It's the diet stupid!

Minorities in this country have twice as much diabetes, 20 percent more cardiovascular disease and a big lead in high blood pressure but when you look at our diets we are not that dissimilar from the majority. We eat basically the same, yet our death rate and rates of illness are much higher especially metabolic disorders like those previously mentioned. What are we missing here?

The first thing you have to recognize is that you are a minority. Once you get this through your head, you have to think about what this means in terms of diet. Most of the studies done on diet will be about the majority. What is gleaned from there will be used to determine what is healthy, once again, for the majority. 

You might not have noticed but you're not in the majority. You are different and if you look at our disease rates, you know somethings different.

Check out the FDA food pyramid.




 

At the bottom, it is mostly grain based, this is to say, carbohydrates. This has been deemed good for the majority but you aren't the majority and is it good for you? 

Now read this.

At the Genetic Level African Americans Handle Carbohydrates Poorly

Individuals of African descent in the United States suffer disproportionately from diseases with a metabolic etiology (obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes), and from the pathological consequences of these disorders (hypertension and cardiovascular disease)...Differences in expression of several carbohydrate metabolism genes suggest both genetic and transcriptional mechanisms contribute to these patterns and may play a role in exacerbating the disproportionate levels of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease observed in Americans with African ancestry.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0008183#pone.0008183-Lindquist1

This doesn't match what you would get from a dietitian but you have to recognize that most of the research has been done on Europeans and the minority communities have not been factored into this. Some might claim this is racism but it more neglect than anything. Of course, this is your fault. Expecting that the majority perspective is good for you just because the majority says so has never been a byword for minorities. Why should it be with diet?

Trust but verify. Okay, suppose you want to check, if the food you are eating is actually safe for you. Go back to this post: Here  Read about getting this equipment and then I'm going to tell you something.


What this test helps you spot are allergens. These are foods that adversely effect you. A food that drives your blood sugar up is basically coating your insides in sugar and burnt sugar at that. The term they like to use for this is "glycation". Stick with burnt sticky sugar and you'll do okay. This stuff attacks your organs. It isn't a big dump but a small gradual one that goes on day by day. Here, with this equipment, you have a tool to use that will find those foods that attack your system. Once you know what they are, you can then eliminate them. 


I could probably tell you what you're going to find but I won't. This is a self-help sort of thing. You can go on believing that things are just fine and that you're eating healthy or you could look for yourself. It's your body and it's your business.

40 bucks and a pack of Twinkies leads to miracle weight loss

I can take the weight off you. I can make you feel better. You can skip the hunger as well. All it's going to take is  40 bucks and a pack of Twinkies. What's the 40 bucks for? It's for a cheap blood test meter, meter strips, lancing device and a box of lancets. 

What you are going to do is take your blood sugar, you know, just like B B King. You look at the clock and start eating the Twinkies. 1 hour after your first bite of Twinkies take a blood sugar. Take the test again every hour for 4 hours. If the number is over 140 at any point you probably need to go to a doc and get some Met. The actual name is Metaformin. If it drops below 80, same thing. This is great for controlling your blood sugar and gets a problem out the way. If you didn't go over 130 or went under 80 , you're good. All you have to do is give up anything with wheat in it and vegetable oils. Life will get better almost immediately. You can eat almost anything you want outside of that. Just check the blood sugar on occasion to make sure everything is copacetic.

For all you people who couldn't get under 130 or went under 80, I've got a great deal for you. You'll probably need to go out and drop another 24 bucks on strips but that should do it. Now here's how it works. Everytime you put something in your mouth, you check and see what blood sugar number you get. If you go over 130 after an hour you know this is a food that will put fat on you. Drop it like it's hot!!!!! Keep on going with this and you will find all the food that makes your body want to sock the fat away. Stay away from those and gorge yourself on the other stuff. 

That's pretty much it. I will throw in that you're going to have to substitute certain foods. Just trust your meter, if the blood sugar don't go up, proceed. The only caution on this is high fructose corn syrup and vegetable oils. This stuff is manufactured and won't raise blood sugar. It is seriously stealth and will jack you up. Outside of olive oil, keep to butter even bacon grease is better than corn oil. Try to stay away from anything they had to run through a bunch of chemical processes or anything where you can't understand the label. This works, trust your meter and get on with it.

ReliOn® Confirm monitor & test strips - $24

Lancing device - $9

Lancets - $4

Twinkies - $1

Fats and Your Health

You probably never heard of these people but you need to give a listen.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15886898

Obesity

The obesity epidemic or what's up with all the fat people.

Most likely, if you're reading this, you're diabetic and you're overweight. You might have tried diets and lost a little bit or a lot but you probably gained it back and have pretty much learned to live with it. This isn't all that unusual unfortunately. We are in an unprecedented epidemic of obesity with rising diabetes.

The usual prescription is for more exercise and cutting the calories. The basic prescription has at its base the biblical idea of gluttony and sloth. If you are fat, you feel shame. I'm going to row against the tide on this one with something called "common sense".

I will start with the single principle that all humans are animals and that the basic principles of being a living being applies to all living beings. The idea I wish to bring forth from here has to do with eating and this idea is this: animals eat because they are hungry and they stop eating when they are not.

Now you could bring up various animal experiments about fat mice and rats and how they will eat long after they are so fat that they can't stand and other bizarre displays but I didn't mention obesity. I only said that:animals eat because they are hungry and they stop eating when they are not. I didn't mention obesity because I don't think it's relevant to the discussion. Obesity, I have come to believe, is a symptom and not a cause.

If obesity is not a cause but a symptom, what's the cause? Hunger! Yep, hunger. I'm putting forth the proposition that we are in the midst of famine.

My youngest boy is exhibit A. He was a poor college student who went to school in his hometown so he was able to scrounge food from family and friends. His typical procedure was to arrive for dinner and then try to eat - forever. He would sit and eat until he was full and then, not knowing where his next meal was coming from, would continue to try and put food away. It was horrible to watch. He would slowly chew with a mild revulsion on his face then swallow. No matter how hard he tried, he could never seem to get beyond a few fork fulls before he had to give up.

This isn't news. Eating after you're full is very hard and the thought of doing it over and over again makes you feel green. Try it. You can't do it. But you might say that you've seen people overeat all the time. Once again, stick with the idea. I didn't say people don't overeat. I said that it is nearly impossible to eat, if you aren't hungry.

I am exhibit B. For the last thirty years, I have been a bike rider. What ever I had to do, I would try to do it on a bike. I would put somewhere between four thousand and five thousand miles a year on a bike. I ate carbs like crazy in order to do this because carbo loading was the thing to do when you were putting in a lot of physical exertion. My reputation for absolute gluttony is based on this. I was never fat but I could eat plate after plate of food. I ate until my stomach was full and then ate some more but I remained hungry. This was my life. I couldn't stop eating because I was famished.

You can't diet, if you're hungry. It will only make you hungrier. You can't excercise when you're hungry because your body cuts back on motion. You can, however, grow fat because there really isn't a connection between appetite and obesity.

I hear the experts talk about empty calories, large portions and too many snacks but rats, no matter the density or type of calories, would stop eating. Hunger is basic and at a level far below regard.

Stole this from Peter of HyperLipid

Here

Now I'll say it again: we eat because we are hungry not out of some lascivious need. What we are seeing now is hunger, one that isn't slacked by eating. Something has gone wrong with our diet and we are now hungry at a level that causes us to eat in search of a satiation which we can't achieve.

Why this blog?

I am a Ketosis Prone Type 2 Diabetic, which is probably something you've never heard of. It is common amongst people of color but I've found that information for us tends to be less than effective. I wish to address some of the things that people of color can do, in terms of diabetes, because most of the information that we are receiving isn't good for us.