A New Eating Regime

Diabetes is a terrible disease afflicting a staggering number of people around the world but it's nearly epidemic in the United States. The numbers are breathtaking - literally - and we've all heard them: 30 million with diabetes, 57 million with prediabetes, over 20 % of the world's population, etc. The sources for these types of statistics are readily accessible, but I'm not planning on dwelling on those numbers. 

Peter and I get a physical once a year and in the past several years our numbers have been creeping up: for Peter blood sugar and A1C, a test used to diagnose type 1 and type 2 diabetes and then to gauge how well you're managing your diabetes, and for me, cholesterol and triglycerides. Last spring, before our big anniversary trip, Peter said he wanted to try the regime set out in a book he'd purchased called The 30-Day Diabetes Cure by Dr. Stefan Ripich, ND, CNP, and Jim Healthy.
Being a team player, I said I'd go along and sat down to read the book. I learned a lot about diabetes reading that book but I also noted throughout the book that there were a lot of things that were suggested for diabetes that was also good for cholesterol, so now I was really on board. 

At the end of 30 days, Peter lost 14 pounds, his A1c went down from 6.9% to 6.3%, and his cholesterol went down by 35 to 110 (taking 10 mg lipitor every other day), and I lost 10 pounds, my cholesterol went down 65 to 130 (taking 40 mg lipitor every day), and my triglycerides went from 122 to 85. Given these results my doctor halved my medication. And this all happened by changing our eating regime. We eliminated sugar, especially high fructose corn sugar, white flour, and highly processed oils from our diet, and we added more fish, more vegetables and beans, and cinnamon to our eating plans. We truly thought it would be difficult and we'd feel deprived, especially for the time we gave up alcohol (10 days - according to the plan - for Peter, and 30 days for me), but it wasn't and we didn't. Variety and just a modicum of creativity made it a breeze, and in the process we adopted eating habits that we're following to this day.

So you may notice the recipes you see here are changing a bit. Now Rome wasn't built in a day, and we know we aren't saints, but we are trying, we're having fun doing it, and we're finding new flavors and textures in the process. That can't be all bad!

 

Comments

[Lee]

The giving up alcohol part would be the hardest for me, I have to admit. I enjoy the vino too much! That said, I never knew my daily cinnamon in my (less than before) sweetened coffee was also good for me!

Lee