Type II Diabetes and Diet
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For Type II diabetics, diet is particularly important. In fact, one of the main reasons people develop Type II diabetes is because of their unhealthy diet. Diabetics must monitor nutrients such as carbohydrates so that they know whether they need to work to decrease or increase their blood glucose level. For Type II diabetics, diet can allow them to manage their diabetes with ease, or it can make life extremely difficult.
Healthy Diet for People in General
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In a person's diet they should limit the total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium. This means people should never go over your Daily Value for these items, and try to consume less of these nutrients than you daily value suggests. In you diet you should also strive to exceed your daily value in some nutrients. Those nutrients are dietary fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, and iron. This means people should strive to consume more of these nutrients than the daily value suggests. To learn more about food labels click here. The picture to the right shows what food people should limit and what foods they should eat more than their DV (daily value) of on a food label.
Healthy Diet for a Diabetic
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You, as a Type II diabetic, should strive to eat whole grains, and fresh or frozen fruits. You should avoid canned vegetables (because they are high in sodium), fried meats, whole dairy products, fats, oils, sweets, and sugary beverages. An example of a healthy diabetic choice are raw blackberries (a picture of them is to the right). Raw blackberries are a good choice for diabetics because they are not canned, and they are not put into syrup. Syrup is bad for a diabetic, because it will raise the blood glucose levels. Raw blackberries are also low in calories and fat, and have no cholesterol. These nutritional facts show that raw blackberries are a healthy food choice for diabetics. Anna was not following a diet appropriate for a person with Type I diabetes, because only two food groups (vegetables and dairy) were on target.
Feedback Loops
There are two types of feedback loops; positive and negative. Note that positive and negative feedback loops do not mean they are good or bad, the positive and negative determines how the feedback loops view change. Positive feedback loops work to enhance change and negative feedback loops resist change. Most of systems in our body runs on negative feedback loops. Negative feedback loops constantly work to keep something at a target level or rate. An example of a negative feedback loop is the process of blood glucose (also known as blood sugar) regulation, this is a negative feedback loop because it is constantly working to keep the blood glucose level at a target point, approximately 70 to 100 mg/dL (this target level is different for diabetics), and the system is constantly working to counteract the changes in glucose levels in the blood. The process of blood glucose level regulation is shown below.
Your diet is the deciding factor in this feedback loop. If you consume too much glucose, the body produces insulin. On the other hand, if you do not consume enough glucose, your body stops producing insulin and starts producing glucagon (a hormone that frees glucose stored as glycogen in the liver). As a Type II diabetic, your diabetes has been caused by one of the two following situations:
- You have consumed too much glucose (most likely due to a poor diet) and your pancreas was overwhelmed and could not produce enough insulin to keep up with your glucose intake.
- The insulin your pancreas produces and the insulin receptors your insulin binds to (in order to start the process of Insulin Mediated Glucose Uptake), have become resistant to each other. Meaning your insulin is not telling your cells to consume insulin and your cells, and essentially your body, are not getting the energy they need.