Kitchen Hint of the Day!

Healthy Hint -Lower fat and cholesterol....


Eat seafood twice a week. Good choices are salmon, sardines, and mackerel.

22 Foods to Avoid with Diabetes

Here's an excellent article on 22 Foods to Avoid with Diabetes. They give you a list of foods to avoid along with healthy and satisfying and delicious alternatives. It's all on one of my favorite recipe sites the Diabetic Living Online website, Enjoy!   http://www.diabeticlivingonline.com/


22 Foods to Avoid with Diabetes

These top food offenders contain high amounts of fat, sodium, carbs, and calories that may increase your risk of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, uncontrolled blood sugar, and weight gain. The good news is you can indulge in your favorite foods and still eat healthfully with our satisfying and delicious alternatives.



Think Twice Before Eating These Foods

At Diabetic Living, we believe that eating with diabetes doesn't have to mean deprivation, starvation, or bland and boring foods. However, some foods really are best left on the table or in the store. Everyone -- with diabetes or without -- would be wise to avoid or limit the foods on this list because they are high in saturated fat, sodium, calories, or carbs, or might contain trans fats. High amounts of sodium and saturated fat can lead to heart disease, while excess sugars, high carb counts, and added calories can cause unwanted weight gain and blood sugar spikes.

If you see some of your favorite foods on this list, don't despair: We've picked healthier options for you to choose from that taste great. So you can have your fries and eat them, too -- provided they're baked rather than deep-fat fried.

*Nutrition information cited was gathered from company websites or food packaging......


Nachos

You walk into a restaurant and you're feeling starved. A quick scan of the menu and there they are: nachos, one of your favorites. You order them as an appetizer and also order a meal. Unfortunately, most restaurant nacho orders equate to and often exceed an entire meal's worth of calories, carbs, and fat. For example, a regular order of Chili's Classic Nachos has 830 calories, 59 grams of fat, and 39 grams of carb.......


Coffee Drinks

A simple cup of joe with a little milk or even half-and-half can be a low-calorie beverage perfect for a person with diabetes. But many coffee-shop drinks rival decadent desserts for their high calorie, carb, and fat contents. For example, a 16-ounce Starbuck's White Chocolate Mocha (with whipped cream and 2 percent milk) comes in at 470 calories and 63 grams of carb. Similarly, a medium Dunkaccino contains 350 calories, while the large size has almost 500 calories.......



* Click the link below to get all 22 Foods to Avoid with Diabetes

http://www.diabeticlivingonline.com/food-to-eat/nutrition/22-foods-to-avoid-diabetes

Know your healthy numbers

A very good and informative article on Cholesterol, Blood Sugar, and Blood Pressure.


Know your healthy numbers


Written by
Connie Midey
Gannett



The American auto inustry has its Big 3. So do colleges and golf. Here are the Big 3 of health numbers, what they mean and what you can do to reach the targets.

BLOOD PRESSURE

Target numbers:

Less than 120/80.

In recent years, readings between 120/80 and 139/89 have been labeled as pre-hypertension, “a warning that the numbers are creeping up and you need to make lifestyle modifications,” said physician Gregory Johns, a Phoenix internal-medicine specialist.

Readings of 140/90 or higher are considered high blood pressure, or hypertension. (Blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury.)

Why they matter: “High blood pressure is probably the biggest risk factor for stroke, the (consequence) people are most concerned about,” Johns said.

Sustained high blood pressure makes the heart work harder and can damage heart muscle, and it’s a risk factor for congestive heart failure, heart attack and peripheral artery disease. It also can damage blood vessels in the kidneys, greatly increasing risk for kidney failure in people who also have diabetes, he said.

What you can do: “High blood pressure is extremely common,” Johns said, “but most people have no symptoms. You have to see your doctor on a regular basis to get a blood-pressure check or you won’t know until it may be too late.”

Control blood pressure by maintaining a healthy weight, exercising for 30 to 45 minutes four or five days a week – enough to elevate your heart rate – and following a healthful diet, he said.

In a trial, the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating plan – low in fat and rich in fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products – lowered hypertensive patients’ top blood-pressure number an average of 11.4 points and bottom number an average of 5.5 points. Lower salt intake improved results, too.

If lifestyle changes aren’t enough, your doctor may prescribe blood-pressure medicine.

CHOLESTEROL
Target numbers:

Total cholesterol: Less than 200.

HDL (good) cholesterol: 40 or higher for men, 50 or higher for women; 60 or higher is considered protective against heart disease.

LDL (bad) cholesterol: Less than 100.

Triglycerides: Less than 150.

Ratio: Less than 5 when the total cholesterol number is divided by the HDL number.

Helen Hilts of DiabeVita Medical Center sets more ambitious goals: HDL of at least 45 for men and 55 for women, and triglycerides of less than 100.

And she’d add another target number: fewer than 1,000 LDL particles, as measured in a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) lipid profile. Most cardiologists order the NMR routinely, she said. With other doctors, you might have to request it.

Why they matter: Cholesterol and triglycerides are measured in milligrams per deciliter as part of a lipid profile to assess heart health. The NMR lipid profile measures the size and number of LDL particles.

“For preventing or reversing heart disease,” Hilts said, “the most important (goal) numbers are high HDL, low triglycerides and low LDL particles.”

What you can do: Researchers “are looking very hard for medicines to raise HDL cholesterol, but they haven’t got one yet,” she said. “The best way to raise it now is through exercise.”

Take good-for-the-heart fish-oil supplements and keep blood sugar at safe levels. High blood sugar sticks to cholesterol molecules, she said, and makes them more likely to clog blood-vessel walls.

A low-carbohydrate diet “will raise HDL a little and lower triglycerides a lot,” Hilts said. “And it shifts the population of your LDL from the small, dense kind, which is bad, to the light, fluffy kind, which is good.”

If lifestyle changes aren’t enough, your doctor may prescribe cholesterol-lowering medicine.

BLOOD SUGAR (GLUCOSE)
Target numbers:

Fasting: Below 99.

Non-fasting: Below 140.

Hemoglobin A1c: 5.6 or lower three-month average.

For people with diabetes (and not pregnant), numbers indicating good control of the disease are 80 to 120 fasting, below 150 non-fasting and below 6.5 hemoglobin A1c.

Why they matter: Hitting the first target number, measured in milligrams per deciliter in a fasting glucose test, means you’re avoiding the high blood sugar that damages blood vessels.

“The higher the numbers, the higher the risk of complications that can happen with diabetes,” said Dr. Chandana Mishra of Endocrinology Associates in Phoenix.

Microvascular complications involve the kidneys, eyes and peripheral nervous system, the latter sometimes leading to amputations, she said. Macrovascular complications cause heart attacks and stroke.

What you can do: “Diet and exercise give tremendous benefits,” Mishra said. A Diabetes Prevention Program study found that 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity and a 5 to 10 percent weight loss reduced the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 58 percent.

If more help is needed, your doctor may prescribe pills or insulin to control glucose levels. People with diabetes can avoid complications and hospitalizations by closely monitoring their blood sugar, Mishra said.

Probably no Big 3 will play a more central role in our lives over the long term than the numbers that define our blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar.

Good health is the payoff for making time to monitor those numbers, understand what they mean and take steps to balance them.

“Of course, there are medicines that help with all these conditions,” said Scottsdale family physician Helen Hilts of DiabeVita Medical Center.

“But if you can do it naturally, with lifestyle changes, and let your body do its own balancing act, that’s better.”

http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20120705/LIFE07/307050042/Know-your-healthy-numbers?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

Green Tea: The 'Clean Caffeine' Alternative to Coffee

An article on my favorite daily drink, Green Tea. I drink 5 cups of hot brewed Bigelow Green Tea a day. Since I started my Green Tea drinking my cholesterol, tri's, and my diabetes 2 have all improved.


Many working Americans rely on a cup of coffee every morning to keep them alert throughout the day while two or three cups is enough for others. A few may need even more.

But is coffee really the healthiest choice? There are some benefits of coffee, such as reduced risk for Parkinson’s disease, skin cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, and even suicide. However there are quite a few disadvantages.

For starters, coffee discolors your teeth but it can also cause a number of more serious problems, such as hypoglycemia, high cholesterol, increased anxiety, fertility problems, increased risk of osteoporosis, dry skin, weight gain, addiction, and more.

So what can we do?

Green tea supplements are known to not only be a source of antioxidants but they give you a boost of energy that can last throughout the whole day.

Nutritionist Lola Berry of Australia says she is a huge fan of Green tea supplements and she takes them on a daily basis.

Green tea contains a special ingredient called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a potent antioxidant that is believed to have therapeutic applications in the treatment of many disorders such as HIV, cancer, endometriosis, and Sjogren’s syndrome.

“These EGCG’s are also linked to speeding up our metabolism and stimulating the liver,” Lola Berry told Medical Daily.

“The liver is in charge of emulsifying fats,” she added.

Berry says green tea is also seen as a “great” weight loss supplement since it works on both the liver and metabolism at the same time.

Green tea supplements offer a number of health benefits such as cancer prevention and treatment, decrease of blood pressure, prevention of cardiovascular disease, stroke prevention, natural energy boost, and weight loss.

Berry sees green tea as a clear substitute for coffee.

 “I love the stuff! I call it "clean caffeine" try to go for organic when you can!”

Published by Medicaldaily.com

Eating the right foods can do a number on bad cholesterol

This article ran in most newspapers yesterday. Thought I would post it in case you missed it.


Nutrition experts have known for years that some foods, such as oatmeal, nuts and soy products, lower cholesterol.

Now, a new study shows that a diet with several of these foods can decrease LDL (bad) cholesterol significantly.

David Jenkins of St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto and colleagues recruited 345 Canadian men and women with high cholesterol. Their LDL (bad) cholesterol was an average of about 170 mg/dL at the beginning of the study.

All participants in the study were following heart-healthy diets low in saturated fat (butter, beef fat) and rich in fruits and vegetables, beans and whole grains, Jenkins says. Those in the control group stuck with their healthy diets.

Others in the intervention group were taught how to incorporate four cholesterol-lowering types of foods into their eating plan, including nuts; soy products; foods rich in viscous fiber (a type of soluble fiber); and plant-sterol-enriched margarine.

Example of those on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet:

•An average of a handful of nuts a day.

•A couple of teaspoons of sterol-enriched margarine such as Take Control.

•Two servings a day of soy-protein products, such as a glass of soy milk and a soy burger.

•Two servings a day of viscous-fiber-rich foods such as oatmeal, psyllium-enriched cereals, barley and vegetables such as okra and eggplant.

The findings, after 24 weeks, are reported in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association:

•LDL cholesterol in the control group: Dropped by an average of about 3% or about 8 mg/dL.

•LDL cholesterol in the participants eating cholesterol-lowering foods: Decreased by about 13% to 14% or about 26 mg/dL.