By Robert Pernula
If you have been diagnosed with diabetes type 2 and your blood sugar is too low you will feel sluggish and everything, even the smallest thing, will seem to require so much of your strength, that you will think it is impossible to get through the day like this. This condition is also known as hypoglycemia.
Sometimes, the solution, even if it sounds not quite right, is to eat some low glycemic index food and go for a walk.
I'm a 70 year old type 2 diabetic and I have often felt these symptoms over the past 18 years. When I was diagnosed with diabetes type 2, I believed that science had all the answers and that a neatly packaged solution coming under the guise of a prescription for some pills would solve all those problems.
So, after my doctor sent me to the nutritionist, I did not change my eating habits, even though I had been advised that I should. I was not ready for change.
The consequence of refusing the change was that I continued to struggle with the condition for 18 long years, while I could easily have avoided this. When I finally came to my senses I also realized I could actually do something to improve my health myself. What triggered this awakening? Luck I guess. I chanced upon an article on the subject of Pima Indians in New Mexico that told the story of a group of people from the tribe moving to Arizona.
Whereas the people who remained in New Mexico almost had no diabetes, it was less than 5%, the people who moved to the USA had to cope with a diabetes epidemic, as 70% of them became diabetic. The only habit they had changed was their eating habit. This got me thinking and I was asking myself the question: "Is it possible diabetes is an eating disorder that causes the condition?"
Sure enough, I was hooked on the subject and I decided to test this for myself, as I had been a diabetic for 18 years by then. I researched the subject as best as I could and discovered that by eating whole foods, that is, foods that have not been altered by industrial processes, I had taken a first giant step forward.
Next I discovered that I should watch the glycemic index load of the different food types that I ate, because these have an immediate impact on the blood sugar levels of my body. When one is diabetic, some of the functions that drive the way energy is exchanged inside the body are out of balance or don't work properly any more and eating the wrong type of food can have the weirdest effects.
It is this way that I discovered that when I have low blood sugar, doctors call this "hypoglycemia", I should eat a low glycemic impact food and go for a short walk. Sometimes, one food item is not enough, sometimes I have to combine two.
That is because eating both at the same time will have the effect of slowing down the rate at which both are absorbed into the bloodstream, which is exactly what I want. For example, I would eat a turkey burger sandwich with strawberries. The sandwich is whole grains and the turkey is low fat. The strawberries go without sugar or cream!
Right after that meal, I would go for a small walk around the garden, as long as movement was involved. I doesn't need to be long, usually, I'm back is less than 10 minutes. This has for effect that my hypoglycemia was gone and that I felt much better and stronger.
If you have been diagnosed with diabetes type 2 and your blood sugar is too low you will feel sluggish and everything, even the smallest thing, will seem to require so much of your strength, that you will think it is impossible to get through the day like this. This condition is also known as hypoglycemia.
Sometimes, the solution, even if it sounds not quite right, is to eat some low glycemic index food and go for a walk.
I'm a 70 year old type 2 diabetic and I have often felt these symptoms over the past 18 years. When I was diagnosed with diabetes type 2, I believed that science had all the answers and that a neatly packaged solution coming under the guise of a prescription for some pills would solve all those problems.
So, after my doctor sent me to the nutritionist, I did not change my eating habits, even though I had been advised that I should. I was not ready for change.
The consequence of refusing the change was that I continued to struggle with the condition for 18 long years, while I could easily have avoided this. When I finally came to my senses I also realized I could actually do something to improve my health myself. What triggered this awakening? Luck I guess. I chanced upon an article on the subject of Pima Indians in New Mexico that told the story of a group of people from the tribe moving to Arizona.
Whereas the people who remained in New Mexico almost had no diabetes, it was less than 5%, the people who moved to the USA had to cope with a diabetes epidemic, as 70% of them became diabetic. The only habit they had changed was their eating habit. This got me thinking and I was asking myself the question: "Is it possible diabetes is an eating disorder that causes the condition?"
Sure enough, I was hooked on the subject and I decided to test this for myself, as I had been a diabetic for 18 years by then. I researched the subject as best as I could and discovered that by eating whole foods, that is, foods that have not been altered by industrial processes, I had taken a first giant step forward.
Next I discovered that I should watch the glycemic index load of the different food types that I ate, because these have an immediate impact on the blood sugar levels of my body. When one is diabetic, some of the functions that drive the way energy is exchanged inside the body are out of balance or don't work properly any more and eating the wrong type of food can have the weirdest effects.
It is this way that I discovered that when I have low blood sugar, doctors call this "hypoglycemia", I should eat a low glycemic impact food and go for a short walk. Sometimes, one food item is not enough, sometimes I have to combine two.
That is because eating both at the same time will have the effect of slowing down the rate at which both are absorbed into the bloodstream, which is exactly what I want. For example, I would eat a turkey burger sandwich with strawberries. The sandwich is whole grains and the turkey is low fat. The strawberries go without sugar or cream!
Right after that meal, I would go for a small walk around the garden, as long as movement was involved. I doesn't need to be long, usually, I'm back is less than 10 minutes. This has for effect that my hypoglycemia was gone and that I felt much better and stronger.
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