Publisher's Synopsis
To a diabetic, food is poison. Carb puts up blood sugar. Fat puts up insulin resistance and the wrong type of protein will be turned into sugar by gluconeogenesis. So one has to eat a low carb, higher good fat, higher right protein diet. That is no mean feat. One has to know by heart the carbohydrate contents of most foods and avoid anything which contains more than 15% carb by gram weight. One has to avoid saturated fats with an even number of atoms less than 18 in their carbon chains, avoid trans fat, avoid Omega 6 fat (which is particularly inflammatory to type 2 diabetics due to their 2x-5x higher than normal insulin levels which produce 2x-5x more delta 5 and delta 6 desaturases which push the Omega 6 pathway into an inflammatory state). One has to eat lots of Omega 3 poly fat both long chain and short chain (both of which are anti inflammatory) and attempt to balance the saturated fat we have to eat with mono unsaturated fat. Then one has to eat the right type of mono unsaturated fat (Omega 7 in preference to Omega 9). So rather than have everyone become an expert in Eicosanoid Cytokine Lipins, and a walking USDA database, we have produced 150 low carb, high good fat, low bad fat, high right protein, low wrong protein versions of traditional favourite recipes such as... Flax and Chia Seed Bread Flax and Chia Seed Pizzas Spicy Baked Kidney Beans Chicken and Mozzarella Pie Low Carb High Omega 3 Flax Seed Yorkshire Pudding Low Carb High Omega 3 Flax Seed Chocolate Brownies Flax seed and Chia seed Scotch Eggs Low Carb High Omega 3 High Omega 7 Macadamia Vanilla Cake Low Carb Low Sat Fat High Omega 3 New York Cheesecake Chicken Caesar Salad Spanish Turnip Omelette Low Carb Classic Shepherd's Pie Low Carb Quiche Gruyère Chanterelle Low Carb High Omega 3 Flax and Chia Seed Pastry And we have calculated the kcals, carbs, protein, fats, fibre, and Diabetic Index for each recipe which should tell you how good or bad the meal will be both for your blood sugar and for your insulin resistance, which is the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes. There is no point in improving your sugar numbers at the expense of your insulin resistance. Some diabetic medications do just that. The result is that you think you are getting better, but you are actually getting worse. In fact what is needed is not only a blood sugar meter but also a blood insulin meter. Because then we could multiply our fasting sugar by our fasting insulin level and get our insulin resistance with the following formula - which the meter could actually use... HOMA Insulin Resistance version 1 = Fasting insulin (mIU/L) x Fasting Sugar (mmol/L) / 22.5 HOMA is not a member of the Simpson family. But is HOmeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance For non diabetic people this figure lies between 0.75 and 1.5. For diabetics it is above 1.85, and normally around 3-5. We could then see what effect each meal had upon our insulin resistance. So at Reciprocity Publishing, our job is not merely to get your fasting sugar down to 5 mmol/L or 90 mg/dl. It is also to get your fasting insulin down to 5 milli International Units per Litre (35 picomoles per Litre) - without compromising on taste or deliciousness. That is where the Diabetic Index comes in. It is a major step forward from the glycemic index which only addresses half of the equation.
