This is True®
by Randy Cassingham

Randy Cassingham's Bonzer Web Sites of the Week: Recognizing Interesting Sites that are Beyond the Microsoft/AOL-Time Warner/Media Megalith

SugarStats

About 21 million Americans have diabetes; the number is about 240 million worldwide, and a large percentage is undiagnosed. There is no cure, but careful management helps not only balance blood sugar, but to reduce complications of diabetes, including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, and other problems. SugarStats helps you control your blood sugar by helping you track and manage medications, food intake, and activity levels -- and lets you easily print out the trends for your doctor. (Note: some advanced features are fee-based, but the basic service is free.) For more information about diabetes see the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse or the International Diabetes Federation.

From This is True for 19 August 2007

Suggestions for further reading:

The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and...
By: T. Colin CampbellThomas M. Campbell II
List Price: $16.95
Amazon Price: $11.53
Editorial Review:
Referred to as the "Grand Prix of epidemiology" by The New York Times, this study examines more than 350 variables of health and nutrition with surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan, and conclusively demonstrates the link between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. While revealing that proper nutrition can have a dramatic effect on reducing and reversing these ailments as well as curbing obesity, this text calls into question the practices of many of the current dietary programs, such as the Atkins diet, that are widely popular in the West. The politics of nutrition and the impact of special interest groups in the creation and dissemination of public information are also discussed.

 
The New Glucose Revolution Shopper's Guide to GI Values 2008: The Authoritati...
By: Dr. Jennie Brand-MillerKaye Foster-Powell
List Price: $6.99
Amazon Price: $6.99
Editorial Review:
Whether you’re looking to lose weight, help manage conditions like diabetes or hypertension, or simply eat for lifelong good health, adopting a low-GI diet is the scientifically proven way to reach your goal. This 2008 guide, updated with more than 500 new foods, makes it easier than ever to select smart, low-GI choices for all your meals. Featured are: The GI value for over 1,000 popular foods and prepared meals-twice as many as 2007 All-new expanded nutrient data-including serving size, calories, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, fiber, and sodium per serving of each food Advice on shopping and eating out to guide your daily food choices Essential advice for incorporating low-GI foods into a gluten-free diet
 
Good Calories, Bad Calories
By: Gary Taubes
List Price: $27.95
Amazon Price: $18.45
Editorial Review:
In this groundbreaking book, the result of seven years of research in every science connected with the impact of nutrition on health, award-winning science writer Gary Taubes shows us that almost everything we believe about the nature of a healthy diet is wrong.

For decades we have been taught that fat is bad for us, carbohydrates better, and that the key to a healthy weight is eating less and exercising more. Yet with more and more people acting on this advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Taubes argues persuasively that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates (white flour, sugar, easily digested starches) and sugars–via their dramatic and longterm effects on insulin, the hormone that regulates fat accumulation–and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the number. There are good calories, and bad ones.

Good Calories
These are from foods without easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars. These foods can be eaten without restraint.
Meat, fish, fowl, cheese, eggs, butter, and non-starchy vegetables.

Bad Calories
These are from foods that stimulate excessive insulin secretion and so make us fat and increase our risk of chronic disease—all refined and easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars. The key is not how much vitamins and minerals they contain, but how quickly they are digested. (So apple juice or even green vegetable juices are not necessarily any healthier than soda.)
Bread and other baked goods, potatoes, yams, rice, pasta, cereal grains, corn, sugar (sucrose and high fructose corn syrup), ice cream, candy, soft drinks, fruit juices, bananas and other tropical fruits, and beer.

Taubes traces how the common assumption that carbohydrates are fattening was abandoned in the 1960s when fat and cholesterol were blamed for heart disease and then –wrongly–were seen as the causes of a host of other maladies, including cancer. He shows us how these unproven hypotheses were emphatically embraced by authorities in nutrition, public health, and clinical medicine, in spite of how well-conceived clinical trials have consistently refuted them. He also documents the dietary trials of carbohydrate-restriction, which consistently show that the fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.

With precise references to the most significant existing clinical studies, he convinces us that there is no compelling scientific evidence demonstrating that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease, that salt causes high blood pressure, and that fiber is a necessary part of a healthy diet. Based on the evidence that does exist, he leads us to conclude that the only healthy way to lose weight and remain lean is to eat fewer carbohydrates or to change the type of the carbohydrates we do eat, and, for some of us, perhaps to eat virtually none at all.

The 11 Critical Conclusions of Good Calories, Bad Calories:

1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, does not cause heart disease.
2. Carbohydrates do, because of their effect on the hormone insulin. The more easily-digestible and refined the carbohydrates and the more fructose they contain, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well-being.
3. Sugars—sucrose (table sugar) and high fructose corn syrup specifically—are particularly harmful. The glucose in these sugars raises insulin levels; the fructose they contain overloads the liver.
4. Refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are also the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, and the other common chronic diseases of modern times.
5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating and not sedentary behavior.
6. Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter any more than it causes a child to grow taller.
7. Exercise does not make us lose excess fat; it makes us hungry.
8. We get fat because of an imbalance—a disequilibrium—in the hormonal regulation of fat tissue and fat metabolism. More fat is stored in the fat tissue than is mobilized and used for fuel. We become leaner when the hormonal regulation of the fat tissue reverses this imbalance.
9. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage. When insulin levels are elevated, we stockpile calories as fat. When insulin levels fall, we release fat from our fat tissue and burn it for fuel.
10. By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.
11. The fewer carbohydrates we eat, the leaner we will be.

Good Calories, Bad Calories is a tour de force of scientific investigation–certain to redefine the ongoing debate about the foods we eat and their effects on our health.
 
Betty Crocker's Diabetes Cookbook: Everyday Meals, Easy as 1-2-3
By: Betty Crocker Editors
List Price: $24.95
Amazon Price: $16.47
Editorial Review:
At last! This special cookbook puts flavor and choice back on the menu for people with diabetes and their families
Betty Crocker, America's most trusted friend in the kitchen, has teamed up with the International Diabetes Center (IDC)--one of the leading medical centers--to create an indispensable source of easy-to-make recipes and up-to-the-minute food and nutrition information for the growing numbers of people who have diabetes, more than 15 million of them.
Here is the first cookbook to include recipes featuring Carbohydrate Choices--the new, simplified approach to meal planning recommended by the American Diabetes Association. For people who find diet exchanges too hard, too limiting or too much work, this new method is a real breakthrough. Each of the book's 140 recipes shows the number of Carbohydrate Choices per serving, so that planning the rest of the meal is easy. From Old-Time Beef and Vegetable Stew to Creamy Vanilla-Caramel Cheesecake, the recipes are made with everyday ingredients, including sugar. No food groups or ingredients are left out, so there's no need for anyone to feel deprived or restricted to a special diet. Food exchanges are also included, making it easy for those who still count calories.
Betty Crocker's Diabetes Cookbook is also packed with expert medical and nutrition tips from Dr. Richard Bergenstal, an endocrinologist and diabetes doctor, and two registered nurses--invaluable for the newly diagnosed as well as for those who have been coping with diabetes for years. Throughout the book, real-life advice from people who have diabetes offers inspiration and great ideas on dealing with this chronic disease. When it comes to eating and living with diabetes, people need guidance and advice they can trust.
 
The Insulin-Resistance Diet--Revised and Updated
By: Cheryle R. HartMary Kay Grossman
List Price: $16.95
Amazon Price: $11.53
Editorial Review:

Conquer insulin resistance. Reduce cravings. Eat your favorite foods. And lose weight!

If you have tried every diet and are still struggling with your weight, the real culprit may be insulin resistance. When you have more glucose than your body needs, your body responds by producing more insulin to stabilize your blood sugar level and store the excess glucose as fat. In The Insulin-Resistance Diet, Cheryle R. Hart and Mary Kay Grossman show you how to control insulin resistance and lose weight without sacrificing all of your favorite foods.

Overcome insulin resistance and lose weight with:

The exclusive Link-and-Balance Eating Method, which balances carbs with the right amount of protein at the right time for maximum weight loss Self-tests to determine your insulin resistance and check your progress with linking and balancing Real-world strategies for eating at home and out on the town Easy-to-make, tasty recipes and livable meal plans
 
About the Site
About This is True
About the Authors

Subscribe Free
to This is True
and see the Sites
when they're issued!
Your e-mail:



Find by keyword:

Prev: The Phrase Finder

Next: Global Volcanism Program

Complete Name List

Copyright 1999-2008 ThisisTrue.Inc, all rights reserved. May not be copied or archived without express, prior, written permission. "This is True" is a registered trademark of ThisisTrue.Inc, Ridgway Colorado. 9437