Diabetes-The Persistence of Habit Con’t

A clip from The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell:

“…“Unfortunately, misinformation and ingrained habits are wreaking havoc on our health. Our habit of eating hot dogs, hamburgers and French fries is killing us. Even Dr. James Anderson, who achieved profound results with many patients by prescribing a near-vegetarian diet, is not immune to habitual health advice. He writes, “Ideally, diets providing 70% of calories as carbohydrate and up to 70 gm fiber daily offer the greatest health benefits for individuals with diabetes. However, these diets allow only one to two ounces of meat daily and are impractical for home use for many individuals.”. Why does Professor Anderson, a very fine researcher, say that such a diet is “impractical” and thereby prejudice his listeners before they even consider the evidence?

Yes, changing your lifestyle may seem impractical. It may seem impractical to give up meat and high-fat foods, but I wonder how practical it is to be 350 pounds and have Type 2 diabetes at the age of fifteen, like the girl mentioned at the start of this chapter. I wonder how practical it is to have a lifelong condition that can’t be cured by drugs or surgery; a condition that often leads to heart disease , stroke, blindness or amputation; a condition that might require you to inject insulin into your body every day for the rest of your life.
Radically changing our diets may be “impractical,” but it might also be worth it..”

Last China Study Clip Here

Veggies & Chickpeas over Quinoa with a Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil, Rice Wine Vinegar Sauce

Tasty… Onions and garlic sautéed in dark sesame oil, add asparagus, red and yellow bell peppers, mushrooms and chickpeas, a soy sauce, dark sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and crushed red pepper mix to the pan…serve over quinoa, Yum
The recipes is Here, Enjoy!

THE PERSISTENCE OF HABIT

A clip from The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell

As you can see by these findings, we can beat diabetes. Two recent studies considered a combination of diet and exercise effects on this disease.
One study placed 3,234 non-diabetic people at risk for diabetes (elevated blood sugar) into three different groups. One group, the control, received standard dietary information and a drug placebo (no effect), one received the standard dietary information and the drug metformin, and a third group received “intensive” lifestyle intervention, which included a moderately low-fat diet and exercise plan to lose at least 7% of their weight. After almost three years, the lifestyle group had 58% fewer cases of diabetes than the control group. The drug group reduced the number of cases only by 31%. Compared to the control, both treatments worked, but clearly a lifestyle change is much more powerful and safer than simply taking a drug. Moreover, the lifestyle change would be effective in solving other health problems, whereas the drug would not.
The second study also found that the rate of diabetes could be reduced by 58% just by modest lifestyle changes, including exercise, weight loss and a moderately low-fat diet. Imagine what would happen if people fully adopted the healthiest diet: a whole foods, plant-based diet. I strongly suspect that virtually all Type 2 diabetes cases could be prevented.

Previous China Study clip Here

Chickpea and Spinach Curry

Tasty curry chickpeas sautéed up and served over basmati rice..yummm. If you like you can serve with a dollop of plain coconut milk yogurt to balance the earthiness flavors..but I like the earthiness 😉 Enjoy! The recipe is Here

Insulin Dosage Response to Diet

Clip from The China Study, by T.Colin Campbell
“…..“In a study of fourteen lean diabetic patients, Dr. Anderson found that diet alone could lower total cholesterol levels by 32% in just over two weeks.
These benefits, representing a decrease in blood cholesterol from 206 mg/dL to 141 mg/dL, are astounding—especially considering the speed with which they appear. Dr. Anderson also found no evidence that this cholesterol decrease was temporary as long as people continued on the diet; it remained low for four years.
Another group of scientists at the Pritikin Center achieved equally spectacular results by prescribing a low-fat, plant-based diet and exercise to a group of diabetic patients. Of forty patients on medication at the start of the program, thirty-four were able to discontinue all medication after only twenty-six days. This research group also demonstrated that the benefits of a plant-based diet will last for years if the same diet is continued.
These are examples of some very dramatic research, but they only scratch the surface of all the supporting research that has been done. One scientific paper reviewed nine publications citing the use of high-carbohydrate, high-fiber diets and two more standard-carbohydrate, high-fiber diets to treat diabetic patients. All eleven studies resulted in improved blood sugar and cholesterol levels. (Dietary fiber supplements, by the way, although beneficial, did not have same consistent effects as a change to a plant-based, whole foods diet.)…”

Previous clip of The China Study Here

Curing the Incurable

Here is a new clip from The China Study, by T.Colin Campbell:

“…James Anderson, M.D., is one of the most prominent scientists studying diet and diabetes today, garnering dramatic results using dietary means alone. One of his studies examined the effects of a high-fiber, high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet on twenty-five Type 1 diabetics and twenty-five Type 2 diabetics in a hospital setting. None of his fifty patients were overweight and all of them were taking insulin shots to control their blood sugar levels.
His experimental diet consisted mostly of whole plant foods and the equivalent of only a cold cut or two of meat a day. He put his patients on the conservative, American-style diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association for one week and then switched them over to the experimental “veggie” diet for three weeks. He measured their blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, weight and medication requirements. The results were impressive.
Type 1 diabetics cannot produce insulin. It is difficult to imagine any dietary change that might aid their predicament. But after just three weeks, the Type 1 diabetic patients were able to lower their insulin medication by an average of 40%! Their blood sugar profiles improved dramatically. Just as importantly, their cholesterol levels dropped by 30%! Remember, one of the dangers of being diabetic is the secondary outcomes, heart disease and stroke. Lowering risk factors for those secondary outcomes by improving the cholesterol profile is almost as important as treating high blood sugar.
Type 2 diabetics, unlike Type 1, are more “treatable” because they haven’t incurred such extensive damage to their pancreas. So when Anderson’s Type 2 patients ate the high-fiber, low-fat diet, the results were even more impressive. Of the twenty-five Type 2 patients, twenty-four were able to discontinue their insulin medication! Let me say that again. All but one person were able to discontinue their insulin medication in a matter of weeks!
One man had a twenty-one-year history of diabetes and was taking thirty-five units of insulin a day. After three weeks of intensive dietary treatment, his insulin dosage dropped to eight units a day. After eight weeks at home, his need for insulin shots vanished.”

Previous China Study Clips Here

Pan Seered Polenta w/Chipotle Black Beans, Guacamole & Cilantro

A friend of mine, a Captain, that flies for the same airline i fly for, sent this to me yesterday “Visited Monticello today with my crew and saw this quote by Jefferson & I thought of you – ‘Anticipating healthy living advice that would be extolled 2 centuries later, Jefferson wrote “I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that…as a condiment for the vegetables which constitute my principal diet” ‘ ”
If you struggle with going completely plant based, T.Colin Campbell author of The China Study, too, recommends animal products 10% or less resulting in the same health benefits.
Thank you John for sharing Jefferson 🙂

This is a hit of an appetizer and SO Fresh, SO Easy!

Slice and brown a tube of polenta in a skillet in olive oil, or veggie broth if you want to save calories.

Then drain and rinse a can of black beans, mix with a jar of chipotle salsa, top with guacamole and fresh cilantro, Voila!

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The smoky black bean, cool guacamole, fresh cilantro combo atop the browned polenta…YUM!!
The recipe is Here, Enjoy!

NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T

A clip from The China Study, by T.Colin Campbell:
…..“Like most chronic diseases, diabetes shows up more often in some parts of the world than in others. This has been known for a hundred years. It has also been well documented that those populations with low rates of diabetes eat different diets than those populations with high rates of diabetes. But is that just a coincidence, or is there something else at work?

The Seventh-day Adventists population is a good example. They are an interesting group of people to study because of their dietary habits: their religion encourages them to stay away from meat, fish, eggs, coffee, alcohol and tobacco. As a result, half of them are vegetarian. But 90% of these vegetarians still consume dairy and/or egg products, thus deriving a significant amount of their calories from animal sources. It should also be noted that the meat-eating Adventists are not the meatiest of eaters. They consume about three servings of beef a week, and less than one serving a week of fish and poultry.
In dietary studies involving the Adventists, scientists compare “moderate” vegetarians to “moderate” meat eaters. This is not a big difference. Even so, the Adventist vegetarians are much healthier than their meat eating counterparts. Those Adventists that “deprived” themselves of meat also “deprived” themselves of the ravages of diabetes. Compared to the meat eaters, the vegetarians had about one-half the rate of diabetes. They also had almost half the rate of obesity.

Studies:
• Researchers found that increased fat intake was associated with an increased rate of Type 2 diabetes among 1,300 people in the San Luis valley in Colorado. They said, “The findings support the hypothesis that high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets are associated with the onset of non-insulin-dependent [Type 2] diabetes mellitus in humans.
• In the past twenty-five years, the rate at which children in Japan contract Type 2 diabetes has more than tripled. Researchers note that consumption of animal protein and animal fat has drastically increased in the past fifty years. Researchers say that this dietary shift, along with low exercise levels, might be to blame for this explosion of diabetes.
• In England and Wales the rate of diabetes markedly dropped from 1940 to 1950, largely during World War II when food consumption patterns changed markedly. During the war and its aftermath, fiber and grain intake went up and fat intake went down. People ate “lower” on the food chain because of national necessity. Around 1950, though, people gave up the grain-based diets and returned to eating more fat, more sugar and less fiber. Sure enough, diabetes rates started going up.
• Researchers studied 36,000 women in Iowa for six years. All were free of diabetes at the start of the study, but more than 1,100 cases of diabetes developed after six years. The women who were least likely to get diabetes were those that ate the most whole grains and fiber—those whose diets contained the most carbohydrates (the complex kind found in whole foods).

All of these findings support the idea that both across and within populations, high-fiber, whole, plant-based foods protect against diabetes, and high-fat, high-protein, animal-based foods promote diabetes.”

Previous China Study clip Here

Brown Rice Grilled Veggie Bowl Mexican Style

Have you ever been to Juanita Greenberg’s Nacho Royale?…we’ve got them here in Charleston and they are serving up some tastiness, cool atmosphere with LOTS of vegan options.

This is what I had, so easy to recreate at home! It’s a layer of brown rice, skillet black beans cooked in Mexican seasonings and a little veggie broth so it doesn’t stick to the skillet, grilled veggies, served with fresh salsa and guacamole on top. Yum! Mexican anyone?..

Diets & Diabetes Rates

A clip from The China Study, by Dr T.Colin Campbell:
“…Almost seventy years ago, H.P Himsworth compiled all the existing research in a report comparing diets and diabetes rates in six countries. What he found was that some cultures were consuming high-fat diets, while others had diets high in carbohydrates.
These fat vs. carbohydrate consumption patterns were the result of animal vs. plant food consumption.
As carbohydrate intake goes up and fat intake goes down, the number of deaths from diabetes plummets from 20.4 to 2.9 per 100,000 people. The verdict? A high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet—a plant-based diet—may help to prevent diabetes.
Thirty years later, the question was reexamined. After examining four countries from Southeast Asia and South America, researchers again found that high-carbohydrate diets were linked to low rates of diabetes. Researchers noted that the country with the highest rate of diabetes, Uruguay, had a diet that was “typically ‘Western’ in character, being high in calories, animal protein, [total] fat and animal fat.” Countries with low rates of diabetes used a diet that was “relatively lower in protein (particularly animal protein), fat and animal fat. A high proportion of calories is derived from carbohydrates, particularly from rice.”
These same researchers enlarged their study to eleven countries through Central and South America and Asia. The strongest association they found with diabetes was excess weight.7 Populations eating the most “Western” type of diet also had the highest cholesterol levels, which in turn was strongly associated with the rate of diabetes.7 Is this starting to sound familiar?
Here’s a summary, taken from a report from the Centers for Disease Control2:
Diabetes Complications
Heart Disease
• 2-4 times the risk of death from heart disease.
Stroke
• 2-4 times the risk of stroke.
High Blood Pressure
• Over 70% of people with diabetes have high blood pressure.
Blindness
• Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in adults.
Kidney Disease
• Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease.
• Over 100,000 diabetics underwent dialysis or kidney transplantation in 1999.
Nervous System Disease
• 60% to 70% of diabetics suffer mild to severe nervous system damage.
Amputation
• Over 60% of all lower limb amputations occur with diabetics.
Dental Disease
• Increased frequency and severity of gum disease that can lead to tooth loss.
Pregnancy Complications
Increased Susceptibility to Other Illnesses
Death
Modern drugs and surgery offer no cure for diabetics. At best, current drugs allow diabetics to maintain a reasonably functional lifestyle, but these drugs will never treat the cause of the disease. As a consequence, diabetics face a lifetime of drugs and medications, making diabetes an enormously costly disease. The economic toll of diabetes in the U.S.: over $130 billion a year.2
But there is hope. In fact, there is much more than hope. The food we eat has enormous influence over this disease. The right diet not only prevents but also treats diabetes. What, then, is the “right” diet? You can probably guess what I’m going to say, but let the research speak for itself.”

Previous China Study Clips Here