Diabetes Health Education: Separating Facts from Fictions on Diabetic Friendly Food Choices
With more than 500 million Diabetics globally, there is a huge opportunity for the food industry to tap into the needs of these patients. With the help of ‘Google’, it is easy for anyone to search for ‘Diabetes Friendly Food’ online. On top of that, there are a lot of ‘self-claimed experts’ who constantly recommend ‘Diabetes Friendly Food’. Now, let’s go through some of these common ‘Diabetes Friendly Food’ and see if they live up to the expectations of helping Diabetics to manage their blood sugar.
Rice is a staple food for Asians. Hence we cannot avoid discussing rice. Many are told to avoid ‘white rice’, and instead are advised to take ‘Brown rice’, ‘Basmati rice’ or ‘Parboiled rice’, just to name a few. Next in line, let’s talk about breakfast. As the saying goes, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, ” so how can we miss breakfast? What are some of the common breakfast foods in town? Well, we have oats, rolled oats, to be exact. Of course, we shouldn’t forget bread, too, right? Common advice on bread? Leave the white bread alone. Let’s go for wholemeal bread or even seed-based bread, right?
We are pretty sure most of you are familiar with the ‘Diabetic Friendly Food’ mentioned above, right? Have you seen anyone taking these foods and successfully reversing their Diabetes? By the way, just in case you are unfamiliar with the term ‘Diabetes Reversal’, in Clinixero, it is defined as a Diabetic patient successfully achieving a normal blood sugar without depending on medications, Insulin injections and supplements.
Back to the previous question of whether anyone takes these ‘Diabetic Friendly Food’ and successfully reversing their Diabetes? Well, we believe you already know the answer is an affirmative ‘NO’. Why? Are you not curious? Well, these foods are recommended by most doctors and nutritionists to Diabetics, right? It means they should be good, right? If you want to find out the answer, read on.
The ‘Diabetic Friendly Foods’ mentioned above indeed have low GI (Glycemic Index), meaning they raise the blood sugar slower than their ‘White’ counterparts (Eg: White rice & white bread). However, GI is not everything, as there’s another very important element when it comes to Reversing Diabetes, i.e. GL (Glycemic Load). Many of you are unfamiliar with GL, as it is rarely discussed. So, what is GL? Glycemic Load is the total sum of GI x the total amount of food. While GI is important, GL plays a more significant role in Reversing Diabetes. Simply put, GI represents the speed (Fast Carb Vs Slow Carb), while GL represents the amount (High Carb Vs Low Carb). The problem with most ‘Diabetic Friendly Foods’ is that they are Slow Carb in terms of GI, but High Carb in terms of GL; hence no one ever Reverse their Diabetes by taking these foods.
Still think ‘Diabetic Friendly Foods’ are ‘friendly’ to a Diabetic? Well, we leave it for you to answer.