According to the American Diabetes Association, people with diabetes have a greater risk of serious complications from viruses that might otherwise be treatable due to a deficient immune system. It is possible to get your blood sugar under control and lower the risk that comes with a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes.
If there is a virus or flu going around, you might be worried because of your diabetic diagnosis and rightly so! When there is a need to stay inside you end up moving way less than normal, you are likely feeling sluggish and unmotivated. Because you’ve heard the statistics concerning diabetes and increased risk, many people prefer to stay in and ordering out for food. Instead of healthy meals, you may have been snacking in front of the tv–eating mostly your favorite high-carb, low nutrition snacks. You may have unusual feelings of sadness and discouragement. Eating fast food and snacks will add to this depression.
Of the people hospitalized in New York for Covid 19, one third of them had diabetes. This is a risk factor that can be changed and changed quite quickly! As much as we are considering the masks we are wearing over our mouths, perhaps we ought to be thinking a little more about what we are putting into our mouths. YOU CAN lower your blood sugar to a non-diabetic quickly and REVERSE the diabetes! That brings us to the steps you can take to increase your energy, your motivation, and reduce your fear of contracting disease by taking action toward increasing your immune system and reversing your diabetes.
Step 1: Adopt a very low-carb diet
There have been 52 trials on very low-carb diets. Most doctors who advocate low-carb eating for reversing diabetes, recommend starting with 20 grams of carbohydrates per day or less to reverse diabetes. The studies mentioned have shown several things:
- There are no adverse effects from eating the mentioned very low-carb plan
- Low-carb diets improve almost every cardiovascular disease risk
- Very-low carb plans can reverse type 2 diabetes
So what do you have to lose?
How do you do it? This is a new concept to most people—especially in light of the fact that the USDA Dietary Guidelines have taught contrary to that for generations. Even though your diabetes is a product of what you have eaten, IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT! You have been led astray by the very people who should have been protecting you!
Following you will see a few tips to help you get started.
- NO Sugar–Eliminate sugar in all its forms. Watch for high fructose corn syrup which is the most harmful of all sweeteners. Think about what you are drinking. I can of soda contains up to 46 grams of sugar! One 12 oz. glass of fruit juice can have 35-50 grams of carbs.
- If no sugar sounds completely impossible to read my blog post about how to overcome a sugar addiction
- Strive for 20 grams or less of carbohydrates per day. There are many free apps and online carb calculators to help you figure this out
- You can do this with a vegan diet, paleo diet, carnivore diet, Mediterranean diet or an omnivore diet.
- If you feel hungry after a meal, it means you didn’t eat enough fat
Step 2: Create a Respect for FATS
- EAT MORE FATS—Yes you read that correctly! We have been led to believe fat is bad for us. Nothing could be further from the truth. Please DO NOT EAT margarine, hydrogenated shortening, packaged snacks with these oils, commercially fried foods, corn oil, vegetable oil, or coffee creamers either dairy or non-dairy. However, please eat heartily of:
- Coconut oil
- Butter
- Whipping cream
- Sour cream
- Avocadoes and avocado oil
- Olive oil
- Nuts and seeds
- Cream cheese and other high fat cheese
- If you are hungry between meals, eat something with high fat content. Just a tablespoon or so will usually tide you over till the next meal.
3. Get Up and Move
Yes you can get up and move! After being inside and being sedentary for several months, it may be hard to motivate yourself at first. If you will make the effort to move a little more today than yesterday, you will be soon be getting the minimum regular 30 minutes a day that will help keep your blood sugar stable and increase energy and sense of well being!
Start with just a few functional exercises. What do I mean by that? Functional exercises are movements that will help you stay fit enough to do the things required in daily living. For instance, do a sit to stand exercise 10 times every day. To do that movement, find a sturdy fixed chair (nothing on rollers.) Sit on the front of the chair. Put your toes under your knees and cross your hands over your chest. Then stand up. That is one rep. Repeat 9 more times every day.
Functional exercises:
- Sit to stand. Using a sturdy fixed chair (nothing on rollers.) Sit on the front of the chair. Put your toes under your knees and cross your hands over your chest. Then stand up. That is one rep. Repeat 9 more times every day. If you do not feel stable, put a chair in front of you to hold onto if needed to avoid a fall.
- Do simple marching in place. Hold onto something stable if need be.
You can find multiple videos showing functional exercises for free online.
When you are able, take a walk. If you can’t leave the house, walk from the bedroom to the kitchen and back again a few times. If you have stairs, they are amazing exercise! When you can, be sure to go outside for fresh air and movement. If you can just make it to the end of the street and back, that’s a great place to start! Soon you will be running a marathon! (Though of course, that’s not necessary.)
With these three simple steps, Eat a very low carb diet, increase high quality fats in your diet, and move for 30 minutes every day. You can give yourself the gift of health and healing! You will feel much better and your immune system will be stronger—most hopefully strong enough to help you recover from anything with which you come in contact!
Be kind to yourself. Any little step you take toward lowering your blood sugar will help on the way to increasing your immune system strength!
