Count Protein To Help Control Diabetes

Did You Know? Very often, diabetics are told to not worry about counting the grams of protein they eat, with the exception of making them as low-fat as possible. But protein grams do count!

Protein does affect the blood sugars, but not as quickly as complex or simple carbohydrates. Most medical personnel believe that because protein takes so-long to break down into blood-sugar, it is inconsequential. First-hand experience has taught me (a 24 year, juvenile-onset, insulin-dependent diabetic) that in the typical Western diet, with a much higher protein content, high-protein meals will not only raise your blood-sugars (and blood-pressure, too), but will keep them elevated over time, and makes the diabetic more insulin-resistant! This is why people with hypoglycemia (low blood-sugars), are recommended to eat protein, to help stabilize their blood-sugars!

If you have hard-to-control diabetes or blood-sugars, keep a close eye on the amount and types of proteins you eat. Red meats have the longest digestion times, followed by pork, poultry, fish, seafood and
vegetable (beans, lentils, legumes, nuts, and seeds.) In contrast, the easier it is for the body to digest, taking into account the amount and type of protein, the better the long-term control of your blood-sugars.

For example, you will see the end results of eating that bowl-of-beans much sooner than that steak, but your blood sugars will also come down sooner, more like the normal physiologic action of the body. That steak will raise it slower, but keep it elevated over a much longer, period of time. Just be informed.

By Wallace from Little Rock, AR