60 Ways to Lower Your Blood Sugar

by Dennis Pollock

  Diabetes is nothing to play around with. You have to trim your carbohydrate intake significantly. Changing from white flour to whole-grain may impress others, but it will not impress your weakened pancreas or your worn-out receptor cells, which have grown insulin-resistant.

  And switching from regular pasta to whole-wheat pasta will show almost no difference on your blood-sugar monitor.

  So be a little cautious, and remember that not all that glitters is gold, and not all recipes printed in a diabetic cookbook are fit for consumption by a diabetic.

  59

  Can Diabetes Be Cured?

  When I first started experiencing blood sugar run amok, I soon knew I was facing the same beast that had taken both of the legs of my mother and brought her to an early death. I began to read and research like crazy. I was not looking for merely something to make me feel a little more normal; I wanted a complete cure. In my Internet searches I used phrases like “cure for diabetes” and “reverse diabetes,” hoping I could find something that would make all this go away like some bad dream. I wanted to be so completely over this mess that I could eat a huge bowl of ice cream and my blood sugar would remain rock-steady. It didn’t happen.

  As you look through the nearly infinite number of books, booklets, and articles on diabetes, you will indeed find quite a few with titles like “Reversing Diabetes,” “Cure for Diabetes,” and so forth. Is this even possible? Once you are diabetic or prediabetic, can you ever be so completely recovered that you will never have to worry about diabetes the rest of your life?

  The answer is yes…and no. First I have to confess my own complete conviction that with God all things are possible. So I would never tell anyone that any disease cannot be completely cured. But short of a divine miracle, we need to qualify ourselves when we speak of cures for diabetes or permanent reversal. Type 1 diabetics, whose pancreases produce no (or very little) insulin, will need to inject themselves with insulin for the rest of their days. There are no if’s, and’s, or but’s about this.

  However, they have a huge say as to how much insulin they will require. By strictly limiting carbs and keeping trim they can require far less insulin than otherwise (doing their bodies a tremendous favor), have far fewer hypoglycemic episodes, and experience few or no diabetic complications. In other words, apart from the fact that they will need to administer insulin to themselves, they can live normal lives, and die “old, and full of days.”

  Many, if not most, type 2 diabetics have the possibility of getting to the point of requiring no oral agents or insulin, and getting their blood-sugar levels to the point where a doctor would tell them they are not diabetic. Margaret Blackstone, author of the book Beat Diabetes!, is a great case in point. When she was first diagnosed as diabetic she was told she might be close to being a type 1. Her blood sugar was all over the chart, and her doctor wanted to start her on insulin injections. She convinced him to give her a week to get things under control and went on a crash low-carb diet, carefully counting her carbs and setting 30 grams as her total daily limit. She writes, “What I couldn’t eat could fill a book.”25 To her great joy, she saw her blood-sugar levels drop to nearly normal in a very short time. Within a week she was seeing blood sugar consistently between 77 and 115. Such is the power of the low-carb diet.

  Let’s say you’re a type 2 diabetic who has been carefully controlling your carbs, your weight, and the amount of exercise you get. You go to a doctor unfamiliar with your history and have him check you for diabetes. He will tell you with all confidence you are not diabetic! Your fasting blood sugar will be normal, your A1C test will be fine, and even your post-meal blood-sugar levels will be excellent. If you still said something like, “Doc, I’m worried I might be diabetic,” he would assure you, “You don’t need to worry about that. Your tests show you’re doing fine.” And he would be right, except for his ignorance of what you need to do to keep those blood-sugar levels low.

  There are thousands and tens of thousands of similar testimonies, including mine. By carefully controlling the number of carbs that pass through their lips daily, keeping at a reasonable weight, and exercising moderately four or five times a week, many type 2’s will be able to bring their blood-sugar levels to resemble those of a “normal person.”

  In practical terms it is quite possible and even likely that most type 2 diabetics (especially those who figure out what to do early in the game and have the courage to do it) should be able to live a normal life, maintain normal blood-sugar levels, and escape those terrible and fearful “diabetic complications.” However, if your idea of “reversing diabetes” or being cured from it means you think you’ll be able to go back to eating and living like you did when you were 20, guzzling king-sized soft drinks, scarfing down ice-cream sundaes, enjoying candy bars whenever you feel like it, and never exercising, you are living in a dream world. The diabetes you think you overcame will soon be back, and with a vengeance!

  The reality is this: apart from a miracle, you will never be able to go back again. You will need to check carbohydrate grams on food products, say no to apple pie and ice cream, mashed potatoes, and french fries, test your blood sugar, and stay reasonably slim all the rest of your days if you want those low blood-sugar levels and the incredible benefits that they produce. But this should not be a discouraging thought; it should be exhilarating to know that you have a huge say in your own health and well-being, both now and decades down the road. By the grace of God, you can do it!

  60

  As the Years Roll By

  Many years ago I bought one of the worst cars ever sold—a Yugo. It looked great but was built cheaply. It was always needing repairs. Finally a woman did me a favor and ran into the back of me one day, effectively totaling the car. I was determined to get a reliable vehicle this time around and bought a Toyota van. It wasn’t new—we weren’t rich enough for that—but it looked almost new and was the best vehicle I had ever owned up to that time. As it sat in our driveway, sleek and shiny, I was admiring my latest wheels, when a sad thought occurred to me: this was the best this van was ever going to look. No matter how well I cared for it, the years would bring on dents and dullness, and eventually engine problems and the car graveyard.

  That is pretty much the state of the human body when we are 25 or so. It will never look better or work so efficiently. As you pass through your thirties, forties, and above, your body will grow increasingly less efficient and, sadly, less attractive. Some of us break down sooner than others, but we will all break down. We will run more slowly, see less sharply, hear less acutely, gain weight more easily, and lose weight with more difficulty—and (speaking to the point of this book) we will process carbohydrates and sugar less effectively.

  Specifically, your metabolism will slow down, your pancreas will produce less insulin, and your body will require significantly more insulin to handle sugar than in the “good old days.” You will likely lose muscle mass, become more flabby, and be less physically active than in your teens and twenties. Some people can handle all this and still maintain respectable blood-sugar levels. Since you are reading this book, chances are you cannot. Like millions of others your blood-sugar levels have been rising, and your poor, tired pancreas has been gamely wearing itself out, trying to keep up.

  It is helpful to take inventory of what you can do and what you cannot do. Certainly you cannot turn back the clock. You will never get your 25-year-old body back. What you can do, however, is be far more conscientious about your health and eating habits than you were in your youth. This can go a long way in making up for a body that experienced its best days a couple of decades ago.

  Your exercise may need some alterations. Older legs and knees can’t handle the pounding they could in their youthful days. In most cases exercise sessions will need to be a bit longer than before, but less intense. Brisk walks will often be the best choice for us as we age. Swimming is also a nice low-impact exercise.

  A 55-year-old woman who eats wisely (keeping carbs low and ve
getables high), exercises regularly, and stays on the slim side is in many respects in a better position than her 25-year-old neighbor who does the reverse. The young woman is in the process of destroying her body. Yes, she may look better, run faster, be wrinkle-free, and push more pounds at the health club. But her foolish disregard for her health is steadily bringing about deterioration of health and body. She is slowly and surely destroying herself, day by day and meal by meal. On the other hand, the 55-year-old is on pace for a long and healthy life. She may well be nearly as healthy—metabolically speaking—15 years from now as she is presently.

  The key is to stay on target. Once you have determined your upper blood-sugar limit, do whatever it takes to keep within that boundary. As you get older you may find you can’t tolerate the same portion of rice you could before and still maintain your goal. Before, you could eat a fistful of rice with a particular meal and keep under 150 mg/dl at your post-meal reading. Now you find that the same portion drives your blood sugar into the 170 range. The answer is obvious: cut back on the rice and make up for it with a larger helping of green beans (or broccoli, salad, or cauliflower). You may need to drop a few more pounds. Your body may not be able to tolerate sugar-alcohols as before. In short, there will probably be some adjustments you will need to make.

  Don’t ever stop checking your blood sugar. For those who are able to keep their blood sugar down without medication or injected insulin, there is a tendency to stop checking yourself once you have determined what works for you and what does not. You discover the safe meals and the dangerous ones. You have tested a particular meal five or six times and found that your blood sugar always behaves itself with that meal. So why keep testing?

  It may not be necessary to test after every meal all the time in such cases, but changing and aging bodies require constant monitoring. In addition we are often trying new variations to our diets. We can sometimes be surprised when certain meals, which we feel confident will go easy on our blood sugar, give us a nasty surprise. So keep on testing. The little money you invest in test strips is one of the smartest expenditures you can make.

  The great news is that with a little common sense, a moderate and informed lifestyle, and the grace of God you should be able to live out your years without those terrible diabetic complications. The information you need is readily available. Hopefully this book has provided a little of the inspiration. Now go out and make your life worth living!

  List of Recipes in This Book

  There are myriads of low-carb recipe books around, but it was not my intention to write one. However, in sharing some basic secrets and tips on the low-carb lifestyle, I couldn’t resist sharing a few of the recipes that have become my old friends. To me, these recipes and the foods they produce are nearly indispensable. They help keep me from feeling so much like a martyr as I routinely say no again and again to foods that most Americans would never dream of sacrificing.

  Most of the recipes relate to the bread family. Bread is especially problematic for the diabetic, since 1) most of us feel a meal is incomplete without it, and 2) it is becoming almost impossible to find low-carb bread items or even mixes in the grocery stores these days.

  These few recipes can give you something to start with, as you begin to make the dietary transformation you know is necessary.

  Low-Carb Bread for Bread Machines

  Chocolate-Drizzled Orange Sour-Cream Cheesecake

  Easy Low-Carb Pumpkin Pie

  Dennis’s Favorite Low-Carb Muffins

  Low-Carb Pancakes

  Simple Waffles

  Low-Carb Hot Cereal

  Flaxseed Muffin-in-a-Mug

  Bread in a Bowl

  Benedicta’s Okra and Spinach Soup

  List of Carbohydrate Charts in This Book

  Vegetables

  Fruits

  Beans

  Notes

  1. Harvard Health Publications, “Eating nuts promotes cardiovascular health,” May 2005, www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/benefits_eating_nuts.

  2. Mayo Clinic, “Nuts and Your Heart: Eating Nuts for Heart Health,” www.mayoclinic.com/health/nuts/HB00085.

  3. Jenny Ruhl, Blood Sugar 101—What They Don’t Tell You About Diabetes (Turners Falls, MA: Technion Books, 2008).

  4. Ruhl, p. 51.

  5. Ruhl, p. 51.

  6. Laura Dolson, “Is Whole Wheat Bread a Good Choice on a Low-Carb Diet?” http://low-carbdiets.about.com/od/nutrition/a/wholewheatbread.htm.

  7. CBS News, “Juice As Bad As Soda, Docs Say,” February 11, 2009, www.cbsnews.com/2100-204_162-673229.html.

  8. Abstract: Manisha Chandalia et al., “Beneficial effects of high dietary fiber intake in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus,” The New England Journal of Medicine, May 11, 2000, 1392-1398; abstract from PubMed.gov, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10805824.

  9. Laura Dolson, “Flax Seed—the low-carb whole grain,” About.com, November 16, 2010, http://low-carbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/a/flaxinfo.htm.

  10. Michael Eades and Mary Dan Eades, Protein Power (New York: Bantam Books, 1999).

  11. Eades, p. 24.

  12. Richard Bernstein, Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution (New York: Little Brown & Company, 1997), xvii.

  13. Richard Bernstein, p. xx.

  14. Gerald Bernstein, as quoted in Health.com, “Why Getting Rid of Belly Fat May Lower Type 2 Diabetes Risk,” Health.com, www.health.com/health/condition-article/0,,20188164,00.html.

  15. Eades.

  16. Dr. Robert Atkins, Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution (New York: Avon Books, 1992).

  17. Margaret Blackstone, Beat Diabetes! (Avon, MA: Adams Media Corporation, 2000).

  18. Richard Bernstein.

  19. Dennis Pollock, Overcoming Runaway Blood Sugar (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2006).

  20. Nina Teicholz, “What if bad fat is actually good for you?” MensHealth.com, www.menshealth.com/health/saturated-fat.

  21. Allison Boomer, “What does saturated fat cause?” Boston Globe, February 24, 2010, emphasis (italics) added.

  22. Harvard School of Public Health Newsletter, “Fats and Cholesterol: Out with the Bad, In with the Good,” accessed December 26, 2012, at www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/index.html.

  23. Jenny Stamos Kovacs, “The Do’s and Don’ts of Counting Calories,” WebMD, www.webmd.com/diet/features/dos-donts-counting-calories.

  24. Blackstone, p. 34.

  25. Blackstone, p. 19.

  About Dennis Pollock and Spirit of Grace Ministries

  Dennis Pollock is the founder and president of Spirit of Grace Ministries. His primary work in this ministry is to write and record devotional biblical teachings and to hold missions conferences and evangelistic outreaches in Africa. You can learn more about his ministry by visiting the website: www.spiritofgrace.org.

  Dennis’s experience with runaway blood sugar has led him to become a part-time health advocate, but his primary passion has always been to teach the Bible and lift up Jesus Christ. He has felt called to write some 1250 devotional teachings and record them, and is busy continually producing new teachings. A catalog of the teachings currently available is online, and this list is growing every month. You can find the current list by going to the Spirit of Grace website (spiritofgrace.org) and clicking on the “1250 Catalog” icon. Here you can read titles and descriptions of all the teachings available and order CDs or download the teachings as mp3 audio files (includes a written version).

  The ministry sends out a newsletter, which includes a major teaching article, on a monthly basis. This newsletter is available in either regular or e-mail version. There is no cost for the newsletter—just e-mail or write Spirit of Grace Ministries and give your physical or e-mail address, and you can begin receiving these uplifting articles, plus the latest news about the ministry.

  Dennis would love to hear from you! Feel free to e-mail him and share your journey with blood-sugar issues or your journey with the Lord Jesus. Send
your e-mails to grace@spiritofgrace.org. Also, if your church or organization would like Dennis to come and teach on a biblical theme (and perhaps give a workshop on diabetes), feel free to e-mail him with your request and the time of the year you are interested in. Some of the themes Dennis teaches on include “The Ways of God,” “The Abiding Life,” “The Making of a Man or Woman of God,” “The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament,” “The Tough Questions of the Bible,” and “Making Wise Decisions,” along with many more.

  Spirit of Grace Ministries

  PO Box 2068

  McKinney, TX 75070

  Website: www.spiritofgrace.org

  E-mail: grace@spiritofgrace.org