Tag: health

Type 2 Diabetes. When family history makes a healthy lifestyle ALMOST irrelevant.

~ Green Apple Dietitian ~ Leave a comment

I’ve known for a while that diabetes was always a few steps behind lurking in the background. Eventually, it will catch up. Why? Family history. With five family members who have the disease, I understood a long time ago that membership in this club wouldn’t be optional. During my last physical, the doctor focused on abnormal lab values indicating diabetes could still be a reality. But of all the diseases I could end up with, diabetes is a disease that can be more or less of a burden based on the choices I make.

For most of my life, I did a decent job taking care of myself, but I also did two of the best things anyone can do for their health, quit smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. These habits in tandem make any effort toward a healthful lifestyle useless.

As a teen, taking up smoking was a window to the in-crowd and a way to rebel. What I felt was a symbol of freedom would’ve been a severe detriment to my health if I continued. Luckily, there were enough people around who reinforced the harmful effects of smoking. After a while, I stopped smoking altogether.

The best way to describe my alcohol intake was problematic binge drinking. Like many of us, having a few made socializing easier. I abstained from alcohol use during the week, but I wasn’t a person who could stop after having just one. Luckily again, someone close to me nudged me toward better health. I stopped drinking altogether.

Alcohol abuse puts patients at risk for diabetes. I’ve met patients in my practice with a history of alcohol use disorders and a prediabetes/diabetes diagnosis. Most of them were admitted with a metformin prescription and were confused as to why their bodies became insulin-resistant after they stopped drinking. One patient believed it was a punishment for their detrimental habits.

The World Health Organization published its views this year on the unhealthy effects of alcohol and the National Cancer Institute maintains ethanol and ethyl alcohol as carcinogens that contribute to many types of cancer. Click on the links above to read more.

Did alcohol use increase my risk? I don’t know for sure, but heredity on the other hand isn’t something I can change. My mother was diagnosed with diabetes over 10 years ago and her brother and sister also around the same period. My father died of complications related to the disease. In 2018, my brother lost his toes to gangrene from uncontrolled hyperglycemia.

Becoming a dietitian helped me support my mom in many ways and I learned more by observing her experiences. I remember going with her to her first appointment with the diabetes educator when she said, “I want to control my diabetes.” A phrase she kept true to this day by keeping her appointments and doing what her practitioners recommended. She’s been a positive role model for me as she rose to the challenge of necessary lifestyle changes. I’m proud of her for it.

There isn’t a clear path to heredity when it comes to diabetes, but does this mean I shouldn’t care for my health since I probably won’t prevent it? I can’t say what the future will bring if I become insulin-resistant enough to start treatment, but the life I’ve lived so far has put me ahead of the game. Diabetes complications can range from neuropathy, heart disease, renal disease, and gangrene, but this doesn’t have to be my story or anyone else’s.

Knowledge and insight are my best defense against this disease. As my journey unfolds my experience with diabetes will give me an edge to help patients who are motivated to maintain their health.

When to see your physician

Insulin resistance is when the body doesn’t digest glucose properly, it overstays its welcome in the blood. When the insulin in your body isn’t stimulating liver, muscle, and brain glucose metabolism to remove it from the blood, elevated blood glucose levels eventually affect the heart, blood vessels, and kidneys.

If you’re at risk of developing diabetes, there are a cluster of three symptoms to discuss with your doctor, like increased:

  • HUNGER: when meals aren’t satisfying or there are perpetual cravings for sugary foods
  • THIRST: unable to quench thirst even after drinking adequate amounts of fluid  
  • URINATION: are you always in the bathroom?

Other symptoms include fatigue, blurred vision, slow-healing wounds, and weight loss. Have you lost significant weight recently but are unsure why? Unexplained weight loss related to hyperglycemia isn’t healthy. Along with the other symptoms, it signals that your body isn’t producing enough insulin or metabolizing insulin appropriately.

If you have any combination of these symptoms, make an appointment with your doctor, don’t wait.

Counting Carbs

Since the 1920s, tracking carbohydrate intake with insulin or other diabetes medications has been the gold standard for managing hyperglycemia for patients with type 1 diabetes. However, researchers continue to explore the efficacy of tracking for T2DM. Recently the medical community has been moving away from it. The American Diabetes Association offers a diabetes plate approach similar to MyPlate. More recently patients informed me that their endocrinologists don’t emphasize medical nutrition therapy while using glucose meters and insulin pumps. My RD brain thinks they should’ve been referred to a registered dietitian diabetes educator. In my experience, MNT should be tailored to the individual. Some patients are more willing than others to utilize education, while others want to be told what to eat.

Avoiding carbs altogether is never the right way to go. Even with hyperglycemia the body still needs adequate carbohydrates. Your muscles and brain need them to function. Avoid listening to negative messages about carbs and learn why the body needs them. Arm yourself with education from trusted sources. Avoid Clickbait websites offering cures using vitamin supplements or other unproven remedies. There’s no cure for diabetes and spending too much time looking for one is a sure-fire way to miss out on healthy successful management.   

Get enough fat in your diet

I’m old enough to remember the fat-free frenzy in the 80s and 90s and guilty as charged following it without questioning it. Society learned its lesson with a hungrier population that overconsumed carbs.

A balanced diet includes heart-healthy fats in avocados, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish. Fat adds flavor to food and helps us feel fuller longer. The jury is still out on whether saturated fat should be limited for heart health, but it’s important to remember your overall dietary intake and eating behaviors. Even so, to manage diabetes, I don’t recommend the Adkins or Carnivore diets.

Avoid high-protein fad diets

Fat-free mania gave way to the protein obsession that’s evident at every grocery store. Everywhere we’re told we don’t get enough of it, and of course, there’s a product to help with that. Healthy people on a regular diet, while not restricting their dietary intake, usually consume enough. Overconsumption leads to weight gain and is harmful to the kidneys, especially with the overuse of protein powders and supplements.

Get moving

Physical activity improves muscular, skeletal, and cardiovascular fitness while it improves glucose metabolism. If you are sedentary, look for opportunities to move more. I know it’s easier said than done, there are barriers to exercising and it’s never easy to start. How can you increase activity by making it part of something you enjoy? I like to hike in state parks to get fresh air while watching the butterflies and bees interact with the native plants. You don’t have to join a gym or jog on the side of the highway. Check with your doctor before starting any exercise program if you’re experiencing any health issues.  

Take care of your mind

Receiving a diabetes diagnosis can be a slap in the face for some patients. It’s usually followed up by the overwhelming education from health practitioners which results in information overload. It’s understandable to feel a range of emotions after going through that. There’s nothing wrong with letting things settle and giving yourself time to process it all.

Even though I mostly accepted my situation, I can’t help but wonder if there’s something else, I can do to prevent a diagnosis. Deep down inside I hope for a cure. But then I think of the privileges I was fortunate to possess for maintaining my health and how my choices benefited me later in life. I also believe that if there is breath in your lungs and a beat in your heart, it’s never too late to keep learning and doing.

Plenty of research points to weight loss for diabetes management. Science continues to evolve and rarely considers a patient’s individuality and how they think and feel. I recommend staying focused on improving your body’s physical fitness and making necessary dietary changes. Your weight will trend accordingly because your body will respond to how you treat it. Steer away from black-and-white thinking: good foods vs bad foods or thinner bodies are healthier than larger ones to avoid increasing anxiety and allow for an open mind. Self-blame and unacceptance won’t move you forward. To reach your fullest potential, accept what nature gave you then maximize it.

DISCLAIMER: The Green Apple Dietitian blog/Substack provides nutrition information for education only and is not intended to offer medical advice or cure any health conditions. The content should NEVER be used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment of any health condition or problem. Any questions regarding your diet and health should be addressed to your specific healthcare providers. NEVER disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking treatment because of something you have read on this blog/Substack website or social media.Green Apple Dietitian makes no warranties expressed or implied regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, comparative or controversial nature, or usefulness of any information posted or shared on this blog/Substack. Green Apple Dietitian does not assume any risk whatsoever for your use of any information contained herein that was posted or shared on this blog/Substack in the past, present, or future. By accessing this blog/Substack, you agree that neither Green Apple Dietitian nor any other affiliated party is to be held liable or otherwise responsible for any decision made, or any action taken or not taken, due to your use of any information presented on this blog/Substack website or social media.

How to Avoid Plugging Back into the Diet Culture this January

~ Green Apple Dietitian ~ 1 Comment

Here we go again! It’s that time of year when “being merry” fades into another tiresome weight loss resolution. The diet industry once more pushes the promise of losing weight and keeping it off. If you are healthy and are planning to go on another diet to shrink your body, here are some reasons you might want to reconsider.

The diet industry is a big part of the diet culture. It uses generalized assumptions to motivate us to criticize ourselves, or perhaps instill a negative body image that wasn’t there in the first place. Internalizing standards of thinness while wasting precious time achieving it can produce dire psychological consequences. Dieting is a risk factor for developing a serious eating disorder.

January is a prime time to lure folks back into unrealistic resolutions under the guise of health. People want to get healthy by reducing their food intake, which is short-lived as they slide back into old eating habits within a few weeks. The all-too-obvious clue is that weight loss programs aren’t sustainable. But what is sustainable? The availability of another recycled weight loss program that makes the same empty promises year after year. The emphasis is on changing behavior while focusing less on other factors that cause weight gain or the mental health consequences of chronic dieting.

How can you stop the tidal wave from dragging you back in? Start by deconstructing the ads you see. Look for baseless generalizations. Question the easy solutions to difficult problems. Here are four concepts to awaken your skepticism.

Body acceptance isn’t profitable, but failure is.

The body transformation industry needs a conduit to low self-esteem, or it won’t survive. It’ll lie by withholding the truth about how our bodies grow, develop, and mature. By tapping into the desire for self-improvement, it wants you to believe that every extra pound, wrinkle, and gray hair that deviates from the ideal standard is your fault. They sell hope while they coach you into a better life. They don’t want you to accept what you’re born with and will always convince you to keep paying despite the evidence that what they’re selling isn’t working.

Body acceptance means, in part, accepting, respecting, and caring for your body even though you don’t like certain aspects. Acceptance of yourself reduces the power of ideal standards and the desire to subscribe to them. Failure has no meaning in this perspective.

If you’re new to body acceptance here are three ways to begin moving toward it:

  1. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. This includes comparing your body size to the images of the before and after photos in weight loss ads. Instead, focus on how far you’ve come. Whether you survived or achieved it’s your story.
  2. Whenever a bad thought about your body surfaces, say (out loud) something nice about yourself. Choose words you can believe in.
  3. Acknowledge your worth and value in the body you are in right now.

Sure, it’s easier said than done, but how is not accepting yourself working so far?

Diet culture encourages you to demean yourself.

I’m too fat. I need to stop eating so much sugar. I’m getting old. How many times have phrases like these entered your mind? The diet industry is notorious for promoting ways to compare yourself to others. These generalizations can apply to almost anyone:

  • “Just eat the food and lose the weight!”
  • “Our program is clinically proven to help you lose weight.”
  • “Join millions of others who lost weight and kept it off.”
  • “I feel like my youth came back, it’s amazing!”
  • “Losing weight gave me the energy and the confidence I need!”

One popular diet company encourages food logging. Food records don’t work for everyone and recording every bite of food is unnatural. Obsessing over calories and portion sizes encourages unrealistic expectations and unhealthy categorization of certain foods. The potential danger of keeping a food diary is that it can worsen the symptoms of an eating disorder.

Separate yourself from the gimmick of weight loss.

Any company selling a product or service, whether it involves losing weight (or not), works toward a bottom line. The small ones want to earn profits, and the larger ones owe their shareholders. At what point are they focusing on their customer’s best interests?

People don’t start out believing they need to lose weight. At some point, we all develop beliefs based on the culture that surrounds us. We are taught that fat is bad. In developed countries and on the internet limiting exposure to thousands of weight loss ads is impossible. The diet industry seeks out the vulnerable and coerces them into the fantasy of weight loss for a better life. Their message tells them what nature gave them, isn’t good enough. Every ad has its niche, but all accomplish the same thing, to make viewers fear fat.

You are good enough now not in some future utopia.

There’s no guidebook to life. So don’t leave your life in the hands of conglomerates peddling unrealistic standards that convince you into useless misery. Protect yourself by knowing that most ideals about body size aren’t your own, they are learned. How you internalize them will affect how you treat yourself, and not in a positive way. When it comes down to it, you get to decide what comes into your life and what does not.

All of us are caught in a tug-of-war between the food industry selling convenience food and the diet industry telling us we’re fat. The fault is always placed entirely on consumers while they harp on self-control. Most of us are forced to work long hours to pay for the rising cost of food with less time to figure out how to feed ourselves.

As this post was written, the diet industry is scrambling to stay competitive in response to the heightened demand for GLP-1 injections. The price for weight loss skyrocketed. Even with insurance, patients on Wegovy can expect to pay $650 monthly for 28 doses, about $7800 a year. Not to mention the inconvenience of the weekly injections while placing sharps in an FDA-approved container and legally disposing of them. As with all medicines, there are risks, and once they are discontinued the weight returns.

DISCLAIMER: The Green Apple Dietitian blog provides nutrition information for education only and is not intended to offer medical advice or cure any health conditions. The content should NEVER be used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment of any health condition or problem. Any questions regarding your diet and health should be addressed to your specific healthcare providers. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read on this blog.

Green Apple Dietitian makes no warranties expressed or implied regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, comparative or controversial nature, or usefulness of any information posted or shared on this blog. Green Apple Dietitian does not assume any risk whatsoever for your use of any information contained herein that was posted or shared on this blog in the past, present, or future. By accessing this blog, you agree that neither Green Apple Dietitian nor any other party, is to be held liable or otherwise responsible for any decision made, or any action taken or not taken, due to your use of any information presented on this blog website.

Is It Me or Was Santa Claus Put on a Diet?

~ Green Apple Dietitian ~ Leave a comment

I might be a buzzkill for writing this, but something seems wrong about the recent depictions of Santa. CAUTION! This post is for adults and not for little ones awaiting his arrival on Christmas Eve. You were warned.

After I watched The Christmas Chronicles with Kurt Russell, I noticed a disturbing trend. Kurt Russell is an A-lister when it comes to his rugged good looks. He was coined a “macho thespian” in a UPROXX post written about the realistic nature of his facial hair as the man in the red suit. I’m not exactly sure where it started, but the movie’s popularity paved the way for a new identity for our bearded toy-toting figure.

If there’s money to make, retailers will find it. Since Kurt’s epic came out in 2018 and again in 2020, Santa was reinvented a few times. The jolly old man whose tummy shook like a bowl full of jelly succumbed to the desires of modern times. One who’d prefer to speed down a snowy highway in a red SUV instead of a sleigh. This year’s Target commercial depicted Santa as a young dude in a tight red sweater putting on a name badge emblazoned with the name “Kris K.” Other employees caught him doing “treecep” curls while holding a fake Christmas tree, “I’m getting into shape!” He went on to explain himself and almost blew his cover. Reviews online called him “the weirdly hot Santa.”

I preferred Kurt Russell’s version and enjoyed John Travolta’s Holiday Night Fever for Capital One. He looked more like the traditional Santa with hair as white as snow above a pair of red disco pants. More for my generation, I guess.

Kris Kringle was a big part of retail marketing for many years. If you’re old enough you might remember Santa holding a bottle of soda or smoking cigarettes in magazine ads. Yikes! Coke faced criticism online for fattening him up in earlier decades, but Target managed to slim him down into a youthful physically fit variety.

It’s only a commercial. I get it. If I don’t like it, I can click on something else. Well, I’ll go even further, I won’t spend my money. But based on my line of work, it’s not surprising that my radar is focused on advertisers that toy with Santa’s waistline. The young and impressionable are always watching.

In the age of Wegovy, there’s a lot that concerns me. Weight loss received way too much attention this year. Research that proves losing weight isn’t the best way to attain good health doesn’t make headlines. The truth about weight gain after dieting gets overshadowed by even more weight loss chatter. Santa’s athletic build as a Target employee seems too coincidental as he’s now a symbol to further the agenda of a certain body standard.

Many of us are generally unhappy with our looks, and St. Nick isn’t immune to the similar harsh criticism we give ourselves. According to some posts I’ve read online, he gets a bad rap for getting fat from eating way too many cookies. His rosy cheeks and large girth are solid evidence he’s had too much to drink and is out of shape to descend chimneys let alone travel the world in one night. One blog writer didn’t see a problem with urging him to adopt a healthier lifestyle which we all know only makes people feel worse. The blog didn’t make much of a case for including all body types and fitness levels.

The real buzzkill is dieting. We’ve forgotten how to relax and enjoy ourselves without the constant pressure to achieve that standard ideal. Diet talk is at epidemic levels as far as I’m concerned. Regularly I hear others declare, “Don’t eat so much sugar,” while projecting their insecurities on other folks. It crushes me to listen to a parent criticize their child’s weight. What a bummer. Such negativity is cruel especially when most kids seek parental approval.

The desire for perfection hurts everyone. How do you stop it, or at the very least, slow down how it affects our feelings and actions? We can control how we spend our money, but more importantly, we should examine how we respond to the messages we receive from those around us.

Whether you’re the pillar of health or not, you always have a choice. This belief can significantly change how you react to something you hear— in a good way. The holidays can be miserable, or you can set out to do something meaningful despite your feelings.

You don’t have control over what other people do or say. Inevitably someone will say something that upsets you or they will judge your looks or the food you eat. It might even be someone close to you. You can’t stop the world if you feel offended by someone, but you do have the right to your boundaries.

There’s nothing wrong with a little indulgence while celebrating. It’s expected. The problem is the overuse of indulgence to numb, cope, or harm yourself. It’s easy to do in plain sight while everyone else is having a good time. But only you get to decide what you consume and how much. Deep down inside you’ll know when it’s enough.

People who are unsure often ask me what they should eat. The conversation starts with, “Oh you’re the dietitian…” They fail to see that if they put their health above what the scale reads and their desire to please others, they already know plenty about how to nourish themselves. It’s not rocket science. The path to good health includes becoming aware of what’s happening inside, and not judging what’s on the outside. The goal of health often gets confused with what appears in the mirror. Retailers use it to their advantage.

I’m not out to control retailers or the media. My mission is to bring awareness during this time of year by acknowledging the struggles of others. It’s not always easy to see how selling goods and services can come with unrealistic expectations. I’m not the only one who feels bombarded with these messages.

Christmas comes once a year. Whether you celebrate or not, let’s agree to put aside the harsh judgment of ourselves and others. Commercials encourage us to be more self-centered than we intend to be. The nature of increasing brand awareness by repetition influences our actions without us realizing it. Viewing screens are everywhere we go and even in our hands. Let’s have a day without them. Turn them all off. January will be here before you know it.

DISCLAIMER: The Green Apple Dietitian blog provides nutrition information for education only and is not intended to offer medical advice or cure any health conditions. The content should NEVER be used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment of any health condition or problem. Any questions regarding your diet and health should be addressed to your specific healthcare providers. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read on this blog.

Green Apple Dietitian makes no warranties expressed or implied regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, comparative or controversial nature, or usefulness of any information posted or shared on this blog. Green Apple Dietitian does not assume any risk whatsoever for your use of any information contained herein that was posted or shared on this blog in the past, present, or future. By accessing this blog, you agree that neither Green Apple Dietitian nor any other party, is to be held liable or otherwise responsible for any decision made, or any action taken or not taken, due to your use of any information presented on this blog website.