(For anybody unfamiliar with the term, it basically means that my cells are insensitive to insulin, so that my blood sugar takes longer to return to normal after I eat, and only after my pancreas cranks out way more insulin than it should have to. The next step from here is diabetes, if I don’t take care of the problem now.)
Okay, so I’ve just been diagnosed, and the doc still wants to do some tests to figure out why I’m insulin resistant. In the meantime, I have to get more exercise than I have been and start adjusting how I eat for the long term. I’ve been aiming for low fat/less sugar for a while, but it’s not been enough I guess.
Anyone here have any food strategies to share for this situation? I like to cook, so recipes are good as long as they aren’t took complicated/time consuming. How do you handle eating out? Salad all the time would be damn boring, but my head is kinda spinning still from reading about glycemic load etc. so some concrete examples of things that would be okay to eat would be great.
I was diagnosed as insulin-resistant last year. My doctor gave me a really good book called The Insulin-Resistance Diet. I don’t follow everything in it, but the important part to remember is to balance your protein intake with your carb intake.
Carbs are NOT automatically bad, you have to have them so your body synthesizes protein properly. So, IIRC, the ration is either 1 protein:1 carb or 1 protein:2 carbs.
Anyway, veggies & fruit are good; obviously stay away from the processed sugars as much as possible, but there should be a good emphasis on lean protein (fish, poultry, etc.) Going out isn’t as hard as you think - although it was a little easier when some of the big chain restaurants were putting out “Atkins” menus.
It’s not the end of the world; I don’t have any specific recipes handy but you can still eat well and deal with this.
I’m going through this myself. The basic plan is to cut back on high-glycemic index foods so that: (1). You lose weight by eliminating the foods you tend to binge on, and (2). Gradually get your body to respond better to lower-glycemic foods. Strong stress on the gradually part because at first I made the mistake of completely eliminating all carbs but fruit and vegetables immediately, and I felt horrible. It turned out I was so used to sugar and white starch that my body wouldn’t respond to the lower levels of insulin that fruit and vegetables produced. Right now I’m tapering off, where I allow myself one slice of bread a day just to kick start the minimum insulin level I need, and I’m eventually going to reduce that.
Thanks for the book link, Indyellen. I’ll see if I can find it at Borders today.
Fish and poultry are no probs, red meat doesn’t agree with me much anyway. I’ve been doing whole grain stuff for a while for lunch sandwiches, and whole wheat pasta on occasion isn’t bad. But the thing that kills me is the idea of giving up on white rice - I hate brown rice with a passion, both the way it tastes and how long it takes to cook. Anyone know if there’s any truth to the idea that basmati rice has a lower glycemic index than regular long grain white rice?
Also, remember the GI is calculated based on ingesting a set amount of only that food. If you eat a meal with various foods together, then GI is harder to predict. If you eat a meal containing protein, the entire meal will sit in the stomach longer, reducing the GI.