Weight loss and Diabetes.

[Dawnie]

Hi Shelly,
My HB who is a Diabetic type 2 is loosing weight , he is not on medication but is managing to keep his blood sugars down with his diet, low sugar,fats and carbs. What can he eat that will increase his weight but not raise his blood sugar? Would Protein Shakes help? He does weight bearing exercises which also help but the weight loss is a bit of a worry .

[shelley]

the Protein Shake with almonds added would be a great place to start. He's probably be better off with almond milk or kefir over the Rice Dream, but it's tough to say for sure.

If he has one of those meters for blood glucose, he should start experimenting with foods and see which ones for him really raise blood sugar and which ones do not.

Diabetics are given to believe that they all react to foods and exercise the same way, and that's just not true. My roommate, for instance, has adult-onset (she relies on Western medicine only arrrrgghhh) and she finds that exercise and beef really raise her blood sugar for hours, while fruit does not, so she finds it very difficult to lose weight by exercising. It's all screwy for her.

Has he tested a meal of boiled or baked sweet potatoes with butter, and basmati brown rice or short-grain brown rice Congee? This is one of the most balanced meals out there, with a very low glycemic index. If he eats an entire sweet potato swimming in butter he'll get lots of good calories and good nutrition too.

Also good to try is coconut milk, coconut oil and unsweetened flaked coconut, as it feeds the pancreas tissues and is a good weight builder.

There's also a good meal replacement shake, one of the only ones I ever recommend, if he can find a distributor/seller of it. It's called Ultra-Meal, and there's one called Ultra-Cleanse, and there's one the name escapes me at the moment, that is designed specifically for diabetics. These foods are created by Metagenics, which is a high-tech food and vitamin manufacturer that only sells to health care practitioners. My chiropractor sells them and I can attest to their quality. If you go to www.metagenics.com you can search for a list of distributors. If he eats these in addition to his regular meals he should be able to put on weight.

Hope that helps!

[Dawnie]

Hi Shelly,

Thanks for the great advice You are an Angel

Just yesterday I printed off the recipes for Congee in a flask so I'll try it out, one question, what is almond milk? do I make it myself or can I purchase it? I do make Kefir so will try that first!
You are so right re not every one being the same, lentels are suppose to be low glycemic and whenever I make red lentle soup his blood sugar levels shoot up. I't weired how most folks with Diabetes have a weight problem and HB is the opposite!! I'll check out the Metagenics product we have it hear in Aus. theres a naturopath at our local Chemist so I can purchase or order it there, if you can think of the specific one for Diabetics I'd like to know.

Many thanks Dawn.

[shelley]

that's interesting about red lentils - Ayurvedic medicine puts red lentils in a different class than the other lentils. They are supposed to be heating, which is bad for Pitta people, increasing digestive fire too much for them. Hmmm. Maybe the heat is the affect on blood sugar.

I may have been thinking of the Rice version of Ultra-Meal, because I don't see any product that says it's for diabetics, but the description for the Rice Ultra-Meal does say it has a glycemic index of 42 which is fantastic. Here's a link to their online catalogue:

http://www.metagenics.com/products/spotlight/UltraMeal/