Read Whole-Food Guide for Breast Cancer Survivors Online
Authors: Edward Bauman
To maintain a balanced blood-sugar level—thereby giving yourself stable energy throughout your day—try to make the time to prepare a balanced meal in the morning. A balanced breakfast includes protein but also provides fat and complex carbohydrates. This means eggs and greens; cottage cheese and fruit; or a protein-based smoothie (we suggest rice or whey protein powder) made with yogurt and fruit, for example.
Keep Your Life Simple and Your Carbohydrates Complex
This is, indeed, a good rule to live by. But the reverse seems to be the case for many women, whose lives are overcomplex and whose foods are overrefined. Refined or simple carbohydrates include bakery products, pastas, and sugar-containing foods. Unrefined or complex carbohydrates are found in fresh vegetables, fruits, whole cereal grains, legumes, and nuts. Unrefined carbohydrates provide generous amounts of fiber, both soluble (in water) and insoluble. Fiber slows the rate at which glucose from foods is released into the blood and speeds the elimination of the indigestible food and bacterial waste.
Where Fat Fits
Fats, like protein and carbs, belong in every meal. Choose fats that are mostly monounsaturated, such as those in olives and avocados; healthy saturated fats like coconut oil; or the omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids found in cold-water fish, flaxseeds, and walnuts. Remember that it is not the quantity but the quality of fat that determines its value in the diet. An excess of cooked or processed fats and oils—such as factory-raised animal fats, dairy, and margarine—interferes with the burning of glucose and increases insulin resistance. The essential fatty acids found in fish, seeds, and nuts, on the other hand, and the monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) found in olives, avocados, and their oils tend to slow glucose absorption and balance insulin production, improving insulin sensitivity. Eating a sufficient amount of high-quality dietary fats will also help you feel more satisfied after a meal, which reduces the temptation to snack on refined carbs.
Micronutrients and Phytonutrients
The previous advice focuses on the macronutrient balances that are most likely to stabilize blood sugar. But for macronutrients to be effective, adequate micronutrients and phytonutrients are needed to produce the necessary enzymes and hormones for everything to work together.
One way to start is by choosing local, organic food. Organic food has been shown to be significantly higher in trace mineral nutrition by a factor of two to ten times when compared to the conventionally grown products generally available in supermarkets (Grinder-Pedersen et al. 2003). If you eat a high proportion of conventional foods from the supermarket and experience the signs and symptoms of dysglycemia, it’s likely that you are missing essential vitamins and minerals to support the proper synthesis of insulin and glucagon—most notably chromium, magnesium, and zinc. Likewise, a conventional standard American diet lacks the substances that make cell membranes more sensitive, rather than more resistant, to insulin. To counter this problem, we recommend consuming plenty of essential fatty acids of the omega-3 variety found in flaxseeds, fish, and algae, as well as vitamin E, coenzyme Q10, and lipoic acid.
We have seen people who eat very well and regularly take culinary and medicinal herbs manage this dysglycemic process without multivitamins and minerals because their food is rich in these factors. But we have not seen people who take a variety of well-chosen vitamins, minerals, and herbs succeed in stabilizing blood-sugar levels if their diets include regular infusions of fast foods, sugar, and stimulants like coffee.
Feed Your Cells Nutritional Superstars
A growing body of scientific research has revealed that many single nutrients, herbs, and foods—the nutritional “superstars”—along with an Eating for Health diet, provide substantial health benefits to slow and reverse dysglycemia and other inflammatory disorders. While it’s possible to supplement any diet with fatty acids, dietary fibers, and vitamins and minerals, we prefer to obtain as many of these nutrients as possible from foods first, supplements second. Here are some suggestions.
CHILE PEPPERS
Research conducted in Australia has shown that using chile peppers as a flavorful addition to foods allows the body to produce less insulin to transport glucose into cells, preventing an insulin overload (Ahuja et al. 2006). Chile peppers not only lower the amount of insulin required to decrease after-meal blood-sugar levels, but also result in a lower
C-peptide/insulin quotient
, indicating that the liver’s ability to clear insulin has improved. (C-peptide is an indication of how much insulin is being released.) Chile peppers can be used as a versatile flavor enhancer for nearly any kind of recipe, from blended smoothies and cooked dishes to appetizers, sandwiches, and snacks.
CINNAMON
The world’s most ubiquitous spice, cinnamon has historically been used as a glucose-lowering vehicle as well as a flavor enhancer, although its mechanism of action was unclear until recently. In 2000 scientists discovered that the most active compound in cinnamon is a flavonoid called
methylhydroxychalcone polymer
(MHCP), which has been found to improve glucose metabolism twentyfold in fat cells (Jarvill-Taylor, Anderson, and Graves 2001). This is a truly remarkable spice and one that can also serve an anti-inflammatory function, as you’ll see in the next chapter.
OLIVE OIL AND AVOCADOS
Eating avocados and replacing other dietary fats with olive oil may be two of the best, tastiest, and least-known ways to manage blood sugar and insulin (Garg 1998). In addition to being one of the best food sources of monounsaturated fatty acids, avocados also provide B vitamins, magnesium, copper, and manganese in meaningful quantities. Try putting half an avocado in your salad or smoothie daily to get its full beneficial effect.
LEGUMES AND WHOLE GRAINS
Legumes and whole grains are complex carbohydrates that are loaded with nutrients and high in soluble fiber, which helps keep blood-sugar levels under control (Fung et al. 2002). Whole grains appear to be particularly useful, perhaps because of the generous levels of magnesium they pack. Fiber and magnesium are both associated with a lowered risk of type 2 diabetes (ibid.).
Buckwheat, the grain often used in pancakes and soba noodles, also came to the forefront of blood-sugar control when a Canadian study found that extracts of buckwheat, when fed to diabetic rats, lowered their glucose levels by 12 to 19 percent (Kawa, Taylor, and Przybylski 2003). Buckwheat contains significant amounts of fiber, B vitamins, copper, magnesium, and manganese, as well as moderate amounts of zinc; brown rice does, as well. Beans and legumes are also good sources of the B vitamins, including B6.
BITTER MELON
A tropical fruit indigenous to Asia, East Africa, and South America, bitter melon (also known as
karela
) can be purchased fresh in Asian markets or in extract form from health food stores. Several studies have shown that it can significantly lower blood glucose levels. Its effect on blood sugar is believed to be due to an increase in the activity of
hexokinase
and
glucokinase
, specialized enzymes that convert sugar into
glycogen
, a storage form of glucose that can be salted away in the liver for later use (Chen, Chan, and Li 2003). Bitter melon is also available in supplement form.
GYMNEMA SYLVESTRE (GUMAR)
Gymnema sylvestre
(also called
gumar
) is a tropical plant from the milkweed family with an ancient Sanskrit name that means, literally, “destroyer of sugar.” Preliminary clinical research indicates that certain gymnema extracts can reduce blood glucose and HA1c in types 1 and 2 diabetics (Kumar, Mani, and Mani 2010).
STEVIA (SWEET HERB)
Stevia
is a noncaloric herb, native to Paraguay, that has been used to sweeten and enhance flavor for hundreds of years. In a small study that compared numerous effects of sucrose, aspartame, and stevia, only stevia reduced insulin levels after meals (Anton et al. 2010).
CHROMIUM
This essential trace mineral, discovered in 1797 by French chemist Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin, was later found to play a key role in carbohydrate metabolism by helping to create a critical compound called
glucose tolerance factor
(GTF). As the active component of GTF, chromium plays a fundamental role in controlling blood sugar levels. Romaine lettuce, broccoli, onions, and tomatoes are high in chromium, as are nutritional yeast, oysters, liver, whole grains, and potatoes.
Because many people don’t eat whole foods, they don’t get enough chromium in their diets, due to food-processing methods that remove the naturally occurring chromium from common foods. An adequate intake of chromium for adult women is 20 to 25 micrograms a day, although people with any sort of blood sugar issues may well want to experiment with levels from 100 to 200 micrograms a day, which is still considered extremely safe. A high-quality multinutrient should contain approximately this amount.
The Rainbow Provides the “Pot of Gold”
Eating for Health is eating from the rainbow. Consuming a wide variety of colorful vegetables, fruits, and other foods on a regular basis provides the widest spectrum of health-giving nutrients and may help us all find our way to the “pot of gold”—our good health. In the process, we will leave behind our blood sugar irregularities and greatly reduce our risk of insulin resistance, diabetes, and breast cancer.
Our list of supernutrients in this chapter is by no means exhaustive. In fact, a varied whole-foods diet, with or without these foods, will provide enormous benefits toward preventing or reversing dysglycemia and maintaining overall health. In addition, please keep in mind that whole fruits (not juice) and, especially, vegetables contain some of the highest levels of vitamins and minerals, as well as large amounts of fiber, of any foods. They also provide a wide range of phytonutrients, which helps us with blood sugar control and on so many other fronts.
To Do
Last Word
I found that keeping sugar and sugar-laden products out of my house was the key to keeping them out of my life. It was difficult in the beginning; I had to sit down with my family and explain to them exactly what the stakes were. Once they were on board, it was so much easier. We all agreed to just say no to packaged foods, and made the commitment to make one or two changes every week until I got to where I am today: sugar free, cancer free.
—Sela S., breast cancer survivor
7.
Nourishing Immunity
On a planet teeming with microorganisms, the only thing standing between “us” and “them” is the immune system.
—Dr. Robert Rountree and Carol Colman
Chapter Goal: Maintain a strong immune system
The immune system is the most diverse system in the body. If you imagine a fortress, then the immune system consists of the walls outside and the soldiers within. The soldiers have a hierarchy of many different functions. Each has a particular job, and yet they interact with one another as a team to effectively defend the fort against invaders like cancer cells.
Meet Your Immune System
The immune system consists of distinct cellular populations dispatched throughout the body to protect us from invading pathogens, such as viruses, unfriendly bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Immune cells communicate with each other through chemical mediators that regulate and interface with many other bodily systems. The main organs of the immune system include:
There are two fundamental branches of the immune system: innate and adaptive. The
innate
, or
cellular
immune system, attacks any entity considered foreign (like infectious bacteria), and is evolutionarily ancient, literally prereptilian. In other words, it will go after any bacteria, any pathogen, any invader at all.
As we evolved in complexity as mammals, however, we needed something a bit more specialized. The result was the
adaptive
immune system, which recognizes an attacker as potentially harmful and then remembers that pathogen’s specific identity so that the body’s defense can be better targeted next time and the attackor doesn’t have a second chance to inflict a disease state. One such pathogen is the influenza virus, against which we mount a defense using antibodies, or “immune arrows,” as immune specialist Dr. Michael Rosenbaum calls them (pers. comm.), to attack and corner the offender.