Super Foods to Help Manage Diabetes

By Lori Shemek

Living with diabetes can be frustrating. Yet, many are unaware that simply making dietary changes can help manage this disease that will lead to better outcomes. It really does condense down to the types of foods we choose to eat, along with exercise.

The average American ingests a diet extraordinarily high in sugar – 156 lbs. of added sugar annually and a whopping 300 grams of carbohydrates per day.

When you have type 2 diabetes, you either don’t have enough insulin, or your cells have become resistant to it. When that happens, your body can’t control your blood sugar levels and can’t turn food into energy. With a diet that is chronically high in sugar and other refined carbohydrates, we experience poor glucose and insulin control. Not only that, but low-grade inflammation occurs as well.

Trying to determine which foods are best to eat with diabetes can be challenging. It is important to note that choosing anti-inflammatory foods will help you manage your diabetes and inflammation.

Some of the best foods to help manage diabetes are:

• Peanuts or Peanut Butter

• Wild Fatty Fish

• Avocados

• Olive Oil

• Grass-Fed, Pasture-Raised Meats and Poultry

• Whole Organic Eggs

• Chia Seeds and Flax Seeds

• Leafy Greens

• Cruciferous Veggies

• Cultured Foods such as Greek Yogurt or Kefir

• Berries

• Garlic

However, there is one food that delivers superior results in its ability to powerfully help manage type 2 diabetes: the delicious peanut. Those in the diabetes community are well aware of peanuts for being a nutritious, hunger satisfying, low-glycemic snack. It’s just one reason the American Diabetes Association considers nuts a “Superfood.”

In fact, for those with elevated fasting blood sugar, eating a single serving of peanuts (about 1 oz.) as a post-dinner, pre-bedtime snack improved blood sugar levels upon waking up in the morning.

For women specifically, a study found a 21% reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes was associated with consuming peanut butter at least 5 times per week.

If you’re nuts about nuts, there’s more good news: a 2018 study found peanuts and almonds to be equally effective for lowering blood glucose levels in diabetic patients. That means more people can enjoy big benefits, at a much smaller cost to the environment — and their wallets.

“This new study highlights that people can choose peanuts as a low-cost option to get the same benefits that they would from a more expensive nut like almonds,” says Dr. Samara Sterling, Director of Research for the Peanut Institute.

For a healthy, delicious low-carb recipe to make for dinner tonight, check out these delicious chicken wraps. And for more amazing diabetes-friendly recipes, check out the Peanut Institute’s recipes.

Remember, eating the right foods, while incorporating exercise will help to help keep blood sugar, insulin, and inflammation manageable, can dramatically reduce your risk for complications, while optimizing your health.

About Lori Shemek:

Lori Shemek is well known as a pioneer in creating global awareness of low-level inflammation and how it is the underlying cause of most illness, disease, faster aging and weight gain. She has been sending out the message about inflammation long before it was a buzz word.

Dr. Lori has uncovered the pathway to the core cause of weight: inflamed fat cells that not only promote unwanted excess weight gain and belly fat, but poor health as well.

Lori Shemek is a Nutrition and Weight Loss expert, a best-selling author and specializes in weight loss resistance. She has helped many people to once and for all.. lose the weight and feel better fast. She shows people how to spot sneaky foods that create weight gain, to kick sugar addiction to the curb, and shift from eating the wrong foods to the exact foods that burn fat.

Dr. Shemek is an award-winning, bestselling author of How To Fight FATflammation!; The Ketogenic Key; Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting and Fire-Up Your Fat Burn! She is a leading health and weight loss expert and also known as “The Inflammation Terminator.” She has made it her mission to help clients lose weight and educate the public on the toxic effects of certain foods and lifestyle choices and how they create inflammation in the body resulting in weight gain. She is a leading authority on inflammation and its role in weight loss, preventing disease and optimizing health.

The Huffington Post has recognized Dr. Shemek twice as one of the Top 16 Health and Fitness Experts, alongside such names as Dr. Oz and David Zinczenko, author of Eat This, Not That. The Huffington Post has also recognized her as one of the Top 35 Diet and Nutrition Experts.

GlobalData has also recognized Dr. Lori Shemek as the #1 Top 10 Health & Wellness Global Influencer in 2020!

Dr. Lori Shemek has been featured in or on CBS The Doctors TV, ABC TV show Good Morning Texas health expert, has been featured on CNN, Time, NPR and Fox News, The Ricki Lake Show, Oprah.com, Dr. Oz’s Good Life Magazine, NBC Today, Health, Shape, Woman’s Day, Prevention, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Men’s Health, The Huffington Post, Closer Magazine, Yahoo.com, Fitness Magazine, EveryDay Health, Eat This, Not That!, Bustle, Consumer Health Digest and numerous others, including national syndicated radio such as Fox News Radio.

Keynote Speaker: U.S. Army 2019, 2020; Joel Osteen/Lakewood Church 2017, 2018; Kaufmann Symphony Hall – Health Conference; Global Health Summit – 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016; Osteoporosis Society; Weekly Fitness Challenge – Multi-State Tour – 2015, 2016, 2017; Chicago School Districts, Dallas Nutrition Org., including many others.

Dr. Shemek holds a Doctorate in Psychology; she is a Certified Nutritional Consultant and a Certified Life Coach.

Sources:

Penn State Study (TBD release in November)

Jiang R, Manson JE, Stampfer MJ, Liu S, Willett WC, Hu FB. Nut and Peanut Butter Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Women. JAMA. 2002;288(20):2554–2560. doi:10.1001/jama.288.20.2554

Hou YY, Ojo O, Wang LL, Wang Q, Jiang Q, Shao XY, Wang XH. A Randomized Controlled Trial to Compare the Effect of Peanuts and Almonds on the Cardio-Metabolic and Inflammatory Parameters in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Nutrients. 2018 Oct 23;10(11):1565. doi: 10.3390/nu10111565. PMID: 30360498; PMCID: PMC6267433

Philip Sapp, Kristina Petersen, Penny Kris-Etherton, Fasting Glucose Response to Evening Snacks That Differ by Carbohydrate and Fat Composition: A 6-Week, Randomized, Crossover Trial in Subjects with Impaired Fasting Glucose, Current Developments in Nutrition, Volume 4, Issue Supplement_2, June 2020, Page 1143, https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzaa055_028