Guess What – It’s no longer just those with Diabetes; those with Insulin Resistance (Pre-Diabetes), or those with PCOS that need to watch their blood sugar levels – it’s now pretty much everybody.

Our modern diet contains far too much fast acting carbohydrate in the form of white sugar, white rice, white flour (are you beginning to see a pattern here?) and all those highly-refined, fast acting, (also known as high GI, high GL) foodstuffs that are causing our blood sugar levels to be on a constant roller-coaster ride.

So . . . if you don’t have any of those little nasties mentioned in the first paragraph; why worry . . . right? . . . WRONG! . . not only does the constantly bouncing ball of blood sugar instability lead to Diabetes; it also contibutes to Heart Attack; serious Depression; Early onset Senile Dementia; several types of Cancer (particularly Colon/Rectal Cancer, Breast Cancer, Endometrial Cancer, and Prostate Cancer); and, of course, just plain old Weight Gain.

One of the newer epidemics sweeping North America (and much of the rest of the world too) is a little thing called METABOLIC SYNDROME which is a cluster of risk factors, closely connected with the sugar roller coaster, that very quickly leads to so many of those above noted problems that we’d all like to avoid.

Could you possibly have Metabolic Syndrome and not even know it??? If you have three of the following five major indicators, you very likely do . . .

Central Obesity – a waist size more than 40 inches (102 cm) for men; more than 35 inches (88 cm) for women – regardless of whether you are overweight or not. The infamous “Apple” shape.
High Triglycerides – above 150 (US scale) or 1.7 (just about everybody else’s scale).
Low HDL Cholesteral – lower than 40 (US men) or 50 (US women) – for other parts of the world; that’s lower than 1.00 for men and 1.30 for women -- this is the good stuff, so higher is better.
High Blood Pressure – higher than 130/85 (hey, the same scale all over).
High Fasting Blood Glucose Levels– higher than 110 (US) or 6.0 (elsewhere) after you have not eaten for 6 to 8 hours.

You can determine the first of these yourself -- with a tape measure. For the others, you need to see your doctor and have routine blood work done.

Many of us have already been informed and warned of some of these factors. For many more, things may be starting to sound a little frightening. You need to find out -- hiding your head in the sand cannot help. Can you do anything to help the situation? Yes you can . . . lots. You can help to prevent those diseases if you haven’t already contracted them and you can help to control them if you already have.

HOW . . . the answer, of course, lies in controlling that Blood Sugar Roller Coaster ride by lowering the Glycemic (sugar) Load provided by all those highly processed, fast acting carbohydrates in your diet – and for a nice little bonus, you’ll also probably lose some weight.

WOW MEOWEE!!! So interesting. I think I'm safe but thanks for the info. Darn that nastly old sugar!
Thanks for the welcome. I just got on here this morning and your welcome from last night was gone. And where would I go to find that? Today I will try to do my profile - anything harder that "write" or "read" or "Forward" on my computer just seems to confuse me. You would not believe what I went through just to register. But, here I am and from what I've seen - it's well worth the trouble. I hate being a computer idiot! How I miss having my children home!
I've had great success with SB in the past and in just two weeks I'm seeing great things. I love this diet and the longer I'm on it the easier it is for me. Just so nice to find people I can ask questions and who understand what I'm going through.
Have a nice day ahead - running to get gas before it goes up again tomorrow is my first chore.
Have a great day and once again, thanks for the nice welcome.

Meowee, you always have good information to share, thank you! I was diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome (also known as Syndrome X) and Insulin Resistance a couple of years ago. I didn't really understand what it meant, other than I needed to "diet and exercise" the doctor told me, but didn't tell me exactly what my body was doing. Of course, now I have full blown diabetes.

I completely agree with avoiding the the high GI foods... and for me, I've gone low-fat vegetarian, hoping to cross over to vegan soon (it's hard to give up the eggs and cheese!).

I've just read Dr. Neal Barnard's book, and it makes sense. Low GI, avoid added vegetable fats (NO animal fats), eat high fiber grains, veggies, fruit. It sounds like a bland diet, but it's not, and I was ready for it...have been doing this for several weeks, not "tempted" by anything...it's more a lifestyle change than anything. I eat seitan beeflike strips, make fajitas, use tvp for tacos, etc. I use agave or stevia instead of sugar or the chemical fakes.

I've been considering WLS, but that is such a drastic measure, and I'm dropping pounds eating this way. It may take longer, but it is less riskier. I'm working up to exercising more.

We can beat metabolic syndrome and diabetes....we just have to change our lifestyles...whatever that may be for each of us...but I completely agree with you about those high GI whites - they gotta GO.

Sounds like you are on the right track, DUCKY and Ovo-Lacto might be a good place to settle. It can be a little difficult to maintain a good sugar balance without some non-vegetable protein in the diet -- not impossible, but just not as easy.

Meowee - you are so right. It is so hard. I have two of the indicators. Central obesity and Glucose level. Otherwise, I am pretty healthy. But, I know I am asking to get sick. I have a problem though, I hate vegetables. I am trying to look for help in preparing food so that I can lose weight.

It's amazing some of the places you can hide vegetables, CLARA -- take a look at the recipe sub-forum for a start. Cauliflower, for example, can masquarade as mashed potatoes or even as pasta when mixed into casseroles.

I'm lucky in that I've always been a vegetable lover . . . but maybe you just haven't found the ones you like or the way you like them yet . . . canned are awful and frozen (although still pretty healthy) just do not taste much like fresh.

How do you feel about salads?