to on e or more:

___   low nutritional content

___   high levels of sugar

___   trans fats or other unhealthy ingredients

That’s why it takes vigilance to overcome the constant barrage of noise from the food manufacturers, and many times, it’s shamelessly still true that the cardboard package has more nutrition than the “food” inside.

(These are probably the same selections of common processed foods as in any mainstream supermarket, which is not a health store.)

Em: I suggest all of the following.

As money is tight, I keep saying, “grow your own“. Even in winter, you can grow highly nutritious sprouts in very small space inside, and even have a more complex indoor garden. Look in the archive on the upper navigation bar to find those articles (many are on page 3).

I also still say, “buy organic“, as the food is at least twice as nutritious for 1 1/2 times the price, so it’s a bargain!

Make more of your own food. If you arrive home tired every night, then use your time to learn quick prep meal techniques OR ones that don’t need tending:

___ stir-fry (in water, broth or extra-virgin olive oil) and grilling on your stove — you must tend those

___    OR less tending for these: steaming, steaming en papillote (little parchment packages),  poaching and crockpot (used all day or all night)

___   never microwave. Science has consistently shown that this alters the food on a molecular level! Dairy is especially effected. Talk about Frankenfood!

Plan meals ahead in a way that makes things simpler. Yes, it means time in the kitchen. Get a TV and put it in there and move around doing these chores instead of sitting on the couch, if that has been your reason to do nothing.

Promise yourself to make a healthy shopping list every week and only buy from that, unless there are exceptional seasonal buys on fresh, healthy food once you get to the store!

Once home prep the food into portion sizes you need, ready to be made later.

Have a plan of at least 14 different meals to make in double or triple batches, over a month. Use the first 2 weekends each month to get yourself started. Cook once or twice a month and then freeze the food for reheating on nights you don’t use a quick-from-scratch technique and recipe.

Make lots of soups along with the cooking, anytime, quick-cook and slow-cook.

And, don’t say this bulk-cooking can’t be done.

My daughter did this for 6 years, while working full-time at an executive, high-tech job, with 2 kids at home (beginning at about age 6 and age 8) and a non-cook parent. Long before the 6 years were over, the non-cook parent could do all this, with the kids.

Everyone was empowered. My daughter wasn’t being treated as a slave; there was quality family-time and a sense of team-work; the other 3 people learned valuable life-skills; they were “invested” in eating the Healthy food they chose to make and on and on.

Just do it! No excuses.

Use snippets of time during the week ahead to make the food processor work at cutting, slicing and dicing so you are ready for your twice-a-month cook day. Do this a max of 2 – 3 days before. Save the onions and garlic until cooking day; otherwise, valuable nutrients dissipate in them.

I do not recommend this pre-prep for shredding cheese. That’s an arduous, frustrating job. Just buy it shredded, if you use it.

Just like Professor Michael Pollan at University of California, Berkeley, I am making these food rules as guidelines for Health:

___   always choose seasonal foods

___   always eat fresh, raw vegetables and a few steamed ones. Use at least 5 different veggies per day between raw and steamed. More is even better. The Okinawan Japanese average 16 per day, and they are the healthiest people on the planet when eating traditionally.

___   have 1 -2 seasonal whole fruits a day, not juice. One must be a Vitamin C source. Kiwis are excellent for diabetics.

___   cut down your use of all grains, but when you use grains, make sure they are whole grains and the only bread is sourdough whole grain as that gets rid of a lot of the problems grains cause people

___   use wild rice. Yes it’s “expensive”, but it is very beneficial for diabetics and it is NOT a grain. It is a grass, botanically, and in a family all its own

___   use plenty of fresh garlic, fresh onion, cinnamon and turmeric (it’s in curry powder, too) — these are excellent for diabetics

___   use quinoa as a grain substitute. It is a high-protein fruit! Yes, fruit, again, botanically, but you don’t need to “count” it as a fruit. Count it as a protein

All right, we’re done for today. Look online for once a month cooking sites and cookbooks. You’ll just use them for ideas, because the writers are not necessarily making healthy recipes.

Adapt your own healthy recipes to this technique by just doubling your normal recipe and not including any potatoes into it (yet); they don’t freeze well. Try to add any cheese later, too, whenever possible for the same reason.

Then package your prepared food into week-night portions, date and label. Organize the freezer to use the oldest food first.  These dishes usually last for about 2 – 3 months of storage in a zero-degree freezer, less time in a refrigerator-freezer combo.

Best to all — Em

Please use the icon links to your favorite Web 2.0 sites, below, to help spread my article!

Use the Titles Archive tab on the upper navigation bar to learn lots more!

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

Please respect my copyright. You may quote 2 short paragraphs, but for more use, please write for permission, to the About Me page, above. Thanks.

Read Full Post »

Diabetes – Physicians’ New Ideas -Dr. Victor Marchione, MD – 4

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

Diabetics and everyone else need to know that food choices influence your Health on every level. More and more research is showing how detrimental food processing is, and the more processed a food is, the worse it is. Eating the most natural, simple (preferably organic) foods is a fundamental key to Health, and along with that is simple cooking (nothing fried, nothing cooked above 325F degrees — long and slow if you need higher temperatures to “cook” meat and poultry “safely”).

Here is an article to underscore this:
Ultra-Processing of Foods Cause Big Problems

And, before I get to Dr. Marchione again, today, you may know that I also love to write about Centarians and Super-Centarians, well a recent New York Times article revealed three critical attributes that are longevity’s version of the three R’s:

___   resolution

___   resourcefulness

___   resilience

We are certainly going to need these skills, even if we are not anywhere close to the century-mark, as these times have returned to being as challenging, or more so, than the period experienced by these elders in the early 20th century.  According to one study, the survivors of traumatic life events usually learn to cope better with stress and poverty and are more likely to live to 100 — so that may be a silver lining to this “Great Global Recession” if we make sensible Health choices from now on. Spend your money for Health, first.

Read more about other amazing centarians in my Titles Archive, above.

Now, Dr. Victor  Marchione, MD shares:

It might seem illogical that you could reduce your cholesterol by eating certain foods, but it’s true. Researchers discovered that pistachio nuts and sunflower seeds contain unique phytosterols that can block cholesterol from being absorbed into your bloodstream (although cholesterol IS  needed by your body, for all kinds of purposes, so you DO need to make sure your levels are not being made artificially too-low).

These phytosterols could also help prevent cancer and heart disease, treat enlarged prostate and control blood sugar in diabetics.

Em: Now, I am not in favor of eating pistachios (as they have been improperly cared for and are a huge mold source) and not in favor of large amounts of sunflower seeds (as they affect thyroids and most people have hidden thyroid problems because modern blood tests are not effective diagnostic tools for this).

However soaked almonds, preferably organic (mostly have to buy these online — see nutz.com) ARE Healthy, and soaking them reduces pressures on the pancreas. Read:

Soaking Almonds Helps Pancreas

As the article there instructs: “This traditional process is also called sprouting, although not every nut that is soaked can be sprouted. The process begins with fresh undried nuts that are soaked in water with the addition of a pinch of sea salt for twelve to twenty-four hours depending on the nut. They should be rinsed and the water changed periodically.

Taste them then too to determine what stage of soaked nut you like the best. When the soaking time is up, they are removed from the solution and slowly dried at a very low temperature with low humidity.

The drying heat is less than is used in the controversial pasteurizing process, and it is never high enough to destroy any of the nut’s natural enzymes so needed for ease of digestion.” Aim for no higher temperature than 118F. You need a programmable dehydrator for this. The article gives sources where to get sprouted nuts, too.

Pumpkin seeds are rich in anti-inflammatory nutrients, and diabetes, among other chronic diseases, is integrally involved with inflammatory processes. So, use raw pumpkin seeds — Trader Joe’s carries them.

Sesame seeds are a vital source of magnesium — an important mineral for diabetics.  They are also a very good source of manganese and copper,as well as being a good source of calcium, iron, phosphorous, vitamin B1, zinc and important dietary fibers known as lignans.

Walnuts: These are a very effective food for diabetes.  Their omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties and help in insulin sensitivity.

Em: Walnuts are rich in protein and fibers, folate, vitamin E, manganese, arginine, tannins as well as polyphenols. They are especially rich in ellagic acid which is an antioxidant that inhibits cancer cell growth. Of all the nuts, walnuts have the highest levels of polyunsaturated fats, including omega-3 fatty acids – good fats for the heart (which also regulates blood pressure, reduce blood clotting, improve blood vessel flexibility and elasticity).

People with diabetes often have low HDL (good cholesterol) levels and high triglycerides (blood fats, from too much circulating sugar). In Australia, a study at the University of Wollongong’s Smart Food Center and the Illawarra Diabetes Service found that people who consume 30 gm of walnuts daily decreased their bad cholesterol levels by 10 percent and increased their HDL levels.

You can use any nuts to lose weight on a moderate calorie diet.  After six months, the group eating  nuts lost more weight (18%) vs. the group not eating them (11%). The nut group also dropped more body fat (30% vs. 20%) and reduced their blood pressure, too (11% vs. 0%).

Grapes:  The French eat one of the fattiest, most cholesterol-ridden diets in the world, yet have one of the lowest rates of heart disease. That’s true because dietary cholesterol has very little effect on blood levels of cholesterol — your own liver is able to make the cholesterol your body NEEDS.  Researchers found the answer in red wine that the French drink in plentiful quantity. Wine contains a potent antioxidant called reservatrol.  Scientists have found lab animals live up to six times longer if fed this miraculous nutrient.

Em:  But the same nutrient is in red grape skins. You do not need the expense of wine or the toxic, acidic pH load.  You do not need to add to the damaging work-quota that your liver already has — trying to detox you from all the prescription drugs, environmental toxins, alcohol and tobacco use and more. Just eat organic grapes. And, yes, I mean ORGANIC grapes, as grapes are one of the heaviest pesticided crops.

Tangerine Tomatoes: No, they are not “designer foods”. This is a real breakthrough.  These tomatoes are a little-known species, and are distinctive for their orange color. They contain a better form of the precious nutrient lycopene than red tomatoes do.

Lycopene is particularly effective in fighting diabetes and cancer:  breast,  prostate cancer, ovarian, cervical cancer and colon cancer. It also can treat and prevent eye damage (critical knowledge for diabetics). Lycopene prevents:  cataracts, macular degeneration and more. A new study from the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry showed people who ate tangerine tomatoes as tomato sauce absorbed 200 times more lycopene than those eating regular tomato sauce.

Em: In this case, cooked tomatoes release more lycopene than raw tomatoes do.

Here’s a recipe from Dr. Marchione, MD – “The Food Doctor”:

THE FOOD DOCTOR’S SPECIALTY SOUP

Try this delicious soup. It is packed with ingredients shown in clinical studies to relieve joint pain, prevent cancer and heart disease, reduce blood sugar and prevent memory loss.

1             onion
2             carrots
2            celery sticks
3 med  potatoes – just washed and scrubbed, leave unpeeled
4 med  tomatoes – preferably tangerine-colored
14-oz. can of chickpeas
5 C        vegetable stock
1 t          ground cinnamon
1 ½ t    ground turmeric
1 T          grated gingerroot
1/8 t     cayenne pepper
½ t        curry powder
4 strands of saffron (optional, if too expensive)
1            bay leaf
1 T         fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1.  Dice celery, onion and potatoes. Peel and dice carrots. Dice tomatoes, remove seeds.

2.  Pour 1½ cups of the veggie stock into large saucepan. Add onions and simmer for a few minutes.

3.  While onions are simmering, deal with the spices. Mix in the cinnamon, curry, turmeric, cayenne, and ginger and add 2 T of the vegetable stock. Mix well.

4.  Add this mix to the onions and stock already being heated.

5.  Add the rest of your veggie stock to the onion and stock mix and let soup return to boil. Turn it down. Stir, then cover and heat, gently.

6.  After 5 minutes, add the potatoes, tomatoes, celery and carrots and allow it to simmer in the covered saucepan for 20 – 30 minutes or until
carrots and celery are tender.

7. Pour in the chickpeas, black pepper, saffron and heat thoroughly before serving.  Add fresh-squeezed lemon juice.

8. Enjoy!
This is just one of 30 delicious, healing recipes in “The Doctor’s Cookbook: Lifesaving Recipes”. You can learn more at his site: Dr. Marchione.

See you next time.

Best to all — Em

Please share my article on the Web 2.0 sites below and any others you belong to.  We really need to help more people learn how to protect their Health. Thanks!

You can read more articles in the Titles Archive on the upper navigation bar!

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

Please respect my copyright. You may quote 2 short paragraphs, but to use more, please write for permission to me at the About Me page, above. Thanks.

Read Full Post »