Month: December 2022

Are There Any Foods I Should Avoid If I Am Diabetic?

When you are diabetic, you have to take special care of your body to make sure that you keep your blood sugar at the appropriate level. Eating the wrong foods can cause high blood sugar levels in your body, something you want to avoid. Eating healthy foods that make you feel good is one step in the right direction to controlling the sugar levels in your blood, but it’s also important to know what foods not to eat. Avoid these foods to make it easier on yourself to keep your blood sugar under control.

Here are a few common foods to avoid if you are diabetic:

1. Pasta

Not all pasta should be avoided, but it should be eaten in moderation. Certain types are likely to raise your blood sugar level. Try smaller servings, and only eat a whole wheat pasta instead of white pasta.

2. Desserts

Many desserts contain sugars and flour that can be harmful to your blood sugar levels. There are plenty of cookbooks with recipes written for those who are diabetic. These will let you enjoy a sweet dessert without the negative side effects.

3. Soda

Items high in sugar, especially sodas and other sweet drinks, can throw your body off track. Avoid these, and find healthier drinks with lower amounts of sugar. Not only will you feel better, but your entire body will be healthier. Soda is bad for anyone’s health, diabetic or not. It just takes those who aren’t diabetic a bit longer to realize this.

When you do eat, keep your meals smaller and follow your doctor’s recommendations. Cutting out large amounts of sugar and aiming for a balanced, healthy diet will improve your mood and your body. Everyone should aim for a better diet, but when you have diabetes you are more aware of how negatively foods can affect you.…

Different Types of Teas

Tea is a popular way to help you get a jump-start on your day. It is a great alternative to coffee, as it contains less caffeine, but at the same time it contains enough to give you that boost of energy or state of alertness.

However there are different types of teas which you can enjoy, some of them are more suitable for in the morning, while others will help you more at night. Here are some of the different types of teas that you can drink throughout the day.

Black Tea

Black tea is probably your best choice to drink in the morning as it is fermented, and contains the most caffeine. 1 cup of black tea contain 40 to 60mg of caffeine.

White Tea

White tea is partially fermented and can be taken at any time of day, as it does not contain too much caffeine. 1 cup only contains about 15mg of caffeine.

Green Tea

Green tea is natural as it has not gone through any fermenting processes. Thus it is one of the healthiest teas that you can get. However, the taste of green tea may be something to get used to for some. To help you to get used to the taste, you can add your favorite sweetener or other flavors to make the tea more enjoyable.

Green tea is great for helping you to relax at the end of the day as it contains very little caffeine. 1 cup of green tea only contains between 8 to 20mg of caffeine.

Herbal Tea

Herbal tea is similar to green tea in the sense that it is all natural. But herbal tea is not only made from the plant leaves, but it also contains dried flowers, roots and other parts of the plants. Herbal tea is also very effective at helping you to sleep better at night. This is partially due to the taste and aroma from all the different flowers used in the tea.

Health Benefits

Weight Loss. Tea is a great substitute for other high calorie drinks, and thus it can help you to maintain or lose weight.

Heart Health. Tea also helps to improve blood circulation to prevent high blood pressure and heart disease. In addition, it also helps to keep your cholesterol levels down, which is also good for the heart.

Diabetes. Tea will not spike your blood sugar levels, and thus it is suitable if you are suffering from diabetes. Just make sure that you drink it naturally, without processed sugar.…

Have Type 2 Diabetes Or PreDiabetes? Get Your D!

Type 2 diabetes is not an easy condition to have. You have to monitor your blood sugar levels, exercise everyday, and keep a close eye on your carbohydrate intake. What if there was a way to make a huge dent in your blood sugar without adding a new task to your to-do list? According to new research, vitamin D appears to be the dead-simple way to improve your diabetes management that you’ve been looking for!

Vitamin D and Diabetes – The Connection

Whether you already have type 2 diabetes or are at high risk of getting it, its time to start learning about vitamin D. That’s because this nutrient has an incredibly strong link to diabetes. Best of all, along with a diet and an overhaul of your physical activity, it can actually help reverse type 2 diabetes if you already have it.

Research published in the Diabetes Educator reviewed the recent evidence linking vitamin D and type 2 diabetes and concluded that vitamin D was one of the most cost effective ways to help manage diabetes.

What D Does

While vitamin D is commonly associated with bone health, its role in your body is much more than simply crafting a strong skeleton. Vitamin D directly acts on fat cells… making them more sensitive to insulin. Also, vitamin D decreases chronic inflammation… a condition that worsens type 2 diabetes and increases the risk of complications.

What To Do About D

Get Tested: Mary Ann Emanuele, M.D. of Loyola University states: “People at risk for diabetes should be screened for low vitamin D levels”. Unfortunately, while vitamin D deficiency has reached epic proportions, many of the 23 million people with diabetes walk around not knowing that they have low levels of vitamin D.

Be sure to visit your health care provider and ask for a test called a 25(OH) D test… its the most accurate way to see where you stand.

Get Some Sunlight: Because vitamin D is produced by your body from exposure to sunlight, if you spend most of your time indoors, you are probably not getting the vitamin D you need. While spending hours sun bathing is a recipe for sunburn and skin cancer, many scientists now feel that limited sun light is an effective method of preventing vitamin D deficiency.

Supplement With D: While food sources of vitamin D are out there, they’re extremely rare. Also, most foods do not contain nearly enough vitamin D to reach the newly recommended amount of 2,000IU per day.

Enter vitamin D supplements: they’re small, cheap, and you can get your requirements in one dose per day. Because vitamin D is fat soluble, be sure to take the supplement with food.

Eat D: Fortunately, the same foods that help combat type 2 diabetes also contain high levels of Vitamin D. Fatty fish, mushrooms and legumes are fantastic sources of Vitamin D. Be sure not to rely on food alone for Vitamin D or you will be setting yourself up for a deficiency. Instead include these foods in your diet and get about 15 minutes of sun and/or take a Vitamin D supplement.…

Tips For Making Herbal Tea

Herbal tea is a great way to relax at the end of the day. It is also great to enjoy when visiting with a friend or a family member. And on top of that, herbal teas are also able to offer up some pretty good health benefits.

Drinking an herbal tea, such as chamomile, lavender and peppermint before bedtime can help you to fall asleep. Some teas such as ginger, cinnamon and cloves can help you to wake up in the morning, as they have shown to increase the memory, and awaken the mind. But this is not to say that you can only have lavender tea before you go to bed, or that you can only have cinnamon tea in the morning. Herbal tea is good at any time of the day.

Increase The Steeping Time

In order to obtain the most benefits you should allow the tea to steep for at least 10 to 15 minutes. However, for even more flavor, you can allow it to steep for up to 30 minutes or longer. The longer you allow it to steep, the more nutrients are extracted into the water. Therefore, you are getting more into your system as well.

Do Not Add Cream And Sugar

Most people like to add cream and sugar to their teas. While those ingredients may help to bring out more flavor, they can also interfere with the health benefits of the tea. Therefore, it is best to avoid them.

If however, you like a rich creamy tea, use nut milk. And for sweetness, add a natural sweetener such as raw honey, agave nectar or stevia. Stevia comes from a plant that you can easily grow in your home. You can use the leaves either fresh or dried. Either way, you can add them into your tea blend before steeping. It really doesn’t get anymore natural than that, and the flavor is just as great.

Use Different Sweeteners

Natural sweeteners will provide a different flavor for the tea. Honey has a different flavor than agave, which has a caramel flavor. And stevia has yet another unique flavor. Therefore, try out what sweetener you like best in certain teas. You can also combine different sweeteners in the same tea, such as stevia and honey.

Experiment

Last but not least, just have some fun and experiment with different flavors and loose leaf teas. You can combine loose leaf teas with teas that are already in a tea bag, and create your own unique tea blends.…