60 Ways to Lower Your Blood Sugar

by Dennis Pollock

  As we said elsewhere, soup practically begs for something else to be eaten along with it. Almost nobody would want a meal of soup alone. Salads work fine here, as do low-carb breads and muffins. An avocado is filling and adds few carbs to the mix. A piece of celery filled with peanut butter will do the job nicely. I sometimes have a low-carb tortilla with my soup. (No, I don’t try to pour the soup in the tortilla—I roll it up and eat it like a piece of bread between sips of soup.)

  Since most of the vegetables in soup end up surrendering their unique flavor and blending with the whole, vegetable soup is a great way to get some of those veggies that you don’t especially like on their own. Chop up some spinach and okra and throw them in the soup. My wife introduced me to okra soup and to my amazement I loved it! And after I eat a big bowl of it, my blood sugar hardly budges.

  Another soup I highly recommend is lentil soup. Lentils have a lot of fiber, more than most beans, and are a great choice for people wanting to keep their post-meal blood sugar at a reasonable level. A large bowl may end up giving you too many carbs, but a small- to medium-sized bowl will be no problem to most type 2’s, provided you don’t eat some other significant source of carbs.

  When it comes to soup, the diabetic must learn to think outside the box. There are endless possibilities that will be blood-sugar-friendly if you take a little time to experiment and research.

  Benedicta’s Okra and Spinach Soup

  My wife grew up in Africa, and this is pretty much a typical African soup, with a few American adaptations. Even if you are not a big okra fan, you will probably like this. In Africa she used palm oil, but since that is not plentiful in America, you can substitute olive oil. Use a large pot for this; it will make enough for a good-sized family with some to spare. For a smaller amount cut the ingredients in half.

  Benedicta with her okra soup

  Ingredients:

  3 pieces of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

  1/2 small to medium onion

  1/2 can (12 ounces) of spaghetti sauce (cans are often found in 24- to 26-ounce sizes)

  28-ounce bag of frozen okra

  10-ounce bag of spinach (Walmart sells spinach in a 10-ounce bag; if you buy in a bunch, 2 bunches should be about right)

  6 ounces olive oil

  1 chicken bouillon cube

  1-1/2 cups water

  Instructions:

  1. Fry or bake the three chicken breasts and then cut in small pieces to be added to the soup later.

  2. Chop up the spinach into small pieces to be added to the soup later.

  3. Place the frozen okra in a food processor (do it in 2 or more batches) and chop it up fairly fine. This will be added to the soup later.

  4. Chop up the 1/2 onion into small pieces.

  5. Place the onion pieces in a pan with the olive oil and heat to a boil.

  6. Keep the oil at a low boil for four to five minutes to soften the onion.

  7. Mix 1/2 a standard can of Hunt’s pasta sauce or about 12 oz. of any lower-carb spaghetti sauce in with the oil and onions, and cook at a medium to medium-high heat for four minutes.

  8. Raise the heat back a little below high, add in the chopped okra, the chicken pieces, and one chicken bouillon cube, and mix thoroughly while continuing to cook for another 8 minutes.

  9. Add the chopped spinach and the water, mixing well, and cook for another five minutes. Keep the heat a little below high. Stir well so that the spinach mixes completely into the soup.

  This soup has no major source of carbs, it is jam-packed with nutritious okra and spinach, and because these vegetables are not cooked very long, they retain most of their vitamins. It is very easy on your blood sugar. On top of that, it tastes terrific! Africans eat it in a thicker version than this. To thicken it, use less water, or if you desire it thinner, increase the amount of water added. If the soup is a bit bland for you, you can add some garlic as needed to give it a little more pizzazz.

  50

  Insulin Shots

  People are diabetic for two basic reasons: 1) their pancreas no longer produces sufficient insulin to process the carbs they are ingesting, or 2) their body has become insulin-resistant and can no longer process those carbs even though the pancreas is still able to produce what should be a sufficient amount of insulin. When many people think about diabetes they think about using hypodermic needles to give themselves insulin shots—and they shudder. To many, this is the worst sentence imaginable.

  Many will resist the idea of insulin shots literally to the death. They will put off going to the doctor for fear he is going to hand them a hypodermic kit and tell them to “have at it.” Others will plead with their doctor to give them a chance to try any and every other possible alternative to see if they can get by without the shots. Some would rather see blood-sugar levels of 300 mg/dl than deal with those nasty needles.

  To be blunt, this is a really bad idea. If you can escape the need to take insulin shots through diet, exercise, and weight control, by all means do it. It would be foolish not to. But there are times when insulin shots can become most useful, and you would be crazy not to take advantage of them. Here are a couple of scenarios:

  The type 1 diabetic. This person’s pancreas has retired. It produces absolutely no insulin, which means that their blood sugar will rise precipitously with nearly every meal. In this case insulin shots are a must. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. If you are in this situation you need to be working with your doctor continually to ensure you are taking the right amount of insulin at the right times. One thing to keep in mind: the amount of insulin you need per meal can be dramatically changed. For example, if you have been eating the typical high-carb American diet and suddenly decide to reduce your carbs significantly, you will need less insulin.

  Generally speaking, the fewer carbohydrates in your meals, the easier it will be to calculate precisely how much insulin to take before your meal. Some type 1 diabetics also fall into the category of being insulin-resistant. In a sense they are a “double diabetic.” Even with liberal insulin shots their bodies don’t handle the sugar at all well, and they find it almost impossible to keep their blood sugar in a reasonable range. They end up with lots and lots of insulin filling their blood almost continually, and still it cannot keep up. In such a case they are doing double damage to their bodies. The elevated blood sugar is daily doing a number on their organs, and the high dosages of insulin are doing significant harm of their own. The answer is not to give up on taking insulin. It is to radically reduce the carbs in your diet, get to a decent weight, and exercise until you reduce your insulin resistance. Then you can start using more reasonable dosages of insulin.

  Think about the meal-to-meal differences in insulin requirements. A ham-and-eggs breakfast will require a far lower dosage of insulin than a lasagna dinner with rolls and tapioca pudding. Too little insulin and your blood sugar will be off to the races; too much and it will drop out of sight, and you will be in a hypoglycemic state in no time.

  “Nearly type 1” diabetics. As admirable as it is to be able to control your diabetes with diet, weight control, and exercise, there are some, even those who are not totally type 1, who may not be able to do it. We like to divide diabetics into neat type 1 and 2 categories, but some folks are “nearly type 1” diabetics. Their pancreas still has some function, but it is not nearly adequate to control their blood sugar, even with all their best efforts. Sometimes even pills don’t get the job done. This does not mean you give up on your low-carb diet and start injecting yourself with huge measures of insulin while whistling “Que Sera, Sera.” Stay low-carb, keep lean, and exercise—plus take the shots as directed by your physician. Remember, the goal is to keep your blood sugar as close as possible to normal. If it requires insulin shots to do this, take the shots!

  Pancreas relief. When you first discover you have diabetes, it is highly likely that you have been struggling with high blood sugar for a good long while. If your pancreas is still working, it is probably severely stra
ined, and it is likely that it has lost some of its function. Some of the beta cells in it may have died. One of the principles of God and nature is the principle of rest. We were never made to be continually overtaxed—either in mind or body. When we are pushed to the limit far beyond our endurance, some pretty terrible consequences can follow. The best prescription in such a situation is rest. Allow time and rest to bring healing to that which has been abused.

  There are times when doctors will recommend that you start taking insulin shots for this very purpose. The insulin coming into your body through the shots will say to your worn-out pancreas: “Take it easy, big guy. I’ll handle things for a while.” Your pancreas will gamely give a nod of thanks and take some time off for healing and recuperation. This is not a bad thing! It is no admission of failure, and it does not place a label on your back telling the world that you are a loser. In truth, you may well turn out quite the winner. Your pancreas may heal considerably over time, and when it is its turn to take over again (with a much lower-carb diet on your part) you may find that it works better than it has in years.

  Earlier I talked about resisting insulin shots to the death. This may be precisely what you are doing if your body is producing little insulin and your blood sugar is far too high. This is definitely an area in which you need to see a good doctor and allow him or her to guide you. If it turns out you need the shots the rest of your life, there are a whole lot of worse things—like not having a rest of your life!

  51

  Richard Bernstein

  In the world of sports there are certain individuals who achieve permanent and universal fame for their achievements. In baseball a list of these athletes would have to include such men as Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, and Hank Aaron. In the world of diabetes doctors and experts there is no hall of fame. But if there were one, there is no doubt in my mind about the one man who should be the first candidate for admission. His name is Dr. Richard Bernstein, and his story is amazing.

  Richard developed type 1 diabetes at age 12 back in 1946. In those ancient days, ignorance reigned among the diabetes “experts.” They did know enough to prescribe insulin shots, without which he would soon have died. But they also put him on the absolutely disastrous low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet that reigned in those days (and in some quarters still does today)—about the worst thing they could have done. Richard, knowing no better, followed their advice dutifully. As the years went by he grew up, married, and had children. He gained a degree in engineering and seemed to be living the American dream. But his body was falling apart from diabetic complications.

  His feet became deformed, his vision began to fail, his shoulders were frequently frozen, he was losing feeling in his feet, the hair on his lower legs disappeared (indicating peripheral vascular disease), he suffered night blindness, developed cataracts, and felt like an old man. He states, “I had three small children…and with good reason was certain I wouldn’t live to see them grown.”12

  Bernstein’s life began to turn around when he saw an ad in a medical magazine, which was promoting a machine for doctors and hospitals that would read blood-sugar levels in one minute using only a drop of blood. Richard immediately knew he had to get this device. It was expensive—it cost $650, equivalent to several thousand dollars today. Second, it wasn’t even sold to ordinary folks. You had to be a doctor to order it. Bernstein’s wife happened to be a doctor, and he had her order it for him.

  With the new device he started measuring his blood sugar throughout the day and found it swung up and down wildly. Sometimes it would rise as high as 400 mg/dl; yet it could sink as low as 40 mg/dl after a large injection of insulin. He went from one insulin injection per day (the standard treatment in those barbaric days) to two and began to cut down on the carbs after noticing that the more carbs ingested, the higher the blood sugar. This helped stabilize the blood sugar a bit, but his diabetic complications were still increasing. Clearly there had to be something more he could do.

  Richard began to research the medical literature to see if he could find articles giving a plan that would turn things around for him. At first he was looking primarily for some sort of exercise plan, thinking some research somewhere would show him just what type of exercises he could do to get his diabetes under control. But he could find no such research. What he did find, however, were animal studies that indicated that the closer you could come to bringing a diabetic animal’s blood sugar to that of a non-diabetic, the more effectively you could stop and even reverse the deleterious effects of the diabetes.

  At the time of this writing Dr. Bernstein is in his late seventies and is still healthy and active. Considering the primitive state of the field of diabetes research in his early days, he should be long dead by now. Because of the discoveries he made, he has no doubt added decades to his life, with great health thrown in for good measure. On top of that he has helped thousands to learn the simple lesson he discovered: get your blood-sugar levels under control and you’ll be free from the ill effects of diabetes.

  Excited about this new information, he talked to his doctor about it, who wasn’t the least impressed. He told him that humans weren’t animals and besides that, it was impossible to normalize a diabetic’s blood sugar. Bernstein wasn’t buying it. He immediately began to do everything he knew to get his blood sugar normal. Being a type 1 this meant taking insulin for sure, but instead of just taking one or two shots per day, he began to take smaller and smaller doses, meant to deal with the precise number of carbs that entered his mouth for a particular meal. He spent the next year checking his blood sugar five to eight times a day. In short he became what many would call fanatical about keeping his blood sugar in the normal range around the clock. No highs, no lows, just the type of levels a normal person would have. He found that it was a lot easier to do this with low-carb meals, and refused to eat anything that might create too much of a bounce.

  Amazing things began to happen. He started to gain weight (previously he hadn’t been able to get above 115 pounds), most of his diabetic complications disappeared (a few were irreversible), and he felt like a new man. Bernstein writes, “I had taught myself how to make my blood-sugar levels whatever I wanted them to be and was no longer on the roller coaster. Things were under my control.”13 He had truly gained a new lease on life. Naturally he wanted to share his secret with the world, but the doctors and the medical journals wanted no part of his success story. They had already decided they knew what was best for diabetics, and they were not about to allow this engineer to tell them any different.

  Finally in frustration Richard Bernstein went to medical school to become a doctor, figuring “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” In a few years he had his medical degree, founded a practice to help diabetics, and wrote his first book. Today this pioneer in the field of diabetes is looked upon by many as the premier expert on the subject of diabetes. Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution is perhaps the definitive book on the subject. The only problem with the approach he recommends in the book is that it is so strict that few would be willing to follow it. Nevertheless, you can learn a great deal from it.

  Those who read Dr. Bernstein’s books will quickly recognize that he emphasizes “tight control,” and I really mean “tight control.” His plan calls for a radical doing away with nearly all starches and sugars. It is so radical that most of the people who end up following his plan to the letter are the type 1’s and those type 2’s who are in such terrible shape they know that only a draconian solution will save them. For many of you it may not be necessary to be so drastic in your diet. But there are some basic principles you can learn from Bernstein’s life and writings that will do you a world of good:

  1. Wild blood-sugar swings are going to kill you if you do not get them under control. When your blood-sugar levels are swinging wildly throughout the day they are doing untold damage. The sooner you learn this the better off you’ll be. Some folks are like the ostriches, sticking their head in the sand, rarely monitoring their
blood sugar, paying little attention to their diet, and being overweight to boot. “If I pretend I don’t have diabetes I’ll have no problems.” Wrong, wrong, wrong!

  2. You can make a difference—you really can take control of your blood sugar. The tools are available. The knowledge is available. The only question is one of motivation.

  3. The closer you get to keeping your blood sugar in the normal range (80 to 130 mg/dl), the more likely you are to live your life to the full and die “old and full of years.” Whatever it takes to keep those numbers down, whatever sacrifices must be made, they are well worth the enormous benefits and health that result. One major qualifier to this is that diabetics who inject insulin cannot merely take more and more insulin while they stuff themselves with starches and sugars, and expect good results. Insulin injections are most effective when combined with a low-carb diet.

  4. For diabetics, a low-carb diet is a major tool in getting your blood sugar under control. If you think you can slay this beast without significantly reducing your intake of starches, sugars, and total carbs, you’re living in a fantasy world. Toss that potato, pitch that pasta, sneer at that Snickers bar, and pass on that ice-cream-covered piece of apple pie. You have a life to live.

  5. Monitor your blood sugar. For those who are challenged in comprehending messages, let me say it again: “Monitor your blood sugar!” And do it again and again and again. Stay on top of things and make adjustments as needed. What you might have been able to get away with ten years ago will not work now. Your glucose monitor is your buddy. Be prepared for a lifelong relationship.

  6. Work with a doctor who knows what he is doing. Even today some diabetes doctors are nearly clueless. They offer little hope and routinely prescribe the same patently destructive low-fat, relatively high-carb diet that got you into this mess in the first place. Many feel it is enough to encourage you to trade in your white bread for “healthy whole-grain bread.” They are seemingly ignorant that whole-grain bread will raise your blood sugar nearly as fast and just as high as the white stuff. Not all doctors are created equal, so do your homework, read experts like Dr. Bernstein, and make sure you entrust your health to a physician who truly knows his stuff.