Type 2 diabetes treatment involves much more than monitoring your blood glucose level and taking your medication. Your doctor will tell you that proper diet and exercise is essential to long term health with type 2 diabetes. When you follow your doctor’s nutritional lifestyle advise and still see no improvement in your condition, you may want to try the following suggestions to kick start and recalibrate your body.
With type 2 diabetes, your body either does not produce enough insulin or suffers from ‘insulin resistance’, which means the insulin is not working properly. The glucose does not enter the body’s cells properly, causing a build-up of glucose in the blood and cells do not get the glucose they need for energy and growth. Type 2 diabetes treatment may or may not include medication or insulin, but healthy lifestyle choices can improve life with type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is usually, but not always, developed later in life, due to unhealthy lifestyle choices. Because having type 2 diabetes leads to the increased risk of many degenerative diseases it makes sense to critique and adjust your type 2 diabetes treatment to make healthy changes to your current eating and exercise patterns when necessary.
Detox/cleanse
Years of poor eating habits, low levels of physical activity and exposure to high levels of environmental toxins lead to sluggish bodily functions. Over time, the buildup of these substances can cause digestive tract issues, poor elimination, liver and kidney disease and even heart disease. Type 2 diabetes is one example of a malfunctioning body system. Regular, thorough cleanse and detox programs can do wonders to rid your body of built up toxins.
If you are new to this type of program, always start with a colon cleanse to rid your system of built up waste. A poorly maintained colon is similar to a sewer system, and when severely distressed, a condition called “leaky gut syndrome” can occur, where waste material can actually leak back out of the colon and spread throughout your entire body.
It is also important to start with a colon cleanse, because toxins released during a liver and gallbladder need to be eliminated through the colon. If the colon is not clear, these released toxins can enter the blood stream and be dispersed through your body.
Raw Food Diet
While the thought of a raw food diet may sound extreme or may not appeal to you initially, you might want to consider a short term trial to give your system a chance to recalibrate and kick start it back into normal operation. The benefits of a raw diet include high levels of nutrients with low calories, low levels of fat and carbohydrates. As you feed your body healthy, whole, nutrient dense foods, your system will have what it needs to function. You may even then start to crave healthy foods, and lose your taste for sweets, junk food and empty calories.
Include nutritional supplement is your daily regimen
Lifelong dietary deficiencies can deplete your body’s store of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Supplementation can help jump start your system by providing an added nutritional boost to your daily diet. Zinc, chromium, magnesium and ginseng all have a positive effect on type 2 diabetes. When choosing a nutritional supplements look for plant based, organic products for maximum effectiveness.
Improve your “normal” diet
Type 2 diabetes is your body screaming that your current diet and lifestyle is not balanced and nourishing to your body. Eating the right foods is essential to type 2 diabetes treatment. Lowering your carbohydrate intake or simply controlling your intake of sugar and simple carbohydrates is often not enough.
Eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages. Do not replace soda with diet soda. The artificial sweeteners in diet soda cause cancers and many other health problems. You do not want your type 2 diabetes treatment to include substances that cause other diseases. Normally, the kidneys make up for high blood glucose levels by eliminating excess glucose in the urine. If you do not drink enough fluids, or if you drink fluids that contain sugar, the kidneys cannot get rid of the extra glucose.
Avoid soy products of all kinds. Unfermented soy contains phytic acid which leaches certain essential nutrients from your body, such as calcium and iron. Your body needs these nutrients to function properly, and by leaching them out with phytic acid you are causing more harm than the benefit derived from eating a low-fat source of protein. Fermented soy products such as soy sauce and tempeh are nutritionally sound. However, because over 90% of soy grown in the United States is genetically modified, unfortunately, no soy product is safe for consumption.
While you hear all the time to eat more fruits and vegetables, it is important that this produce is organic. Due to mineral depletion of the soil, commercially grown produce has a fraction of the nutritional value that it did 50 years ago.
If your type 2 diabetes treatment plan is not controlling your health as much as you would like, try some of these suggestions. Improving your overall health is good advise for everyone, not just diabetics.