60 Ways to Lower Your Blood Sugar

by Dennis Pollock

  Favorite #2. When I first realized I would have to eat low-carb for the rest of my life, one of the most depressing things I had to face was that pancakes were going to have to go. Since my early adulthood it has almost been my “theology” to have pancakes every Saturday morning. But of course a stack of white-flour pancakes drenched in sugary syrup spells blood-sugar disaster. Guess what? The pancakes have resurfaced in my life in an altered form and they taste as good as ever.

  The pancake recipe I share with you in this section is terrific. These pancakes make a great breakfast, and I have found that I can eat two or three of them with a touch of sugar-free syrup, a few blueberries mashed on top, and the whole thing covered with some whipped cream—and it barely budges my blood-sugar levels. If someone were to see me eating this delightful breakfast, they would surely think I couldn’t be serious about watching my blood sugar. But they would be wrong. With these pancakes, you can still enjoy an amazing breakfast. Add a couple of sausages (virtually no carbs there) and you have a meal fit for a…happy diabetic!

  The pancakes use a combination of soy flour and heavy whipped cream, both of which are great tools. Soy flour is God’s gift to diabetics. Whereas white wheat flour contains about 95 grams of carbs in a cup, soy flour has about 30 grams. This can make a colossal difference when you are reading those black numbers on your blood-sugar meter. There are a few unfortunate individuals who find soy disagrees with them, but as long as you aren’t one of them, you will find soy to be a great friend to you for the rest of your days.

  Low-Carb Pancakes

  Ingredients:

  3 eggs

  1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

  1/2 cup water

  3/4 cup soy flour

  3 tablespoons sugar substitute (recommended: stevia or Splenda)

  1 heaping tablespoon wheat (or oat) bran

  1/3 teaspoon baking powder

  In a blender mix all the ingredients. Then cook in a pan or on an electric griddle just as you would wheat pancakes. Feel free to butter them, put a dab of sugar-free syrup on them, mash a few blueberries and place on top, and then cover them with a light coating of whipped cream. These are so good you won’t miss the old-style pancakes at all, and if you serve them to friends who don’t know what they’re getting, they’ll never guess they are eating low-carb!

  Another option for a low-carb breakfast is a couple of waffles. I like to have these with my hot cereal. In most cases, waffles and hot cereals are terrors for diabetics. But here are a couple of recipes that you should be able to eat and enjoy without seeing a significant rise in your blood sugar:

  Simple Waffles

  Blend (a personal mini-blender is perfect for this):

  1 egg

  1/3 cup soy flour

  1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

  1/4 cup water

  1 packet of stevia (or Splenda)

  1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

  1 teaspoon oat bran

  Makes 2 waffles.

  My waffle maker takes about five minutes to cook these. These waffles aren’t quite up to the kind you would get at Waffle House, but they are so much better for you, and with a little butter and some sugar-free syrup, they are really nice.

  Low-Carb Hot Cereal

  1 cup flaxseed meal (ground flaxseeds)

  1 cup protein powder (I use Jillian Michael’s Whey Protein—just don’t use the sweetened kind—check the labels!)

  1/2 cup oatmeal

  1/4 cup oat bran

  Combine the ingredients. You can store the remainder for later use, preferably in the refrigerator. To prepare one serving, pour one cup of water in a pot and bring it to a boil, then lower the heat slightly and start adding the mix gradually, stirring vigorously. When it gets to the proper consistency, put it in a bowl, pour a little heavy whipping cream over the top, sprinkle some sunflower seeds over it if you like, and top it with a packet of stevia.

  This makes a really nice hot cereal that is ridiculously low in carbs and easy on your blood sugar.

  20

  The Virtues of Whipped Cream

  In the world of foods, whipped cream is an anomaly. It looks and tastes like it ought to be saturated with sugar, but in fact it is not. It is such a simple way to turn bland, dull, unexciting foods into tantalizing taste sensations. If you check the labels you will find that many whipped creams that come in a can contain a puny 1 gram of carbohydrates per two tablespoons. This is incredibly great news for people with blood-sugar problems. The reason whipped cream can be so sweet and still have so little sugar and carbs is that it is extremely light and a little bit of sugar goes a long way. On top of that, the creamy texture fools us into thinking it is sweeter than it actually is.

  Spritz some on top of your coffee to give it that coffeehouse taste. Have a few strawberries topped with whipped cream. Or if you really want a treat, take a low-carb muffin (see recipe in chapter 16), split it in half, cut and mash about five strawberries, place them on the two muffin halves, and then put some whipped cream over the top. If someone were to come in and find you eating this amazing and sweet concoction, they might say you’re breaking your low-carb diet. But in truth, you haven’t broken it at all. You are eating a snack that should not seriously raise your blood sugar (for most type 2 diabetics), and tastes amazing.

  Almost any low-carb bread (low-carb bagels, low-carb pancakes, low-carb soy bread, and so on) can be used as a foundation for diabetic strawberry shortcake. Make sure to cut up and mash the strawberries thoroughly so the juice sinks deep into the bread. (What you don’t want to do is use those “store-bought” shortcakes that come about six in a package. Each little cake contains 17 to 20 grams of carbs, far too many for such a small serving.) Or, instead of the low-carb muffin in its normal form, you can take your low-carb muffin mix and bake it in “mini-cake” pans, and the finished product will seem even more like the old strawberry shortcake.

  When I first realized I was prediabetic and went low-carb, all I knew was what I couldn’t eat. I didn’t realize how many lovely foods, snacks, and desserts were still available to me. As a result I lost weight like crazy. As I explored and found all sorts of great things that were still lawful, the weight began to come back, and I had to be more careful. But that’s a good thing. It’s great to have options and choices! Who wants to stay slim just because you’re forced to eat the same tired foods with little taste, foods that never fill you up? Far better to be slim because you are exercising self-control—and to know that you can occasionally reward yourself with snacks and sweet foods that are still low in carbs and won’t drive your blood sugar through the roof.

  Try whipped cream on sugar-free Jell-O, on berries of various kinds, on low-carb pancakes, and in your coffee. Be creative. Enjoy.

  21

  Fruit Juice—Don’t Be Fooled!

  Fruit juice sounds so totally healthy. Drinking a sweet drink made from apples or oranges surely must be about a thousand times better than drinking a Coke or a Pepsi. Many parents would rather cut off their arm than put a nasty old soda in their baby’s sippy cup. Yet they go ahead and pour sickeningly sweet, sugar-laden apple or orange juice in their little ones’ cups and flood their fresh little bodies with one of the most dangerous elements known to man—sugar. CBS HealthWatch reports,

  A growing body of science is linking sweet drinks, natural or otherwise, to a host of child health concerns, everything from bulging bellies to tooth decay. “All of these beverages are largely the same. They are 100 percent sugar,” Dr. David Ludwig, an expert on pediatric obesity at Children’s Hospital Boston, said recently. “Juice is only minimally better than soda.”7

  Well-known health advocate Dr. Joseph Mercola refers to fruit juice as “soda’s evil twin.”

  When you pick up a bottle of juice at your local grocery store, you may notice several things on the label that are very deceptive. First, you may notice the sugar and carbs don’t seem as high as what you read on your soda label. But not so fast! Check out the portion
size and you will probably find it does not represent the entire bottle. Factor in the amount of sugar and carbs for the whole bottle and you’ll see that the fruit juice has as much sugar as the soda has, ounce for ounce—and in some instances more.

  Another deception (and this is not limited to just fruit juices) is the bold pronouncement “No sugar added.” Yes, it does mean that there is no sugar added, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. There is a pretty good reason why they added no sugar—the fruit juice was totally saturated with sugar already. And if it isn’t sweet enough in its original state, they can simply extract a little water and it will become proportionately sweeter—and they still haven’t added a grain of sugar! The key is not whether sugar has been added; it is how many grams of sugar you are bombarding your body with when you drink that glass of juice.

  And then there are the “fruit drinks.” These are doubly deceptive. They mix a tiny bit of fruit juice with a lot of water, throw in a little color, and then dump in loads of sugar. To make up for what they take away they add a vitamin or two and proudly call it “fruit drink.”

  Juice doesn’t get a free pass just because it contains “natural” sugar. When it comes to sugar, your body will pay the same price whether you get it from orange juice or a Dr. Pepper. Admittedly fruit juice has more vitamins and nutrients than soda, but you can easily get your vitamins from vegetables, which will not overload you with nasty, pancreas-exhausting sugar.

  The truth is this: if you are serious about watching your blood sugar you will have to say goodbye to fruit juice and fruit drinks. Far better to eat an orange than drink orange juice, or to eat an apple rather than drinking apple juice. At least with the whole fruits you get some serious fiber. But even with apples and oranges we need to be careful. I once saw my blood sugar jump to over 200 mg/dl primarily because I ate a large, sweet apple. When it comes to fruit juices, there is really not a lot of room to compromise. (I suppose you could mix 10 percent fruit juice with 90 percent water and get the sugar to a manageable level, but what kind of drink would that be?)

  Far better to have a cup of hot green tea sweetened with a packet of stevia, or a tall glass of iced tea with a slice of lemon and a packet or two of Splenda. If you aren’t opposed to artificial sweeteners, there are all sorts of diet drinks that contain zero or almost zero carbs. Make these the exception rather than the rule, but remember this: continually overdosing on sugar can be lethal. But, artificial sweeteners have been tested again and again for decades and still there is no hard evidence that they are harmful. And of course stevia is not artificial anyway.

  So stay away from the fruit juice and “fruit drinks.” Don’t let their pretty, bright colors and their claims of vitamin C lead you down the garden path.

  22

  Eating at Other People’s Houses

  When I was a boy it used to make me nervous when we would eat at other people’s houses. I was an extremely picky eater, and I was sure they would serve me broccoli or Brussels sprouts or some other horrible food that would make me gag. I could trust my mom to make me foods I liked; everyone else was trouble! When I became a teenager I became so embarrassed about telling people I didn’t like this or that food that I started eating foods that were on my don’t-eat list. And I found out they weren’t so bad after all. In time I became fairly normal (at least in this respect) and ate pretty much what everybody else ate.

  And then I developed blood-sugar problems. Once again I began to dislike the idea of eating at other people’s homes. I knew what my system could handle and had begun to tailor my meals to my weakness. But at other people’s houses I was likely to encounter things like lasagna, macaroni and cheese, baked potatoes, rice dishes, and chocolate cake with ice cream. Eventually I learned ways and means to cope in these situations and I wanted to pass along a few tips to you.

  Invitations to eat at people’s homes can be broken down into two categories: people you know well, such as relatives and close friends; and people you don’t know so well. With family and close friends no real problem should present itself. If you are serious in your efforts to avoid diabetic complications, there is no way you will be able to keep it a secret, nor should you want to. People you spend time with and care about will soon discover that you are either a diabetic or a potential diabetic, and that you are absolutely serious about keeping your blood sugar low and living out your years in good health without all the miseries diabetes can bring. In 99 percent of the cases these people will applaud your efforts and admire your discipline. When they invite you to their house for a meal they will probably attempt to provide foods that will work for you. I have had some amazingly tasty low-carb meals served by people who don’t normally eat that way themselves, but were eager to provide me a meal I could enjoy without guilt.

  That brings us to the other category: people you don’t know well, and who have no clue that you struggle with blood sugar. In this case there are two routes you can go, and I have done both, depending on the situation. Sometimes I tell them in advance that I am prediabetic and eat a low-carb diet. Almost nobody takes offense at this when you present it as a health issue—and especially if you mention the “D-word.” This usually takes care of matters.

  However there are times when, for one reason or another, I don’t say anything and simply determine to make the best of the food they make available. In such cases the first step is to survey the table once the food has been laid out. What are your enemies? Do you have many friends there? Usually the table will contain several of both. Especially if you don’t eat in such situations too often, you can decide to allow yourself a little more leeway than you normally would at home.

  But don’t just surrender! Much of your meal can be handled by portion control. For example, if you are served spaghetti and salad, go easy on the spaghetti and big on the salad. If you are served a rice-and-stew dish, take a small amount of rice and drench it with a great big portion of the stew. If you are served steak and a baked potato, take a large steak and only half a potato. When the bread is passed around, pass it on. No one is going to get too upset with you for not eating the bread. In this way you can still eat what has been prepared for you without doing nearly so much damage to your body as you would going whole hog (or “whole carb” in your case).

  This brings us to the worst villain of all—the inevitable dessert. That sweet-tasting, mouthwatering concoction loaded with sugar stares at you, daring you to pass it up. My advice is, take the dare! Here is a great time to share that you are diabetic and cannot indulge in a dessert. Of course if you are the only guest and they have labored for over an hour on this sweet treat, they may be a little put out. In such cases it might be better to take the smallest amount you can get away with. But if you are there with your family or other families and everyone else partakes of the dessert, you can probably get by with turning it down altogether. Just let them know why.

  If this seems way too much trouble and you are tempted to simply eat everything there—or worse, to eat as much of the out-of-bounds foods as possible since you are now presented with an excellent excuse, let me suggest something. Take your blood-sugar monitor with you in a purse or jacket pocket. An hour after you have stuffed yourself with sugar and starches, excuse yourself to go to the restroom and quickly take a reading of your blood sugar. The objective little monitor will faithfully rebuke you for making such a bad decision. That reading of 200 or 300 will (hopefully) make you sick at heart and encourage you to be a little more proactive in your food choices even when eating in other people’s homes.

  23

  Read Those Labels!

  The ability to read nutrition facts labels and quickly assess the value of a food is a vital survival skill for the diabetic. Without it, you’ll be like a sheep among the wolves when you visit your local grocery store. As you wander the aisles considering what your next meals might be, you must be armed with the ability to discriminate the good from the evil, the healthy from the health-destroying foods that catch your eye. />
  And though after a while you will begin to possess a pretty good idea what you can eat and what you can’t (I never stand next to the pretty boxes of Frosted Flakes debating with myself whether they’re allowed), still there will always be new foods to check out. And sometimes you simply need reminding.

  Nutrition info from a popular bread

  As you look at the nutrition facts on the label or package, you will not be nearly so concerned with what worries most people—fat and calories. Fat is not the enemy of the diabetic, and in truth is not really the enemy of anybody else, in normal amounts. Our society’s fear of fat and passion for sugar and breads is what has made us the most diabetic generation in the history of the planet. As for calories, they may be some concern if you are considerably overweight, but in most cases those who are faithful to stick with a low-carb diet are going to get down to their proper weight without worrying much about calories. So as you peruse the nutrition facts label, the first few categories are not what we are interested in.

  You should be, however, very much interested in the first two lines under “Nutrition Facts”: serving size and servings per container. Many food companies are downright deceitful. They list the facts based on a totally unrealistic serving size, a portion that no adult would ever be satisfied with. Cereal is one of the worst offenders. Not daring to list the actual amount of carbs most folks are going to be getting from a normal bowl of cereal, they often list their nutrition facts based on three-quarters of a cup or sometimes even half a cup. This is a ridiculously small amount that hardly covers the bottom of the bowl. Sometimes sweet drinks list their serving size as only about a third or a quarter of the drink. The carbs and sugar are still high, but they don’t look too bad. But when you measure how much you actually drink, those carbs are going to be multiplying.