diet

2 Comments Posted on June 14, 2013February 28, 2014 Diabetes, Patient Talk

Diabetes blog – diet and exercise as a treatment for Diabetes

Welcome to our latest discussion blog on diabetes. In this blog we are looking at how people with Type 2 Diabetes can use diet and exercise to keep their condition under control.

As with all of our blogs of this type we need your help. The objective of this diabetes blog is to allow people with diabetes or their loved ones to share top tips regarding diet and exercise for people with diabetes. In this blog we are focusing on Type Two Diabetes but will look more closely at Type One Diabetes at a later date.

With the increase in prevalence of diabetes throughout the world more attention is being paid to both prevention and non-medication based treatments of Type 2 Diabetes.

Diabetes UK (http://www.diabetes.co.uk/exercise-for-diabetics.html) has some excellent suggestions as to diet and exercise for diabetics and we strongly recommend that you pay their web site a visit.

Looking at their advice there are two key points worth mentioning:-

a) Three square meals a day – (don’t skip). Remember breakfast is an important meal!

b) It is certainly worth consulting a dietician. As with many medical conditions there really is no such thing as “one size fits all” so getting tailor made advice about diet is pretty important.

Overall the recommendations are, as with many diets, to focus on overall health eating. Typically a low glycaemic diet is recommended. This is a diet where weight loss is achieved by control of blood sugars. That is making sure that blood sugars do not “spike” during the day. This is achieved by eating food which has a low glycaemic index i.e. slow release. The sorts of foods that are low GI include whole grains, beans and lentils, pasta, fruit and sweet corn.

My wife (while not a diabetic) has used a low GI diet with great success to lose weight. You can check out some recipes here – http://www.awtonline.co.uk/a-z_recipes.php.

In terms of exercise it is important to note that it does improve insulin resistance if carried out on a regular basis. For Type 2 adults it has been suggested that 30 minutes five times a week is a minimum required. Even a short break from exercise (say 10 days) can lead to you losing any metabolic benefits. It is important to choose exercise which is sustainable such as walking or maybe cycling to work.

As we said earlier the objective of this diabetes blog is to allow you to share your experience of tacking diabetes type 2 with diet and exercise. You might like to consider the following questions:-

1) How long ago were you diagnosed with diabetes?

2) How easy as it to find an exercise regime which suited you? What was that regimes?

3) What diet do you now follow? Has it been effective in keeping your diabetes in check?

4) Where do you go for suitable diabetes recipes?

5) Have you had to add medication to your diabetes treatment? If so which ones?

Please feel free to use the comments box below to add your thoughts and diabetes experiences. Feel free to share any links which you have found useful in the past.

Many thanks in advance.

1 Comment Posted on June 11, 2013February 28, 2014 Patient Talk

Are you eating your food too fast? Can it damage your health? How should you improve your eating style? Find out more in our new interview with Dr Sarah Brewer

A new survey released today reveals 5 out of 10 adults wolf down their meals because they are too busy to enjoy them. Breakfast is gulped down in six minutes, lunch in eight and dinner in nine resulting in serious digestive problems.

It seems eating is taking a back seat to make way for our hectic lives. Office lunch breaks are a thing of the past with a huge 75% cent admitting they eat one or more meals at their desk. The study also found a third of people barely even notice the food which passes their lips.

Almost 30 % attribute their digestive problems to stress whilst 41% believe it is because they are eating too quickly and not taking the time to chew their food properly.

The report by Conscious Food, creators of natural digestive remedy D’Mix states that 45% wish they had more time to sit down and eat their food slowly. As a result of wolfing down their food almost 75% said they suffered from some kind of digestive ailment.

We are joined by Dr Sarah Brewer, and the founder of Conscious Food, Kristina Locke, who will be revealing more about our nation’s eating habits, giving advice on how to improve the manner in which we eat and explain how we could resolve our digestive health problems.

The interview on behalf of PatientTalk was conducted by Feven Iyassu

Iyassu: British people spend less than half an hour wolfing down their three meals a day. Joining us on Patient Talk is Dr Sarah Brewer and Kristina Locke, good morning.

Brewer & Locke : Hello

IYASSU: Welcome. So what sort of medical problems can be caused by eating too fast?

DR BREWER Well I think we all know that when we bolt our food down, we’re more prone to indigestion. You’ve got food that’s arriving in the stomach not properly broken down; the stomach has to work harder to get it down into a dissolved state. The food stays in the stomach longer, so you get bloating, heartburn, indigestion and we probably end up eating too much as a result.

IYASSU: Why do think these days people eat too fast?

DR BREWER Well a recent survey on behalf of Conscious Foods found that for most people were eating quickly in order to get on with the rest of their life. Now I have some sympathy for those that are trying to hurry meals through so that they can help the children with homework or so they can take the children to after school activities. But sadly a lot of people are simply eating quickly, finishing meals quickly so they can get back to work. So they can go and check their emails, get on their iPhones and really just slow down on what should be a nice family activity in order to go back to work.

IYASSU: We’re always told breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Why is this?

DR BREWER Well breakfast is important because it’s when we get our nutrition after an overnight fast. We might not have eaten for about twelve hours, so all the stores of energy that have been used up from the liver for example and so we’re running on empty. Unless we eat the proper food, our blood glucose levels are going to go a bit low, we’re going to have an energy slump and won’t be able to work and think properly throughout the rest of the morning. And yet some people don’t eat breakfast and expect their body and brain to work right through until lunchtime after perhaps sixteen or seventeen hours of no nutrition.

IYASSU: What type of things should we be eating for breakfast?

DR BREWER Well a number of research studies suggest that a good carbohydrate source is excellent for breakfast, but something that doesn’t release the energy too quickly. So for example muesli or porridge would be great, have perhaps some fruit with that, some juice or some fresh fruit on top of the cereal. You can then follow that up with some yoghurt, you could have a smoothie. Just make sure you’re having something because too many people don’t have breakfast.

IYASSU: Kristina, what is D’Mix and how does it work?

LOCKE D’Mix is the first ever natural digestive aid that focuses actually on the importance of chewing. It’s a blend of eight natural state herbs and seeds including fennel, liquorice, sesame, flaxseeds so these are all well-known traditional digestive herbs and seeds. The idea with it is you basically chew half a teaspoon after your breakfast, lunch and dinner and really we want to chew a minimum of forty times so you really activate your saliva glands. You kick start the release of the digestive enzymes and juices and you break everything down. It is an ideal digestive aid because it focusses us on one of the most important parts of the digestive process which is the chewing which our survey shows that many people do not do.

IYASSU: What was the survey methodology and what were the results?

LOCKE So the survey methodology was carried out by 72Point last week amongst a panel of two thousand respondents and obviously we asked a number of different questions relating to the amount of time they spent on meals. The average person consumed all three meals in a total of only twenty-three minutes. So that breakfast in six minutes, lunch in eight and dinner in nine and what was really interesting out of that 73% of people suffer from digestive issues of some sort. With 40% of these people admitting that it is a direct result of eating too quickly. The other key finding as well was that 73% of respondents have the same food for breakfast every day and also the same food for lunch.

IYASSU: Where can people go for more information?

LOCKE Well we have created our whole awareness campaign in a new website called www.justchewit.net and you can find all sorts of tips for improving digestive health, focussing on the importance of chewing, mindful eating, some recipe tips, ideas and some other interesting facts and figures and that’s all on www.justchewit.net

IYASSU: Perfect, thank you Christina and Dr Sarah for joining us on Patient Talk.

BREWER & LOCKE Thank you

Leave a comment Posted on June 10, 2013October 13, 2013 Patient Talk

Lowering Cholesterol: How do we go about lowering Cholesterol – diet or statins?

Animal Fats

High cholesterol is one of those medical issues that has been associated with the massive leaps in the standard of living for many people in the Twentieth century. With the changes in diet and the decline in manual labour more and more people suffer from high cholesterol. According to the US government around 17% of Americans have higher cholesterol than is good for them.

While high cholesterol has no direct symptoms it does increase the risks of heart disease and strokes.

So what, in fact, is cholesterol? Well it is a fat like substance that is vital to health. Both too much and too little can be injurious to health. It has a number of different functions. For example it helps build the membranes around your body cells. It is also important as a way of helping your body absorb various vitamins. For example vitamin D – for more information on the importance of vitamin D please have a look at this blog https://patienttalk.org/?p=300.

So how do we lower cholesterol?

If your doctor feels that you have a high cholesterol count, typically, they will recommend a change in diet and increasing the amount of exercise you do.

The sort of changes in diet normally recommended will be to reduce your consumption of foods which are high in saturated fat and cholesterol itself. These can include fatty cuts of meat and many processed foods as well as dairy products such as cheese and cream so you might want to seek out soya based alternatives. Doctors may also suggest you increase the amount of oily fish such as salmon and mackerel you consume.

Obviously if you do smoke now is the time to think about quitting. This blog might use useful if you are considering nicotine replacement therapy – https://patienttalk.org/?p=495.

However in some cases your doctor may feel that a medication may be appropriate. Typically these come in a number of forms:-

a) Statins. By far the most common type of medication as they block the production of cholesterol itself.

b) Bile Acid Resins. These stop bile (which is mainly cholesterol) from being absorbed into the body.

Other products such as fibrates and nicotinic acid can be used.

In very rare cases patient might go through a complex blood cleansing process.

One of the aims of this blog is to provide a forum for our readers to share their experiences of lowering cholesterol. Please use the comments box below to share any ideas and experiences with your fellow readers. Anything will be of interest but you may wish to think in terms of the following questions:-

a) How did you find out that you had high cholesterol? What was the testing process?

b) What changes in lifestyle (e.g. diet or exercise) did you make to help lower your cholesterol?

c) Have you used a cholesterol lowering medication? How effective was it?

d) What one piece of advice would you give to somebody who has just discovered that they have high cholesterol?

Thanks very much for all your help. As we said please do you the comments box below to add you thoughts, opinions or any links you think may be of use to other readers of the blog.

5 Comments Posted on May 29, 2013March 25, 2017 Diet, Patient Talk

An anti-inflammatory diet? What foods can help reduce inflammation?

Getting a health vegan diet

Currently the most common way of reducing inflammation is to take anti-inflammatory drugs which are also called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or anti-inflammatories.

Inflammation is cause by many different things such as arthritis, hay fever or just sprains.

In recent years some doctors and healthcare professionals feel that certain food have anti-inflammatory properties.

Thus we think it would be useful to mention a few which you might like to include in your anti-inflammatory diet. Some to consider include:-

1) Blueberries – those ever popular super foods. For more information on super foods check out our blog – https://patienttalk.org/?p=276.

2) Turmeric – great in curries and with so many health benefits. Have a look at our recent post on the subject – https://patienttalk.org/?p=260

3) Shitake mushrooms. Even more beneficial than normal mushrooms!

4) Green teas.

5) Fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel.

6) Kale and other leafy green vegetables.

7) Ginger. The other delicious Asian food you might want to try is ginger tea.

8) Oil- red palm and olive oils are recommended.

9) Brown rice and whole grain pasta.

10) Pomegranates – another great super food.

And of course water is great as part of a healthy diet

So over to you. We would love to know how you treat inflammation. Have you changed your diet? What foods do you think work best?

It would be great if you could add your thoughts and views in the comments box below.

Thanks in advance for your help!