The Sweetest Truth

            “Sweet tooth” Yes! Us Filipinos have it. We are fun of sweets, from juices and coffee and cakes and almost all dishes. We put sugar anywhere food were about to take. Hence, it’s not too surprising that Philippines had the number grew by 11.2% to 18,441 cases in 2005 according to Department of Health (DOH). Diabetes is a chronic disease manifested through elevated blood sugar levels. A person with diabetes does not have a normal production of insulin, which is a protein hormone that helps sugar leave the blood and enter the cells of the body. But it’s not too late to shield yourself from having diabetes and its worst effects. There are some tips and information that may help you fend off diabetes.

1.   Know your Sugar

When dealing with diabetes, one thing comes out from almost all the mouths-sugar. Sugar is another favorite ingredient commonly used in marination and in a whole range of the other preparations especially in the Filipino cuisine. But as they said, too much is too bad as well. There are three types of sugars: simple, double and complex. Simple ones like fructose (fruit sugars), glucose and dextrose pass quickly into the blood stream and are therefore ideal for giving the “bod” a boost of energy just before vigorous activity is undertaken. So, in terms of healthy desserts, the best ones are fruit based, or those that are sweet from fruit and natural honey and syrups, not processed ones. Double sugars, like milk sugar (lactose) and cane or beet sugar (combination of glucose and fructose) that make up your brown and white processed sugars, need to be separated by our digestive enzymes before they are absorbed into the blood; while complex sugars, which are composed of numerous molecules of glucose (sometimes in the thousands), require much more effort for our body to digest. Common members of this category are sugars from starches like pasta, potatoes and various vegetables, in particular those of the root and builb variety. This again brings us quite nicely into our next topic.

2.    Treat Your Rice Right

Oh, those dreaded carbohydrates. These are your bread, pasta and the Filipino all time favorite- rice. They’re not just put in our bodies on weight but they can cover most of our bodies energy needs and are the principal supplier of required natural fiber. Carbohydrates should ideally cover 50 to 60 percent of the body’s total energy needs yet, with the wide and festive tables of the Filipinos, it’s hard to tell if we cover just the right amount or not. But like sugars there are also types of rice (locally harvest) we can choose from. 

  

White Rice

Diabetics are often warned about the link between eating white rice and bringing on a rapid rise in blood sugar levels. The message is that if you are a diabetic or are at risk, stay away from white rice. Medical experts advocate replacing white rice with brown rice if you have diabetes. Each cup of white rice provides 53 grams of total carbohydrates or 18 percent of the recommended daily intake for carbohydrates for a healthy person on a 2,000-calorie diet. White rice provides less than 1 gram of dietary fiber per serving. Dietary fiber lowers your cholesterol levels and helps prevent constipation. Healthy adults should get at least 14 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories in the diet.

Brown Rice

The process that produces brown rice removes only the outermost layer, the hull, of the rice kernel and is the least damaging to its nutritional value. The complete milling and polishing that converts brown rice into white rice destroys 67% of the vitamin B3, 80% of the vitamin B1, 90% of the vitamin B6, half of the manganese, half of the phosphorus, 60% of the iron, and all of the dietary fiber and essential fatty acids. Fully milled and polished white rice is required to be "enriched" with vitamins B1, B3 and iron.

3.    Have a side salad

When eating high-carb foods (rice, potatoes, rice) serve salad too- and make sure the dressing contain vinegar. A recent small study found that just 1½ tbsp of vinegar can lower your blood sugar by 42%.

4.    Your Nuts!

Nuts may be high in fat, but snacking on a handful instead of chips will help you lose kilos. And recent studies had shown that pistachios, almonds and peanuts have surprising power to keep blood sugar even.

5.    Move a little

Exercise is not just for those who want to keep their body in shape but to those who don’t want diabetes to enter their body too. Just one session of moderate exercise improves your body’s blood sugar control, new research shows, with mini bursts deemed as effective as continuous exercise. In fact, sitting for hours at a time boosts your risk of a variety of diseases, even if you’re otherwise active. Aim to move at least 30-45 minutes a day. Make that goal less daunting by racking up minutes during TV commercials or other bits of downtime.

6.    Sleep Matters

If you don’t sleep seven or eight hours most nights, your risk of developing diabetes- or having it get worse rises by 37 to 88 percent says a recent study. To sleep longer and better, go dark or enforce a black out: even a small amount of light during bedtime hours slows melatonin production, the hormone that makes you sleepy. Reading lights or glowing screens can rev the body, so if you want to read in bed, try amber sunglasses- they block blue light waves that are particularly disruptive for melatonin. For computer use, try free blue-filtering software such as F.lux (stereopsis.com/flux).

7.   Lucky and Not

Having diabetes may be hereditary (family history/genes) or acquired (depending on your consumption of sugar). If your family has this history, all you have to do is to prevent for getting it worst. Prevention is better than cure after all. While for those who are lucky enough to have no history of diabetes, I’m telling you, you’re not the exemption. Better to know what enough is and off course make moderation a habit.

No one is safe from having diseases like diabetes, but with the right knowledge, moderation and temper. We can definitely exempt ourselves from having one. Discipline pays off.