Need to lower your blood pressure? Lose weight healthfully.
Need to curb your LDL cholesterol count? Lose weight healthfully.
Got a potential problem with heart disease? Lose weight healthfully.
Diagnosed as diabetic or prediabetic? Lose weight healthfully.
Want or need to lose weight healthfully?
Create an eating plan that avoids what diabetics should avoid and includes what we now know diabetics should eat. You’ll lose weight. Guaranteed. And you’ll have created a weight management plan that is a health prescription for everyone—for you, for your family and especially for your children.
That’s the eating plan you’ll find in this book—informed by a doctor and nutritionist and deliciously prepared by a gourmet chef and his team of colleagues.
YOUR TEAM TO BEAT DIABETES
Medical science can tell us what to eat, but it takes expertise in cuisine to tell us how. We’ve put the two together and assembled a team that translates all the science about fighting diabetes—including the new secret weapons—into a menu of meals and snacks, drinks and desserts, picnics and parties that are easy to prepare and absolutely superb to the taste. We’ll tell you why this eating plan works so well to bring you to the healthy weight that is your best weapon against diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and we’ll show you how you can make such a plan an integral part of your life.
And by the way, it’s easy to do. The result is not just a battle plan for the disease but a healthy weight-loss plan for every family—the best, simplest, most delicious way there is to ensure a vital, long life.
The core of the team are the coauthors of this book—a gourmet chef who is also a diabetic and a doctor specializing in weight loss.
The chef is Franklin Becker, who was diagnosed as a diabetic at the age of twenty-seven. This graduate of the Culinary Institute of America turned on a dime and transformed his cooking, finding new ways to create dazzling dishes that are healthful and flavorful. In these pages, he’ll put to work his own special genius, his experience as chef at such venues as the legendary Brasserie in New York City and the contributions of numerous gourmet-chef colleagues to present a range of dishes, from the simplest and quickest recipe to the highest of haute-cuisine concoctions—all delicious, and all bullets against the disease he lives with and keeps under control.
Chef Franklin is joined by physician and writer Howard Shapiro, author of the bestselling Picture Perfect Weight Loss series of books. Dr. Shapiro also has an intimate and tragic association with diabetes, for his sister died of complications from the disease, while his Picture Perfect Weight Loss methodology early on defined the correlation between an eating plan for healthy weight loss and a battle plan against diabetes. From Dr. Shapiro, you’ll find out about the stunning new research discoveries that make Chef Franklin’s recipes so important, and you’ll learn the simple but powerful secrets to preventing or controlling this major killer disease simply by following the principles in this book.
Dr. Shapiro is particularly noted for his Picture Perfect Weight Loss food comparisons, which, in his earlier books, showed readers a range of food options and compared the weight-loss consequences of each. The food comparisons you’ll see in this book will assess each food option in terms of not just weight loss but also its specific power to fight diabetes and its complications. Such visual comparisons are among the most powerful tools we can bring you in the fight against diabetes and for healthy weight loss. They make the healthy option vividly clear—and Chef Franklin’s recipes, as well as the recipes of a team of celebrity chefs, then show you how to make the healthy option a gourmet treat.
As both authors want you to know, this is a book for all the family. Not just because being overweight is dangerous and scary, but because achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is so important for everyone’s health—and if you’re a parent, especially for your children’s health. After all, everybody eats. Everybody has to eat. And a healthy weight happens through eating, not through not eating. More about that in the next chapter.
CHAPTER 1
The Secret to Healthy Weight Loss, Diabetic or Not
Do you like chili? Who doesn’t? So take a look at the two dishes of chili shown here.
The one on the left is your standard meat chili. It tastes good—no doubt about it—but at 530 calories, with a heavy dose of saturated fat, it’s also the equivalent of a preassembled unit of unhealthy weight gain that, down the road, could contribute to all sorts of unhappy consequences for your body, your well-being and your longevity. In other words, it isn’t just that your waistline will increase because of the calorie load; you’re also increasing your load of cholesterol and triglycerides and adding to your body’s insulin resistance—all thanks to the kind of fat this meat-based dish provides.
You can’t taste the veggie-and-bean chili dish pictured, but take the word of this book’s coauthors, the photographer who took the picture, the photography session stylist and the publisher’s representative that it is a major treat for the taste buds. And at 150 calories, a low level of saturated fat and an utter lack of cholesterol, it’s also a feel-good food where healthy weight loss is concerned.
But that’s only for openers. With its high content of fiber, soy protein and other plant-based nutrients, this chili actually constitutes a weapon of proactive diabetes prevention. It easily earns a Beat Diabetes award, given to those foods or meals shown to be particularly effective in fighting the disease—not just medically, but because the food or dish has been road tested for taste, convenience and impact on weight loss. That’s also why this chili is such a good bet for any lunch or dinner table—whether you’re diabetic or not.
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Why are we showing you these photos—the legendary food comparison demonstrations pioneered by Dr. Shapiro? There are two reasons.
First, because they illustrate precisely why the way you eat is a two-edged sword in the ongoing effort we all must wage for health in general and to prevent or control diabetes in particular. One edge plays defense, mitigating the adverse impacts of increased cholesterol and triglycerides (which can lower insulin resistance) and of C-reactive protein (a signal of the kind of inflammation that can portend cardiovascular problems). The other edge—and it’s the real secret of this book—plays offense, actually attacking the components of metabolic syndrome and beating back diabetes and its consequences.
The second reason for showing you this demo—and all the others featured in this book—is that the real secret to healthy weight loss is choice. And as has been shown time and again, the best way to understand what that means is to see it for yourself. This book is all about helping you to see—literally, in the case of these food comparisons—the great difference you can make in your life by the way you choose to eat.
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We can’t say it too often: the tools to beat diabetes are in your hands. The key to healthy weight loss is also in your hands. The two things—beating diabetes by preventing or controlling it and healthy weight loss—are equivalent. The way you choose to eat is the single path to achieving both results. It’s as simple as that.
THE BEAT DIABETES PYRAMID: A LOT TO CHOOSE FROM
Choice happens every day, several times a day. Mealtimes, snack times, the coffee break and at the meeting, the nibbles at cocktail hour, the attack of the munchies while watching TV or before bed: all of these situations, plus a zillion more you know only too well, offer us choices about eating.
In fact, unless you head for a restaurant every time you feel hungry, the choosing starts even earlier—at the market, if you’re the one who does the shopping for your household, or in the kitchen, if you do the food preparation and cooking.
For people diagnosed as diabetic or prediabetic—or for those told by their doctors that they ought to lose weight—the choices used to be limited. They were told precisely what not to eat and what they could eat. That meant carrying around a list of forbidden foods when they went to the marke
t or out to a restaurant. It meant sitting down to a meal thinking about the foods they were supposed to avoid. On many diets, it meant counting calories, measuring portions, eating only at certain times of day or eating certain combinations of foods, deprivation and often going hungry.
Not anymore. Today we know that there is a bounty of foods playing both defense and offense in the fight to control weight and stay healthy. We know that neither dieting nor deprivation works and that counting and measuring are not just out-of-bounds for today’s lifestyles but pointless in terms of controlling weight and enhancing health. We know, in short, that food is not the enemy of the healthy weight loss that can prevent or control diabetes; it is instead the way to ensure healthy weight loss. It is precisely the way to beat diabetes.
You’ve seen “food pyramids” before. They have become the standard mechanism for laying out a particular eating plan—for good reason. Pyramids not only define the kinds of foods the plan advocates but also map the proportionate representation of foods in the plan.
Here’s the Beat Diabetes Pyramid. It’s the perfect guide to the choices that will help you lose weight healthfully and prevent or control diabetes.
This book devotes a chapter to each level of the pyramid—Chapters 4 through 8—telling you how to apply the pyramid on a practical basis, day by day, in order to achieve healthy weight loss and beat diabetes. But in general, here’s what the Beat Diabetes Pyramid demonstrates.
Just as the pyramid is necessarily widest at the base, let vegetables be the foods you eat most—most often, most regularly and most of. Raw or cooked, from a can or a package, in soups or stir-fries, vegetables should be the foundation of your eating.
Next, focus on protein—mainly on the protein in beans and other legumes, fish and soy products.
The next level up is starches—preferably starchy vegetables or breads that are whole grain, light or low carbohydrate. Think of the starches as accompaniments or side dishes rather than the main focus of the meal.
Where fats and oils are concerned, choose canola, flax and olive oils, and eat nuts, seeds, olives and avocado.
For sweet treats, go for fruit and certain products with no added sugar.
We’ll tell you much more about the extensive and varied range of options for each level of the Beat Diabetes Pyramid in its own chapter. Suffice it to say that there’s nothing particularly complicated about “eating the Pyramid way,” as we like to call it. It’s pretty simple and straightforward, although, as you’ll see in the chapters that follow, it presents an almost dizzying array of food choices and a spectacular range of recipes.
Certainly, the mainstay of eating the Pyramid way is the focus on vegetables and healthy proteins. But no food is forbidden, and we never tell you what to eat or what not to eat. It’s a matter of choice, and the choice is yours. What we might suggest, however, if you’re a meat lover, a cheese freak or someone who can’t resist scrambled eggs for Sunday brunch, is simply that you adjust your thinking a bit and relegate some of those favorites to the category of foods you eat less frequently or less of. Let’s say you’re a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. No problem: just maybe try to make meat the side dish and perhaps accompanied by lentils and even a salad with a delicious olive-oil-and-vinegar dressing. It’s a matter of emphasis: in featuring the potatoes accompanied by lentils, salad and other vegetables, you’re putting your emphasis on the kind of healthy weight loss that will help you beat diabetes.
THE FOUR PHENOMS: YOUR SECRET WEAPON
But there’s a secret weapon inside the Beat Diabetes Pyramid as well. Four secret weapons, in fact. We call them the Four Phenoms. The reason? They represent four groups of nutrients that play a pretty prodigious role not just in controlling diabetes but in beating it—in literally helping to reverse its effects. The four are:
Fiber
Phytonutrients
Soy protein
Good fats
Here’s a look at what each is and what it does for your health:
Fiber
Fiber is the structural component of plants. It’s a very, very complex carbohydrate that cannot be digested. In Europe, in fact, it isn’t counted as a carbohydrate—something to keep in mind if you’re reading nutrition labels on your next trip to Paris or Rome.
All edible plants—vegetables, beans, grains and fruits—contain fiber. There is no fiber at all in meat, poultry, seafood, dairy foods, eggs or fats.
There are two main types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. As the names suggest, soluble fiber partially dissolves in water; insoluble fiber does not. Both types of fiber are a real boon for people trying to lose weight because fiber foods make you feel full. The reason is simply that fiber has bulk and takes up space in the intestines; you feel sated, tend to eat less and therefore take in fewer calories. In addition, a lot of high-fiber foods are themselves low in calories, require more chewing and are simply digested more slowly. All of those factors help to diminish your calorie intake, which is the basic requirement for weight loss.
But fiber does even more. Precisely because it slows digestion, fiber retards the process by which sugar enters the bloodstream, thus reducing blood glucose spikes and helping to maintain insulin levels. It also lowers blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, thus in turn reducing the risk of heart disease—a central consideration given that 80 percent of deaths among diabetics are from cardiovascular failure.
All fiber food sources provide all these benefits, so it is little wonder that fiber figures so prominently in the Beat Diabetes Pyramid. But, as you’ll learn in more detail in Chapter 6, some high-fiber foods are also high in calories and therefore will have to be taken in moderation.
Fiber is the one diabetes-beating phenom for which there is a recommended daily amount. Experts say that to get the optimal benefit of fiber’s weight loss and disease-fighting power, aim for at least 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day. What constitutes 25 to 30 grams of fiber? This chart will help give you an idea.
But the truth is, if you eat the Beat Diabetes Pyramid way—that is, if you follow the guidelines it represents—you are likely to get all the fiber you need to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
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FIBER AND WEIGHT LOSS
A meta-analysis of studies on increasing fiber found that an additional 14 grams per day resulted in a 10 percent decrease in calorie intake and a weight loss of nearly five pounds over a four-month period.
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Phytonutrients
Phytonutrients, as their name suggests, are nutrients found in plants. Actually, to be precise, they are not really nutrients; that is, they’re not substances essential for life, like proteins, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and water. Instead, what phytonutrients do is toughen the cells of the plants, interacting in complex ways to counter stress, toxins and deterioration. They do the same inside humans, which is why they promote health and advance healing—primarily by defending the cells of the body from damage.
So far, scientists have identified some two thousand phytonutrients. You’ve probably heard the names of many of them—like the lycopene in tomatoes and the beta-carotene in carrots. But chances are you’ve never heard of—and may find difficult to pronounce—zeaxanthin, a carotenoid found in leafy greens that helps protect vision, or daidzein, an isoflavone found in soy products and a powerful cancer fighter. Yet these tongue-twisting substances—often responsible for the vivid colors of the fruits and vegetables from which they derive—are a key reason why a diet that emphasizes plant-based foods is such a powerful tool for fighting infection and for strengthening your vitality and well-being.
Where diabetes is concerned, the power of phytonutrients is particularly important, for it is well known that many of the complications of diabetes result from damage to the body’s blood vessels, large and small, and phytonutrients are powerhouses of blood vessel protection. For example, the phytonutrients in red wine, called polyphenols, may relax the artery walls and raise HDL c
holesterol. The allicin found in onions and garlic can both raise HDL cholesterol and lower LDL cholesterol.
The genistein and phytosterols that come from soy reduce the formation of plaque in the arteries, and the coumarins found in cucumbers, squash, melons, parsley and citrus fruit prevent platelets from sticking together to form a clot or thrombosis, which is often the immediate cause of a heart attack.
Phytonutrients also fight inflammation, which, in the arteries, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. In fact, the intake of phytonutrients is inversely related to the formation of C-reactive protein—as mentioned, a key measure of inflammation—so the more phytonutrients you ingest, the less C-reactive protein you are likely to form.
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A FLAVONOID FAVOR
If you like the taste of either apples of onions—or both—you’re doing yourself a favor. Researchers have found that people who eat foods high in quercetin, a flavonoid antioxidant found in both foods, had a 21 percent lower risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease and were 19 percent less likely to have type 2 diabetes. You can also find quercetin in grapes, tea and citrus fruits.
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KEEPING YOUR ARTERIES FLEXIBLE
The power of soybean phytonutrients to help blood flow through the arteries has been well demonstrated in an Australian research study. The study focused on arterial compliance—the technical term for the capacity of large arteries to stretch and bend in response to changes in pressure and volume. Obviously, flexible arteries do far better than stiff arteries in preventing coronary problems, and the Australian research documented how soybean isoflavones improve arterial compliance—that is, they help keep the arteries flexible and thus help keep heart disease at bay.
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