A Spoonful of Vinegar Makes the Blood Sugar Go Down? By Jack Challem

http://www.dlife.com/dLife/do/ShowContent/food_and_nutrition/spoonful_of_vinegar.html

Strange as it might seem, including some vinegar in your diet may improve your blood sugar. Although vinegar has a bit of a checkered past — it has too often been hyped in weight-loss diets and miracle cures — solid research has clearly shown that it can improve glycemic control. “Scientific studies over the past 10 years show benefits from vinegar consumption,” says Carol Johnston, Ph.D., head of the nutrition department at Arizona State University, Tempe. Vinegar decreases both fasting and postprandial (after-meal) glucose levels, she says. “It’s inexpensive and can be easily incorporated into the diet. Used in combination with diet and exercise, it can help many people with type 2 diabetes.” Much of the vinegar research comes out of Johnston’s laboratory and that of Elin Ostman, Ph.D., at Lund University in Lund, Sweden.

The biologically active constituent of vinegar is acetic acid, also the source of the liquid’s lip-puckering pungency. Nobumasa Ogawa, Ph.D., of Tokyo University in Tokyo, discovered that the acetic acid inhibits the activity of several carbohydrate-digesting enzymes, including amylase, sucrase, maltase, and lactase. As a result, when vinegar is present in the intestines, some sugars and starches temporarily pass through without being digested, so they have less of an impact on blood sugar. According to Johnston, some people have far greater responses than others to vinegar. However, she says, “We documented small but important average decreases in hemoglobin A1C in people with type 2 diabetes — over the course of 12 weeks, taking a couple teaspoons of apple-cider vinegar daily,” she says.In another study, Johnston found that taking 2 tablespoons of apple-cider vinegar along with 1 ounce of cheese before bedtime led to a 4 to 6 percent decrease in fasting blood sugar levels, according to an article in Diabetes Care (November 2007). Meanwhile, Lund University’s Ostman found that people were less hungry a couple hours after consuming vinegar with bread, as opposed to bread alone, according to a report in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (September 2005).Because taking a teaspoon or two of vinegar alone seems to cause burping and acid reflux in a lot of people, Johnston suggests that people include vinegar with food. The easiest way is by using oil and vinegar salad dressing, made with balsamic, red wine, apple-cider, or any number of flavored vinegars (avoid the fruity, sweet ones, of course, or you may cancel out the benefit). When making the dressing, use about 50 to 75 percent vinegar, and add some diced garlic, dried oregano, and basil — or stir in a little Dijon mustard.Johnston recommends also using vinaigrette dressings drizzled over steamed veggies, such as cauliflower. Another option is to dip small, thin slices of whole-grain bread into a mix of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Or, better, try sourdough bread, which contains a substance that also seems to mediate blood sugar response.Vinegar is a natural meat and fish tenderizer, so you can use it to marinate meat and chicken. It’s also used to cook brisket, sauerbraten, and in the preparation of the spicy Korean vegetable, kimchi. Look for low-sodium versions of dill pickles, and consider other condiments and veggies pickled or preserved in vinegar. As for the weight-loss claims attributed to vinegar, Johnston noticed in one study that people consuming a tablespoon of vinegar before lunch and dinner lost an average of 2 pounds over four weeks. It may be a case of “if it sounds too good to be true…,” but consider this: The study was conducted in November and December, when people often eat more than usual. There may be something to it after all.

SOURCES:Telephone interview with Carol Johnston, April 25, 2008.Ogawa N, Satsu H,
Watanabe H, et al. 2000. Acetic acid suppresses the increase in disaccharidase activity that occurs during culture of caco-2 cells. Journal of Nutrition 130:507-513.White AM, Johnston CS. 2007. Vinegar ingestion at bedtime moderates waking glucose concentrations in adults with well-controlled type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care 11: 2814-2815.Johnston CS, Kim CM, Buller AJ. 2004. Vinegar improves insulin sensitivity to a high-carbohydrate meal in subjects with insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care 27:281-282.Ostman E, Granfeldt Y, Persson L, et al. 2005. Vinegar supplementation lowers glucose and insulin responses and increases satiety after a bread meal in healthy subjects. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 59;983-988.Leeman M, Ostman E, Bjorck I. 2005. Vinegar dressing and cold storage of potatoes lowers postprandial glycaemic andinsulinaemic responses in healthy subjects. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 59:1266-71.Liljeberg HG, Björck IM. 1996. Delayed gastric emptying rate as a potential mechanism for lowered glycemia after eating sourdough bread: studies in humans and rats using test products with added organic acids or an organic salt. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 64:886-893.Johnston CS. 2005. Strategies for healthy weight loss: from vitamin C to the glycemic response. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 24:158-165.

Reviewed by Susan Weiner, R.D., M.S., C.D.E., C.D.N. 10/08

Bye Bye Beer!!

I LOVE beer but.....is it okay for people who manage insulin resistance and PCOS?

The Alcohol: Although alcohol is often lumped in with carbohydrate, it acts differently in the body. For one thing, when there is alcohol in the body, its calories are used first for energy, before carbohydrate or fat. It can also have some unpredictable effects on blood sugar. This is because when alcohol is present, the liver goes to work on it immediately. The liver’s job is to get rid of toxins in the body, and alcohol is like a poison in that way. While the liver is working on breaking down the alcohol, it isn’t doing its other jobs as well, including regulating the amount of glucose in the blood. So blood glucose can drop quickly. To minimize this, don’t drink on an empty stomach, and limit alcohol to two drinks per day for a man, or one drink for a woman. (A drink is 12-ounce beer, 4-ounce wine, or a jigger of distilled alcohol.)

The Carbs: There is some confusion about maltose in beer because of things written in some low-carb diet books. Although the malted barley used to make beer produces maltose, a sugar that has a glycemic index higher than glucose, the fermentation process uses up all the maltose in the beer while it is being brewed. The USDA database shows that there is no maltose in beer. However, there is carbohydrate in beer that should be counted as you would count any other carb. The amount varies depending upon the brand of beer. Regular beer averages about 12 grams of carbohydrate per 12 oz can or serving.

Light beer isn’t necessarily low-carb beer -– some light beer has almost as much carbohydrate as regular beer. Most, though, is in the range of 3 to 7 grams of carbohydrate per serving. Read each label when deciding.

Ale generally has somewhat less carbohydrate than regular beer (5-9 grams per serving), whereas stout is the worst kind of beer you can drink on a low-carb diet –- it has around 20 grams of carb per 12-oz serving.

Inositol Improves Ovulation and Hormone Balance in PCOS Women
We have more very good news about inositol, a member of the B-vitamin family.
Two recent studies confirm earlier studies that inositol improves hormone balance and helps to restore normal cycles in women who have polycystic ovarian syndrome.

In the most recent study, from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, 25 overweight PCOS women were given 2 grams of inositol daily for 12 weeks. Menstrual cycles were restored in all women who did not have a normal cycle. Insulin resistance, a primary cause of polycystic ovary syndrome, was reduced.

The authors of the study conclude: "Myo-inositol administration improves reproductive axis functioning in PCOS patients, reducing the hyperinsulinemic state that affects LH secretion."

The other study is from the University of Perugia in Italy. It is a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, which medical authorities say is the "gold standard" of medical studies.

The researchers divided 92 PCOS women into two groups. One group was given a placebo, while the other group received 4 grams of inositol daily.
Compared to the placebo group, the inositol group had a shorter time to first ovulation, and had a higher frequency of ovulation. The effect on ovarian follicles appeared to be rapid, starting in the first week of treatment.
In addition, the inositol group lost weight while the placebo group gained weight.

The researchers conclude: "These data support a beneficial effect of myo-inositol in women with oligomenorrhea and polycystic ovaries in improving ovarian function."

These and other medical studies suggest that therapeutic doses of inositol would be beneficial for ovulation, reduction of insulin resistance and luteinizing hormone, and possibly for weight loss.

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"...liberal arts education will give them skills for life and that will get them a job."

You know what they call the guy who graduates last in his class at medical school?

Doctor.

How to Get Your Blood Sugar Under Control

How to Get Your Blood Sugar Under Control

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045524.php

The advice you will find below is an edited, updated version of the excellent advice written by a lady named Jennifer , which has helped thousands of people bring their blood sugars down to the level that gives an A1c test result in the 5% range. Note: The Jennifer who wrote the advice is not the same person as the Jenny who maintains these pages.

How to Lower Your Blood Sugar

Step 1: Eat whatever you've been eating and write it all down Eat normally, but use your blood sugar meter to test yourself at the following times. Write down what you ate and what your blood sugar results were:

Upon waking (fasting)

1 hour after each meal

2 hours after each meal

What you will discover by this is how long after a meal your highest reading comes... and how fast you return to "normal." Also, you may learn that a meal that included bread, fruit or other starches and sugars (carbohydrates) gives you a higher reading.

Step 2: For the next few days cut back on your carbohydrates Eliminate breads, cereals, rice, beans, any wheat products, potato, corn, and fruit. Get all of your carbohydrates from veggies. Test your modified meals using the same schedule above. See what impact you can make on your blood sugar by eliminating various high carbohydrate foods. The closer we get to non-diabetic readings, the greater chance we have of avoiding horrible complications. Here are what doctors currently believe to be non-diabetic readings:

Fasting blood sugar
under 100 mg/dl (5.5 mmol/L)

One hour after meals
under 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/L)

Two hours after meals
under 120 mg/dl (6.6 mmol/L)

If you can do better than this, go for it. At a minimum, The American College of Clinical Endocrinologists recommends that people with diabetes keep their blood sugars under 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/L) two hours after eating. When you achieve normal blood sugar targets, you can start cautiously adding back carbohydrates, making sure to test after each meal. Stop adding carbohydrates as soon as you get near your blood sugar targets. Recent studies have indicated that your "after meal" numbers are those most indicative of future complications, especially heart problems.

Step 3: Test Test Test!Remember, we're not in a race or a competition with anyone but ourselves. Play around with your food plan. Test, test, test! Learn what foods cause blood sugar spikes and what foods cause cravings. Learn which foods give you healthy blood sugars. No matter what anyone tells you, if a food raises your blood sugar over the targets you are aiming for, that food should not be part of your diabetes food plan. Your blood sugar meter will tell you what the best "diabetes diet" is for your body. Use it and regain your health!