Diabetic Meal Plan - For Control or Recovery?
When you read popular diabetic meal plan information, such as that published by the American Diabetes Association, you find statements like these:
"Limit whole eggs to three or four per week," "Try to eat less meat," and "Choose lean cuts of meat rather than fatty cuts," etc.
In other words, the diabetic meal plan is a tame, watered-down version of the "regular meal plan" - you know the one that helped caused the diabetes in the first place?
This is like saying to a smoker who now has lung cancer, "you know you should cut the number of cigarettes to only one per day, now that the cancer has arrived."
Oh no, we say, "you've got to quit smoking this very instant." Unless, of course, the patient has already resorted to die puffing away.
Check out these topics related to diabetic diets:
- American diabetes diet
- Anti-diabetes diet
- Best diabetes diet
- Diet recommendations
- Diabetic meal plan
- Diabetic vegetarian diet
- Glycemic index list
- Healing foods pyramid
- Healthy eating pyramid
- Low glycemic food
- Meal planning
- New food pyramid
- No-carb food
- Vegetarian diets
- Vegetarian food
- Weight control diet
- Whole food market
A diabetic meal plan should be radical. It should direct the patient towards recovery.
I believe that many newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetics could have charted a course of remission, instead of the popular way of toleration.
Principle Underlying A Diabetic Meal Plan
This principle is true: Disease never occurs without a cause. That's basic.
In many cases, we just need to find the cause and then take strict actions to remove the cause and help the body heal.
This is especially true about lifestyle illnesses. Diabetes is not caught; it is not communicable. It is acquired (in large part) from our lifestyle habits.
Any effective diabetic meal planning will take this into consideration.
Diabetes is partly hereditary, but a change in lifestyle can override hereditary pre-dispositions. We need habits that will radically alter the cause of the disease.
What Causes Diabetes?
Experiments conducted at the University of Kentucky and elsewhere, proved that dietary and body fat are mostly responsible - not sugar.
Dr. James Anderson turned a group of lean and healthy young into mild diabetics in two weeks. How?
In the experiment, he put one group on a "rich 65% fat diet" while another group was given a 10% fat diet together with one pound of sugar per day.
The first group developed diabetes, but after eleven weeks none of the members of the second group showed signs of the disease.
So now we know what is in those big whoppers and double cheeseburgers - diabetes!
It underscores the reason why it is important to make a radical lifestyle change if we are to treat diabetes successfully. But success means symptoms control in the vocabulary of organizations like the American Diabetes Association.
Effective Diabetic Meal Plan - Recovery or Just Control?
Just think of the economic impact of changing the statement, "Choose lean cuts of meat rather than fatty cuts" to "Choose plant-based protein instead of meat".
The farmers and butchers would come out swinging and the Government would listen.
What is all diabetics and all those pre-disposed to getting the disease were to drop eggs and dairy from their diet instead of just limiting the number of whole eggs consumed to three or four per week?
Would it affect the economy? Would it cut the number of people taking diabetes medication? Would it affect revenue from farming?
What if every newly-diagnosed diabetic were to do like me - cooperate with your doctor's advice, BUT at the same time, work judiciously and carefully to remove the cause of the onset of diabetes?
Sorry, I'm just thinking...
It's Economy-cal
In 2006, diabetes dollars spent on medication and other supplies account for approximately 15% of cost for health care in America. (Don't quote me, I heard it on the radio.) At any rate, that is a lot of money - providing steady buoyancy for the economy.
Your diabetic meal plan - a plant-based diet plan should plan for you first, and then everything else. It should be aimed at reversing the diabetic condition, not playing games with it.
References
Chan JM, Gann PH, Giovannucci EL, - Role of diet in prostate cancer development and progression, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nov. 2005, 23 (32):8152-60