https://authoritynutrition.com/sugar-liver-diabetes/

How Fructose Messes up Your Liver

Sugar is composed of two molecules… glucose and fructose.
Glucose can be metabolized by every cell in the body and if we don’t get it from the diet, our bodies make it.
However, fructose is different. The only organ that can metabolize sugar is the liver, because only the liver has a transporter for it (2).
Athletes or highly active individuals can eat quite a bit of fructose without problems, because their livers will turn the fructose into glycogen – a storage form of glucose in the liver.

However, when someone’s liver is already full of glycogen (which is true of most people), the fructose will be turned into fat (3).

Some of the fat gets shipped out as blood triglycerides while part of it remains in the liver, contributing to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (4, 5).
At the same time, your liver becomes insulin resistant. This causes elevated insulin all over your body, which can lead to obesity, metabolic syndrome and many other diseases (6, 7).
Eventually, the pancreas will become unable to secrete sufficient insulin to drive blood glucose into cells.
At this point, blood sugar levels elevate significantly… and that’s when a diagnosis of diabetes is made.

http://www.diabetesaction.org/site/PageServer?pagename=complementary_9_12

Other flavonoids are better absorbed, and may also have benefits for diabetes.

Fisetin,

present in strawberries and onion, has been explored for these purposes. Rat used as models of diabetes were found to have significant improvements in blood sugar, insulin, and HbA1c after 30 days of fisetin treatment, comparable to the effects of the drug gliclazide.⁹ This study further found fisetin improved the activity of several key enzymes involved in carbohydrate metabolism.

http://www.diabeticlivingonline.com/monitoring/blood-sugar/morning-highs-how-to-lower-morning-blood-sugar

Four hormones are involved in blood glucose control: Insulin, made in the beta cells of the pancreas, helps the body use glucose from food by enabling glucose to move into the body's cells for energy. People with type 2 diabetes have slowly dwindling insulin reserves.

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2013/05/17/intermittent-fasting-diet.aspx

Fasting: As a possible cure for diabetes.

Restricting Your Daily Eating to a Specific Window of Time Is Another Option

Another version of intermittent fasting, and the one I actually prefer and use, is when you simply restrict your daily eating to a specific window of time, such as an eight hour window. This is feasible and convenient for most people, but you can restrict it even further — down to six, four or even two hours, if you want, but you can still reap many of the rewards by limiting your eating to a window of about 8 hours.
For instance, this means eating only between the hours of 11am until 7pm, as an example. Essentially, this equates to simply skipping breakfast and making lunch your first meal of the day instead. Personally, I have been experimenting with different types of scheduled eating in my own life for the past two years, and I currently restrict my eating to an 8-hour window each day.
The rationale behind this approach is that it takes about six to eight hours for your body to burn the carbs stored in your body as glycogen. After that your body is stimulated to burn fat as its primary fuel. It takes a few weeks or more to make this transition and during that time one typically does have sugar cravings. But you can use coconut oil as a short-chain fat that is rapidly broken down and can supply your body as fuel during this period to relieve your cravings and provide you with a source of energy until your body can effectively burn your own fat.

http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/c/7986/108666/carbohydrates/

Cholesterol and carbohydrates link

http://www.progressivehealth.com/sugar-may-be-the-cause-of-your-elevated-cholestero.htm

The cholesterol myth

Consumption of added sugar

Raised triglyceride levels
Lowered HDL or “good” cholesterol levels
Raised the ratio of triglyceride to HDL cholesterol

The Sugar Status of the Nation

The source of simple sugar is really immaterial. Even though some believe that the sugar found in honey and molasses are healthful and the sugar found in fructose corn syrup and soda drinks are bad for our health, the simple truth is sugar is sugar.
However, most Americans consume more sugar from refined, processed foods and soda drinks than from fruit juices.
The latest data from the American Heart Association show that Americans consume an average of 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day. This is in sharp contrast to the recommended 6 teaspoons per day for women and 9 teaspoons per day for men.
Increasingly, added sugar is making up more of our daily calories. The increased consumption of added sugar can either add more calories to our diet or displace nutritious foods.
All of these facts suggests there is an urgent need to cut back on the amount of added sugar in our diet.

Sugar and Triglycerides

The simple, refined sugar commonly added to processed foods and soda drinks is meant to be quickly burnt to provide a ready energy source for the body.
However, consuming more sugar than is needed simply increases blood glucose levels. The body responds by releasing more insulin and storing excess blood sugar as fat. One of the means by which the body removes excess sugar from the blood is by storing them as triglycerides in the liver.
Triglycerides are a particularly unhealthy kind of fat. They are made from glycerol and fatty acids.
Triglycerides are used to transport fats and they are also important energy sources. In fact, triglycerides contain double the energy store of carbohydrates (9 kcal/g vs. 4 kcal/g).
The high energy content of triglycerides make them high caloric macronutrient and, therefore, potentially worse than the simple sugar used to synthesize them.
The body uses triglycerides to manufacture small-sized lipoproteins such as chylomicrons and VLDL (very low-density lipoproteins). These lipoproteins are even smaller than triglycerides and can, therefore, increase the risk of heart disease too.
The VLDL produced from triglycerides can also be converted to small, dense LDL which are known to get trapped in the walls of arteries and, therefore, increase the risk of heart disease.

Sugar, Inflammation and Heart Disease

While high sugar intake causes insulin resistance, it also wrecks the natural balance of the body. High blood sugar level coupled with high levels of circulating insulin can damage the walls of arteries.
Sugar causes inflammation and new studies have established that inflammation (and not cholesterol) is the root cause of heart disease.
When high sugar and insulin levels disrupt cellular and metabolic processes, a number of harmful compounds causes small tears in the lining of the arteries. The body responds to this injury by sending pro-inflammatory cytokines to the sites of injury.
Even as the lining of the arteries become damaged, small, dense LDL cholesterol become oxidized and then trapped in the inflamed sites of the lining.
The trapping of oxidized LDL cholesterol not only worsens the inflammation but also promotes the formation of plaques and the narrowing of the arteries.
Therefore, high sugar consumption can cause inflammation and increase the risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease.

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/can-carbohydrates-raise-cholesterol-5983.html

Dietary carbohydrates can raise your tissue and blood cholesterol levels, especially if your diet contains more calories than you expend on a daily basis. All digestible carbohydrates are broken down to simple sugars, mainly glucose and fructose, prior to their absorption from your small intestine. As energy is extracted through the metabolism of glucose and fructose in your tissues, a molecule called acetyl coenzyme A is produced.

Acetyl coenzyme A can either be used to produce more energy,

or it can be used to produce lipids such as cholesterol and triglycerides.

http://ayurveda-foryou.com/treat/diabetes.html

Diabetes : mainly a Kapha Dosha

;According to Ayurveda There are 20 forms of Diabetes (Prameha): 4 are due to Vata, 6 result from Pitta, and 10 are caused by Kapha. But Diabetes (Prameha) is mainly kapha doshaja disease.
All forms of diabetes not treated to, eventually develop into Madhumeha (Diabetes Melitus). Causes of diabetes –
1] Diet increasing kapha dosha such as sugar, fats, potatoes, rice.
2] Lack of exercise.
3] Mental stress and strain.
4] Excessive sleep etc.
Remedies for diabetes–

1] Diet planning- is the cornerstone of managing diabetes.The diabetic diet is an otherwise normal balanced diet, with a few modifications and proper spacing between food intakes. Avoid diet increasing kapha dosha such as sugar, fats, potatoes, rice. Avoid alcohol

      2] Daily exercise- One of the methods to heal prameha include strenuous exercises. Regular exercise in any form is a must.
In 'Yogasanas' -Forward bending asanas like 'Paschimottanasan','Halasan' etc. are effective

       3]Restrict and reduce weight.

       4] Avoid sleeping during daytime.

       5] Avoid smoking.

6] Try to reduce stress by implementing 'Yoga' practice.

Useful herbs for diabetes management–
1] Jambhul (Eugenia jambolana)Powder from jamun core is useful.
2] Gurmar(gymnema sylvestre).
3] Bitter Gourd/bitter melon (Momordica charantia)
4] Bel (Aegle marmelos).
5] Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum graecum)
6] Turmeric
7] Neem.
8] Triphala
9] Shilajit

Useful drug formulations –
1]Chandrabrabha.
2]Arogyavardhini.
3]Asanad tablets
4] Shilajit Vati
5Trivanga bhasma.
6]Vasant Kusumakar

Diet – Use barly ,Varee, Mung, Kulittha, Chickpeas, old rice, bitter gourd, Dodaka, dudhee gourd in diet. Roasted rice and wheat are more useful . Include 'Tikta ras' items in diet.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/triglycerides/art-20048186

Triglycerides:

However, the same lifestyle choices that promote overall health can help lower your triglycerides, too.

What are triglycerides?

Triglycerides are a type of fat (lipid) found in your blood. When you eat, your body converts any calories it doesn't need to use right away into triglycerides. The triglycerides are stored in your fat cells. Later, hormones release triglycerides for energy between meals. If you regularly eat more calories than you burn, particularly "easy" calories like carbohydrates and fats, you may have high triglycerides (hypertriglyceridemia).

What's considered normal?

A simple blood test can reveal whether your triglycerides fall into a healthy range.

Normal — Less than 150 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), or less than 1.7 millimoles per liter (mmol/L)
Borderline high — 150 to 199 mg/dL (1.8 to 2.2 mmol/L)
High — 200 to 499 mg/dL (2.3 to 5.6 mmol/L)
Very high — 500 mg/dL or above (5.7 mmol/L or above)

Your doctor will usually check for high triglycerides as part of a cholesterol test (sometimes called a lipid panel or lipid profile). You'll have to fast for nine to 12 hours before blood can be drawn for an accurate triglyceride measurement.

What's the difference between triglycerides and cholesterol?

Triglycerides and cholesterol are separate types of lipids that circulate in your blood. Triglycerides store unused calories and provide your body with energy, and cholesterol is used to build cells and certain hormones. Because triglycerides and cholesterol can't dissolve in blood, they circulate throughout your body with the help of proteins that transport the lipids (lipoproteins).

Why do high triglycerides matter?

Although it's unclear how, high triglycerides may contribute to hardening of the arteries or thickening of the artery walls (atherosclerosis) — which increases the risk of stroke, heart attack and heart disease. Extremely high triglycerides — for example, levels above 1000 mg/dL (11.29 mmol/L) — can also cause acute pancreatitis.
High triglycerides are often a sign of other conditions that increase the risk of heart disease and stroke as well, including obesity and metabolic syndrome — a cluster of conditions that includes too much fat around the waist, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, high blood sugar and abnormal cholesterol levels.
Sometimes high triglycerides are a sign of poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, low levels of thyroid hormones (hypothyroidism), liver or kidney disease, or rare genetic conditions that affect how your body converts fat to energy. High triglycerides could also be a side effect of taking medications such as beta blockers, birth control pills, diuretics or steroids.

What's the best way to lower triglycerides?

Healthy lifestyle choices are key:

Lose weight. If you're overweight, losing 5 to 10 pounds can help lower your triglycerides. Motivate yourself by focusing on the benefits of losing weight, such as more energy and improved health.
Cut back on calories. Remember that extra calories are converted to triglycerides and stored as fat. Reducing your calories will reduce triglycerides.

Avoid sugary and refined foods. Simple carbohydrates, such as sugar and foods made with white flour, can increase triglycerides.
Choose healthier fats. Trade saturated fat found in meats for healthier monounsaturated fat found in plants, such as olive, peanut and canola oils. Substitute fish high in omega-3 fatty acids — such as mackerel and salmon — for red meat.
Limit how much alcohol you drink. Alcohol is high in calories and sugar and has a particularly potent effect on triglycerides. Even small amounts of alcohol can raise triglyceride levels.
Exercise regularly. Aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity on most or all days of the week. Regular exercise can lower triglycerides and boost "good" cholesterol. Take a brisk daily walk, swim laps or join an exercise group. If you don't have time to exercise for 30 minutes, try squeezing it in 10 minutes at a time. Take a short walk, climb the stairs at work, or try some situps or pushups as you watch television.

http://www.healthline.com/health/high-cholesterol/lipid-disorder#Causes2

Triglycerides

Food

Foods that contain saturated fat can cause an increase in cholesterol. Saturated fat is mostly found in animal-based food products such as:

cheese
milk
butter
steak

Medical Conditions

High levels of cholesterol, heart disease, and diabetes cause high triglycerides. High blood cholesterol levels can result from:

diabetes
hypothyroidism
metabolic syndrome
medication side effects
Cushing’s syndrome
polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
kidney diseases

What Else Causes High Cholesterol?

A lack of exercise can increase your LDL. Exercise is shown to boost your healthy HDL cholesterol. Smoking can also increase your bad cholesterol by causing plaque to build up in your arteries. Your family history can also tell you whether you’re at risk for high blood cholesterol.

How Can I Tell if My Cholesterol or Triglycerides Are High?

High cholesterol doesn’t have any symptoms. Symptoms only appear after significant damage has been done due to increased cholesterol.

A combination of exercise and medications can correct high cholesterol and triglycerides.

Medications

A group of drugs called “statins” are commonly used to treat high cholesterol. This type of medication blocks a substance created in your liver that produces cholesterol. Your liver then removes cholesterol from your blood. Statins can also absorb cholesterol trapped in your arteries.

Eating plenty of whole grains, fruit, and vegetables can also decrease high cholesterol.

Other ways you can maintain a healthy cholesterol level include:

eating skinless poultry with no visible fat
eating lean meats, in moderate portions
eating low-fat or fat-free dairy products
consuming polyunsaturated fats and mono-unsaturated fat instead of saturated fats and transfats
exercising for at least 30 minutes per day, four days per week
avoiding fast food, junk food, and processed meats
eating grilled and roasted foods instead of fried foods

http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthtopics/content.asp?hwid=zp3387

What causes high triglycerides?

High triglycerides are usually caused by other conditions, such as:

Obesity.
Poorly controlled diabetes .
An underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism ).
Kidney disease.
Regularly eating more calories than you burn.
Drinking a lot of alcohol.

Certain medicines may also raise triglycerides. These medicines include:

Tamoxifen.
Steroids.
Beta-blockers .
Diuretics .
Estrogen .
Birth control pills.

In a few cases, high triglycerides also can run in families.

What are the symptoms?

High triglycerides usually don't cause symptoms.

But if your high triglycerides are caused by a genetic condition, you may see fatty deposits under your skin. These are called xanthomas (say "zan-THOH-muhs").

How can you lower your high triglycerides?

You can make diet and lifestyle changes to help lower your levels.

Lose weight and stay at a healthy weight.
Limit fats and sugars in your diet.
Be more active.
Quit smoking.
Limit alcohol.

You also may need medicine to help lower your triglycerides. But your doctor likely will ask you to try diet and lifestyle changes first.

http://www.healthcommunities.com/high-cholesterol/steps-to-lower-triglycerides.shtml

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2015/01/high-triglycerides/

natural, non-medication

Block insulin, thereby adding to weight gain and higher blood sugars
Cause formation of small LDL particles. Triglycerides occur in the bloodstream mostly as Very Low-Density Lipoproteins, VLDL, that interact with other lipoprotein particles. Abundant triglycerides in VLDL encounter LDL particles and make them triglyceride-rich. This leads to the formation of small LDL particles that causes coronary heart disease and heart attack.
At levels above normal, the pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin are subjected to lipotoxicity, irreversible damage that can lead to inadequate insulin production by the pancreas over time.
At very high levels above 1000 mg/dl, triglycerides cause pancreatitis, pancreatic inflammation that damages the delicate pancreatic tissues.

There are two processes that are much larger determinants of both fasting and after-meal (“postprandial” or “non-fasting”) triglyceride levels:

Whenever the liver has fatty acids delivered to it, it manufactures triglycerides (each triglyceride molecule contains 3–tri–fatty acids). Visceral fat–deep abdominal fat in the abdomen–is resistant to insulin and thereby provides a continual flow of fatty acids to the liver, a process that runs 24 hours a day.
Carbohydrates in the diet are converted to triglycerides by the process of liver de novo lipogenesis, the creation of fat from carbohydrates.

These last two processes yield much greater rises in both fasting and postprandial triglycerides than that provided by dietary fat. These two processes explain why, for example, someone has a triglyceride level of 210 mg/dl fasting, 400 mg/dl 6 hours after eating. It also explains why some of the triglycerides manufactured by the liver stay there and accumulate, causing fatty liver.
Understanding these phenomena thereby lead us to practical dietary and natural methods to reduce triglycerides to a level of 60 mg/dl or less:

Eliminate grains and sugars–

Contrary to the conventional advice to reduce fat and eat plenty of “healthy whole grains,” the amylopectin A carbohydrate unique to grains provides dietary carbohydrates to fuel liver de novo lipogenesis.

High blood sugars that result from grain amylopectin A also lead to insulin resistance. The result: high triglycerides. Eliminate grains and sugars and both processes unwind quickly and dramatically. Most people need to also limit carbohydrate consumption to no more than 15 grams net carbohydrates per meal (net carbs = total carbs – fiber) to prevent liver de novo lipogenesis from proceeding. Do not reduce dietary fat, as this raises triglycerides substantially. (When I was an ultra low-fat vegetarian, my triglycerides rose to 350 mg/dl; they are now 40 mg/dl.)

Reverse insulin resistance–Beyond grain and sugar elimination, vitamin D restoration, getting adequate sleep, and physical activity all help reverse insulin resistance. A very quick way to reverse insulin resistance is through intermittent fasting, fasting for periods of 15-36 hours (while hydrating very well).

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150105182454.htm

New Research:

Solving one of the great mysteries of type 2 diabetes, a team of researchers found that triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood and liver, are produced in the liver independent of insulin action in the liver.

In type 2 diabetics, insulin fails to suppress blood sugar production by the liver while paradoxically allowing the production of hepatic triglycerides. This combination results in multiple health risks, including high blood sugar and fatty liver disease. For years, to gain insight into this phenomenon, researchers focused on the role of altered insulin action in the liver in the production of triglycerides. However, Yale researchers tested a theory that triglycerides formed in the liver were more dependent on the delivery of fatty acids to the liver than on insulin action.
In their study, the Yale team -- led by Gerald I. Shulman, the George R. Cowgill professor of medicine and cellular & molecular physiology -- developed a novel method to measure the rate of triglyceride production from fatty acids in three types of animals: normal rats, insulin-resistant rats fed a high-fat diet, and rats with genetically modified insulin receptors. They found that in all of the animals tested increased triglyceride production was primarily dependent on fatty acid delivery and not on insulin action in the liver.
The findings also explain the long-standing paradox of why insulin therapy does not exacerbate, but instead reduces, fatty liver disease in patients with type 2 diabetes. "These results provide new insights into the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic liver disease and provides new approaches to treat fatty liver disease, which is now the most common liver disease in the world," said Shulman.
Shulman and his team plan to apply similar methodology to translate their findings to insulin-resistant patients with type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and fatty liver disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZSjw4TbIJk

Graphically : triglycerides

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8OdjZIw6fA

imp. info regarding effects of high bs

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045911.php

Regarding metformin....good, bad

What You Need To Know About Taking Metformin

Metformin takes about 3 days to kick in and 3 weeks to achieve its maximum effect. Because it can cause intense gastric problems, it's advisable to start out with a low dose and work up. Most people don't see an effect on blood sugars until they are taking between 1,000 and 1,500 mg a day. Larger people may need to take the full dose (2250 to 2500 mg depending on whether it is metformin ER or Metformin)
Timing when you take your metformin will often subtly change the impact it has on your blood sugar because even the ER form does not result in a completely smooth activity curve. Taking metformin ER it at night will often result in a stronger effect on fasting blood sugar but less action at dinner. Taking Metformin in the morning may give best coverage on lunch, decent coverage for dinner but result in the highest fasting blood sugars and the most stomach discomfort. You can experiement with the time you take metformin as long as you NEVER take more than the prescribed dose during a 24 hour period.

Side Effects

Gastric Distress

The most common side effects of Metformin are nausea, diarrhea, heartburn and gas. That's why it's been nicknamed "metfartin" by people who post on Web bulletin boards. These unpleasant digestive system symptoms often go away after a few weeks, but not always. Some people are unable to take Metformin because of the persistence of these symptoms.

The extended release form of metformin (metformin ER) often relieves gastric symptoms. Many of us find that taking metformin ER in the early afternoon after we have eaten several meals may eliminate heartburn or the stomach irritation that occurs when it is taken on a relatively empty stomach.

If your problem is gas or diarrhea, try eating less starch. These symptoms are caused by undigested starches reaching the gut where they are fermented by helpful bacteria.

http://diabetesstopshere.org/2014/06/26/why-all-the-morning-highs/

Morning highs :

People without diabetes would never notice it happening, as a normal body’s insulin response adjusts for this. However, because people with diabetes don’t have normal insulin responses, they may see an increase in their fasting blood glucose.
This is primarily because people with diabetes produce less insulin and more glucagon than they need. The less insulin produced by the pancreas, the more glucagon the pancreas makes as a result. Glucagon, in turn, signals the liver to break down its storage supplies of glycogen into glucose. This is why high fasting blood glucose levels are commonly seen in patients with type 2 diabetes.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/apple-cider-vinegar-and-health?page=2

apple cider vinegar..imp pts

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/06/02/apple-cider-vinegar-hype.aspx

The Gnarlier, the Better

When purchasing an apple cider vinegar, you'll want to avoid the perfectly clear, "sparkling clean" varieties you commonly see on grocery store shelves. Instead, you want organic, unfiltered, unprocessed apple cider vinegar, which is murky and brown.
When you try to look through it, you will notice a cobweb-like substance floating in it. This is known as "mother,"⁸ and it indicates your vinegar is of good quality.
The reason manufacturers distill vinegar is to remove this rather murky looking stuff that most folks won't buy. But in this case, it's the murky looking stuff you want. As with everything else, the more processed a food is, the less nutritious, and this holds true for apple cider vinegar.

If you are considering taking it medicinally, there are some things to keep in mind⁹:

Apple cider vinegar is highly acidic. The main ingredient is acetic acid, which is quite harsh. You should always dilute it with water or juice before swallowing. Pure, straight apple cider vinegar could damage your tooth enamel or the tissues of your mouth and throat. (There is, in fact, one reported incident of long-term esophageal damage to a woman who got an apple cider vinegar supplement capsule stuck in her throat.)
Long-term excessive use could conceivably cause low potassium levels and lower bone density.
Apple cider vinegar could theoretically interact with diuretics, laxatives, and medicines for diabetes and heart disease.

If you are under the care of a physician and you want to try a course of apple cider vinegar, talk to your doctor first to make sure it won't interfere with any of the medications you are presently on.

Apple Cider Vinegar -- It's Not Just a Breakfast Drink

Vinegar is one of the best natural agents for removing certain pesticides and bacteria from your fresh produce. Of course, you don't need apple cider vinegar for this -- any basic white vinegar will do, and for a fraction of the price.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqDqwnklot0

fructose..sugar in fruits ..Glycation, aging

http://www.livestrong.com/article/439494-are-kidney-beans-bad-for-a-diabetic/

Rajma/ kidney beans good for diabetes

Kidney beans contain a significant amount of carbohydrates in the form of starch, which breaks down into sugar in your digestive tract. You need not worry about kidney beans causing a sudden jump in your blood sugar level, however, because they contain slow carbohydrates. This means the carbohydrates break down and are absorbed slowly from your intestines, which dampens the effect on your blood sugar level. A cup of cooked kidney beans contains approximately 39 g of carbohydrates and 0.6 g of sugars.

Kidney beans are a nearly fat-free source of dietary protein, with approximately 15 g per 1-cup serving. Other protein-rich foods, such as red meat, whole-milk dairy products and eggs, contain cholesterol and saturated fat, which are bad for your heart. Substituting kidney beans for animal-derived protein in some of your meals is a heart-healthy choice.

Your body uses the mineral potassium for many functions, including maintaining water balance. Inadequate dietary potassium increases your risk of high blood pressure, which is particularly dangerous if you have diabetes. High blood pressure is a contributing factor to heart and kidney disease -- two long-term complications of diabetes. Therefore, it's important to do everything possible to keep your blood pressure under control, including consuming sufficient dietary potassium. Kidney beans contain a substantial amount of potassium, offering 690 mg per cup of cooked beans.

Magnesium is involved in the ability of your cells to respond to the blood sugar-lowering hormone insulin. Therefore, adequate intake of this mineral is fundamentally important if you have Type 2 diabetes. A cup of cooked kidney beans provides you with approximately 75 mg of magnesium. The recommended daily intake of magnesium is 320 mg for women and 420 mg for men. If you take a water pill for high blood pressure, you may require additional magnesium. Talk with your doctor if you have questions about your magnesium intake.

Many types of beans contain high levels of iron, such as kidney beans, lima beans, soybeans and white beans. However, beans provide non-heme iron, which isn't as easy to absorb as heme, or meat sources of iron. Improve your absorption of iron by eating beans along with meat, seafood or poultry or by eating beans with a source of vitamin C, such as oranges or bell peppers, recommends the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

http://www.glycemic.com/glycemicindex-loaddefined.htm

http://www.imixie.com/black-urad-dal-good-for-health-calories-gas-problems.html

urad dal pre biotic:

Urad dal nutrition

Urad dal is a prebiotic food. Prebiotics is about food ingredients like complex starch and soluble fibre which cannot be digested with our normal digestive process, but require the help of intestinal bacteria to digest it. This bacterial digestion in the lower part of our intestine, the large intestines, is extremely good for our nutrition and at the same time stimulates the growth of bacteria in the digestive system. Urad dal has a high content of amylose starch which is a very good source of prebiotic food. Urad dal helps in the growth of intestinal bacteria like ‘Clostridia’ and ‘Bacteroides’, which produce Short Chain Fatty Acids -SCFA. SCFA have recently grabbed headlines in being very good for our health. Most of the study with SCFA was done proving that Oats is a super food because it helps produce SCFA in the large intestines. Urad Dal is better than Oats as a breakfast food. Prebiotics in foods like Oats and black Urad dal helps to prevent some cancers, reduce cholesterol, helps in the absorption of calcium and other minerals.

https://www.vrg.org/nutshell/vegan.htm#what

http://www.whale.to/a/diabetes_shame.html

Athletes sweat out more minerals in five years than couch potatoes sweat out in 50 years. If you sweat out all of your copper and don't replace it you are at high risk of dying of a ruptured aneurysm. If you sweat out all of your selenium and don't replace it you're at high risk of developing a cardiomyopathy heart attack or cancer. If you sweat out all of your chromium and vanadium and don't replace it you're at high risk of developing adult onset or type 2 diabetes. If you sweat out all of your calcium, magnesium, and sulfur and don't replace them, you are at high risk of developing arthritis, osteoporosis, and kidney stones. (Page 141) QED

"....Almost 50 years ago the mineral chromium was established as an essential nutrient at the federal offices of the National Institutes of Health by Dr. Klaus Schwarz. It was precisely for its role in blood sugar metabolism that this trace element chromium was established as essential.
A molecule named Glucose Tolerance Factor (GTF) that corrected abnormal sugar metabolism was found to be composed primarily of the mineral chromium. Dr. Walter Mertz, then an assistant to Dr. Schwarz, reportedly noted at that time in 1959 “Type II diabetes is not a disease. It is the lack of a natural ingredient, known as GTF Chromium.”....
....Chromium works together with insulin in providing sugar to the cells for energy. If chromium levels decrease then sugar delivery to the cells from insulin decrease accordingly.
Modern medical terms such as “insulin resistance” and “insulin sensitivity” should be replaced by “gross chromium deficiency”.

It is not that insulin is “resistant” or lacks “sensitivity,” but rather that insulin is lacking a vital – in fact essential – component for sugar metabolism that is this mineral chromium.

Insulin is a transport mechanism. It is like a truck that transports glucose to the cell. At the cell destination there is an insulin receptor site that is comparable to a loading dock. This is where the glucose is unloaded and passed into the cell. Chromium rich GTF molecules are in essence dock workers that assist the sugar (glucose) from the insulin “truck” at the insulin receptor site “loading dock” into the cell. If there are less and less GTF chromium “dock workers” then the work of providing sugar to the cells for energy slows and becomes unproductive. A traffic jam of insulin “trucks” in the blood stream results in higher and higher levels of blood sugar as the problem of chromium deficiency increases with the passing of time.....

Whole wheat and raw sugar from sugar cane are rich in chromium. The refining of whole wheat into bleached, white flour removes 91 per cent of that chromium. The refining of raw sugar into white sugar removes 98 per cent of that chromium.
The refined flour and refined sugar are quickly reduced in the body into simple sugars that require chromium to be efficiently metabolized – chromium that is substantially no longer there. The most important component for your body to use the refined flour and refined sugar is very nearly entirely removed. This turns foods wholly good for you into those which are essentially unholy foods to you.....
...Quite literally every time you consume a refined, white flour or refined, white sugar product your body loses chromium....

....Dr. Henry Alfred Schroeder, M.D., Ph.D., graduate of Columbia and Yale, and professor at Dartmouth medical school wrote more than 30 years ago that “the typical American diet, with about 60 per cent of its calories from refined sugar, refined flour, and fat … was apparently designed not only to provide as little chromium as feasible, but to cause depletion of body stores of chromium.”

Dr. Schroeder noted that cholesterol increases were linked to sinking levels of the trace element chromium more than 30 years ago.

Schroeder discovered that chromium was the factor that managed cholesterol as he wrote, “We found that chromium in the aorta was not detected (too low to be found) in almost every person dying of coronary artery disease, one manifestation of atherosclerosis, and was present in almost every aorta of persons dying accidentally.”
Cholesterol has been blamed for decades as a primary cause of heart disease. However, cholesterol problems are only an effect caused by a deficiency of chromium.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=12

Asparagus:

You may have heard about two foods — chicory root and Jerusalem artichoke — that are widely recognized as providing health benefits for our digestive tract. These health benefits involve a special area of digestive support called "prebiotics" offered by a compound known as inulin. Both chicory root and Jerusalem artichoke contain rich concentrations of inulin, a unique type of carbohydrate called a polyfructan. Unlike most other carbs, inulin doesn't get broken down in the first segments of our digestive tract. It passes undigested all the way to our large intestine. Once it arrives at our large intestine, it becomes an ideal food source for certain types of bacteria (like Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli) that are associated with better nutrient absorption, lower risk of allergy, and lower risk of colon cancer. Researchers now know that asparagus belongs among the list of foods that contain inulin. While approximately 5% lower in inulin than chicory root and Jerusalem artichoke, asparagus is a food that contains a valuable amount of unique carb and may provide our digestive tract with some equally unique health benefits.

Asparagus, cooked
1.00 cup
(180.00 grams)

Calories: 40
GI: very low

NutrientDRI/DV

vitamin K101%

folate67%

copper33%

vitamin B124%

selenium20%

vitamin B219%

vitamin C18%

vitamin E18%

manganese14%

phosphorus14%

fiber14%

potassium12%

vitamin B312%

choline11%

zinc10%

vitamin A10%

iron9%

protein9%

pantothenic acid8%

vitamin B68%

magnesium6%

calcium4%

http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/herbs/asparagus.html

Health Benefits and Therapeutic Uses of Asparagus

Asparagus possesses various health benefits and therapeutic uses, owing to its richness of vitamins and minerals. It is renowned as an excellent provider of folate, which is especially essential for pregnant women.
Asparagus also provides plenty of potassium in our diet, which is believed to prevent the depletion of calcium from our body.
Asparagus is believed to balance and rejuvenate the reproductive system in women. It promotes lactation in nursing mothers.
The paste of asparagus leaves are used as a topical application in the case of small pox or other skin burns or irritations.
The juice or decoction from the roots of asparagus acts as a good tonic for the body. It is a good diuretic and cleanses the body of toxic matter.
Asparagus is also believed to be a mood booster, and it can be used to combat depression.
The herb also acts as a demulcent for the dry and swollen membranes of the lungs and stomach.
Being a good nerve tonic, asparagus allays the onset and intensity of epilepsy and hysteria.
Asparagus contains inulin, which consumes the bacteria in the large intestine; thus, it is helpful in maintaining a healthy digestive system.
Vitamin K in asparagus prevents osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, as the vitamin helps in the repair and formation of the bones.
Asparagus is believed to produce estrogens, and hence, it helpful in combating the symptoms of menopause. It also helps provide estrogen to women who have had their ovaries or uterus removed.
Asparagus is believed to possess anti fungal, antiviral and anti-cancer properties. It is a powerful antioxidant and detoxifier.
Being an alkaline food and a natural diuretic, asparagus prevents urinary and bladder infections and the growth of stones.
Known for its cholesterol reducing property, asparagus also lowers blood pressure in a natural manner.

is a reservoir of vitamins and essential nutrients. Vitamin B6, magnesium, and zinc are found in the asparagus shoots. Asparagus is known to be an excellent storehouse of potassium and folates. It meets more than the average daily requirement of a person. The reason that asparagus is a very attractive food to eat is that it contains only traces of sodium and calories. Vitamins A, C, E and K are also found in asparagus shoots along with the essential minerals like phosphorus, copper, manganese and selenium. Chromium, a mineral that helps insulin take glucose from the blood to the cells, is also present in asparagus. The amino acid, asparagines, is also abundantly present in this plant. Green asparagus also abounds in vitamin C. http://www.eatingwell.com/blogs/health_blog/5_powerful_health_benefits_of_asparagus_you_probably_didn_t_know

It’s loaded with nutrients: Asparagus is a very good source of fiber, folate, vitamins A, C, E and K, as well as chromium, a trace mineral that enhances the ability of insulin to transport glucose from the bloodstream into cells.
This herbaceous plant—along with avocado, kale and Brussels sprouts—is a particularly rich source of glutathione, a detoxifying compound that helps break down carcinogens and other harmful compounds like free radicals. This is why eating asparagus may help protect against and fight certain forms of cancer, such as bone, breast, colon, larynx and lung cancers.
Asparagus is packed with antioxidants, ranking among the top fruits and vegetables for its ability to neutralize cell-damaging free radicals. This, according to preliminary research, may help slow the aging process.
Another anti-aging property of this delicious spring veggie is that it may help our brains fight cognitive decline. Like leafy greens, asparagus delivers folate, which works with vitamin B12—found in fish, poultry, meat and dairy—to help prevent cognitive impairment. In a study from Tufts University, older adults with healthy levels of folate and B12 performed better on a test of response speed and mental flexibility. (If you’re 50-plus, be sure you’re getting enough B12: your ability to absorb it decreases with age.)
One more benefit of asparagus: It contains high levels of the amino acid asparagine, which serves as a natural diuretic, and increased urination not only releases fluid but helps rid the body of excess salts. This is especially beneficial for people who suffer from edema (an accumulation of fluids in the body's tissues) and those who have high blood pressure or other heart-related diseases.

https://www.patrickholford.com/advice/nutrients-that-work-better-than-drugs

High blood pressure High blood pressure medication is designed to lower your blood pressure and the best drugs achieve about a 10 point lowering. Some people are given more that one drug to achieve a bigger effect but these drugs come with considerable side-effects and much less impressive evidence than you’d think for actually reducing cardiovascular deaths. Diuretics, for example, knock out B12 which increases dementia risk, and magnesium, which ironically increases heart attack risk. You want your blood pressure below 140/90 and ideally around 120/80.

Magnesium has a direct and immediate blood-pressure lowering effect comparable to medication. This is because the muscle cells lining your arteries relax when they contain more magnesium than calcium. You can achieve this in two ways. By increasing your intake of magnesium or blocking the ability of calcium to get into cells. Calcium channel blockers are one of the most commonly prescribed hypertensive drugs but they have side-effects. Long-term risk more than doubles risk for breast cancer, according to a study in the American Medical Association’s journal, Internal Medicine.

In contrast, supplementing 300mg of magnesium a day produces an average drop in systolic blood pressure of 18.7 points, and in diastolic blood pressure of 11 points, if taken for six months, in people with raised blood pressure (above 155). This finding was reported in a meta-analysis of seven studies of 135 people with high blood pressure and is a highly significant change, more so than you would expect from the best drugs. Magnesium also helps lower cholesterol and triglycerides (blood fats) and is consistently associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular deaths and heart attacks. It also relieves insomnia, muscle tension and helps stabilise blood sugar levels.

Increasing the proportion of your cholesterol that is HDL is the most important way to reduce your risk of a heart attack. You want one third of your total cholesterol to be HDL. You might be surprised to find that taking niacin (B3), a simple B vitamin, is the most effective way to raise HDL cholesterol levels. According to a recent review in the New England Journal of Medicine, niacin increases levels of it by 20 to 35 per cent.

Diabetes
Diabetic medication usually hinges on the drug metformin. It works by improving insulin sensitivity, which means the body can normalise blood sugar more effectively. It is not a bad drug. Lowering insulin has many benefits, including reducing cancer risk. But metformin also lowers B12 levels, and that could increase dementia risk. It is very important to monitor your B12 level, perhaps with a homocysteine test, if you are on metformin.
Yet a mineral, a spice and a diet change are much more effective than metformin, but without any of the risks.

The mineral is chromium which is actually essential for the insulin receptor to work properly. Supplementing 600mcg a day (three 200mcg chromium pills, one with each meal) has consistently been shown to stabilise blood sugar and reverse insulin resistance in people with diabetes. A systematic review in the top diabetes journal Diabetes Care, concludes: “Among participants with type 2 diabetes, chromium supplementation improved glycosylated hemoglobin levels and fasting glucose. Chromium supplementation significantly improved glycemia in patients with diabetes.” In some studies those given 400mcg or more of chromium produce five times more reduction in blood sugar than metformin, and no side-effects. The toxic level of chromium is 10,000mcg.

Half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day also significantly reduces blood sugar levels in diabetics, and is also great news for non-diabetics who have blood sugar problems but are unaware of it, the most common symptom of which is chronic tiredness and energy slumps or feeling faint. In one study all diabetics responded to the cinnamon within weeks, with blood sugar levels 20 per cent lower on average than those of a control group. Some of the volunteers taking cinnamon achieved normal blood sugar levels. You need quite a lot of cinnamon for this kind of effect – 3 to 6 grams, which is a half or whole teaspoon. The active ingredient, called MCHP, is ten times more concentrated in a cinnamon extract called Cinnulin so supplementing 300-600mg has the same effect. Combining chromium with Cinnulin is particularly effective so look for supplements that provide both.

Linda, who had suffered with diabetes for a decade, is a case in point. Within six weeks on a low ‘glycemic load’ (low GL) diet including cinnamon plus chromium, her diabetes was gone. “My blood sugar level used to be high, between 11-18 mmol. It’s now between 4 – 8. The optimum is 7 so my blood sugar is well under control. The other thing is the energy. I was permanently tired. I could have spent the whole day in bed. Now my energy level is incredible. I would recommend this diet to everybody. It is so much easier than I thought. This is literally the answer to my prayers.” In fact, she had to reduce her medication because she was getting hypos – low blood sugar. She had been taking Amaryl, a sulphonylurea drug, plus Metformin. Once her blood sugar had normalised, she was able to stop her Amaryl. Six months later, eating low GL has become part of her life, she’s lost 35lb (16kg), her blood sugar has remained stable and she no longer gets sugar lows. Her doctor has kept her on Metformin, but even this may not be necessary.

http://www.diabetesaction.org/site/PageServer?pagename=complementary_october_06

chromium content:

Food	Chromium Content
Broccoli	11.0 mcg per ? cup
Green beans	1.1 mcg per ? cup
Potatoes	2.7 mcg per 1 cup
Grape juice	7.5 mcg per 8 fl. ounces
Orange juice	2.2 mcg per 8 fl. ounces
Beef	2.0 mcg per 3 oz.
Turkey (breast)	1.7 mcg per 3 oz.
Apple w/ peel	1.4 mcg per 1 medium-sized
Banana	1.0 mcg per 1 medium-sized

on why the chromium controversy continues.

Chromium: An Essential Nutrient

Chromium is an essential mineral for human nutrition and aids in the normal function of insulin...

Chromium is an essential mineral for human nutrition and aids in the normal function of insulin - one hormone that is critical for the normal regulation of blood sugar. The essentiality of chromium was discovered by mistake - individuals who were in the hospital receiving liquid nutrition were developing diabetes. When chromium was added to the nutrition packs (total parenteral nutrition or TPN), diabetes was prevented.

... people with diabetes have lower blood chromium levels and also excrete more chromium in their urine than do people without diabetes.
According to the Food and Nutrition Board, the Adequate Intake (AI) for chromium for adult women is 20-25 mcg per day and for adult men is 30-35 mcg per day. However, as stated above, chromium excretion is directly related to how high the blood sugar is (and how much insulin binding occurs) suggesting that chromium intake for someone with diabetes - i.e. with chronically elevated blood sugar - may in fact

http://www.nutritionexpress.com/showarticle.aspx?articleid=744

Chromium combats insulin resistance
The exact role of chromium has eluded researchers, but recent evidence indicates that chromium plays an important role in insulin signaling. Poor insulin signaling, or insulin resistance, is a prevalent condition that contributes to obesity and several other metabolic problems that predispose people to diabetes and heart disease. Therefore, anything that combats insulin resistance (like exercise) is generally viewed as health-promoting.
One study examined the effects of chromium in rats that were obese and insulin resistant. The results clearly showed that rats given additional chromium in their drinking water significantly improved glucose disposal rates and insulin-stimulated signaling in skeletal muscle. In other words, extra chromium improved the insulin resistance normally present in these animals.
These findings are consistent with several studies showing improved glucose control in people with glucose intolerance and insulin resistance. Since glycogen synthesis and protein synthesis are regulated by insulin signaling, adding chromium could stimulate these processes in individuals who are insulin resistant.
My lab investigated the potential of chromium picolinate to improve glycogen synthesis after intense exercise in healthy men. Although chromium led to very high rates of glycogen synthesis during the recovery phase after exercise, the values were not significantly different than the placebo group. However, we did find that chromium engaged a different cellular pathway in muscle that bypassed one of the steps often deficient in people with glucose intolerance and diabetes.

Chromium picolinate is remarkably stable and remains intact for several hours in synthetic gastric juice. The comparative data results of chromium picolinate versus other forms of chromium demonstrated that it is the most effective form to facilitate glucose control. It was also observed that chromium picolinate is better absorbed physiologically (2.5%) than chromium chloride (0.5-1%) and chromium acetate (0.8%); chromium oxide is not absorbed at all (0.001%).
You’ll find chromium in most good multi-vitamin formulas like Lindberg Varsity Pack 2 or Pink Pack, which have 120 mcg in each packet. If you want more of the blood sugar and dieting benefits of chromium, you should add another 100-200 micrograms twice a day to your diet. You can find this extra chromium in many diet formulas available.

http://www.naturalnews.com/027398_chromium_diabetes_natural.html

Our refined oils contain no chromium. And even raw sugar contains 83 percent more chromium than the refined white product! Not only do these foods not supply chromium, they contribute to the loss of the chromium supply you were born with, because they use up some of your chromium stores in their metabolism. And our refined diet not only robs us of our chromium, it literally robs us of our health: witness the tragic rise in heart disease and blood sugar abnormalities (diabetes and hypoglycemia) in our country since World War II.

About 90 percent of the population do not get enough chromium from their food. (Food sources of chromium include broccoli, brewer's yeast, and shellfish.) To make matters worse, the high-sugar diet typical of many Americans can increase the excretion of chromium, leaving less chromium in the body. Many researchers believe that chromium deficiency may be why Type II diabetes is a virtual epidemic in the United States. Here's yet another reason to take chromium picolinate: it may help you live longer.

For example, in diabetes, because of all the refined foods we eat, we have created a deficiency of chromium because chromium is pulled out of our own tissues to help metabolize the refined foods, which no longer have the chromium needed to metabolize them. The long-term result is a deficiency in chromium. So when we are taking in lots of refined carbohydrates and need chromium to help metabolize the sugar and to make the insulin work correctly, we become chromium deficient.

http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1000227

serotonin and diabetes linked:

In a new study, Nils Paumann, Diego Walther, and colleagues show that serotonin plays a key role in controlling insulin secretion and that its absence leads to diabetes. Even more surprisingly, it does so through a completely different mechanism than that used in the brain—it acts within, not between, cells and, rather than forming brief and weak liaisons with a receptor, makes long-lasting covalent bonds with an enzyme.

When released from the pancreas, insulin helps other cells in the body take up sugar from the bloodstream, feeding the cells and bringing blood sugar levels down again. Diabetes, in its several forms, arises when the system goes awry. Before its release, insulin is stored in beta cells in secretory granules. These granules also store serotonin, which is released along with insulin. (In fact, when cell biologists want to track insulin release, they often measure serotonin instead because it's easier to monitor.)
Prior studies have offered some clues to serotonin's activities in other tissues in the body's periphery. In platelet-forming cells called thrombocytes, it links up to a group of signaling enzymes called GTPases, triggering the release of vesicle contents by exocytosis. Unlike the fleeting connections it makes to receptors within the brain, serotonin covalently bonds to the GTPase, a reaction called “serotonylation,” which is catalyzed by a transglutaminase enzyme. Intriguingly, GTPases also help regulate insulin secretion in the pancreas, and lack of transglutaminase leads to glucose intolerance, both suggesting that the same system may be at play in the pancreas.

To test this directly, the authors examined mice lacking tryptophan hydroxylase, a key enzyme in serotonin synthesis, rendering the mice unable to make serotonin outside the central nervous system.

The mice exhibited classic signs of diabetes—elevated blood glucose and decreased insulin secretion.

They were also resistant to the effects of pargyline, a chemical that in normal mice causes insulin release, suggesting that the absence of serotonin blocked this effect.

Infusion of serotonin normalized secretion in mice unable to make their own.

The authors found that serotonin in pancreatic cells bound directly to GTPase enzymes, and by blocking transglutaminase, blocked this reaction, reducing insulin secretion. The authors identified two specific GTPases that are known to play a role in insulin secretion as targets for serotonylation. But, based on the large amount of protein-bound serotonin they saw, they suggest serotonin likely links up with multiple other proteins as well, suggesting a host of other interactions yet to be discovered.
The model that emerges from this study suggests that by binding to GTPases, serotonin promotes insulin release in response to elevated glucose. In addition to solving the puzzle of what a brain neurotransmitter is doing in the pancreas, the study has some important clinical implications. The condition that developed in the mice lacking tryptophan hydroxylase most resembled the human form of disease known as “maturity onset diabetes of the young,” raising the intriguing prospect that this disease may be linked to mutation of the tryptophan hydroxylase gene, a possibility that will require further study. Whether or not this is so, the serotonin pathway provides an avenue for intervention in multiple forms of diabetes, since it directly influences the amount of insulin secreted. Given the medical importance of diabetes—it affects almost 200 million people worldwide, and requires chronic treatment—it is a good bet that serotonin modulation will soon be a target for drug development.

Paulmann N, Grohmann M, Voigt J-P, Bert B, Vowinckel J, et al. (2009) Intracellular Serotonin Modulates Insulin Secretion from Pancreatic β-Cells by Protein Serotonylation.

http://www.diabetesaction.org/site/PageNavigator/Complementary%20Corner/complementary_2_09

The conversion of tryptophan into serotonin or melatonin appears to be controlled by - guess what? - vitamin D!

...when the carbohydrate cravings strike... your body is really asking you for more protein and vitamin D.

...vitamin D3 also appears to improve mood and regulate the production of serotonin.

As mentioned above, much of the seasonal variation in mood is attributable to reduced vitamin D levels (review Complementary Corner from March 2007 for more information on vitamin D in diabetes). Vitamin D3 has many hormone-like actions, including the regulation of calcium levels,but vitamin D3 also appears to improve mood and regulate the production of serotonin [20, 21]. Vitamin D3 deficiency is common in most latitudes, with prevalence estimates reaching 36% in the general population, and higher in people with diseases like diabetes [22, 23].

In my practice, granted it is in Seattle, WA, I would estimate 80-90% of my patients are vitamin D deficient.

Typical doses of vitamin D are 400-2000 IU per day. Ideally you would get your blood levels checked so that your replacement dose can be properly determined because not knowing your blood level may delay getting your levels back up to normal.

Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6, or pyridoxine, is an essential nutrient for the enzymes that synthesize many neurotransmitters including serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) [24, 25]. Although not shown in humans, administering B6 to Rhesus monkeys (a primate with very similar neurobiology to humans) increased serotonin production in the brain [26]. In rats, B6 increased production of serotonin precursor 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) [27].
Typical doses of vitamin B6 range from 1-20 mg, although doses of 3.5-5 mg are common in most “B-complex” vitamins and multivitamins.

Chromium picolinate

Chromium is a mineral essential in human nutrition for the regulation of insulin sensitivity...

Chromium is a mineral essential in human nutrition for the regulation of insulin sensitivity, a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels in humans [28]. Chromium has been extensively reviewed in diabetes. (Read Complementary Corner October 2006 for more information on chromium in diabetes.) Chromium picolinate (600 mcg/day) has been shown in human clinical trials to improve mood in some forms of depression, and to reduce carbohydrate craving [29, 30]. Chromium picolinate has demonstrated superior absorption than some other commonly available forms of chromium, e.g. chromium nicotinate [31]

St. John’s Wort

St.John's Wort... may cause more harm than good in diabetes...

As mentioned above, St. John’s Wort, despite having some excellent clinical research support of efficacy in depression [39, 40], may cause more harm than good in diabetes because of the potential for drug interactions, including diabetes medications [41]. I discourage taking St. John’s Wort, especially in patients taking “statin” medications such as Lipitor or Zocor for cholesterol because the interactions may impact the safety and effectiveness of the drug [42, 43].

Conclusion

Depression and diabetes co-exist very frequently, despite not clearly knowing which comes first. Depressive symptoms may impact healthy daily behaviors in diabetes, including following your diet, getting more exercise, and taking medications as recommended. Natural, pharmaceutical and counseling therapies are available for depression and are effective in reducing depression, and in some cases, improve healthy behaviors. Some natural treatments for depression may actually treat the cause of depression, e.g. vitamin D replacement, while others may also offset other common concerns in diabetes, e.g. chromium reducing carbohydrate cravings. Because depression and diabetes are a very serious combination, and because life is too short to be sad, if you think you are depressed, talk with your doctor and/or complementary health provider about appropriate treatment.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/23/oral-vitamin-d-mistake.aspx

When you expose your skin to the sun, your skin also synthesizes high amounts of cholesterol sulfate, which is very important for heart and cardiovascular health. In fact, according to research by Dr. Stephanie Seneff, high LDL and subsequent heart disease may in fact be a symptom of cholesterol sulfate deficiency.

Sulfur deficiency also promotes obesity and related health problems like diabetes

When exposed to sunshine, your skin also synthesizes vitamin D3 sulfate. This form of vitamin D is water soluble, unlike oral vitamin D3 supplements, which is unsulfated. The water-soluble form can travel freely in your bloodstream, whereas the unsulfated form needs LDL (the so-called "bad" cholesterol) as a vehicle of transport. According to Dr. Stephanie Seneff, there's reason to believe that many of the profound benefits of vitamin D are actually due to the vitamin D sulfate. As a result, she suspects that the oral non-sulfated form of vitamin D might not provide all of the same benefits, because it cannot be converted to vitamin D sulfate

You cannot overdose when getting your vitamin D from sun exposure, as your body has the ability to self-regulate and only make what it needs

The Role of Vitamin D in Disease Prevention

A growing body of evidence shows that vitamin D plays a crucial role in disease prevention and maintaining optimal health. There are about 30,000 genes in your body, and vitamin D affects nearly 3,000 of them, as well as vitamin D receptors located throughout your body.
According to one large-scale study, optimal Vitamin D levels can slash your risk of cancer by as much as 60 percent. Keeping your levels optimized can help prevent at least 16 different types of cancer, including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, prostate, and skin cancers.

https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/theory/

Type 2 Diabetes

But here was yet another inconsistency. If reducing insulin was effective in reducing obesity, why were doctors like me prescribing insulin as a cure-all treatment for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Insulin is, in fact, quite an effective way to lower blood sugars, which we all thought was beneficial. In fact, several large scale trials from 2008 had already proven that reducing blood sugars in T2D was virtually useless. But why?
In considering this problem, it took me quite some time, but I finally realized that the answer was really quite simple. We were treating the wrong thing. T2D is a disease of too much insulin resistance (IR), which causes high blood glucose (BG). Yet we were not treating the disease (high IR), but instead, treating the symptom (high BG). That’s why the treatment was useless. The underlying IR was being untreated. So the T2D was getting worse.
But what caused the high IR in the first place? This was the real question. What is the aetiology? After all, we didn’t stand a chance of treating the underlying disease if we didn’t know what caused it. I still remember lying in bed one day when I realized what the answer was. Insulin caused insulin resistance. If that was true, then insulin causes obesity and insulin causes T2D. The cure for both was clear – reduce insulin!
Instead, we were prescribing insulin to patients. Instinctively, most patients knew what we were doing was wrong. They would say to me “Doctor, you have always told me that weight loss was critical in the treatment of T2D, yet you have prescribed me insulin which has made me gain weight. How is that good?” I never had a good answer for this. Now I knew why. It was not good.

Patients knew, though. They would take insulin, and gain weight. As they did, their T2D got worse and they needed more insulin. As they did, they gained more weight. As they gained more weight, they needed more insulin. It was a vicious cycle. And the patients were on the wrong end of it.
There was one more inescapable, horrifying conclusion. We, as doctors, had been treating T2D exactly wrong. The Intensive Dietary Management program is an attempt to correct these problems with proven dietary strategies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oZ4UqtbB_g

Jason Fung : Diabetes, a reversible disease.

http://diabetes.about.com/od/dieticiansadvice/a/Walnut_Benefits.htm

How Are Walnuts Good for Your Heart?

Walnuts are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids.

Numerous studies have shown that the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids include reducing inflammation and providing a level of protection from chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and arthritis.

People with diabetes often have high triglycerides and low HDL levels. Omega-3 fatty acids can help lower triglycerides and raise HDL, so eating walnuts or foods high in omega-3s may help people with diabetes.

In fact, even a relatively small amount of walnuts each day (about 1-2 ounces) has been shown to improve some cardiovascular markers in people with diabetes -- most notably, improved cholesterol levels.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=99

minerals in walnuts:

Mineral	Natural Range Found Amongst Different Walnut Varieties (milligrams per 100 grams)
Potassium	375-500
Calcium	13-91
Magnesium	189-278

Even though there are valuable amounts of these blood pressure-regulating minerals in virtually all varieties of walnuts, the ranges above may help explain why some studies have shown statistically significant benefits from walnuts on blood pressure while others have not. Not in question with respect to walnuts and cardiovascular support is their reliable omega-3 content. Adequate intake of omega-3s, including the alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) present in walnuts, has repeatedly been shown to help improve a wide variety of cardiovascular functions, including blood pressure. In at least one research study, adults have been able to significantly increase their blood level of ALA with as few as 4 walnuts per day.

Walnuts Help Reduce Problems in Metabolic Syndrome

In the United States, as many as 1 in 4 adults may be eligible for diagnosis with Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). MetS isn't so much a "disease" as a constellation of problematic and overlapping metabolic problems including excessive blood fats (triglycerides), high blood pressure, inadequate HDL cholesterol, and obesity (as measured by waist circumference, and/or body mass index). Recent studies have shown that approximately one ounce of walnuts daily over a period of 2-3 months can help reduce several of these MetS-related problems. In addition, addition of walnuts to participant diets has also been shown to decrease "abdominal adiposity"—the technical term for the depositing of fat around the mid-section. Importantly, the MetS benefits of added walnuts have been achieved without causing weight gain in any the studies we've seen to date.

Benefits in Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

Although we think about type 2 diabetes as a problem primarily related to blood sugar control and insulin metabolism, persons diagnosed with type 2 diabetes typically have health problems in other related systems, and are at special risk for cardiovascular problems. An important part of the goal in designing a diet plan for persons with type 2 diabetes is lowering the risk of future cardiovascular problems. In this context, consumption of walnuts is establishing a more and more impressive research track record. Increased flexibility in the response of the cardiovascular system following meals has been a repeated finding in research on walnuts. A variety of different measurements on blood vessel functioning (including their measurement by ultrasound) show a relatively small amount of daily walnut intake (1-2 ounces) to provide significant benefits in this area for persons with type 2 diabetes. Better blood fat composition (including less LDL cholesterol and less total cholesterol) has also been demonstrated in persons with type 2 diabetes.

Anti-Cancer Benefits

Given the wide variety antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients found in walnuts, it's not surprising to see research on this tree nut showing measurable anti-cancer benefits. The antioxidant properties of walnuts help lower risk of chronic oxidative stress, and the anti-inflammatory properties help lower risk of chronic inflammation, and it is precisely these two types of risk, that, when combined, pose the greatest threat for cancer development. Prostate cancer and breast cancer are the best-studied types of cancer with respect to walnut intake, and their risk has been found to be reduced by fairly large amounts of walnut consumption. (Large in this case means approximately 3 ounces per day.) For prostate cancer, the evidence is somewhat stronger, and more studies have involved human subjects. For breast cancer, most of the evidence has been based on studies of rats and mice.

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/27/11/2741.full

Chromium:

Trivalent chromium, found in most foods and nutrient supplements, is an essential nutrient with very low toxicity.

The interest in chromium as a nutritional enhancement to glucose metabolism can be traced back to the 1950s, when it was suggested that brewer’s yeast contained a glucose tolerance factor (GTF) that prevented diabetes in experimental animals (1). This factor was eventually suggested to be a biologically active form of trivalent chromium that could substantially lower plasma glucose levels in diabetic mice (2). Interest regarding chromium administration in patients with diabetes was kindled by the observation in the 1970s that it truly was an essential nutrient required for normal carbohydrate metabolism. A patient receiving total parenteral nutrition (TPN) developed severe signs of diabetes, including weight loss and hyperglycemia that was refractory to increasing insulin dosing (3). Based on previous animal studies and preliminary human studies, the patient was given supplemental chromium. In the following 2 weeks, signs and symptoms of diabetes were ameliorated, with markedly improved glycemic status and greatly reduced insulin requirements (exogenous insulin requirements decreased from 45 units/day to none). Other studies (4,5) of the beneficial effects of chromium in patients receiving TPN have also been documented in the scientific literature. Chromium is now routinely added to TPN solutions (5).

The results of these studies strongly implicated chromium as a critical cofactor in the action of insulin (6,7). Whereas chromium replacement in deficiency states is well established, the role of chromium supplementation to enhance glucose metabolism in subjects is controversial and serves as the basis for this review.

Trivalent chromium is found in a wide range of foods, including egg yolks, whole-grain products, high-bran breakfast cereals, coffee, nuts, green beans, broccoli, meat, brewer’s yeast, and some brands of wine and beer (8,9). Chromium is also present in many multivitamin/mineral supplements, and there are also specific chromium picolinate (CrP) supplements that contain 200–600 μg chromium per tablet (10). The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has established the Recommended Daily Allowances for chromium as 50–200 μg/day for adult men and women (11), which is also the Estimated Safe and Adequate Daily Dietary Intake (ESADDI) for chromium for children aged 7 years to adulthood (7,12). However, it appears that Americans normally ingest ∼50–60% of the minimum suggested daily intake of 50 μg (7). Results from one study (10) indicated that daily chromium intakes for men and women in the U.S. were 33 and 25 μg, respectively. Therefore, normal dietary intake of chromium for adults may be suboptimal.

At dietary intakes >50 μg/day, chromium absorption is ∼0.4%, but the trivalent formulation also significantly influences bioavailability. At a dose of 1,000 μg/day, absorption of chromium from chromium chloride (CrCl₃) is ∼0.4%, whereas that from CrP may be as high as 2.8% (7,13,14). Once absorbed, chromium is distributed widely in the body, with the highest levels being found in the kidney, liver, spleen, and bone (14).

Very little chromium (<2%) in the form of inorganic compounds is absorbed but may be higher with certain organic formulations (14). Once absorbed, chromium is distributed to various tissues of the body, but appears to be most concentrated in the kidney, muscle, and liver (16). The principal carrier protein for chromium is transferrin, which also plays a critical role in the movement of chromium from blood to LMWCr. It has been suggested that migration of transferrin receptors to the plasma membranes of insulin-insensitive cells after insulin stimulation is the initial step in this process. Transferrin containing the plasma-bound chromium is postulated to bind to the transferrin receptors and is internalized by endocytosis (Figs. 1 and 2). The pH of the internalized vesicle is reduced by ATP-driven proton pumps, chromium is released from transferrin, and the resulting free chromium is postulated to be sequestered by LMWCr (15,17). With this step, chromium is transferred from transferrin to LMWCr, which normally exists in insulin-dependent cells in the apo, or inactive, form. Binding with chromium ions converts inactive LMWCr to its holo, or active, form. It is proposed that LMWCr then participates as part of an insulin signal amplification system (Fig. 1) as it binds to insulin-activated insulin receptors and results in stimulating its tyrosine kinase activity. The result of this process is the activation of insulin receptor kinase and potentiation of the actions of insulin (15,18,19). Importantly, LMWCr without bound chromium or in the presence of other metal ions is ineffective in activating insulin-dependent kinase activity and thus enhancing the actions of insulin (19).

Chromium has also been demonstrated to inhibit phosphotyrosine phosphatase, the enzyme that cleaves phosphate from the insulin receptor, leading to decreases in insulin sensitivity. Activation of insulin receptor kinase and inhibition of insulin receptor phosphatase would lead to increased phosphorylation of the insulin receptor and increased insulin sensitivity (20). The balance between kinase and phosphatase activity may facilitate the role of insulin in rapidly moving glucose into cells. In addition, it has been suggested (7) that chromium enhances insulin binding, insulin receptor number, insulin internalization, and β-cell sensitivity.

The controversy surrounding chromium supplementation is due in part to substantial variability in the results of studies that have evaluated the effects of chromium in patients with or without diabetes. Results from some trials (21–26) have indicated that chromium supplementation increases muscle gain and fat loss associated with exercise and improves glucose metabolism and the serum lipid profile in patients with or without diabetes. In contrast, those from other studies (27–32) have indicated little or no benefit of chromium on any of these variables.

There is no clinically defined state of chromium deficiency, but diabetes has been shown (32) to develop because of low chromium levels in experimental animals and in humans sustained by prolonged TPN.

These results suggest that there may be a more general relationship between chromium levels and glucose and/or lipid metabolism. It has also been suggested (35–37) that low chromium concentrations and the associated impairments in insulin, glucose, and lipid metabolism may also result in increased cardiovascular risk. In a cross-sectional analysis (38), lower toenail chromium levels have also been associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Adequate dietary chromium intake may be especially problematic in the elderly (39,40). Consumption of refined foods, including simple sugars, exacerbates the problem of insufficient dietary chromium because these foods are not only low in dietary chromium but also increase its loss from the body (41). Chromium losses are also increased during pregnancy and as a result of strenuous exercise, infection, physical trauma, and other forms of stress (40). Reduced chromium levels are reported in the elderly and in patients with diabetes (42,43). However, one of the major problems with assessing chromium status in biological tissues and fluids is extremely low levels of chromium in these tissues. Regardless, recent studies have demonstrated the successful determination of chromium. One study reported that in >40,800 patients from ages 1 to >75 years, chromium levels in hair, sweat, and blood diminished significantly with age, with values decreasing from 25 to 40% depending on the tissue of interest (43). Additionally, it appears that diabetic subjects may have altered chromium metabolism compared with nondiabetic subjects, as both absorption and excretion may be higher (44,45). Hair and blood levels are reported (46) to be lower in diabetic subjects, with mean levels of plasma chromium of ∼33% lower in 93 type 2 diabetic subjects compared with control subjects. Another study reported that chromium levels were reduced >50% in both diabetic men and women compared with control subjects (42), which was supported by Elmekcioglu et al. (47), who reported significantly lower chromium levels in the plasma of type 2 diabetic individuals compared with nondiabetic healthy control subjects. Yet, another study (48) suggested no alteration of chromium levels in type 2 diabetes; however, only 11 subjects were reported.

http://askdrmaxwell.com/healthconcerns/hypo

Hypoglycemia is a complex set of symptoms caused by faulty carbohydrate metabolism. It’s also synonymous with low blood sugar. Normally, the body maintains blood sugar levels within a narrow range through the coordinated effort of several glands and their hormones. If these hormones, especially glucagon (from glucose) and insulin (produced in the pancreas), are thrown out of balance, hypoglycemia or type-2 diabetes can result.
Hypoglycemia (in people not taking insulin) is usually the result of consuming too many simple carbohydrates (sugars). “Syndrome X” describes a cluster of abnormalities that owe their existence largely to a high intake of refined carbohydrates leading to the development of hypoglycemia, excessive insulin secretion, and glucose intolerance. This condition is followed by decreased insulin sensitivity, elevated cholesterol levels, obesity, high blood pressure, and type-2 diabetes.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that depressed individuals have faulty glucose/insulin regulatory mechanisms. Other studies have clearly shown the relationship between low blood sugar and decreased mental acuity. Hypoglycemia has also been implicated as a major trigger for migraine headaches. Hypoglycemia Diet
The following foods are not recommended for anyone with hypoglycemia or hypoadrenia tendencies: table sugar, maltose, honey, sucrose (fruit sugar), bananas, raisins, dates, fruit juices, apricots, beets, white flour, white potatoes, white rice, cooked corn, corn flakes, and cereals.
It’s best to combine protein, fat, and carbohydrate in each snack or meal. Avoiding simple sugars and consuming a balanced diet help stabilize blood sugar levels. Eating healthy snacks throughout the day can also help keep your blood sugar levels stable. One simple snack that combines protein, fat, and carbohydrate is a handful of nuts (such as cashews, almonds, walnuts, or pecans) along with an apple, pear, or whole wheat crackers. Supplements to Combat Hypoglycemia
If you’re following my advice above, taking the CFS/Fibromyalgia Formula, adrenal cortex, drinking 70 ounces of water, avoiding simple sugars, and not skipping meals, you’ll probably not need any of the following supplements.

• Chromium is a trace mineral that helps reduce glucose-induced insulin secretion. Chromium works with insulin to facilitate the uptake of glucose into the cells. Glucose levels remain elevated in the absence of chromium. A normal dose is 200 mcg. Taken 30 minutes before or after meals, two–three times daily.

• Vitamin B3 (niacin) helps regulate blood sugar levels and may help alleviate the symptoms of hypoglycemia. This should be in your multivitamin and mineral formula.

• Magnesium levels must be sufficient in order to avoid hypoglycemic reactions. This should be in your multivitamin and mineral formula.

• Zinc levels must be sufficient in order to avoid hypoglycemic reactions. This should be in your multivitamin and mineral formula.

• L-Glutamine, an amino acid, helps regulate blood sugar levels. I’ve found it to be very effective in eliminating sugar cravings and hypoglycemic episodes. A normal dose is 500𔂿,000 mg. once or twice daily on an empty stomach.

• Gymnema sylvester is a climbing plant found in Asia and Africa. It’s used in Ayruvedic medicine, an indigenous healing practice from India, for the treatment of type-2 diabetes. Scientific studies have shown this herb to be a valuable addition in preventing the symptoms of hypoglycemia. It’s also routinely used to reduce sugar cravings.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=51

World's Healthiest Foods ranked as quality sources of chromium
Food	Serving Size	Cals	Amount (mcg)	DRI/DV (%)	Nutrient Density	World's Healthiest Foods Rating
Broccoli	1 cup	54.6	18.55	53	17.5	excellent
Barley	0.33 cup	217.1	8.16	23	1.9	good
Oats	0.25 cup	151.7	5.38	15	1.8	good
Green Beans	1 cup	43.8	2.04	6	2.4	good
Tomatoes	1 cup	32.4	1.26	4	2.0	good
Romaine Lettuce	2 cups	16.0	1.25	4	4.0	good
Black Pepper	2 tsp	14.6	0.93	3	3.3	good

World's Healthiest Foods Rating	Rule
excellent	DRI/DV>=75% OR Density>=7.6 AND DRI/DV>=10%
very good	DRI/DV>=50% OR Density>=3.4 AND DRI/DV>=5%
good	DRI/DV>=25% OR Density>=1.5 AND DRI/DV>=2.5%

People who eat highly refined diets, especially ones rich in simple sugars, also may be at risk of deficient chromium intake. In other words, their diet choices might leave them consuming too little chromium. One research group has also suggested that these same sugar-laden diets increase the rate of chromium loss from the body, exacerbating the deficiency risk. Given the central role of chromium in blood sugar control, this two-pronged attack on chromium status is another good reason to avoid routine intake of processed, refined foods that are also high in simple sugars.

Other Circumstances that Might Contribute to Deficiency

Once again, we do not have as much information as we would like in this area. But we do have bits and pieces of information from some specialized areas. People on prolonged intravenous nutrition often develop diabetes. There are many reasons this is true, but one potential reason is chromium deficiency. For these people, getting chromium levels back to normal can reverse the issue. Heavy exercise can increase the rate of chromium loss in the urine. Whether this is detrimental or could exacerbate deficiency of this nutrient has not been determined.

Relationship with Other Nutrients

Vitamin C enhances the absorption of dietary chromium. For instance, women absorbed more chromium from a supplement when they were simultaneously given 100 mg of vitamin C—about the same amount you'd find in a serving of chromium-rich broccoli. While we believe this supplement study was very helpful for understanding the relationship between chromium and vitamin C, getting both nutrients from a whole, natural food is definitely the approach we recommend. Chromium and iron can be transported on the same protein (transferrin) in the blood stream. It is plausible that too much of either of these minerals could impair metabolism of the other. But this interaction has never been demonstrated to be a problem in humans.

http://drbenkim.com/nutrient-chromium.html

What Does Chromium Do in Your Body?

Helps to regulate your blood sugar level by enhancing the effects of insulin
Helps to prevent cardiovascular disease, including type II diabetes, through its effect on insulin
Helps your body make protein, fats, and cholesterol through its effect on insulin

The more sugar and refined carbohydrates like pasta, white bread, pastries, and cookies you eat, the greater your risk for chromium deficiency. Consumption of sugar and refined foods increases the amount of insulin your body must release into your blood stream, which increases the amount of chromium that is used and ultimately excreted in your urine.
Here are some healthy, whole food sources of chromium:

Food Sources	Serving	Chromium (mcg)
Corn on the cob	1 ear	52
Sweet potato	1 medium	36
Apple	1 medium	36
Organic Egg	1 medium	26
Tomato	1 medium	24
Broccoli	1/2 cup	11

Toxicity
Some studies using cell cultures indicate that chromium found in supplements, particularly chromium picolinate, may cause damage to DNA. Because very little is known about the potential adverse effects of supplementing on a regular basis with chromium, I recommend that you get your chromium from whole foods only.
Go To Nutrient Index

https://nourishmylife.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/raw-cacao-vs-cocoa/

Benefits of raw cacao powder:
Cacao and cocoa powders are very complex, containing in excess of 300 chemically distinct compounds, making them the most complex of all foods.
Rich in antioxidants: Raw cacao powder is extremely rich in beneficial plant polyphenols. The most beneficial of these are flavanoids, which are antioxidants. In fact, cacao powder contains far more antioxidants per 100 g than acai berries, goji berries and blueberries. Antioxidants comprise a whopping 10% of the weight of cacao powder. There are two flavanoids in cacao powder which are particularly beneficial; catechin and epicatechin.
Antioxidants neutralise free radicals, which are unstable electron-deficient molecules which react with other molecules to gain electrons. Free radicals can cause DNA damage which contributes to ageing and formation of cancer. Antioxidants also prevent oxidation of LDL cholesterol in the blood, which causes atherosclerosis. Oxidation of LDL cholesterol causes it to enter the endothelial layer of blood vessels where it activates the endothelial cells and cells of the immune system to initiate inflammation. This ultimately forms inflamed and unstable plaques which bulge into the arteries and block blood flow, or rupture and cause blood clotting, stroke or heart attack. By preventing LDL cholesterol oxidation, antioxidants reduce the risk of atherosclerosis and cardiac arrest.
Regulates blood cholesterol: The flavinoids in cacao powders also regulate blood cholesterol by increasing HDL (“good” cholesterol) levels and reducing LDL (“bad” cholesterol) levels. This is partly due to increasing levels of Apo A-1 protein which clears cholesterol from blood vessels.
Regulates blood glucose and fat metabolism: Flavinoids have also been shown to increase production of the hormone adiponectin, which regulates metabolism of fatty acids, improves insulin sensitivity and regulates blood glucose levels. In this way, adiponectin can improve weight loss and reduce obesity, type II diabetes and atherosclerosis.
High in dietary fibre: Cacao powder is surprisingly high in dietary fibre. Although some people may be concerned on seeing the high carbohydrate content on the nutrition label, you should note that cacao powders are very low in sugar and the majority of the carbohydrate content is fibre. Fibre, of course, is not digested but absorbs water in the large intestine to form stools which keeps you regularly eliminating the solid waste from your system and has been shown to contribute to weight loss. Be careful if you eat too much cacao or cocoa powder as you may get a stomach ache!
Increases weight loss: In addition to the factors mentioned above which contribute to weight management, consumption of cacao powder by rats was shown to increase production of uncoupling protein-2, which is a thermogenic protein. Thermogenic proteins essentially disrupt part of the energy-making process so that lots of fat or glucose must be burned to make the same amount of useable energy, and the rest is lost as heat. This both maintains body temperature (hence the name thermogenic) and raises your rate of metabolism.
Contains compounds which make you feel good: Cacao powders contain the neurotransmitters dopamine and phenylethylamine (PEA). PEA aids mental alertness, improves mood and helps with weight loss.
Rich in certain minerals:

Magnesium: Cacao powders have the highest source of magnesium of all foods. Magnesium is important for bone and teeth formation, transmission of nerve signals and muscle relaxation, and secretion of the parathyroid hormone which controls calcium levels in the blood. Magnesium also helps the body process fat and protein, and is important in the production and activity of some enzymes. Magnesium deficiency is the most common mineral deficiency in the Western world.
Sulphur: Sulphur is essential in the formation of many proteins and enzymes in cells, and is important for healthy hair, nails, skin and connective tissue. Sulphur also promotes detoxification in the liver and good pancreas function. It is also important for the production of vitamin B1 and biotin and for the conversion of carbohydrates into useable energy.
Iron: One 28 g serving of raw cacao powder contains 314% of the recommended daily intake of iron. Iron is essential for the production and function of haemoglobin which carries oxygen molecules in the blood. It is also important for the activity of many enzymes and other proteins such as myoglobin in muscle cells and enzymes in glucose and fatty acid metabolism.
Potassium: Potassium regulates blood acidity, lowers blood pressure, and is important for the normal function of muscle cells, nerve cells, the heart, kidneys and adrenal glands.
Phosphorus: Phosphorous is essential for healthy bones and teeth. It is also important for formation of ATP and other molecules. ATP is the useable energy source derived from metabolism of glucose and fatty acids in our cells.
Calcium: Calcium is the main component of bones and teeth. It is also important for cell signalling, muscle contraction, and blood clotting. Although cacao powder is high in calcium, it is not a good source for it because it is also high in oxalic acid which prevents the calcium from being absorbed.
Also contains zinc, copper, manganese

Vitamins:

Folate: Folate is important for making DNA and RNA, formation of new cells, and forms part of haemoglobin which carries oxygen in red blood cells.
Also small amounts of vitamins B6, E, K, and choline

https://www.mangomannutrition.com/fat-kills-insulin-producing-beta-cells/

How Fat Kills Insulin-Producing Beta Cells: A Lesson for Those With and Without Diabetes

An overwhelming amount of scientific evidence shows that a high-fat diet is the single most effective method at inducing insulin resistance in both your liver and muscle. This research clearly demonstrates that increasing dietary fat intake has an immediate negative effect on insulin sensitivity, which can then develop into a chronic state of insulin resistance and diabetes if the quantity of dietary fat remains high (1–26). For more information on this topic, read What Causes Insulin Resistance? Lipid Overload and The 3 Causes of Insulin Resistance in Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes and Prediabetes. Many people ask me about the specific mechanism how fat can destroy insulin-producing beta cells. Let’s explore beta cell stress in detail.

What are Beta Cells and Why are They Important?

The insulin producing beta cells in your pancreas are highly specialized cells because they are the only cell type that can make insulin. Jeopardizing insulin production results in severe metabolic problems that can then lead to whole-body organ dysfunction and eventually death. Because of this, protecting beta cell health throughout life is crucial for long-term health.

What Causes Beta Cell Dysfunction?

In the same way that your liver and muscle accumulate fat when fat spills out of your adipose tissue, the beta cells in your pancreas are also highly susceptible to fat accumulation.
Known as lipotoxicity, the accumulation of excess fat in your beta cells leads to severe beta cell dysfunction (27–38).

In comparison with cells in your liver and muscle, beta cells are particularly sensitive to damage caused by fatty acids because they have a limited ability to protect themselves against damage.

When exposed to high fat concentrations for long periods of time, their antioxidant self-defense mechanisms are inadequate to protect them against dysfunction (33,34).

Step 1: Stressed Beta Cells Make Excess Insulin

The way that beta cells behave depends on a number of factors, including fat concentration, glucose concentration and the amount of time that they are exposed to high levels of either fat or glucose (34). As fat spills over from adipose tissue and the level of whole-body insulin resistance increases over time, your pancreas responds by making more insulin, to overpower your muscle and liver into behaving properly. In effect, your beta cells are saying…

“Wow the amount of glucose in the blood is incredibly high. I better make more insulin so that the liver and muscle will have no choice but to take it up. When the going gets tough, the tough make insulin!”

Because the beta cells are now over producing insulin beyond their physiologically normal level, they enter a state of cellular stress. As this cycle continues and the degree of insulin resistance increases over time, the amount of insulin produced by your pancreas also continues to increase.

Step 2: Beta Cells Maximize Insulin Production

Step 3: Stressed Beta Cells Commit Suicide

apoptosis

In the same way that peak insulin production varied between individuals, the amount of beta cell suicide is also a highly variable process.

Step 4: Reverse Insulin Resistance Before It’s Too Late!

Truth about potatoes...they are good.

Potatoes: Friend or Foe? 5 Anti-Potato Myths Debunked

You’re probably on the fence about whether potatoes are good or bad for you. With such claims as “potatoes are too high in carbohydrate” or “potatoes have a high glycemic index,” it’s downright confusing whether they are worth keeping in your diet or not.
In this post, I’ll address the most common potato myths and demonstrate why potatoes are not only good for you, but extremely good for you.

Myth #1: Potatoes Will Make You Fat

Whomever made up this riddle was pretty clever. My guess is that it was the anti-carbohydrate folks, who decided that potatoes are high in carbohydrates and therefore bad for you. They spread propaganda like, “potatoes will stick to your ribs,” and made people all around the world believe that potatoes will in fact stick to your ribs.

The truth is that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that potatoes will make you fat.

Potatoes themselves will not make you fat, it’s the high-calorie foods that we eat with them that will make you fat. Think of what most people put on a baked potato. They are usually coated with creamy, savory and fatty foods like the following:

Butter
Sour cream
Gravy
Cheese
Oily beans

So the poor tuber itself is not to blame, it’s the fatty stuff that we serve on them or next to them that make them dangerous.

Myth #2: All Potatoes are Nightshade Vegetables

Nightshades. Sounds scary, right?
Nightshade vegetables are a class of vegetable that are high in their alkaloid content. Some people have a sensitivity to alkaloid compounds, resulting in a host of frustrating health conditions, including (but not limited to):

Arthritis-like symptoms
Headaches
Depression
Gas
Diarrhea
Bloating
Nausea

Some people believe nightshade vegetables are harmful because they’re confusing them with “deadly nightshade.” When consumed in large amounts, deadly nightshade may cause convulsions or even death (1).
But deadly nightshades have nothing to do with potatoes.
But even regular nightshades such as potatoes contain toxic alkaloids, right? Wrong.
Many alternative medicine websites claim that nightshade vegetables contain a toxic alkaloid compound called solanine. Solanine is a defense mechanism in SOME Solanaceae plants, where those plants use the solanine to protect against natural threats such as insects.
You’ll see this effect when the potato has green spots (which also happens when it’s exposed to light during growth). That’s why you grow your potatoes in shady areas or buy potatoes without green spots. Simple solution.
More importantly, not all potatoes are in the nightshade family. Only white, red, yellow and blue-skinned potatoes are nightshades. Sweet potatoes and yams are not nightshades, therefore you do not need to worry about unwanted health threats.

Myth #3: Potatoes Are High in Carbohydrates and Will Spike Your Blood Glucose

You’ve heard it before. “Carbs are bad for you,” “carbs will make you fat,” and “carbs are high in sugar,” and “carbs are converted to fat.”
If you believe any of these statements, then it’s not your fault. Since the advent of the Atkins diet, America has been fed a host of anti-carb propaganda, and it makes my head spin. Let’s establish a few things first:

Carbohydrates are a fuel for your all tissues in your body
Your brain runs off of glucose for 99.99% of your life
Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in your muscles, for use during exercise
Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in your liver, to provide your brain with a drip-feed of glucose 24 hours a day
Carbohydrates are converted into fat, but at a terribly slow and inefficient pace in the human body (2)

Take a look at the nutrition facts label shown here for a medium white potato (3):

You may notice a few things:

A single medium white potato contains about 150 calories
A single medium white potato contains about 40 grams of carbohydrate
A single medium white potato contains about 5 grams of protein
A single medium white potato contains almost no fat

Many people with diabetes will pass up white potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams because they are high in carbohydrates, fearing that they will skyrocket blood glucose. Instead the opt for low-carbohydrate options, often eating foods that contain a large amount of protein or fat.
If you remember only one thing from this article, remember this:

Carbohydrates will only spike your blood glucose in a high-fat environment. When fat intake is minimized at a given meal as well as in your overall diet, carbohydrates do not spike your blood glucose anymore.

Myth #4: Potatoes are Bad Because They are High on the Glycemic Index Scale

The glycemic index and glycemic load were invented to measure how fast and how much a food converts to glucose in your body.

The Glycemic Index (GI) is a measure of how quickly a food converts to glucose.

This is fine for foods that you eat as standalone snacks, such as apples, oranges and bananas. But for the potato? Potatoes are rarely eaten by themselves. They are usually part of a meal. This is where the glycemic load comes in.

Glycemic Load (GL) is a measure of how much a food converts to glucose.

It turns out that the GI and GL are affected by several factors; most notably food preparation (4).
We all know that baking, boiling, and roasting foods such as potatoes is much healthier than frying. And deep frying is the worst. Aside from the added fat, deep frying potatoes can lead to the formation of acrylamides, which are known human carcinogens (5–7).
But why is this? Does it affect the glycemic score? Most definitely. And this is one of the key reasons why the glycemic score is flawed at it’s core. Most people don’t take into account the total glycemic load once the food is prepared, rendering the glycemic score effectively useless.
This chart compares the glycemic score of white potatoes to sweet potatoes, compared with lentils and bananas (high GI foods):

Myth #5: Potatoes Contain Starch and Starch is Bad for You

As with potatoes, many plants produce starch and use it to store carbohydrate for energy. We call these starchy vegetables, and are often associated with terms like complex carbohydrate, fiber-rich, slow absorbing, or low GI foods.
In order to digest the starch in potatoes, our bodies have to break down this starch and release it as free glucose. This process takes time and a significant amount of digestive energy.
Fiber is a key player that helps slow the rate at which starch is broken down into glucose. But not all that starch gets converted to glucose. A medium sized spud contains about 79% water and 4 grams of fiber, which is enough to significantly slow the process and reduce the rate at which glucose enters your blood.
Fiber from whole, unprocessed foods helps aid in satiation, especially when combined with water. That’s why you get full when eating high fibrous foods; the fiber literally expands with water. This is also why it’s hard to overeat these harmless spuds, but it’s easy to veg out on their evil twins: chips, fries, and tater tots.

Foods that are high in starch like potatoes, squash and corn are actually very healthy for you and provide a long-lasting drip-release of glucose into your bloodstream to provide a constant energy supply for body tissues.

Don’t be fooled into believing that starchy foods are bad for you and that they should be avoided. Eat starch-rich foods plentifully and prepare for sustained energy and fantastic blood glucose.

Myth #6: Potatoes Are Low in Micronutrients

If you’ve read my blog on Food as Instructions you are probably familiar with the whole foods acronym: WAV-FM. If you haven’t read it yet, stop what you are doing right now and go read it: it will blow your mind.
To recap, WAV-FM is an acronym that is used to describe whole foods that are high in:

Water
Antioxidants
Vitamins
Fiber
Minerals

The only way to get all of these nutrients is from whole, unprocessed foods. We’ve already touched on the water and fiber components of potatoes, making them a nutritious thunder god. But what about their antioxidant, vitamin, and mineral content.
Potatoes have a large vitamin and mineral content. They contain vitamins A, C and E, and these vitamins protect against aging, aid in skin repair, maintain optimal liver health, and flood your blood with essential antioxidant compounds.
Antioxidants are potent chemicals in plants that help control oxidative damage (hence anti-oxidants) in the body. They also help regulate your immune system, protect you against viruses and reduce inflammation in tissues all throughout your body.
To understand this more, consider the following analogy:

Antioxidants protect plants from ultraviolet radiation from the sun in the same way that melanin protects our skin from the sun. In both plants and animals, pigments are colors. And colors are antioxidants. That’s exactly why your mom told you to eat the rainbow.

Most of the antioxidants in a potato are found in the skin, so eat the potato skin whenever you have the option. Your tissues will love you for it.

Sunbathe Your Mushrooms!

In the book Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, Paul Stamets writes about the unbelievable effect that sunlight can have on pre-picked mushrooms. In a series of elegantly designed experiments, Stamets discovered that shiitake mushrooms are capable of manufacturing vitamin D even after they have been picked, as long as their gills are exposed to sunlight (9). Freshly picked shiitake mushrooms contain about 110 IU of vitamin D per 100 grams. When placed in the sun for 6 hours, the vitamin D content increased to 10,900 IU (gills facing down), and 46,000 IU (gills facing up). By comparison, 1 cup of milk contains about 125 IU of vitamin D (10).

Six hours of direct sun exposure can increase vitamin D content in mushrooms by between 100 and 418-fold. In the science world, these numbers are astonishing.

Below is a table that lists the vitamin D content of many common foods available in the grocery store, in order of vitamin D content. Note that sun-bathed shiitake mushrooms are the highest of any food source.

Sunday 6 March 2016

Diabetes-notes