60 Ways to Lower Your Blood Sugar Read online

  HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

  EUGENE, OREGON

  Cover by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota

  Readers are advised to consult with their physician or other professional practitioner before implementing any suggestions that follow. This book is not intended to take the place of sound professional advice, medical or otherwise. Neither the author nor the publisher assumes any liability for possible adverse consequences as a result of the information contained herein.

  60 WAYS TO LOWER YOUR BLOOD SUGAR

  Copyright © 2013 by Dennis Pollock

  Published by Harvest House Publishers

  Eugene, Oregon 97402

  www.harvesthousepublishers.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Pollock, Dennis, 1953-

  60 ways to lower your blood sugar / Dennis Pollock.

  pages cm

  ISBN 978-0-7369-5258-3 (pbk.)

  ISBN 978-0-7369-5259-0 (eBook)

  1. Diabetes—Popular works. 2. Diabetes—Treatment—Popular works. 3. Reducing diets—Popular works. 4. Low-carbohydrate diet—Popular works. I. Title. II. Title: Sixty ways to lower your blood sugar.

  RC660.4.P655 2013

  616.4'62—dc23

  2013000620

  All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author’s and publisher’s rights is strictly prohibited.

  Dedication

  To my sweet lady and my best friend, my wife, Benedicta, who is truly a gift from God to me.

  Contents

  Dedication

  Foreword

  The Simple and Basic Keys

  1 Monitor Thyself

  2 Carb-Cutting

  3 Nuts to You!

  4 Pizza Made Possible

  5 Bun Surgery

  6 Confessions of a Cereal Lover

  7 Milk Musings

  8 Take a Hike! (or at Least a Walk)

  9 Watch Those Peaks

  10 Sandwiches and Bread

  11 Beware of Snacks

  12 Fear Not…Meat!

  13 Salads—the New Potatoes

  14 The One-Portion Rule

  15 Artificial Sweeteners—the Supplement Everybody Loves to Hate

  16 Using Low-Carb Muffins as Fillers

  17 Managing Rice

  18 Portion Size

  19 Keeping Breakfast Beautiful

  20 The Virtues of Whipped Cream

  21 Fruit Juice—Don’t Be Fooled!

  22 Eating at Other People’s Houses

  23 Read Those Labels!

  24 Vegetables—Your Best Friends (Mostly)

  25 Fruits—Be Discriminating

  26 Fantastic Fiber

  27 Managing the Cost of the Low-Carb Lifestyle

  28 The Humble Yet Mighty Flaxseed

  29 Bean Power

  30 Strawberries—You Gotta Love ’Em

  31 Teatime

  32 Don’t Be Gullible!

  33 Working Fruit into Your Diet

  34 Think Outside the Box

  35 Using Your Freezer

  36 The Power of the Scale

  37 Give It a Rest!

  38 Sugar in Disguise

  39 Blood-Sugar Targets

  40 Glycemic Index Pros and Cons

  41 Not Bad Is Pretty Good

  42 The Good Thing About Diabetes

  43 Pros and Cons of Insulin

  44 Low-Carb Isn’t Really Low-Carb

  45 Counteracting the Sedentary Life

  46 Do-It-Yourself Sweetening

  47 Work Your Way Down

  48 Types of Blood-Sugar Tests

  49 Thoughts on Soup

  50 Insulin Shots

  51 Richard Bernstein

  52 Belly Fat

  53 Two or Three Witnesses

  54 Fat—Not the Monster You’ve Been Told

  55 Thoughts on Calories

  56 Vicious and Blessed Cycles

  57 Doctors—the Good, the Bad, and the Uninformed

  58 Beware (Some) Diabetic Recipes

  59 Can Diabetes Be Cured?

  60 As the Years Roll By

  List of Recipes in This Book

  List of Carbohydrate Charts in This Book

  Notes

  About Dennis Pollock and Spirit of Grace Ministries

  Foreword

  The relationship of obesity to blood-sugar problems and type 2 diabetes has been known for years. In this country today, the weight problem is epidemic. Just look around the next time you go to a restaurant, supermarket, or anyplace there are lots of people and see how many of them are overweight.

  Dieting to lose weight is important, of course, but just what foods are better for your health to accomplish this task? The author has spent much effort selecting not only foods but a lifestyle to deal primarily with his blood-sugar problem—and with great success. The changes he suggests are not necessarily easy, but the end result is what is important. Eating a healthy diet will prevent many medical problems and decrease or eliminate the need for expensive medications. As I would tell my patients, all the food God made is good. But, what people do to it may not be—and this is manifested by what you see today in this country.

  How earnestly do you want to be healthy? How motivated are you? How committed are you? Moderation in all you eat, as well as motivation to select healthy foods, are essential; both are wisely stressed by the author. As you read this book, may you be inspired to deal with your own issues for the sake of your better health.

  Paul Saneman, MD, ABOG

  The Simple and Basic Keys

  Diabetes is on the rise in America. This is not a new phenomenon. It has been steadily increasing for years and shows no signs of letting up. It is projected that within another 50 years one in three Americans will be diabetic.

  There is a note of hope in this, however. The fact that the rate of diabetes can increase reveals that there are factors we can control—things we can do to decrease our chances of becoming diabetic, or if already diabetic, to begin to reverse the process. If diabetes were totally unrelated to lifestyle factors, it would neither increase nor decrease from one age to another, or from one culture to another. This is clearly not the case.

  As is true in so many areas of life, our primary problem is not ignorance of what we should do; it is a lack of motivation to do what we know we need to do. In my previous book, Overcoming Runaway Blood Sugar, I shared my own experience with blood sugar that rose precipitously high and dropped dangerously low. By the time I was in my forties my blood sugar was totally out of control. My pancreas was working just fine, but it was being overworked by a body that was no longer processing carbs and sugar efficiently. A high-carb meal could raise my blood sugar to twice the normal level or higher, and then within a couple of hours, after my abused pancreas had gamely dumped prodigious amounts of insulin into my bloodstream, it might fall to half of normal. I would be trembling violently and feeling like I was about to pass out, which I did in public once, to my shock and embarrassment.

  At first I had no clue as to what was going on in my body, but had some suspicions that it had to do with blood sugar. After obtaining a blood-glucose monitor, I started che
cking my blood sugar several times a day. I soon realized that what I put in my mouth an hour or two previously had everything to do with the kind of numbers I was seeing on the monitor. Lots of pasta, a big dessert, and a soda to wash it all down led to disastrous numbers. But a large chef salad with eggs, ham, and garden vegetables, with water to drink, produced beautiful numbers.

  Not content to merely observe, I started reading different books and articles related to blood sugar. Trying to stay mainstream, I discovered that the most reputable and conservative authors came to the same conclusions. The three basic means of controlling blood sugar are reducing carbohydrates, regular exercise, and shedding excess weight. Now I had hope! As fearful as those trembling episodes had been, my attitude was, Give me something concrete to do about this, and I’ll do it! I plunged into making the necessary changes and was thrilled to see my numbers go down and stay down. They have now been that way for years.

  Most diabetics know the steps they must take to bring their blood sugar to a normal state and prevent long-term damage to their body. But making the necessary changes seems just too tall a mountain to climb. Besides, at the present they may feel just fine. They still have pep, they feel great—in fact, after eating a high-carb meal they feel especially good! They do not realize that they are well along on the journey to sores that refuse to heal, heart disease, kidney failure, leg amputations, and premature death. The irony is that the changes they are avoiding, while not unsubstantial, are not nearly as difficult or painful as they think.

  This book does not take the place of a good doctor! If you are diabetic you absolutely need to be seeing a doctor. If you suspect you are diabetic you need to go to a doctor and get yourself checked. The ideas in this book are made to complement the advice and care of your physician.

  In this little book I intend to put some very simple basic keys in your hand that will help you, step by step, make the necessary changes with the least amount of pain. I have never particularly liked pain. In fact any time I can avoid it, I surely will. The idea of being some kind of a grim diabetes martyr, never enjoying a meal, forcing myself to do physical workouts I hate, never indulging my sweet tooth (actually teeth), and walking away from every meal constantly hungry is something I have no interest in. The good news is—it’s not necessary.

  This is not a complex book. If you are looking for theories and large words and scientific terms, you won’t find too much here. But if you are struggling and failing to keep your blood sugar under control, you will find some simple steps you can take to turn the thermostat down that controls the raging fire of your runaway blood sugar.

  Nor is there anything wacky here. As I mentioned, the changes suggested have been known and recommended by the professionals for decades. But what is different about this book is that it puts in your hands a game plan you can easily understand and implement, along with some inspirational thoughts to stay the course. It is written by a regular guy for regular people who want to live out their lives in health.

  As you read through the chapters, you will find some thoughts and concepts repeated. This is deliberate. We humans need to hear things more than once to really get them. Nor are the chapters necessarily sequential. They are ideas, tips, things to do, things to stop doing, and even some recipes.

  These “ways” are not the end-all of behavior modifications for diabetics, but they make up a powerful set of adjustments and insights that can make a significant improvement in your prospects for a healthy life and a place at the weddings of your grandchildren.

  Go ahead—dare to make some changes. You’ll find that you can feel better now—and better yet in the future!

  1

  Monitor Thyself

  Most of the concepts we will be looking at could be read and embraced in no specific order. However, this particular thought really does need to be first. If you have blood-sugar issues, or merely suspect that you have them, you need to get a blood-sugar monitor. If the idea of frequently having your blood drawn turns you off—well, better to draw a little speck of blood a couple of times a day rather than to have your blood filled with sugar, destroying your organs, sapping your strength, and bringing you to an early grave.

  I will never forget the first time I checked my blood sugar. I was at my office, and our assistant brought me an extra monitor from home (her husband was diabetic). I had shared with her and some of the others at the office some of my “shaky” experiences, and she wisely perceived that this was a problem with blood sugar. I suspected as much, but didn’t want to face the truth.

  Mg/dl stands for “milligrams per deciliter,” the standard of measurement for blood glucose.

  I was terrified. I had read enough to know that 80 to 120 mg/dl was the ideal, and I was fearful about what mine would be. What if I was a raging diabetic with a level of 500? In fact I was so nervous I couldn’t seem to get a full drop of blood on the stick, and we had to try several times and several pricks. I watched the monitor with a racing heart as I waited for the verdict that might determine the rest of my life. Finally it came, and it was decent—in the 120s as I remember.

  Feeling emboldened, I checked myself a couple of hours later, and my level had dropped to around 60 (too low). I was too ignorant at this point to know why it would drop so much, but at least I was off and running. I would be taking hundreds of blood-sugar readings in the next year. Eventually I began to use these readings to make decisions about what kinds of foods were best for me to eat. Lo and behold, I found out that the higher the carbohydrate content of the foods I ate, the greater the rise in my blood sugar (no surprise, right?). Like most people I assumed that foods known for being sugary were the main things I should avoid. But my glucometer taught me an interesting lesson: carbs (carbohydrates) will affect our blood sugar, regardless of their source.

  For example, if you place a bagel next to a candy bar and ask people which is more likely to affect blood sugar, most people would say the candy bar. Yet the candy bar may have 28 grams of carbs and the bagel may have 50. And if you say no to the candy bar but yes to the bagel, feeling very proud of yourself, and then go and check your blood sugar when it is at its peak, you will be shocked that your body wasn’t particularly impressed with your choice. Your blood sugar most likely soared higher after the bagel than it would have had you eaten the candy bar.

  If you read any competent articles or books they will unanimously tell you to check your blood sugar frequently if you have diabetes. It is also a good idea to check yourself if you are hypoglycemic (have low blood sugar frequently) or if you bounce up and down (as I used to). But why is this necessary? There are two primary, very powerful reasons to do this, and they have to do with assessment and accountability.

  First, people always do better where there is accountability. When there is tangible evidence of how well or poorly we have been doing there will be far more motivation to improve than when we are left in the dark to guess our performance. Early on in my blood-checking I ate a meal of a hamburger with a large bun and a bunch of Fritos. I waited about an hour and a half, took my blood sugar, and felt sick to see the meter read well above the normal range. From that point on I had a fresh view of burgers with large buns and Fritos.

  If you are to succeed in your struggle against high blood sugar, you need motivation, motivation, and more motivation! Anything that will increase your motivation you must embrace; anything that decreases it must be avoided. And there is hardly a better motivator than one of these little blood-glucose monitors. They will not lie to you and will tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

  There are a gazillion books on the market about diabetes and blood sugar, and myriads of theories. Some folks will tell you to swear off all animal products and become a vegetarian. Others will tell you to pile on the meat, cover it with cheese, and then pile on more meat. Some will tell you that diabetes has no cure and others will swear that they alone possess the knowledge that will totally cure you. Who do you trust?

 
My suggestion, first of all, is to go mainstream. Don’t take too much stock in the writings of someone who writes about diabetes and then mentions that he has also found a cure for cancer, has discovered the secret to living to be 200, and uncovered 100 different conspiracies by our government. And—oh yeah—he was once abducted by aliens, who taught him the secrets he now shares with you.

  Second, believe your blood-glucose monitor. Some folks will tell you that fruit is so healthy for us and contains so many important vitamins that you can eat as much of it as you like. “Go ahead—indulge in that pineapple, eat that huge orange, and gulp down that big glass of apple juice. It’s good for you!” Well, if you want to do that, be sure to have your blood-glucose meter nearby. About an hour later check and see what your fruit orgy has done to your blood sugar. You’ll think twice about overdosing on fruit again. (I am not saying to avoid fruit. But you cannot give it a free pass and eat as much as you want without considering the carbs you are ingesting. More in a later chapter.)

  There are two types of readings that are important. First you will want to check your fasting blood sugar. This is done when you first rise in the morning, before you eat anything. Readings in the 80s are ideal, in the 90s, decent, and over 100 is problematic. The ADA (American Diabetes Association) considers you diabetic if you consistently are over 126. Your fasting blood-sugar level is like a report card. If you are diabetic or prediabetic and have not been eating right for some time, your fasting blood sugar will usually rise and tattle on you. If you have been behaving yourself and doing what you should be doing it will tend to go down toward an acceptable level and stay that way.

  A second highly significant reading is the one that tells us the effect of our last meal. This is especially critical in the early stages of discovering the dietary changes and adjustments that must be made. Not all people have their blood-sugar peak at the same time. For most people it will be about an hour to an hour and a half after they take the last bite of their previous meal. Take enough readings to find out the typical amount of time after a meal for your blood sugar to reach its peak. If your pancreas is still working well, the time will be shorter and the peak won’t last too long, but if it is on the way out the peak may stretch out for a couple of hours.