I just lost part of my post again, I don't know what I do for that to happen. Dang.
I was under 180 for the first time in a while this am, but after today's meals, I may not see that again for a bit. Lots of calories today, so will be working my way away from cravings again tomorrow I am sure.
DId have a little walk today, not enough, but any is better than none.

I've never posted an article before, but I think I have all the info with it to make it an acceptable post. It is also on this doctor's FB page so it is for public. I like certain nuts and walnuts are not one of them, but I just may have to change that. Have a great day.

This Nut May Prevent Diabetes & Heart Disease
Posted on October 6, 2013

Medical researchers from the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in Connecticut have found evidence suggesting that adding walnuts to one's diet can protect against diabetes and heart disease in at-risk individuals.

For the study, a sample of 46 adults aged 30-75 were selected. Participants were all overweight and had excess abdominal fat. They had a Body Mass Index larger than 25, and a waist circumference exceeding 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women. All exhibited at least one of the following precursors of diabetes and heart disease. They either had high blood pressure, some level of insulin resistance, high triglyceride levels or high cholesterol. The group was randomly assigned to either a walnut enriched diet or a diet without walnuts. Those chosen for the walnut diet were instructed to consume 56 grams of shelled, unroasted English walnuts per day as a snack or with a meal. The study continued for 8 weeks.Walnuts3

"We know that improving diets tends to be hard, but adding a single food is easy," explained Dr. David Katz, Director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center and lead author of the research team. "Our theory is that if a highly nutritious, satiating food like walnuts is added to the diet, there are dual benefits: the benefits of that nutrient rich addition and removal of the less nutritious foods."

Encouraging Results

At various times during the 8 week period, participants underwent endothelial function testing. In other words, arterial flow velocity and artery diameters were analyzed to measure the overall ability of the arteries to constrict and expand with each heart beat. Endothelial function is increasingly being viewed as a prognostic marker of susceptibility to future cardiac events and the development of type 2 diabetes.

The research found that daily intake of 56 grams of walnuts improves endothelial function in overweight adults with excess abdominal fat. Furthermore, the addition of walnuts to the diet did not lead to further weight gain. "The primary outcome measure was the change in flow-mediated vasodilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery," wrote the research group. "FMD improved significantly from baseline when subjects consumed a walnut-enriched diet as compared with the control diet. Beneficial trends in systolic blood pressure reduction were seen, and maintenance of the baseline anthropometric values was also observed."

These results are in sync with other studies indicating that nuts can favorably alter levels of oxidative stress, inflammation and cholesterol, while also improving glucose metabolism and overall vascular functioning. Walnuts are a uniquely rich source of a-linolenic acid (ALA), and epidemiological studies suggest that plant derived ALA may confer particular cardiovascular benefits. A meta analysis investigating the impact of walnut consumption on blood lipids showed that walnut enriched diets significantly decreased total cholesterol as well as LDL cholesterol. Furthermore, walnuts are also rich in tocopherol, phenolic antioxidants, folic acid and magnesium - nutrients that have been shown to improve cardiovascular health.

This entry was posted in Health Tips by Dr. Don Colbert. ← Previous

oh man, walnuts give me canker sores. Oh well...

Trish, I buy bags of shelled walnuts for baking and I was eating them daily until I ran out recently. I will be looking for them on sale again now that it's coming up on time to start baking for Christmas. I ate them, maybe 6 or 7 daily for a long time. I never did understand grams and don't know what 56 grams equals. I can't say I noticed any change in my BS, BP or weight while I was eating them, but I did it because they are really said to be so good for you. I guess it's worth a try. Can't hurt. My husband gets mad at me when I eat them because even though my diverticulitis is gone since my surgery, I am succeptible to get it again. Nuts are very bad for that.

Although they say walnuts, I'm wondering about some of the nut flours that some people are using in place of regular flour such as almond flour. I know that almonds (also not a favorite nut to much on) is supposed to be so good for you. I used to drink almond milk because a lot of people who low carb or eat whole foods use it in place of milk. I might have to re-think that one again.

56 grams is 366 calories and 37 grams of fat. That's a lot IMHO.

I'm still trying to recuperate but and still having a lot of pain. Too many carbs were in my diet last week and it has shown. Today my navy pants are a tad snug but I refuse to dig out my old size 16s and 18s!

That is a lot of calories and fat in 56 grams. However, I do remember one of the things I liked about South Beach Diet was that I could eat nuts. I can see why they are recommended on some diets now.

About how many walnuts would that be? If someone was counting calories that would be a lot for a small amount of walnuts. But the fat is good fat, the kind we need, like the fat in salmon. On another diabetes board I go to they really push fat. The reason is that (they say) fat is not converted to glucose, and if you eat fat with other foods that ARE converted to glucose, not as much of it will be converted. I don't know if I am explaining this correctly. Part of the reason why I don't go to that site very often is that I don't understand a lot of what they are talking about.

Carol Sue: that is part of the theory of the atkins diet. Not what most people think, the atkins diet should be high fat, low carb, but not high protein. The amount of protein should be the same or slightly more than usual, (1 serving per meal) but the fat should be high, much more than usual. The carbs should come from veggies, not starches, when possible. You really need the fat to give a feeling of fullness.
Fat has NO effect on blood sugar, but we don't always metabolize it well.
As well, think of some fat/carb combos that are not so great, like pastry. High fat, high carb is not a good combo. Nor is bread and butter.
When we increase fat, be careful to decrease carbs accordingly, and given that fat has twice the calories of carbs (a gram of fat has 9 cals, and a gram of carbs has 5) you have to cut the carbs a lot when you increase fat.
That said, it IS doable.
I have been sticking to higher fat foods, but careful portioning this time around and it is working for me. I am not sure why I have been able to stick it out this time, but the addiction theory is in my mind.
Last night, I hosted a work meeting here at home. I served homemade carrot soup, and cheese, and for the others, bread and butter. I didn't eat the bread. I did send the leftover bread home with my colleagues, to remove temptation, (though there is some bread here for DH). I simply didn't touch the bread, and stated that I can't eat bread anymore. No arguments or problems.
SO now my only problem is p**ping. Not enough. Tried the clear lax, no results, think I will try again today. argh, that part is NOT so good. All these veggies have fibre, why isn't it working?

The thing with Atkins is that they allow sat fat, at least they did years ago when I first read the book. Since I have a really bad hiatal hernia, I have to be careful with fat. The people on this other site I go on are very strict about their diet. They promote Low Carb High Fat. They all have perfect blood sugar readings. But reading the foods they eat, I can't eat that way...or should I say I won't. If I was alone maybe I would do it, but I am not going to buy completely different food for myself and my husband.

They agree that you shouldn't eat a lot of protein, because if your body does not use the protein it is converted to glucose. Fat will never be converted to glucose.

If you want to check out this forum it is http://www.diabetesforum.com/
I think you can go in and read without registering, you just can't post.


Last night I made chicken, veggies and potatoes. The potatoes are for DH, but I ended up eating some of them. I do the same with bread. As soon as I eat it I wish I hadn't. I need to find a way to change this. I did it before and that lasted about 10 years, but for some reason I can't get through 1 day without screwing up. As soon as I eat bread, I want more bread. I cannot eat just 1 slice.

After I had my bowel surgery my surgeon told me to eat slowly and chew my food thoroughly. He also put me on a stool softener, and that helped tremendously. Since my bowel was still healing it was imperative that I didn't get constipated. I used Colace, buying the generic over the counter. I still have some and I take it if I know I haven't eaten enough fiber that day. Maybe this would help you.

Carol Sue Thanks for sharing the website. Good info there. I got a lot of good info from the site that Rennie shared with me too. I've developed a way for me to eat that really kind of is similar to the way the one I read about on the website you shared. Having read that and what Madeliene shared about fat, protein and carbs on Atkins, I now know why my new plan is working so well.

I took the 1500 calorie diet plan for low carb on the site I got through Rennie. It works on the plan given to DH DD when she had gestational diabetes except they had her take her total carbs and divide it evenly throughout the day. I have a calorie/carb/fat counter that says that if you low carb that you should count both calories and carbs. I know the idea of Atkins is to find the # of carbs your body can tolerate and still lose weight, but I never could stick with it long enough to find that limit. But I am happy to say that I have been able to find that limit with this plan. This 1500 calorie plan actually is the first calories plan that allows only 6 servings of carbs. Years ago when I was sent to a nutritionist, she told me to eat 12 servings a day. I would be either dead or miserably sick by now if I had listened to her. Once she told me that, I never went back to her.

Amazing, I am following the plan except that instead of just going by "generalizing" with 6 servings, I count the carb grams. I find that I seem to be able to handle up to 90 grams of carbs and lose weight. I do eat a little more fat, but I am using mostly coconut oil, olive oil and butter. Anyway, it is working. So far weight and FBS is slowly coming down.

Forgot to share about exercise. It has become a habit now that I am riding my recumbent stationary bike for 2 miles a day which takes me approximately 17 to 18 minutes 5 or 6 times a week.

I've been reading about Tai Chi and the benefits of it. My oldest DS used to do Tai Chi in his younger years. He has been telling me a lot of good things about it. So I started that today and plan to do it 5 or 6 days a week.

I really feel good about my own "personal" plan.

I bookmarked the site Rennie posted but haven't read it yet. I think I will have to go there and check it out.

Trish, where do you buy your coconut oil and what do you do with it? They talk about it a lot on that Diabetes Forum. It is supposed to be good.

Today I was reading a lot online about Metformin, mostly because I saw a posting that said you are supposed to take it with food. I don't always take mine with food and haven't had a problem until lately. The last time I had bloodwork done my dr upped my dose from 500 3x day to 850 3 x day. I just refilled my 500 mg and I didn't want to throw them away, so I was taking 850 2x day and 500 1 x day. I recently used up the 500 and started taking the 850 3 x day. Not only have I had some nausea, but a couple times I woke up around 2 AM with nausea. My stomach was churning and gurgling and I actually threw up. I never connected it to the Metformin, but today I read that too much Metformin can cause vomiting. I think I am going to cut back to 2 X a day and see how I feel. One night I felt nauseated but when I went into the bathroom I did not throw up. Last night, as soon as I got in bed I felt nauseated, but it went away. Unfortunately, all this nausea and vomiting has not helped with weight loss. LOL I shouldn't say a lot, because this has happened 3 times over the past couple months. It's not all the time, but before this I rarely threw up. If I feel better after cutting back to 2 pills a day then I will go back to 3, but I will make sure I take it with food.

Diabetes really sucks, ya know? LOL

Just checking in. Had a reality check this morning when I tested 7.8 for FBGL. Not good since that's 140.4 US measurements. No sugar but a major pasta and garlic bread feed last night. As of this morning I am going to be weighing and testing every day AND WILL GET BACK TO REGULARLY TAKING MY MEDS! I have been coddling myself too much as I recover from this damned back and ribs thing.

Off to make an almond milk and healthy stuff smoothie.

Oh my goodness so much information I need to catch up on ...

Carol Sue I've been on the diabetesforums since I was diagnosed. A wealth of info there Which website did I post? I don't recall. The one I PM'd to Trish I just found out about last week through urgent care. Let me know I may need to check it out again

Ruth glad you're doing better, hope you heal fully soon.

my fbs this morning was 172 (not good but better) I don't know why but of course not in the 2 or 300's is great for me. I hope it goes even lower. It may have something to do with the fats I've been eating. I need to read more about what you all are talking about. I just skimmed through it. I don't like any nut except sunflower seeds, cashews and pistachios. I've been eating a lot of seeds and pistachios the last few days I wonder if that could be it.

I will definitely catch up on this wonderful informational thread. I'll say you/we don't talk much on here but when we (you all) do it is so worth the read. Thank you for being here