This diet was written out for a friend.
It could well be totally wrong for you. I know it would be wrong for gout sufferers. Pregnant women would need to avoid the amount of Vitamin A contained in the diet. There are bound to be many more people for whom it is unsuitable that I don't know about.
Whatever you decide to eat is up to you.
I take oral medication for T2 diabetes and have regular lipid, liver function and HgbA1c tests. I monitor bg on waking and at 9 pm daily.
My diet is eclectic. That means I have picked what works best for me from other diets.
You may discern the influence of traditional diets from Crete, Hunza, Okinawa or the modern low carbohydrate influences of Swarzbein, Atkins, Challem. More significantly it reflects a selection of food available to me here in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.
I have no idea what percentage of my calories come from carbohydrate, fat or protein or what my total calorie intake is. My reason being I haven't needed to know to continue achieving the results I was seeking. which is control of blood sugar, weightloss, improved blood lipids etc.
For those who are curious here are our weekly household consumption of major food items. Who actually eats them isn't entirely determined. I eat more than my wife.
Our two dogs eat their share.
- Almonds 500 g
- Virgin olive oil 500 ml
- Flax fibre 500 g
- Yoghurt 5 litres
- Wholemeal bread, about half a loaf.
- Capsicums, 1 bucket when in season.
- Green vegetables. 2 leeks, 4 onions, 2 spinach, 2 endive, 2 lettuce,
- Fruit eg apricots, persimmons, pears, guavas, tamarillos, kiwis. … perhaps 0.5 kg
- Free range or Omega-3 enriched eggs 1 dozen.
Breakfast:
- 1/2 cup of berries, raspberries, blueberries, loganberries.
Heat in microwave for 1 minute.if frozen
Add two heaped tablespoons of flax fibre and lots of hot water.
Stir immediately.
Add a dollop of real yoghurt
- 1/2 cup of berries.
1 cup of full milk yoghurt.A few walnuts.
- Omelette. with a lot of green vegies (spring onions, leeks, broccoli, courgettes) on weekends.
Morning tea:
- 1 small non-tropical fruit. Eg guava, tamarillo, kiwi.
- I slice of Dovedale linseed and rye loaf.
- Whole mandarin skin and all preferably.
Lunch:
- 1 cup of full milk yoghurt
1 fistful of almonds or nut mix.
1 fruit.- 100g of canned salmon, kippers or sardines or smoked fish.
A fresh sweet yellow or orange capsicum or pear
Slice of Vogel bread preferably barley. (Not soy)(My own bread includes buckwheat, barley, spelt, rye or kamut and rice bran )
- Half an avocado and one slice of bread.
- Fetta style cheese preferably goat or sheep.
Sliced salmon
Three dried tomatoes.- 2 stir fried onions with virgin olive oil and turmeric
Afternoon tea:
- One fist full of nut mix.
- Sliced salmon on a cracker.
- Smoked mussels.
I am strict about carbohydrates for afternoon tea.
Tea:
- Angel Bay gourmet burgers and salad.
- Thai salad. Schnitzel on bed of fresh spinach or lettuce.
- Stir fry broccoli, spring onions, leeks with an egg or tinned salmon added.
- Curried lean meat with onion, canned lentils, coconut milk, turmeric, cloves, garlic, cinnamon.
- Mediterranean style baked capsicum, fennel bulbs, eggplant , red onion with olive oil.
Fetta cheese and salmon. Avoid bread with this meal.- Stir fry 95% fat free lamb, onion and watercress.
- Lamb's fry with Cajun spice and one slice of toast and tomato sauce.
Liver of some sort once a week does wonders for B complex vitamins.Desert is now called supper. I don't eat two meals at once. Allow two hours. Supper:
- Eat entrée size portion of any meal I feel like.
- Yoghurt and almonds
- Rarely 1/4 cup of rolled oats micro-waved with a pinch of cinnamon.
- One slice of my bread.
- Two large strawberries and feta cheese.
- A few hazel nuts cracked straight from the shell.
Carbohydrate raises serum insulin levels and that prevents the body using its fat reserves. Carbohydrate is meant to be kept below 50 g per day. Recently I have increased this to about 100 g per day.
Berries and high water leaf vegies are safe sources where it is easy not to exceed the limits. Root crops are avoided since plants store their carbohydrate there. Grains except whole grains are out.
As I understand it most of the bad cholesterol is made by the liver from fast carbs white bread, brown bread, pasta, potato, carrots, peas. Worse, if blood sugar levels become elevated then the sugar attaches to the LDL cholesterol and cloaks it from the normal mechanism that remove it.
At least three meals a week include fish, shellfish or flax to get a type of fat called Omega-3. Walnuts are a partial substitute. Walnuts we keep in the deepfreeze. Fish is low in saturated fat. Correcting Omega-3 is a long but vital process. Results begin to show after 3 weeks but not fully before 3 months. Omega-3 protects the heart and brain. They need protection from heat, light and oxygen. (Think first berries and garlic, then kale, spinach, red-fleshed plums, brussel sprouts, broccoli as defenders of the Omega-3)
Flax fibre contains about 1% polyphenols. This is equivalent to a generous allowance of Vitamin E.
The only cooking oil we find acceptable is extra virgin olive oil.
We hold the bottles up in the supermarket to find the greenest.
Fish, yoghurt and liver supply B12.
When dining out ask for "Cholesterol and greens." Most people understand this.
Berries and greens provide antioxidants and fibre with low carbohydrate.
It is the oxidised LDL cholesterol produced by the human liver that is dangerous. It is doubly dangerous when it cloaked by glycation ie preserved by elevated blood sugar levels. This is why getting a low HgbA1c is so important. Low levels mean the LDL is unmasked and the HDL can get rid of it.
Bitter greens eg endive, globe artichoke increase bile flow and cause the body to eliminate cholesterol. Soluble fibre gives it a one way trip down the alimentary canal
The nuts I have chosen provide magnesium, folic acid, B6 and vitamin E to stabilise heart rhythm. One brazil nut every second day is sufficient for selenium. If Vitamin E were called Batman, selenium would be Robin. .
Peanuts are not nuts.
30g of nuts per day are sufficient to give heart protection and improve longevity. People contracted to eat 100g of almonds daily and free to choose the rest of their diet lost weight. It is certainly my experience that knocking back 70 g or a little over two ounces a day is fine so long as carbohydrates are restricted.
The nuts chosen are low in saturated fats, and bad PUFAs; high in mono-unsaturated oil like olive oil. Think of them as extra, extra virgin oil. Never been pressed. All nuts are raw and unsalted.
Avocados provide about 25% mono-unsaturated fat. When this excellent fat is used to replace an equal number of calories of carbohydrate it raises HDL while not raising LDL. It also lowers triglycerides. Avocados are an excellent source of boron which help prevent bones from losing calcium and for guys is known to reduce the risk of prostate cancer.
Mandarins are satisfying foods. The skins are rich in antioxidants and the white stuff is mostly pectin a soluble fibre which sponges up cholesterol. I sometimes eat the peel and throw the fruit to the dogs.
Drink plenty of water, tea (My choice is Dilmah Ceylon Supreme or the Australian Mildura Green tea) Nettle tea and red bush tea are surprisingly pleasant and cheap antioxidants to boot.
Insulbalance vitamin and mineral tablets by Clinicians.
Nutri-life 10, 000 Milk thistle encourages the liver to destroy dangerous oxidised crap.
It also provides artichoke.Defenzol, a deep sea shark liver oil provides squalene which improves skin texture no end and alkoxyglycerols AKGs. Squalene is a precursor for cholesterol but in practice improves the clearance of cholesterol.
Salmon oil capsules supply DHA and EPA
DHA is important for brain function EPA is important for muscle tissue and is recognised as a precursor for natural anti-inflamatory action.
Alpha lipoic acid is a very special antioxidant. It is water and fat soluble so it gets around. It regenerates Vitamin C, Vitamin E, itself, glutathione. Wait that isn't all.
It also helps normalise insulin and blood sugar levels if taken in large enough quantities.
Guy things: Eating shellfish and/or pumpkin seeds provide zinc.
Drinking nettle tea once a day goes some way to inhibiting the enzymes that cause prostate enlargement.
Disclaimers
I am not a nutritionalist. I don't even play the part of one on TV.
I merely share my personal experience.
Along with the rest of us you are the most unique individual on Earth and I haven't the foggiest what is right and/or safe for you. You're on your own kid.
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