…according to an article at MedPageToday. In a study of overweight and obese folks, those who ate larger breakfasts ended up eating 270 calories more per day than those eating a smaller breakfast. It’s too soon to know for sure, but eating a smaller breakfast may help with weight loss or maintenance of weight loss. Calories count.
Are Diabetes Camps For Kids Worthwhile?
Victoria Cumbow sings their praises. A quote:
As a teenager, diabetes was a bitter subject mainly because it made me different and sometimes caused me to stand out. I resented diabetes for several years and even ignored it at times. But these friends have been an amazing part of my life for 15 years now and have gotten me through some tough times.Camp was special for each of us in different ways, and for me, it helped me gain ownership of my diabetes. It was no longer an excuse or something I resented. I took responsibility and it changed my perspective completely. It’s hard to wallow in something when you are no longer the only one struggling.
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Is Resistance Training Just as Good as Aerobic?
Resistance or strength training may be just as effective as, or even superior to, aerobic training in terms of overall health promotion. Plus, it’s less time-consuming according to a 2010 review by Stuart Phillips and Richard Winett.
I don’t like to exercise but I want the health benefits. So I seek ways to get it done safely and quickly.
Here’s a quote from Phillips and Winett:
A central tenet of this review is that the dogmatic dichotomy of resistance training as being muscle and strength building with little or no value in promoting cardiometabolic health and aerobic training as endurance promoting and cardioprotective, respectively, largely is incorrect.
Over the last few years (decade?), a new exercise model has emerged. It’s simply intense resistance training for 15–20 minutes twice a week. It’s not fun, but you’re done and can move on to other things you enjoy. None of this “three to five hours a week” of exercise that some public health authorities recommend. We have no consensus on whether the new model is as healthy as the old.
More tidbits from Phillips and Winett:
- they hypothesize that resistance training (RT) leads to improved physical function, fewer falls, lower risk for disability, and potentially longer life span
- only 10–15% of middle-aged or older adults in the U.S. practice RT whereas 35% engage in aerobic training (AT) or physical activity to meet minimal guidelines
- they propose RT protocols that are brief, simple, and feasible
- twice weekly training may be all that’s necessary
- RT has a beneficial effect on LDL cholesterol and tends to increase HDL cholesterol, comparable to effects seen with AT
- blood pressure reductions with RT are comparable to those seen with AT (6 mmHg systolic, almost 5 mmHg diastolic)
- RT improves glucose regulation and insulin activity in those with diabetes and prediabetes
- effort is a key component of the RT stimulus: voluntary fatigue is the goal (referred to as “momentary muscular failure” in some of my other posts)
- “In intrinsic RT, the focus and goal are to target and fatigue muscle groups. A wide range of repetitions and time under tension can be used to achieve such a goal. Resistance simply is a vehicle to produce fatigue and only is adjusted when fatigue is not reached within the designated number of repetitions and time under tension.”
Our thesis is that an intrinsically oriented (i.e., guided by a high degree of effort intrinsic to each subject) program with at minimum of one set with 10–15 multiple muscle group exercises (e.g., leg press, chest press, pulldown, overhead press) executed with good form would be highly effective from a public health perspective.
The authors cite 60 other sources to support their position.
These ideas are the foundation of time-efficient resistance training of the sort promoted by Dr. Doug McGuff, Skyler Tanner, Fred Hahn, Chris Highcock, James Steele II, and Jonathan Bailor, to name a few.
Only a minority will ever exercise as much as the public health authorities recommend. This new training model has real potential to help the rest of us.
Steve Parker, M.D.
Reference: Phillips, Stuart and Winett, Richard. Uncomplicated resistance training and health-related outcomes: Evidence for a public health mandate. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 2010, vol. 9 (#4), pages 208-213.
Filed under Exercise
QOTD:Thomas Sowell on Healthcare and Bureaucracy
It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.
—Thomas Sowell
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Eggs Are Linked to Heart Attacks in Diabetics?
The general population doesn’t need to worry about eggs causing strokes or heart attacks according to a new meta-analysis reviewed at Forbes. We still have a question about high egg consumption and heart attacks in diabetics.
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Dietitian Melanie Thomassian on Cooking With Oils and Fats
If you want to heat a fat or oil, it is really important that it can withstand the temperature you will be heating it to, and therefore that it will remain stable while you cook.
I recommend keeping some oils exclusively for cooking, while others should only be used as finishing oils, and for cold dressings.
You will see that I have listed the smoke point and the fatty acid percentages below. This is to help you understand why some options are good for one style of cooking, but perhaps not so much for another.
Remember, a higher smoke point is important, if you are cooking to a high temperature. But you also need to consider the fatty acid composition. A higher saturated fat percentage equals a more stable fat or oil, as we’ve already learned above 🙂
Read the rest. Fortunately, she spared us the bits about omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid ratio.
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New Type 2 Diabetes Treatment Guidelines
…from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. I haven’t digested them yet, but didn’t want you to have to wait for that. Keep in mind they’re written for healthcare providers, so they may be difficult to understand.
Overweight and obesity are addressed without mention of specific diet recommendations.
You’ll find a nice table summarizing diabetes drugs and their effects on weight and various organ systems. It even includes the brand new SGLT2 inhibitor.
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What Are Nightshades, and Should I Avoid Them?
Rosemary Chicken (garnished with pico de gallo) and Rosemary Potatoes
The nightshade family includes tomatoes, peppers, potatoes (not sweet potatoes or yams), eggplant, goji berries, and even tobacco. Anecdotal reports indicate that consumption of these either cause or aggravate certain chronic medical conditions, such as arthritis, chronic fatigue, or irritable bowel syndrome.
Georgia Ede, M.D., has an article on medical effects of nightshades at her website. The potentially offensive chemicals in nightshades are called glycoalkaloids. I looked into this issue when deciding whether to include potatoes in my version of the paleo diet. (They’re included).
Dr. Ede’s writes:
As with any food sensitivity, the only way to find out is to remove nightshades from your diet for a couple of weeks or so to see if you feel better. There are ZERO scientific articles about nightshade sensitivity, chronic pain, or arthritis in the literature, however, the internet is full of anecdotal reports of people who have found that nightshades aggravate arthritis, fibromyalgia, or other chronic pain syndromes.
I bet I could eat a couple potatoes and tomatoes every day without ill effect. And there’s Chris Voigt, head of the Washington State Potato Commission, famous for his 60-day potato diet. As they say, your mileage may vary.
Some of the nightshades, such as potatoes, supply a major carbohydrate load that can spike blood sugars too high in many diabetics. Be careful. And use your home glucose monitor.
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Kelly Schmidt, RD, Interviews Eric Pelletier (T1 Diabetes) On Diet and Exercise
Eric is a Crossfitter who owns a Crossfit gym (or box, as they say). Kelly asks him about low-carb eating (even ketogenic) and how to manage food and insulin in the setting of vigorous exercise. Well worth a read, especially if you have type 1 diabetes.
Filed under Exercise, ketogenic diet
How Can One Possibly Eat Very-Low-Carb For Life?
Jerrymat left an insightful and inspirational comment on my review of Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution. Here it is:
♦ ♦ ♦
I am a 74 year old diabetic (T2) and have been following Bernstein’s plan for 26 months. I have lost 51 lbs, lowered my intake of insulin and have had reversal of several diabetic complications. My blood chemistry is much better than before and my A1c has gone from 9.1 to 5.0. My blood pressure is lower and I am healthier in virtually every measured way.
I cannot bring myself to abandon all fruits but I found I can satisfy myself with a quarter of an apple, a half of an orange, a quarter of a grapefruit, etc. I eat them much more slowly and with concentrated mental feelings of enjoyment. I currently limit myself to 40 grams of carbs per day and I continue to lose weight at the rate of a pound and a quarter a month. There was a long plateau period of no weight loss in the middle of the two years (13 months) but I kept at it. It has paid off.
Several writers on dieting say one cannot continue indefinitely on a low carb diet. I think they have the wrong attitude. The word “diet” has two distinct meanings. It can refer to what people eat on an ongoing basis. “The Inuit live on seal fat and protein in the winter and the same supplemented by summer time vegetative materials found on land.” The Inuit do not give up their diet or they would starve.
The other meaning is a special temporary change in one’s eating habits. As long as one considers what they are doing to be temporary they are doomed to drop off the temporary diet and resume their normal faire.
I have found a useful mental image to conjure up to help me. I once lived in the Mariana Islands where I could eat breadfruit. It was a wonderful food and in season very abundant. Breadfruit could be eaten every way that potatoes can. One can make breadfruit chips, french fries, mashed breadfruit, etc. A typical tree could produce thousands of lbs. However, now living in the Seattle area, I have no chance to obtain breadfruit. It is just a memory from earlier years. I find it OK to remember breadfruit with fond affection, even though I will never taste it again.
Now being on Bernstein’s diabetic diet, I no longer eat a number of once-loved foods: pizza, bread, corn-on-the-cob, catsup, etc. I just have the same fond memories of my lifestyle then as when I had breadfruit. It is OK to think of how I used to like ice cream, candy and cake. I just no longer live so that I can have those items. Pizza and french fries are just fond memories. They are just like the breadfruit. It is true that I could go to the supermarket and buy them. I could also take a plane flight to Guam and enjoy breadfruit. I don’t do either.
It is important to learn new concepts about food and invent new recipes.
One example is that I put store mix cabbage slaw in a bowl and added small defrosted salad shrimp. I added bacon bits, chopped radishes and green onions, along with both chopped black olives and a special brand of green olives. The latter were very large olives double stuffed with both garlic and jalapeno peppers. For dressing I mixed a store bought creamy Ranch dressing with raw tomato salsa and added the juice of half a lemon and half a lime. It is an absolutely wonderful taste combination. For side crunch and texture I used an idea of Dr. Bernstein, a couple of squares of processed cheese heated briefly in the microwave to become substitutes for crackers or bread, on the side. This tastes simply wonderful and I can eat it always as part of my new survival-to-old age diet.
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