Diabetes – New Year

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

As this 2010 year leaves, I won’t be sad to see it go. It wasn’t a good year for my family and me, in many ways, but I am grateful that we weathered it. I really appreciated the Simple Joys and they sustained me. You may feel the same way, but “what’s next!”?

Here are some year-end thoughts.

___   Firstly, Dear Reader, I want to say how much I enjoy serving you, and how much I appreciate your readership, comments and private emails. I only accept to post about half the comments and most questions, but I read every comment and answer about 90% of questions.

___   I am very gratified to find more offers of collaboration from physicians and professionals whom I’ve written about or who have contacted me after reading my work. It began with a naturopathic physician, multi-generation herbalist in Italy, many years ago, has continued and most recently, a Belgian natural-oriented MD of 50 years experience just contacted me and asked to collaborate. I am grateful that they see promise in this approach.

___   Quite a while ago, I was asked to write for Wellsphere. I haven’t taken them up on it, and by the time I answer, they may have enough people, but I want to only take-on what I can handle in an already busy life. This blog is almost 4 years of faithful posting. Please use the Archive!

___   Yes, I know my perspective is unique, but I believe that my approach will be the way that diabetes and many other chronic diseases will be treated, successfully, by more and more practitioners and clinicians very soon. By familiarizing yourself with it, you may end up helping yourself faster and / or more completely.

Some of you are lucky enough to have a forward-thinking, knowledgeable physician already or nearby. I encourage you to seek one out, or to take the books of such practitioners so you can discuss them with your doc and start some new protocols. I have even been known to give doctors these kinds of books written by their peers.

___   I am hoping to offer more of my own work in a commercial way in 2011. I will try to have time to get my thoughts and guidelines into an ebook, at least, and maybe more.

___   I want to continue my encouragement for you to learn more so you can be very proactive in your own Health, day by day. Being able to make other than mainstream media food hype choices is vital. Healthy food, peace-of-mind, a clean natural world are your birthright, but you now have to fight for them. I’ll try to arm you and forewarn you, when needed.

___   Personally, my view of 2011 is that it will still be very hard, and I expect it will be for at least a decade (and certainly 3 – 5 years before we see a sustained positive upswing).

That means YOU have to be on the frontlines of preserving and regaining your Health. At any time you can lose your health insurance (if in America), for years (as I have). Then, where will you be?

Knowing how to survive on almost no money (unemployment money would be a joke if it weren’t so serious; my husband has been only able to get short seasonal professional work for 3 years now, after losing a six-figure job).

I encourage you to have a food garden, year-round. I’ve written many articles about how to garden indoors in winter. See the Archive; the tabs are on the upper Nav Bar.

___   Avoiding the regular American, “western” diet based on grains and trans fats and too much poly-unsaturated fat, fat in meats from non-grass fed animals, and nutritionally weak “foods” is critical.

The less processed a food is the better.

Eat fresh, whole foods, preferably organic, but for sure learn the worst-pesticide sprayed foods:

• Peaches

• Apples

• Nectarines

• Strawberries

• Cherries (an important food for those with arthritis)

• Imported Grapes (and their wines)

• Pears

• Sweet Bell Peppers (especially red bell peppers)

• Celery

• Kale

• Lettuces

• Carrots

Those must be purchased as organic, if you use them. Only buy organic bagged salad mixes. Realize that kale and apples are nutritional power-houses, so do use them — just buy organic!

Environmental Working Group estimates are that if consumers get their USDA-recommended 5 daily servings of fruits and veggies from the 15 most contaminated list of fresh foods, they could consume an average of 10 pesticides a day!

Those who eat the 15 least contaminated conventionally grown produce ingest less than 2 pesticides daily, and those eating certified-organic will not even get that. It’s imperative for children to eat organic!

And for the healthiest, least-pesticide, conventionally-grown foods, EWG’s recommends:

• Onions

• Sweet Corn (worry: GMO alteration, unsustainable farming, poor nutrition)

• Asparagus

• Sweet peas

• Cabbage  (moderate if low thyroid)

• Eggplant (moderate if arthritic)

• Broccoli (moderate if low thyroid)

• Tomatoes (moderate if arthritic)

• Sweet Potatoes (one of Earth’s healthiest foods!)

• Avocados (excellent, necessary for brain growth, and brain health)

• Pineapples

• Mangoes

• Kiwis

• Papayas

• Watermelon (only melon I will use)

• Grapefruit (check it’s compatible with your medications)

And, the “official” 5 fresh fruits and vegetables a day as a goal, itself, is no goal at all. The Japanese eat 16 different fresh vegetables and fruits a day. That’s one reason why their traditional diet is the healthiest in the world. Juices do NOT count as a fruit. Do not consume juices or any other fragmented, processed food; nutrition is always lacking and your body may not even recognize it as “food”, due to lost components not triggering certain biochemistry.

___   It’s important to cook your own food or to be in a trusted coperative of families which share the cooking or using a once or twice a month cooking technique.

___   How to know what foods to emphasize — yesterday, after minding our 19 month grandchild all day, we stopped at the main employee-owned supermarket chain in transit, right as the just-off-work crowd descended.

I was shocked to see hordes of large families going into the store. Obviously, they were there to try to get a careful consensus so everyone would “agree” on the food for (hopefully) a healthy meal. And, stretching the food dollar included buying things that would be eaten. However, parents have to have the knowledge to “guide” decisions as well as having children understand that food cannot be wasted — not “liking” something doesn’t count, if you have checked that there is no physiological incompatability as the basis for disliking it.

The easiest way to ascertain this, without paying for panels of blood tests for every family member’s possible allergies or sensitivities, is to know each person’s blood type. Then, use the work of Dr. Peter D’ Adamo, ND to sort out what foods make sense to use in your family (paying attention to where and how they are grown, too).

There are foods which work for all blood types, and they serve as the foundation in a mixed-type family. Luckily, generations of my my whole family is A+, but new son-in-law is O, so my grandson will have to be tested. Blood types A and O have180 degree differences in the foods to eat!

Eating the wrong foods and eating too much of even the right foods, heads us into at-risk turf.

___   So, make a new year’s resolution to put your Health, and your family’s Health, at the top of the list, just after or on a par with adequate, sustained financial survival. Everything else is a far second or third. Believe me.

___   Spread the word! Tell people about this blog – offline and online at your favorite Social media sites! Opt-in here for email alerts when I post. See the box at the top of the right side-bar. You are my best helpers, and I appreciate your efforts!

So, again, I wish you and yours the happiest 2011. I’ll do my best to keep writing here for you!

Best to all — Em

REFERENCE:
Dirtiest and Cleanest Food List download for the supermarket when you shop.

(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 the About Me page, above. Thanks!

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Holy Times – Natural Rhythms

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

The last couple of months of the year are filled with celebrations and it will help world Peace if we try to understand one another better, so here you can learn more about others, what they celebrate and why. I hope that it will encourage you to learn more and integrate with the people of our planet. The diabetes articles will continue in the new year. Make good food choices for your celebrations!

This is a shared month of holy times:

___   Devali, the Hindus Festival of Light and celebration of the Hindu New Year. was celebrated the first week of November in 2010. Diwali is a five day festival which also honors the victory of good over evil, and brightness over darkness. Also, the festival marks the start of winter.

On the third day of the festival, lots of small clay lamps (diyas) and candles are lit and placed in homes giving Diwali hence its name of “Festival of Lights”.

People also clean and decorate their homes with Rangoli – Hindu folk art.  They give each other gifts during the festival, and other rituals vary according to region of India.  However, in most areas, people send special blessings to Laxshmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity, and to Ganesha, the remover of obstacles.

The Goddess Laxshmi will visit every home during the Diwali period, bringing prosperity and good fortune. It’s said she visits the cleanest places first, therefore people make sure their homes are spotless, before lighting lamps to invite her in.

___   On December 1 -9 in 2010, the Jews started to celebrate Hanukkah, the Hebrew Festival of Light, a universal holy time for celebration of the triumph for the battle of religious freedom. More about the 8 day celebration can be read at in the Titles Archive above.

The 2,200 year old festival is based on a mixture of historical actions and a religious miracle, during the time when the Jews fought the first battles for religious freedom and tolerance, which have managed to endure, for all of us. It is also known as the Festival of Light and candles are lit on the menorah (hannukiah) for all 8 days.

___   The Muslims started to celebrate on December 7, with Al-Hijira —  Islamic New Year.  This holy day marks the migration of the Prophet Mohammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina, and it is the first day of the month of Muharram. The Journey, the Hijra (or Hegira),  happened in 622 CE, and it was in Medina that Mohammad set up the first Islamic state.

Logically, as the new year, the Muslim calendar counts dates from the Hijra, which is why Muslim dates have the suffix A.H. (After Hijra). It is a low-key event, celebrated less than the two major, recent festivals of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha.

Muslims regard this as a good time for ‘New Year Resolutions’, reflecting that the Hajira marks the start of Islam as a community in which spiritual and earthly life were completely integrated. A people could be bound together by faith, rather than just by tribal bonds, and as a consequence, tribal and family loyalties became less significant compared to the bonds of Islam.

Because of the lunar calendar, Ramadan sometimes falls in December (the actual date for the start of Ramadan depends upon the sighting of the crescent moon).

This is the holiest period in the Islamic year, for Ramadan honors the lunar month in which the Qura’n was revealed by God to humanity. So Muslims observe the Fast of Ramadan, which lasts for the entire month. Fasting during the daylight hours and eating small meals in the evening, allows for visits with friends and family and using the time for worship and contemplation

___   On December 8 (or on the Sunday immediately preceding), the Buddhists celebrate Bodhi Day (also called Rohatsu). This recalls the day in 596 BCE, in India, when Prince Siddartha, the Buddha, achieved enlightenment.

The Prince had left his family and courtly possessions behind, at the age of 29, and went to seek the meaning of life — particularly the reasons for its hardships.

For many years, he studied and learned from many spiritual teachers without success. Finally, he sat under a bo tree and made a vow, saying that he would stay there until he found the answers he was seeking.

The morning of the 8th day dawned, and he realized that everyone suffers due to ignorance — but ignorance can be overcome through the Eightfold Path which he advocated.

So, celebrate the birthing day of Buddhism. The Buddha achieved enlightenment, and escaped the endless Karmic cycle of birth, death, rebirth through reincarnation — themes that are observed in other religions in December, as you will see below.

___   December 21 — The Solstice — is the first, official day of winter because it is The Winter Solstice (Northern Hemisphere, longest night) and Summer Solstice (Southern Hemisphere, longest day).

This is a very important time for Druids, Wiccans and other nature-based religions, like Shinto, as well as many major religions also reflecting this longer tradition, too —  emphasizing this same time-frame for celebrations of “Light” and the “Light of the World” in the longest time of darkness.

All of this is evidence of an underlying human commonality below what seems to be a diversity of belief.

This year, there was an important lunar eclipse on the Solstice, the first time this has happened since 1638. So it is a very eventful time.

In Celtic culture, which spanned from India to Ireland, Druids and Druidesses formed the professional class in ancient Celtic society. They functioned as: priests, teachers, ambassadors, astronomers, genealogists, philosophers, musicians, theologians, scientists, poets and even judges.

Druids led all their people’s public rituals, which were normally held within fenced groves of sacred trees or at a powerful natural energy source, like the ring of stones at Stonehenge or Avesbury or the Neolithic cave at New Grange in Ireland.

For Druids, the Solstice is the time of the death of the old sun and the birth of the dark-half of the year. Calling it “Alban Arthuan, it is the end of month of the Elder Tree and the start of the month of the Birch tree.

The 3 days before Yule is magical time, when the Serpent Days or transformation occur. In their cosmological view, the Elder and Birch trees stand as guardians at the entrance to Annwn (the Celtic underworld — where all life was formed).  Now, it is time for the Sun God journey’s through the underworld, to learn the secrets of death and of life, and bring out those souls to be reincarnated.

In prehistoric times, and also in times of modern turmoil, winter was a very difficult time for peoples.  The growing season was over;  everyone had to live off of stored food and whatever animals they could catch. See how hard this is to do just by watching “Survivor”!

In earlier times, the people would become troubled as the life-giving sun sank lower in the sky each day.  We can understand their fear that it would eventually disappear and leave them in permanent darkness and extreme cold.

Only after the Winter Solstice, could they have a reason to celebrate. They saw the sun rising and strengthening once more. They were encouraged that the return of the warm season was inevitable.

Even the equitorial based Inca Empire realized the special time, as it moved southward. The ancient Incas celebrated a festival of Inti Raymi at the time of the Winter Solstice. Since the Inca Empire was mainly south of the equator, the festival was held in June, their winter, and it celebrates “the Festival of the Sun;  the god of the Sun, Wiracocha, is honored.  The ceremonies were banned by the Roman Catholic conquistadores in 1572, and the Conquistadors forced conversions of the Inca people to Christianity. But, about 65 years ago, a local group of Quecia Indians in Cusco, Peru revived the festival and now it is celebrated in an ancient amphitheater a few miles away.

In North America, the Pueblo tribe observe both the Summer and Winter Solstices. Specific details of the rituals differ from pueblo to pueblo, but the rites are built around the sun, the coming new year and the rebirth of vegetation in the spring. Winter Solstice rites involve: prayerstick making, retreats, purification and prayers for plenty.

The Hopi tribe dedicates itself to give aid and direction to the sun, which is ready to ‘return’ to give strength to budding life. Their ceremony is called Soyal and it lasts for 20 days. Activities include: prayerstick making, purification rituals and a celebratory rabbit hunt, feast and blessing.

In Iran, Shabe-Yalda (Shab-e Yaldaa) is celebrated by followers of many religions. It originated in Zoroastrianism, the state religion which preceded Islam (and still practiced by the Parsi of India). The holy day’s name refers to the birthday or rebirth of the sun, and Iranians gather at home, all night,  around a korsee (a low square table). There, they tell stories, read poems, eat watermelons, pomegranates and a special dried fruit/nut mix. Bonfires are lit outside which help to illuminate the darkened world.

So, it’s logical that all around the world, the concept of birth and or death/rebirth became associated with the Winter Solstice. Ancient powerhouse civilizations: India, Egypt, Iran (Persia), Brazil, Peru, Greece and Rome, all had these festivals at this time.

And the sophisticated civilizations developed astronomy, to determine accurate time for The Solstice.  So we have Egyptian, Celtic, Irish, American, Mayan, Incan and Brazilian tribal architecture to determine when the Solstice would happen.

There are countless stone structures created by early peoples in the past to detect the Solstices and Equinoxes — e.g. Calendar One, from an unknown American tribe.  This is in a natural amphitheater of about 20 acres in Vermont. From a stone enclosure in the center of the bowl, you see a number of vertical rock structures and natural features on the horizon (which formed the edge of the bowl). At the Solstices and Equinoxes, the sun rises and sets at either a notch or a peak in the ridge, which makes it a  calendar.

But most Prehistoric Aboriginal peoples had no instruments for detecting The Solstice. Astronomically astute, they noticed a slight elevation of the sun’s path within a few days after The Solstice — perhaps by December 25th and this is why celebrations were often timed around the 25th — which is significant to the “chosen” day for Xmas.

___   For Christians, December 25 is an officially agreed-upon time for the Christmas — set aside to celebrate the birth of the Jewish rabbi, Jesus (Yeshua) of Nazareth, known to Christians as “the light of the world”. There is sufficient evidence in the Gospels to indicate Yeshua was actually born in the autumn, but this seems to have been unknown to early Christians.

By the third century CE, many religions and spiritual mysteries were being followed within the “known-world’s” Roman Empire. Most, celebrated the birth of their god-man near the time of The Solstice; it was a common, ancient religious theme.

The Roman Emperor Aurelian (270 to 275 CE) blended a number of The Solstice celebrations of the nativity of such god-men/saviors as: Apollo, Attis, Baal, Dionysus, Helios, Hercules, Horus, Mithra, Osiris, Perseus and Theseus into a single festival. It was called the “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun” and was held on December 25.

At the time, Persian Mithraism and Christianity were fierce competitors for the hearts, minds, souls of the Empire’s peoples. Aurelian declared Mithraism to be the official religion of the Roman Empire in 274 CE. But, Christianity finally won, by becoming the new official religion in the 4th century CE, from a different Emperor’s edict, just before his death, too.

So, with new stature, Christianity at the beginning of the 4th century CE, found intense interest in actually choosing a day to celebrate Yeshua’s birthday.

The western church leaders of the time selected December 25th because this was already the date recognized throughout the Roman Empire as the birthday of various gods; it was a way to be able to celebrate unfettered. That is why many symbols and practices associated with Christmas are really of non-Christian origin: holly, ivy, mistletoe, yule log, the giving of gifts, decorated evergreen tree, magical reindeer and more.

With no central Christian authority at the time, it took centuries before the tradition of December 25th was universally accepted:

___   Eastern Christian churches began to celebrate Christmas on December 25th after 375 CE.

___   The church in Ireland only in the 5th century CE and churches in Jerusalem started in the 7th century CE.

___   Austria, England and Switzerland started celebrating it then the 8th century CE and in Slavic lands in the 9th and 10th centuries CE.

Even now, not all Christians acknowledge December 25 or celebrate it e.g. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not. And, the English Parliament even abolished Christmas in 1647.

___   Kwanzaa – honors universal African-American heritage and culture. It is observed from December 26 – January 1 each year, and features activities such as:  the lighting of a kinara, libations and a feast, and gift giving. It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated on December 26, 1966.

The entry in Wikipedia says the goal was to “give Blacks an alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history”. The name Kwanzaa is a Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning first fruits of the harvest.

Kwanzaa celebrates 7 principles of Nguzo Saba, which Karenga said “is a communitarian African philosophy”. These consist of “the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world.”

The 7 principles comprise Kawaida, Swahili for “tradition and reason”, and each of the 7 days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one individual principle:

* Umoja (Unity):  Strive for and maintain unity in: family, community, nation and race.

* Kujichagulia (Self-Determination):  define oneself, name ourselves, create and speak for ourselves.

* Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility):  Build and maintain community. Make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and to solve them together.

* Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics):  Build and maintain our own businesses and shops, and to profit from them together.

* Nia (Purpose): Make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community. Restore our people to their traditional greatness.

* Kuumba (Creativity): Always do as much as we can, in any way we can, to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

* Imani (Faith): Believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers and our Journey.

And, I hope this long article will foster good will and more awareness.

My hope: May all of us be Blessed with Peace and Health and Understanding and Compassion as we follow and work in the light of the Sun, each new day. Make it count!

Read more in the Titles Archive. The tab is on the upper navigation bar.

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

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Diabetes – The Holidays 4B

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

Last week I tried to connect the need for moderation with the Holidays, celebrations, exercise and the Globesity Epidemic and said there’s reasons to make this a personal and family Quest, immediately. Let’s start, right!

Before New Year, you can mitigate the “damage” of holiday parties, so there’s less “need” for New Year Resolutions or for being behind the 8-ball with lots of holiday weight gain. You want a better outcome, right!

Last week I showed numbers that almost ALL of humanity is getting seriously fat, as a species. You can read additional stats here, and at Global Obesity Statistics.

More nations in perspective — some new:
Worst — American Samoa. 94% of population is obese

Kiribati is at 82% overweight.

French Polynesia – 75% overweight

Saudi Arabia — 74% overweight

Panama — 67.5%

United States — 66.9% of us are overweight

Germany — 66.5% are fat

Egypt —  66%

Kuwait —  64% overweight

Bosnia and Herzegovina — 63%

New Zealand —  62.7% overweight

Malta —  62.3%

Israel — 61.9% fat

Croatia —  61.4%

Bahrain  and the United Kingdom —  61% overweight

Australia — 60.8%

Macedonia and Barbados —  60.4% fat

Seychelles —  60.1%

Chile —  59.7%  overweight

Canada —  59.1%

Italy  — 57.4% fat

Spain —  55%

Brazil —  54.7% overweight

France —  46.5%

China — 41.1% fat

India —  37.5% overweight

Japan — less than 30% are overweight

Laos and Ghana — Best

 

Where does this leave us and why?

What I’ve learned in researching this over the years is that knowledge and behavioral choices count!

The French are, I believe, keeping their weight down successfully because overweight is so taboo there. Women are savvy about eating healthfully on small amounts of food, so much so that it is an art form, especially necessary in the upper classes.

Contrary to being “good” numbers, even though at the bottom rankings, those of China and India are huge wake-up calls to the governments of those countries. The numbers of overweight people in those statistics are massive (and would be enough for whole country populations, elsewhere). Their future health care will bankrupt them. Nutrition education; farming practices for healthy food for everyone; return to heritage foods and meals; not too many empty, deleterious carbs (like white rice, grain flours or sugar) is necessary to instigate as progressive, immediate change.

The Campbell studies in China point out a massive problem, and as affluence arrives, it will only be greater. And, with the massive pollution plaguing the land, more obesity will happen as individual bodies try to cellularly protect themselves from the toxins, by using “fat” to segregate them. Pollution causes tissue pH acidity — the cause of disease. This is a massive problem in the making.

India has begun to have an out-of-control, huge diabetes problem, even though the obesity stats are not as bad as many countries. It’s a crisis for the country and is almost exclusively caused by rampant sugar use from candies and desserts, from upwardly-mobile Indians getting better paychecks. Losing this affluent class would be an economic blow, so educate them. Only if they are healthy people as the spearhead of all your economic hopes can you have a future!

The Samoans have had representation from several individuals on The Biggest Loser, because their culture lauds big bodies — possibly as an acknowledgment of famines or long sea journeys in the past, where only the fat and fit survived.  This may be a version of  Wilson Syndrome OR of the Thrifty Gene Theory.

Wilson’s Syndrome is discounted by some, but that’s self-serving, when the accuracy of blood tests for thyroid hormones is seriously questioned by just as qualified practitioners! And, when people are treated for Wilsons and FEEL better and can lose weight better, that counts, more than anything!

Groups most at risk for Wilson’s Syndrome are those who have experienced repeated episodes of famine. These groups include: Jews, Russians, Scots, Welsh, Irish and Native Americans. And, if your ethnicity combines several of these, become much more aware of what Wilson’s is all about! Regardless of ethnicity, 80% of victims are female. Anyone can get Wilson’s. Read more about the work of Dr. Broda Barnes, too. (I think you’ll find reference in my archive.)

Stress is at the Core of the obesity problems in many countries, and with this huge economic downturn, and personal finances in decline, I expect a lot more obesity and a lot more diabetes to surface. Stress makes more adrenaline hormone and that affects how much insulin hormone we are dealing with!

It doesn’t matter if the stressor is war — as it was in Central Europe (like the numbers from Bosnia, Croatia etc.,)  or famine or lack of food or less nutritious food (for the Native Americans).

The work of Dr. Barry Sears, PhD and his Zone Diet Program, along with the work of Dr. Robert O. Young, PhD and his pH Alkaline systems are central, as is understanding your ethnically optimal diet, which can be elucidated somewhat in the work of Dr. Peter D’Adamo, ND.

Countries are putting forth their most beautiful young people as “typical” and that’s before the statistics just claim them as more victims. There are barely any countries that are doing a decent job, citizen by citizen. Most are either thin because they’re poor and / or malnourished, rather than successfully managing their normal, healthy weight themselves.

Even those beautiful Scandinavians are not exempt.

So, that’s the reason to laud those who are doing the needed steps for health.

Among those, I include the Okinawans on traditional dietary foods (they are the main reason the Japanese stats look so good).

And, I include the Native Americans who have embraced a return to their ancestral foods and meals, eschewing the modern foods which were killing them from amazing rates of diabetes and heart disease. Those tribes include the Pima Tribe — highest in diabetes, worldwide (50+% of tribe members).

Native Americans and Alaska First Nations who have embraced modern foods have at least double the diabetes incidence of other Americans!

Most cultures with large numbers of fat people also tend to NOT be good at distinguishing when they start on the obesity path themselves. This is a scientific fact borne out in statements by participants in The Biggest Loser.

And, we know that people “start” getting fat, on a cellular level, with aberrations of metabolism etc. beginning 7 years before one starts to “look” fat.

Diet — portions and access to fresh vegetables and fruit as diet basis; enough fresh water daily; moderate exercise and stress reduction techniques  are the key to solving this Globesity Epidemic.

More, next time.

Best to all — Em

Please read my archive (link above), and please send this article to your favorite Web 2.0 network site (icons are below). Thanks!

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

You may quote 2 short paragraphs. For more, write for permission at the About Me page, above. Thanks!

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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 https://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
Please respect my copyright. You may quote 2 short paragraphs, but to use more or the whole article, please write for permission to the About Me page on the upper navigation bar. Thanks.

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Diabetes – The Holidays 3

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

This is the first day of Hanukkah. We’ll light the 2nd. candle tonight, so the Holiday Season is in full swing. Where does that leave diabetics?  The modern process of self-examination daily, through blood monitoring etc., leaves us with the potential to be too self-absorbed, and not involved enough in the real world outside ourselves. I think that we need to find a Middle Path, being safe but not obsessive, and work with a physician who is like-minded.

The diagnosis of  “being diabetic” causes a stress all its own. We have to learn to be comfortable in our own skin; be disciplined in ways that may be counter to much of current medical advice (i.e. be willing to use a proper, non-American Diabetes Association, diet based on whole, fresh food and few or no grains); think for ourselves, and think beyond ourselves to make a real contribution in the world to others (which in turn raises our self-confidence, self-esteem and view of ours as a worthy life — rather than any chance to be in a victim-mode).

Every year, for the past several years, I have given people information about how to help others at this time when most people are just thinking far too much about “gifts” to give and get, within their circle of family and friends. This year, more than any other since the Great Depression, we need to use our resources well, and not just be a mass-shopping herd.

Dr. Robert Reich just wrote a column which helps to expose the fallacy thinking which is prolonging this global financial crisis, which all of us are caught in, and any of us can become a casualty or even-more-of-a-casualty than we already are.  Diabetics have to become involved. Diabetes is a life-style disease and management and cure require a good, financially-adequate life!

Even if I think mainstream medicine is not treating diabetes appropriately, I laud courageous holistic MDs who are taking the best of alternative medicine and western medicine to find the best Middle Path (even one to cure).  I want to preserve our access to healthcare, and preserve our ability to pay for medications and supplements which we actually need. None of this is a given, any more, as Mr. Obama has said ‘everything is on the table’, even Social Security and Medicare.

So, please, again, get involved and politically active. Also, please help those of us who are struggling more than you are now. There are many ways to do that — from lending or giving money to help save someone’s home — all the way to making sure parents can see Joy on their children’s faces.

Here are a few ideas that are current and some from the past. Please use them to Help. Thanks.

Teddies for Tragedies:
Teddies For Tragedies – History
Teddies For Tragedies – Patterns
Teddies For Tragedies – Knitting

Teddies For Tragedies
c/o Barb Drozdowich
PO Box 2128, Sumas, WA, 98295, USA

GIFT OF GIVING:
Gift of Giving NYT
Haiti Help – Haiti Bracelet
at Patricia Arquette’s Haitian NGO or at Jewelry for Haitian Relief wear it proudly!

Good Works for the New Year

Charity and Last Minute Gift Giving

Learn more about Hanukkah here, and why it is important for ALL people. Hanukkah and Religious Liberty

Please share this article with your favorite web 2.0 site. Click the icons below, too, please. Also, subscribe to my blog on the upper right sidebar.

Also, learn more with nearly 4 years of articles in the Titles Archive on the upper navigation bar.

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:
CommonDreams.org

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

Please respect my copyright. You may quote 2 short paragraphs, but to use more or the whole article, please write for permission to the About Me page on the upper navigation bar. Thanks.

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