Diabetes Myths Busted

By Jill Weisenberger, MS, RD, CDE

Diabetes care can be exhausting. You measure your blood sugar, take your diabetes medications, drag yourself out of bed early to walk around your neighborhood and take the extra time to pack your lunch. And with so much to learn, you read everything you can find about diabetes and listen to everyone’s well-meaning advice and personal stories. It’s information overload. But what might not be so obvious is that a lot of what you read and hear is just plain wrong.

There Is a Lot of Information Available About Diabetes
Some of Which Is Useful and Some of Which is Plainly Wrong

Myth 1: Don’t eat white food
This confusing rule has no scientific basis. Taken at face value, it has people believing some very healthful foods are taboo. Some people with diabetes shun cauliflower, apples, potatoes, cottage cheese and milk. Omitting these foods could leave them without important nutrients.

The rule perpetuates the false notion that foods are either good or bad and that non-white foods can be eaten carte blanche. What matters most to your blood glucose (and your weight) are portion sizes. Brown rice offers more nutrients than white rice, for example, but when it comes to your blood sugar, portion sizes trump the type of rice.

To see how various foods and portions affect your blood sugar, measure your blood glucose level just before eating and again after meals (usually about 2 hours after the first bite). The difference between the two measurements is largely the effect of what you just ate. If your numbers are too high, trim your portions, take a 15 to 30 minute walk around mealtime and ask your healthcare provider to review your medications for a possible change.

Myth 2: Losing weight will make type 2 diabetes disappear
Don’t count on losing weight to cure you. If you’re overweight, dropping a few pounds is a good idea and should likely be part of your treatment plan. But by the time you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, you’ve likely been experiencing undiagnosed insulin resistance for years. With that usually comes a dwindling supply of insulin and other blood glucose control hormones, high blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride levels. While weight loss is unlikely to reverse what’s been developing for years, you may slow the process down.

Don’t let this curtail your weight loss efforts, however. Just put it into perspective. Losing even 10 or 20 pounds and keeping it off may help you control your blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol for longer and on fewer medications. And weight loss lowers your risk of other problems as well, such as certain cancers, sleep apnea and urinary incontinence.

See a diabetes educator or a registered dietitian to help you develop a livable eating plan to rein in out-of-control blood sugars and trim some calories for weight loss. It’s still a secret to some, but many insurance companies will pay for diabetes education and medical nutrition therapy.

Myth 3: If it’s sugar-free, it must be okay
Sugar-free cookies and cakes are popular, but they aren’t necessarily low calorie or even low carbohydrate. The only way to know those things is to scrutinize the Nutrition Facts panel on the package. True, sugar does raise blood glucose, but so do other types of carbohydrate, such as the flour and milk in the desserts. Again, portion sizes rule.

Myth 4: Fats don’t matter
Since blood sugar jumps with carbohydrate but not with fat, many people with diabetes ignore the fat content of their meals. But dietary fat is just as problematic.

Fat provides a lot of calories (about 120 per tablespoon), often hindering weight control efforts. What’s more, the type of fat matters as well. Saturated fats and trans fats are linked to elevated cholesterol levels, further increasing your risk for heart disease, which is already the most common cause of death in America. Studies also suggest that saturated fat worsens blood glucose control by affecting your body’s response to insulin.

Limit unhealthy fats by avoiding stick margarine and packaged foods made with partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats), poultry skin, animal fat, including dairy products and fried foods.

Jill Weisenberger, MS, RD, CDE speaks, writes and cooks up all things nutrition and diabetes. Her work has appeared in Diabetic Living, Diabetic Cooking, Environmental Nutrition, My Weight Loss, the American Dietetic Association website, newsletters for the American Institute for Cancer Research and other national publications. For two years, she was Contributing Nutrition Editor for Her Sports + Fitness magazine. She is the author of an upcoming weight loss book (American Diabetes Association, 2012).

Jill earned both a communication’s degree and a master’s of science degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Florida. When she’s not writing health articles, creating something in the kitchen, consulting food companies and associations, or counseling patients to make reasonable and sustainable lifestyle changes, she’s out enjoying mountain biking with her family or somewhere relaxing with a teeny tiny bite of chocolate (or two). You can find her at www.allthatsnutrition.com.

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

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