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The past couple of weeks, we’ve looked at diabetic-friendly beverages. The following herbal recipe contains 3 anti-inflammatory herbs. As diabetes contains an inflammatory process, this beverage should be helpful in making healthy diabetes food choices.
This is also a low fructose recipe as pineapples only contain moderate amounts. There are serious issues about how fructose behaves in our bodies (see below) and we should not ingest any more than 1 – 2 pieces of low-fructose fruits, daily. Learn more about low fructose foods, here (note the measurements here are in milligrams [mg] and 1,000 mg = 1 gram [g].
I also advise NO juices most of the time, except vegetable juices (note: tomato is a fruit).
Dr. Mercola’s fructose recommendations are no more than 25 grams of fructose a day (and only 15g. from whole fruits —no juices). All fruit must be ORGANIC!
An apple contains 9 grams. One whole pear would be most of your limit, as would be 1 cup of grapes or 1/4 cup of raisins. These just mentioned fruits are to be used carefully. Other dried fruits should be used even more carefully, if at all.
Of the melons, watermelon is the most nutritious and least problematic except for fructose issues; you reach your daily fructose limit using just 1/16 of a medium watermelon.
The Best Fruit Choices: Kiwi, berries, pineapple, citrus (lemon, lime, grapefruit, tangerine, orange), fresh apricots, fresh prunes, cherries, nectarine, peach, papaya, guava, banana, avocados and moderate amounts of tomato.
NOTE: The nightshade vegetables and fruits (white and red and yellow potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, tomatillos, cape gooseberry) are implicated as sources of inflammatory chemicals causing arthritis pain in sensitive individuals. So, if you are having skeletal or muscle pains, these foods might be reduced or eliminated for a few months to see if your Health improves. Sweet potatoes come from a different botanical family and do not cause these issues.
Pomegranate is not on the charts at the links. I use only the prophylactic 2 oz. dose of unsweetened pomegranate a day, as 1 of my few fruits (I mostly eat vegetables).
As this 2 oz. dose of pomegranate helps clear out cholesterol-restricted arteries (harmed by inflammation, and using cholesterol as a “natural bandaid”), I think it is probably OK, as long as we make enough natural cholesterol (from organic coconut oil’s medium-chain fatty acids) to do all the “good work” that cholesterol is meant to do.
Vitamin D is also important in this process and as much as 8,000 IU of Vitamin D3 seem to be needed rather than the 800 IU spoken about now.
Evidently, even at 8,000 IU (equivalent to 20 minutes in summer sun over 40% of your body skin), there is not toxicity, but the Vitamin D3 (only supplement form to use) is still NOT as good as natural sunlight. The supplement is not ready-to-use by our body, yet, and if we do not do the extra step well (which requires cholesterol), then we are still Vitamin D deficient.
Dr. Mercola continues about the harm from fructose:
“Thanks to the excellent work of researchers like Dr. Robert Lustig , and Dr. Richard Johnson, we now know that fructose:
- Is metabolized differently from glucose, with the majority being turned directly into fat
- Tricks your body into gaining weight by turning off your body’s appetite-control system. Fructose does not appropriately stimulate insulin, which in turn does not suppress ghrelin (the “hunger hormone”) and doesn’t stimulate leptin (the “satiety hormone”), which together result in your eating more and developing insulin resistance.
- Rapidly leads to weight gain and abdominal obesity (“beer belly”), decreased HDL, increased LDL, elevated triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and high blood pressure — i.e., classic metabolic syndrome (Em: also known as Syndrome X).
- Over time leads to insulin resistance, which is not only an underlying factor of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but also many cancers.”
Agave is also problematic and turns out to be just as bad as High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) which is a cheap sweetener found in almost all processed and refined foods. Both wreck your Health.
In the past, I espoused agave as it is “low-glycemic”, but the stuff is at least 75% fructose (that’s high!) and it has other serious Health consequences because of that. In the 1970’s, powdered crystaline fructose was touted as “better” than sucrose (“table sugar”) and so we used it. Crystaline fructose is the worst of all. I sure wish scientists were interested in the research back then!
The only safe sweeteners for diabetics, and anyone else, are moderate amounts of pure ORGANIC maple syrup and stevia or organic brown sugar, like Succanat (even less frequently) I prefer the liquid form of stevia, after trying many of the powders.
Organic honey can be used rarely, as all honey has a fairly high amount of fructose, but it has some other benefits. (Never give raw honey to children under 3!); it has botulism spores, as does all honey, and children under 3 immune systems can’t handle that, yet. Organic molasses can also be used sparingly, infrequently.
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WEEKEND WARRIORS JOINT TEA
Three of the herbs incorporated into this drink — turmeric, ginger and cardamom — produce a natural anti-inflammatory effect. The black pepper and the cayenne also help to synergize the benefit of the anti-inflammatory herbs. Cayenne also helps to raise your metabolic rate so you burn calories better. Be aware that cayenne should not be overdone as you do not want to have digestive upset.
I recommend only using organic, non-irradiated spices. Regular spices are irradiated (they don’t have to say that on the label).
6 cardamom pods, cracked
1 T chopped fresh turmeric* or ¼ teaspoon ground dried turmeric
1 T chopped fresh ginger
¼ t whole black peppercorns
2C filtered or spring water
organic, ground cayenne pepper, to taste
1C pineapple juice, chilled **
2 mint sprigs for garnish, optional
In a small pot, combine the first 4 ingredients with 2C of water. Cover and bring to a gentle boil. Turn off the heat and set aside to steep for 20 minutes.
Using a strainer, pour the tea into a large jar, add pineapple juice and chill. Before serving, add the organic cayenne pepper to taste.
Divide the tea between 2 – 4 glasses. If desired, bruise the mint sprigs in the glass.
* You should be able to find fresh turmeric (a member of the Ginger Family) in Asian markets, where it will be part of the recipe for curry powder. Enjoy! Turmeric (and its active ingredient, curcumin, is a wonder-food. More about it in later posts).
** the pineapple provides bromelain, an enzyme which helps digest your food (and is efficacious elsewhere in your body), but this would only be present in fresh, fresh puree and frozen forms, not canned.
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Best to all — Em
REFERENCE: see the links above to Nutrition Data’s Fructose Charts and Doctor Mercola’s article. The recipe originated at Bottom Line.
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