Stacy Wagner, LDRD
Eating Well With Diabetes
This month's speaker, Stacy Wagner, LDRD, gave us a ton of great information related to “Eating Well With Diabetes”. She is a knowledgeable, energetic professional who lives what she teaches. She has offered her email address to contact if she can help you in any way. You can contact her at [email protected].
Stacy impressed upon us that the main problem with diabetes is carbohydrates. Not that you cannot have them, but you need to eat the right ones, in moderation. I was impressed with Stacy because she believes in the American Diabetes Association’s way of counting the carbs you eat to ensure you are not eating too much; but at the same time, she believes that you must distinguish between good carbs and bad carbs—the Glycemic Index way of evaluating those carbs.
Stacy categorized the carbs into ‘fast’ and ‘long acting’. Fast carbs being bad because they bring your blood sugar up high and then disappear out of your body quickly. Long acting carbs are the ones that stay in your body longer and do not take your blood sugar up as high as ‘fast’ carbs. If you eat ‘fast’ carbs too often, your body creates too much insulin and you become insulin resistant. High blood sugar can be damaging to your eyes, capillaries, kidneys, feet, heart, and can cause high cholesterol too!
It seems even good carbs like whole grains will last only 90 minutes in your body, so Stacy advised including proteins in your diet since they last around 4 hours in your body. This is important in keeping your blood sugar from bouncing too high and too low. The goal is a nice steady level.
Also, if you get on an eating ‘schedule’, your body will respond better metabolically. Smaller more frequent meals are preferable, and she advises to avoid “big” meals. Stacy discussed the “Plate Method” of eating showing the advised eating portions. (click here to see the flyer)
Stacy also brought two very interesting handouts. One describing the new food labels on food packaging, and a Basic Nutritional Guidelines for People with Diabetes. Just good basic information that I think the professionals forget that we might not know!
We discussed the good and bad of many foods we commonly eat. One important point made was that Diabetes is an inflammatory disease and eating foods with omega acids (like olive oil) counteract it because omega acids are an anti-inflammatory! Big Score!!
A critical component of Type 2 diabetics lifestyle is exercise. Stacy says aerobic exercise is really the best because it brings your heart rate up to where it will do you the most good; and you need to keep it there for 30 minutes! Not that hard … go dancing!
Lastly, two goals we need to strive for are 1) Two hours after a meal, your blood sugar should not go over 140, and 2) in your annual blood tests, strive to see your hemoglobin A1C to <6.5%; if it’s higher, discuss what you can do to lower it with your doctor.
Refreshments were carrots and tomatoes with a ranch dip (1 sugar and 2 carbs per 2 tblspn serving) and strawberries, grapes, and apple slices, and a sugar free dip that is quickly becoming our favorite!
Stacy impressed upon us that the main problem with diabetes is carbohydrates. Not that you cannot have them, but you need to eat the right ones, in moderation. I was impressed with Stacy because she believes in the American Diabetes Association’s way of counting the carbs you eat to ensure you are not eating too much; but at the same time, she believes that you must distinguish between good carbs and bad carbs—the Glycemic Index way of evaluating those carbs.
Stacy categorized the carbs into ‘fast’ and ‘long acting’. Fast carbs being bad because they bring your blood sugar up high and then disappear out of your body quickly. Long acting carbs are the ones that stay in your body longer and do not take your blood sugar up as high as ‘fast’ carbs. If you eat ‘fast’ carbs too often, your body creates too much insulin and you become insulin resistant. High blood sugar can be damaging to your eyes, capillaries, kidneys, feet, heart, and can cause high cholesterol too!
It seems even good carbs like whole grains will last only 90 minutes in your body, so Stacy advised including proteins in your diet since they last around 4 hours in your body. This is important in keeping your blood sugar from bouncing too high and too low. The goal is a nice steady level.
Also, if you get on an eating ‘schedule’, your body will respond better metabolically. Smaller more frequent meals are preferable, and she advises to avoid “big” meals. Stacy discussed the “Plate Method” of eating showing the advised eating portions. (click here to see the flyer)
Stacy also brought two very interesting handouts. One describing the new food labels on food packaging, and a Basic Nutritional Guidelines for People with Diabetes. Just good basic information that I think the professionals forget that we might not know!
We discussed the good and bad of many foods we commonly eat. One important point made was that Diabetes is an inflammatory disease and eating foods with omega acids (like olive oil) counteract it because omega acids are an anti-inflammatory! Big Score!!
A critical component of Type 2 diabetics lifestyle is exercise. Stacy says aerobic exercise is really the best because it brings your heart rate up to where it will do you the most good; and you need to keep it there for 30 minutes! Not that hard … go dancing!
Lastly, two goals we need to strive for are 1) Two hours after a meal, your blood sugar should not go over 140, and 2) in your annual blood tests, strive to see your hemoglobin A1C to <6.5%; if it’s higher, discuss what you can do to lower it with your doctor.
Refreshments were carrots and tomatoes with a ranch dip (1 sugar and 2 carbs per 2 tblspn serving) and strawberries, grapes, and apple slices, and a sugar free dip that is quickly becoming our favorite!