This is the first in a series of topics relating to problems we develop as we age. The first is the disease of Diabetes type II, otherwise known as Adult Onset Diabetes. It is my opinion that this disease is 95% preventable and if one develops it, they definitely will not live up to their “human potential”.
Essentially this disease develops because certain functions in our body no longer work. The bottom line is that if we have diabetes, our body cannot properly use sugar for energy. What happens is that our cells lose the ability to take sugar from the blood and put it into themselves. The pancreas makes a hormone called insulin which is responsible for this action, and Diabetes is this lack of insulin in the blood. Therefore, our body becomes unable to use sugar and ultimately control it. If our body does not produce enough insulin, or our cells don’t recognize it, then the sugar levels in the blood elevate thus producing the classical symptoms of diabetes. Our body will try to compensate in response to the elevation of blood sugar but simply cannot because the system has tired out. Essentially, the blood sugar system has been overused for a long period of time and it just stops working.
Diabetes is a hard disease to manage but it can be done with hard work and perseverance. One of the most crucial management tools for this disease is to cut back on eating foods or drinking fluids that are made of sugar (or that turn into sugar). By cutting back or even eliminating these foods, the body will not even produce and insulin response which will prevent the diabetic symptoms to begin with.
Foods that are huge sugar producers have a high Glycemic Index. This index is how carbohydrate foods are ranked based on how fast they affect your blood sugar levels. The higher the number on the index, the faster it raises your blood sugar, thus causing a faster insulin response. Carbohydrates with a low glycemic index slowly turn to sugar in your blood thus causing a slow insulin response and a slow uptake into the cells.
High Glycemic Index foods have a value of 70 or higher (on a scale of 100). Medium foods are 56-69 and low foods are 55 or less. Some examples of high Index cereal foods are Bran Flakes (74), Cheerios (74) and corn flakes (83) in comparison to some low Index cereal foods are oatmeal (48) and Special K (54). Some high index fruits are dates (103) and watermelon (72) in comparison to grapefruit (25) and prunes (15). Carrots (49) and peas (49) are considered low where as parsnips (97) are high. 98% of all breads are in the high range.
The way we can reach our human potential is by choosing low Index foods on a daily basis versus high Index foods. By choosing wisely, we can keep our release of insulin down and therefore keep the body’s mechanics not working at 100 % capacity 24/7. These choices will help preserve our blood sugar handling mechanisms thus preserving our overall body and its functions on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis.
