The Pros And Cons Of The Atkins Diet Menu

Supporters of the Atkins Diet Menu believe that one of its benefits is that you aren’t stuck on a specific set menu. While the Atkins diet does offer a certain degree of structure, you can feel free to make substitutions whenever it fits into the confines of the diet. In following through with the menu, you can drink as much decaffeinated coffee, tea, soda water or Splenda sweetened soft drinks as you wish. In fact, they recommend that you drink at least 64 ounces of fluids per day. If you drink beverages, you need to count the carbohydrates in your drinks.

The Atkins Diet Menu is very big on protein. Eggs in many forms and bacon can make up a typical breakfast. Sausage patties, omelets and sausage links or ham patties are acceptable breakfasts. Atkins also makes specialized muffins and special hot cereal that are considered acceptable for a breakfast on the Atkins diet menu.

The Atkins Diet Menu supports three larger meals per day. Lunches can include chicken salad with mayonnaise, boiled eggs, hard cheese, pork rinds with tuna salad as a dressing, rolled meats and salad greens. Detractors of the Atkins diet menu feel that the excesses of fat, such as is found in “unlimited” pork rinds is completely dangerous and unhealthy to consume. While salad greens are acceptable, the amount of dressing allowed is excessive and doesn’t pay attention to the amount of fat in the salad dressing.

Dinners on the Atkins Diet Menu are also filled with fat and protein. Fried fish is allowed, butter, steak grilled in garlic butter, meat sauce with spaghetti squash, creamy almond chicken and fried pork chops. Vegetables are allowed with butter. In fact, any meat is allowed in this diet plan and is, in fact, promoted.

Those who are against the Atkins Diet Menu believe that it is a heart attack diet waiting to happen. It contains everything doctors tell you are bad for you-things that increase your cholesterol and promote heart disease. It is not likely to promote diabetes-one of the highest risk factors for heart disease-but the amount of fat and cholesterol in the diet is much above what most doctors recommend.

Still, there are those that have lost weight on the Atkins Diet Menu when followed carefully. Its success has continued for decades and there are people who firmly believe that this diet has helped them stay healthy. There are those that believe this is the diet that our distant ancestors ate and one that we are destined physiologically to follow.

The Atkins diet menu is perfect for those that prefer meats over carbohydrates. An individual that just can’t stay away from meats and eggs would do well to follow this kind of diet over one that supports the use of a lot of carbohydrates. Other people seem to prefer carbohydrates do not do well with this kind of diet and need to be on another type of diet plan that restricts proteins and fats.

The Best Foods for Diabetics on Insulin

The best foods for diabetics on insulin are rich in nutrients that improve insulin sensitivity.  I call them “insulin promoters” because they promote more efficient cellular uptake of glucose from the blood. 

Eating a diet rich in promoters enhances the effects of insulin therapy by targeting insulin resistance, the hallmark of type 2 diabetes.  Taking insulin when resistant to its effects simply won’t work. 

You have to re-sensitize your body to insulin with foods rich in promoters in order to gain optimal blood sugar control.  I suggest adding the following foods, rich in insulin promoters, to your diabetic diet today.

The Best Insulin Promoters

The best insulin promoters contain high levels of lipoic acid.  As a powerful antioxidant, lipoic acid positively affects blood sugar control and the development of long-term complications. 

It’s believed that lipoic acid promotes optimal glucose control by protecting insulin receptors located on the surface of muscle cells.  Successful insulin therapy is totally dependent on healthy receptors, making lipoic acid a key component of a diabetic diet. 

It’s effectiveness as an insulin promoter is best supported by the recent approval in Germany for its use in the prevention and treatment of diabetes.

Foods rich in lipoic acid include:

1. Collard greens
2. Lean red meats (organ meats)
3. Brewer’s yeast
4. Cruciferous Vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower)

I also suggest taking a lipoic acid supplement.  Take the “R” form of lipoic acid.  This is the more active form found in nature.  Take between 200 mg and 300 mg/day.

The Second Best Insulin Promoters

The second best insulin promoters are foods rich in chromium.  It’s an essential trace mineral that plays a significant role in sugar metabolism.

Chromium helps control blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes and improves metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids.  A study of type 2 diabetics compared two forms of chromium (brewer’s yeast and chromium chloride). 

Both forms of chromium significantly improved blood sugar control by promoting the uptake of glucose into the tissues after eating a carbohydrate rich meal.  Fasting blood glucose levels were also lowered during a 2 month follow-up period.

Foods rich in chromium include (in order of most to least):

1. Egg yolk
2. Brewer’s yeast
3. Breads (whole grain, wheat, sprouted, rye)
4. Apples
5. Spinach
6. Oranges

Summary

Insulin promoters, rich in lipoic acid and chromium, are the best foods for diabetics on insulin.  If you’re taking insulin, your diet should include foods like collard greens, broccoli, apples, and whole grain. 

If loaded with insulin promoters, the foods you eat could be the difference between disease and health.

The Life Extension Foundation’s innovative protocol on diabetes is a must read.  It’s easy to read, describing many nutritional strategies for beating diabetes.  Check it out today!

One-eyed National Health Care

National health care might be a disaster, due to the cost and the complexity. A government-controlled system also creates agonizing moral dilemmas (read about the eye treatment ruling covered further down). Still, despite my opposition to it, I can see it’s a real possibility, and soon. Keeping that in mind, here is what we can do to solve some of the inherent problems and make the system work better.

What’s Your QUALYs Score?

Who gets what health care? That would be a tricky decision for any of us, but some might argue that the bureaucrats in the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) are pretty good at it. They are evaluate and approve treatments for the National Health Services administration in Britain (their national health care bureaucracy). After all, the life expectancy in Britain is about the same as in the United States, and the government spends less on health care while covering ALL citizens.

Making such decisions, of course, does lead to some interesting problems. One example: In 2002 NICE recommended that a certain treatment for macular degeneration be used only in one eye – the one less affected by the disease. What about the other eye? It is presumably allowed to go blind. They arrived at this decision by using “QUALYs,” or Quality-Adjusted Life Years.

How does this methodology for measuring the value of treatments work? Let’s look at a couple examples. A surgery that gives you an average of ten years of life is better than one that gives you five, and so scores higher on the QUALYs scale. Years added to life matter, but so does quality of those years. Suppose you could be saved by a treatment but be in a coma for six years, while another person could be saved and healthy for six years by some other treatment. If funds are limited (aren’t they always?), the latter would be approved.

Now let’s look again at the case of the eye treatment. The score for QUALYs is high for the first eye, since seeing presumably greatly increases the quality of life over blindness. But seeing with the second eye doesn’t boost the quality of life nearly as much, right?

We don’t need to get into the complexities of the system to understand the logic. Life matters, but quality of life also matters, an idea most of us can agree to. But it leads to some uncomfortable conclusions, doesn’t it?. For example a person with a debilitating disease or handicap presumably scores lower in QUALYs when considered for a life-prolonging heart operation. We might pass her over in favor of a healthier person who would benefit more according to the QUALYs score.

The real truth, normally ignored, is that there a financial limit to any national health care plan. As a result, we have to make decisions that can certainly be uncomfortable, and sometimes downright disturbing. What if a million dollars could prevent ten thousand people from getting a deadly disease, or that same million could be used to treat and possibly cure twenty people who already have the disease. Should we allow the twenty to die in order to prevent the deaths of ten thousand?

Of course, it’s easy to say we should cure the twenty AND run the prevention program. This may even be possible, and we certainly could pay for both eyes to be treated in the case of macular degeneration. On the other hand, we really can’t do everything. Honesty compels us to admit that perhaps going blind in one eye isn’t nearly so tragic as losing sight in both, and if treating just one eye for one patient saves enough money to treat another patient’s heart problem with a new procedure that saves his life, maybe we need to make that kind of decision.

Whatever utopian theorizing we do, tough choices will have to be made at some point if we decide on national health care. We’ll need to put a value on life, or on various qualities of life at least. Yes, we may even have to put a value on one eye versus two, or on eyesight versus saved limbs that might be amputated otherwise. In a market system medical providers compete to provide better treatments for your diabetes, but this will be, in part, a system where your diabetes competes with somebody’s migraine headaches or broken nose.

National Health Care – Some Suggestions

If we allow a market system of health care to exist alongside a government system, we could at least pay to have the other eye fixed. The rich will obviously get better care, but I don’t think we are such a petty envious people that we would vote against such a dual-system just because of this. The healthiness of the wealthy doesn’t hurt the rest of us. Also, we all would at least have the hope of raising money for whatever additional health care we desire. So let the market still exists.

There will also be the problem of demand. Free means higher demand, of course. At the moment I have a few teeth that I might have a dentist look at this week if the examination and treatment was free, but since it isn’t I’ll wait a bit. People often delay treatment because of the expense, but they also look for and find cheaper alternatives. That would change if we had free national health care.

There will be a big increase in demand. Naturally, cuts that might be bandaged will be more often be stitched if the service is without cost. A headache or sore throat that would normally be endured might mean a trip to the free hospital or clinic. Sadly, this would use government health care money that might otherwise pay for research or treatment for life-threatening illnesses, meaning more tough decisions.

How do we alleviate this problem of excessive demand? Design a system that isn’t free. After all, the problem isn’t that we have to pay for health care, since we find a way to pay for groceries, clothing and cable television without government handouts. The problem is the high price and unpredictability of health care expenses. An occasional surprise is one thing if it’s a few hundred dollars, but a few weeks in a hospital can eat up a lifetime of savings.

Address THIS issue, instead of encouraging people’s unwillingness to budget for unexpected, but affordable surprises? How? One way is to have national health insurance for all, but with a $500 annual deductible. When a person can’t afford this (it amounts to $42 per month) it usually suggests a budgeting problem, not a problem of over-priced care.

Have each person pay 20% of all costs beyond that deductible as well, up to $1,000 ($5,000 in costs). This would keep people from running to the doctor or hospital for every little thing. This also encourages them to look for cheaper effective treatments, so the system doesn’t destroy the usual incentive (money) for this creative process of health care improvement.

Prescription drugs shouldn’t be covered until the cost goes beyond that $500 annual deductible, and even then the patient should pay his or her 20%. People (even poor people in this country) find a way to pay for bigger expenses in life, and this would keep the system from being abused. What if some people really are too poor to afford even this? Address that problem through general welfare programs, rather than paying for prescriptions for tens of millions who can easily afford them.

I am not thrilled with the idea of a national health care system. On the other hand, if it is going to happen in any case, we at least make it sustainable and leave open more options for all of us. That’s what the system outlined above would hopefully accomplish.

Nurse-patient interactions related to diabetes foot care.: An article from: MedSurg Nursing

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This digital document is an article from MedSurg Nursing, published by Jannetti Publications, Inc. on November 1, 2009. The length of the article is 6427 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: The results of a study of nurse-patient interactions related to diabetes foot care from the RNs… More >>

Nurse-patient interactions related to diabetes foot care.: An article from: MedSurg Nursing

Diabetic Foot Care – Podiatrist in Deerfield Beach, FL

According to the American Diabetes Association, about 15.7 million people (5.9 percent of the United States population) have diabetes. Nervous system damage (also called neuropathy) affects about 60 to 70 percent of people with diabetes and is a major complication that may cause diabetics to lose feeling in their feet or hands. Foot problems are a big risk in diabetics. Diabetics must constantly monitor their feet or face severe consequences, including amputation. With a diabetic foot, a wound as small as a blister from wearing a shoe that’s too tight can cause a lot of damage. Diabetes decreases blood flow, so injuries are slow to heal. When your wound is not healing, it’s at risk for infection. As a diabetic, your infections spread quickly. If you have diabetes, you should inspect your feet every day. Look for puncture wounds, bruises, pressure areas, redness, warmth, blisters, ulcers, scratches, cuts and nail problems. Get someone to help you, or use a mirror. Visit our website: www.deerfieldfoot.com

Freestyle Lite Blood Glucose Monitoring System NFR Case of 5 Abbott Diabetes Care TSI70804A

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Diabetic Diet Facts

Initially diabetes management and control may involve dietary changes alone. Diet is a vital component in your overall diabetes control program and to keep blood sugar levels under control, a diabetic diet strikes a balance among the carbohydrates, fats, and protein you eat, when you control your body functions through exercise and by using a diabetic diet, your pain and agony seems to diminish.

A diabetic diet must be a well-balanced meal plan tailored to your individual needs, tastes, activity level and life style, and its goal is to provide all the calories and nutrients the diabetic needs while keeping blood sugars as close to normal as possible. Diabetes is not a life sentence to a rigid and restrictive menu plan.

The diabetic diet basically involves limiting your carbohydrate intake in order to control your glucose levels. The recommended carbohydrate content of diabetic diet is 60%, fat content 30-35%. Another important characteristic of a diabetic diet is to eat regularly, at the same times each day, and to eat a consistent amount of calories each day; the diabetic diet is not only for diabetics: it is an excellent, balanced alternative for anyone.

Since the diabetic diet is one which is low in saturated fat and cholesterol, look for cookbooks that emphasize low-fat cooking, the diabetic diet is a bit stricter and calls for avoiding grains and fruit but you have about 30g of carbs daily. The ideal diabetic diet is also good for cholesterol with its emphasis on low fat, high complex carbohydrate and high fiber.

The most important aspect of the diabetic diet is meal planning, your meal plan should be adjusted to take into account carbs sugars and fat in the diabetic food, the general principle is to control body fat means less sensitivity to Insulin, which keeps the blood sugar level in check.

Carbohydrate Counting offers suggestions and tips about how to eat carbohydrates while maintaining your insulin needs and diabetes control, by following a consistent diet control, a diabetic patient ought to be able to maintain good health in general, but you should remember that an effective control of diabetes requires an integrated approach which also includes exercise, weight control and a good diabetic diet.

When you have diabetes, your medications are your best friends, as they will help you keep your condition under control, remember that one of the main goals for a diabetic diet is to lower your weight and maintain it, to put it in simplified words, diabetic diet is a balanced healthy diet plan which is vital for Diabetes treatment.

The diabetic diet is aimed at helping to control blood sugar levels, the less fluctuation, especially rapid release of glucose into the blood, the better, an adherence to a diabetic diet is an important aspect of controlling elevated blood sugar in patients with diabetes mellitus.

Dog Food for Diabetes Has the Potential to Cure

It’s a heart rendering time if your dog has been diagnosed with diabetes. Quite apart from the added burden of the extra veterinary costs, which you may be able to ill afford, what about the cost to your dog?

Is the quality of his life going to deteriorate? How is he going to cope with regular injections of insulin, if he needs them? Most dogs hate drugs and medication and will often fight you when you try to dose them.

Are you going to have trouble with this? Are you going to get hurt, as well as your dog and your wallet?

You might be asking yourself if you could have prevented this from happening, although the vet probably told you that its a common occurrence these days.

Yes, it is common these days.

And yes, you probably could have prevented it.

While doctors and veterinarians have been trained to match particular medication with a disease, homeopaths have been trained to look for causes.

So while the medication may help to stabilise your dog’s diabetes, it’s unlikely to cure it. But if you can get to the cause, and address that, you may well be able to cure your dog’s diabetes.

Your journey to success has already started with your search for dog food for diabetes.

One of the main causes of diabetes in dogs is the food you feed him. Most commercial dog food (included that promoted by most vets) is made up of about 30% low grade meat by-products (from rendering plants which take in slaughter house waste, euthanised animals, road kill, etc), about 65% filler (which can vary from a high fat content, to melamine from China, to a cheap food because of a world glut), and the balance being synthetic nutrients (which are difficult if not impossible to digest), toxic preservatives (mostly not considered fit for human consumption), appetite stimulants and artificial colour.

Some commercial dog food has better quality of meat, beyond by-products. But it still contains cheap filler and toxic preservatives, despite the claim on the packet.

As there has been a world glut of sugar, this is often used as a filler. Do you think sugar is a suitable dog food for diabetes?

Do you think any of the above constitutes suitable dog food for diabetes or any other health condition? Does it sound like suitable dog food, period?

Dogs evolved over many millions of year, as an omnivore, but at the carnivore end. This means dogs can survive on a vegetarian diet, but it isn’t normal. They are natural hunters. And while they do scavenge, so can eat carrion, their main diet is fresh, raw meat.

Holistic veterinarians have discovered that chronic disease normally melts away when dogs are fed on a diet of fresh, raw meat and bones.

By providing quality dog food for diabetes, based on the dogs evolution, the potential is there for a complete cure.

Not only is this more beneficial for your dog’s health, it is a great deal lighter on your wallet. Quite apart from the high veterinary costs, feeding raw food is cheaper than feeding commercial dog food.

And you’re a lot safer too, not running the risk of getting bitten.

Dog food for diabetes, or any other condition, needs to be based on what dogs eat in the wild.

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You and Your Feet for the Person with Diabetes

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This videotape is designed to help persons with diabetes and their families understand the need for proper foot care. During this program, viewers will learn just how important it is to make daily foot care a part of their personal treatment plan. Through the use of entertaining live action, art, and animation, this videotape will help teach viewers the “Five C’s” of foot care…. More >>

You and Your Feet for the Person with Diabetes

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