A Low Carbohydrate Food – Diabetes 26

Fried rice with low calories

Many grains in the commercial markets are considered as high calories diet. These grains include:

- rice
- wheat
- oats

As suggested by Butler, N (MedicalNewsToday, 2018) that American should consume 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day.

About 1,100 calories must come from carbs which equal to 275 gram carbohydrates per day.

However, diabetes patients should eat much lower calories contents of foods, it is about 1,200 to 1,600 calories per day.

Since rice is one of higher calories foods, and should be avoided or limited, hence, unfortunate for many million of diabetic people around the globe, especially diabetic patients from Asian countries who eat rice as main source of energy.

Wild fruit, illustration only.

Sure, food intake management could be done to make blood sugar level under control.

Bird Eye is a brand well known for freezing foods in the package. The brand is own by several companies now:

- Conagra Brands (United States)
- Nomad Foods (Europe)
- Simplot (Australia)

The brand then develop called a “cauliflower rice” which contain:

- low carbohydrates
- high fiber
- antioxidants
- vitamins

Its may be alternative to real rice, and good for diabetic people.

# Previous postings:

- What is Type 2 Diabetes? - Diabetes 1
- What is the Relationship between Eggs and Diabetes? - Diabetes 2
- Why Pancreas of Type 2 Diabetic Persons Produce Less Insulin? - Diabetes 3
- Could Medicines Affect on Pancreas to Produce Insulin? - Diabetes 4
- Effect of Metabolic on Beta Cells in the Pancreas - Diabetes 5

Can Insulin be Produced from Laboratory Dish? - Diabetes 25

 

Illustration purpose only

We have talked about role of pancreatic beta cells to produce insulin. These are examples of posts relate to beta cells:

- Why Pancreas of Type 2 Diabetic Persons Produce Less Insulin? - Diabetes 3 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- Could Medicines Affect on Pancreas to Produce Insulin? - Diabetes 4 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- How to Activate Damaged Beta Cell in Pancreas to Produce Insulin? - Diabetes 21 | Tanza Erlambang Update

Recently, researchers have tried to develop beta cells from human stem cells in a dish. It is expected that these beta cells will secrete insulin in response to a given glucose.

First attempted was failed, it is because stem cells interrupted to grow to be pancreas beta cells in the let’s say Petri dish.

Succulent plants in the pot, just for illustration

Scientists knew that specific receptor protein called estrogen related receptor γ (ERRγ) abundant in beta cells. Then scientists injected this receptor protein to improve process of cells maturation in the lab.

Surprisingly, the mature beta cells produce insulin in the Petri dish. For further test, then, the beta cells are transplanted into mice (diabetic mice).

The result is promising that beta cells secrete insulin to respond the high blood sugar level in the mice.

The next steps to find out:

- how to transplant the Petri dish’s beta cells into human being

- can beta cells be function to produce insulin to control sugar level in human?

At least, we see light to help diabetes patients, especially type 1 diabetic patients where their pancreas stop to produce insulin at all.

We are waiting the great finding to treat diabetes in the near future!

Tea for Diabetes Patients – Diabetes 24

Tea bag of diabetes tea.

We talked about advantage of green tea to control blood sugar level (please read: Could Green Tea Improve Insulin Sensitivity? - Diabetes 11 | Tanza Erlambang Update).

Actually, there are many teas that good for diabetes, some of them are:

- Hibiscus tea

- Ginger tea

- Black tea

- Bitter Melon tea

- Bigelow green tea

- Chamomile tea

- Cinamon tea

Tea for diabetes, ready for drink.

I just take picture this kind of diabetes tea in the ethnic grocery. It is said that the tea is herbal supplement, contains “polyphenols.”

Substance called polyphenols which may combines of:

- flavonoids

- theaflavins

- tannins

- catechins

Polyphenols is antioxidant used to improve insulin sensitivity, thus manage or prevent diabetes type 2.

Drinking tea is getting popular in America lately. American drink 155 cups of tea per year. They consume mainly black tea. Some drinks green tea.

It is suggested that people drink at least 4 cup of teas may reduce their risk get diabetes about 30% to 33%.

Have you drink tea? How many cups per day?

# Previous posts:

- Can Blood Sugar Hold at Normal Level Without Medication? - Diabetes 12 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- Does Bitter Melon Contain Anti-Diabetic Substances? - Diabetes 13 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- How does Insulin Work in our Body? - Diabetes 14 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- What is the Meaning of Insulin Resistance? - Diabetes 15 | Tanza Erlambang Update

Effect of Drink Chia Seeds for Diabetes Patients – Diabetes 23

Chia seed in a glass of water

Some friends told me that Chia seed is good for health. The seeds are from plant includes in mint family.

Two species of plants, Salvia hispanica and Salvia columbariae could be found in the areas of:

- the southwestern United States

- Mexico

- Central America

Chia seeds are quite small, 1 mm in diameter with color tend to dark gray. We found white and black spots on these oval seeds.

We may consume seed with water. 10 gram of Chia seed is good enough for one glass of water. Some flavors such as orange, mango and lime may be added to the drink.

In term of diabetes, seeds are believed to benefit for type 2 diabetes patients. Few studies have shown that Chia seeds:

- improve insulin sensitivity

- control blood sugar

- lower blood sugar level after eating foods.

Do you know Chia seeds? Have you consume it?

Other posts relate to diabetes:

- What is Hypoxia and How Its Relates to Diabetes? - Diabetes 7 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- Can Abnormal Blood Sugar Lead to Seizure? - Diabetes 8 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- Can Diabetic Ketone-acidosis Lead to Death? - Diabetes 9 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- Is there Relationship between Coffee and Type 2 Diabetes? - Diabetes 10 | Tanza Erlambang Update

The Roles of Incretin Hormones for Diabetes Patients - Diabetes 22

Fig 01- Incretin hormone in the body (credit to Wiley Online Library)

We just mentioned little bit about Incretin Hormones in the previou post, How Lipotoxicity Relate to Diabetes? - Diabetes 6 | Tanza Erlambang Update

This hormone is created to trigger our body to respond to food intake. Our body has two kind of Incretin Hormones:

- GLP 1 (Glucagon Like Peptide 1)

- GIP (Gastric Inhibitory Peptide)

When we are eating foods, our gut produce GLP 1 to stimulate beta cells in pancreas to produce insulin and our body to decrease appetite.

In case of appetite decreasing, there is involvement of the mechanisms of brain – gut responses. The responses include by increasing of energy expenditure.

Scientists may exploit this mechanism by designing specific drugs and foods to treat metabolic diseases and over weight people.

Other roles of GLP 1:

- influence gut motility

- inhibit secretion of gastric acid

- inhibit secretion of glucagon.

Fig 02- Bell peppers. Spicy vegetable

Fig 03- Cheese in the grocery. Illustration

In respect to diabetes, GLP 1 has several functions:

- inhibit releasing of post-prandial glucagon

- slow down the stomach emptying

- the most important is increasing insulin sensitivity.

We will discuss little bit about GIP (Gastric Inhibitory Peptide) by next post.

Other diabetes relate posts:

- What is Hypoxia and How Its Relates to Diabetes? - Diabetes 7 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- Can Abnormal Blood Sugar Lead to Seizure? - Diabetes 8 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- Can Diabetic Ketone-acidosis Lead to Death? - Diabetes 9 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- Is there Relationship between Coffee and Type 2 Diabetes? - Diabetes 10 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- Could Green Tea Improve Insulin Sensitivity? - Diabetes 11 | Tanza Erlambang Update

How to Activate Damaged Beta Cell in Pancreas to Produce Insulin? - Diabetes 21

Beta cell in pancreas (credit to frontiers)

We talked about role of beta cells in pancreas to produce insulin at previous posts (Why Pancreas of Type 2 Diabetic Persons Produce Less Insulin? - Diabetes 3 | Tanza Erlambang Update) 

and 

(Could Medicines Affect on Pancreas to Produce Insulin? - Diabetes 4 | Tanza Erlambang Update).

Partial damages of beta cells lead to reduce insulin production, but insulin production may be totally stop due to severely degeneration of cells.

The question then: Can we activate beta cells to produce insulin? And how?

Some researches said: yes, we can fix damaged beta cells, especially due to certain toxic agents.

At least two methods to make beta cells to regain their functions:

- diets

- fasting

Illustration of insulin production in beta cell

(credit to TheDiabetesCouncil)

Some diets from herbs are believed to potentially to activate beta cells to produce insulin. These leaves contain corosolic acid to increase insulin production.

The leaves are:

- cinnamon, natural or supplement forms

- tea (green tea)

- banaba leaves, Lagerstroemia speciosa.

Fasting could help fix destroyed or half damage of beta cells, thus pancreas re-starts to produce insulin to manage blood sugar level.

In addition, insulin sensitivity can be improve by intermittent fasting, we have discussed at previous posts:

- What is the Meaning of Insulin Resistance? - Diabetes 15 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- Does Intermittent Fasting Affect on Insulin Resistance? - Part 1 - Diabetes 16 | Tanza Erlambang Update

- Does Intermittent Fasting Affect on Insulin Resistance? - Part 2 - Diabetes 16 | Tanza Erlambang Update

Lipid metabolisms and Insulin Effect – Diabetes 20

Illustration of lipid metabolims (credit to 123RF).

We talked about carbohydrate metabolism in the previous post (Effect of Insulin on Metabolic Rate - Diabetes 19 | Tanza Erlambang Update). This post will discuss little bit about Lipid metabolism.

You might forget what lipid is. Yes, it is organic compound: fatty acid and all of its derivatives.

In daily life, examples of lipid may include:

- cooking oil (natural oils)

- waxes (substance which produced by bees to construct honeycomb as an example)

- steroids (material to form hormone, vitamin D and bile salts in the body).

Lipid metabolism is important, because its to breakdown the lipid into cells (smaller chain fatty acids).

These smaller fat cells either stored (source of energy) or synthesize (for specific use). It is crucial to have synthesis process, where fats are constructed to be cell membranes (plasma membranes).

Source of Lipid in daily life (credit to SlideServe)

What hormones regulate lipid metabolism? 3 key hormones are:

- insulin

- leptin

- adiponectin

Insulin affects on both carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. In respect to lipid metabolism, insulin help synthesis process, include glycogen synthesis.

In the liver, insulin could stimulate glycogen synthesis. Two goals of this kind of synthesis:

- manage blood glucose level

- provide energy need

Thus, we may understand the relationship between lipid metabolism and insulin, then relationship to diabetes.

Lower insulin production causes lower lipid metabolism rate, then increase blood glucose level, or the process is vice versa.