Diabetic Food List + Plus

On the home page of this website, Diabetes Food List + Plus, we state our objective as being to provide information on foods and how they can fit into a diabetic meal plan and a diabetic lifestyle. Most diabetics already have had advice from their health care providers on what NOT to eat, what to avoid, probably such items as too many rich pastries and sugary beverages, and sweets and candies – except for a boost when an incident of low sugars occurs. I believe it when I’m told to keep away from the candy counter.

However, from time to time in the recent past, I’ve heard that chocolate can be good for you, usually referring to the 70% dark chocolate I believe, but I’ve never seen any authoritative sources from which to pin it down. Until now perhaps. In the September 01, 2011 edition of the diabetes newsletter I receive, I was almost shocked to see an article with the title More Research Showing Chocolate Good for the Heart and Brain. For me that’s a must read!

Wow! As a former lover of chocolate in my younger days before I was diagnosed as being a type-2 diabetic, about 20 years ago, it now looks like I’ve been missing out on a good thing, and even worse, all the while thinking I was being smart about it.

Chocolate lowers risks apparently
The ingredients in chocolate and cocoa appear to lower the risk of developing high blood pressure, inflammation, the formation of plaque on arterial walls, and the formation of blood clots that cause strokes. It was conjectured that polyphenols, a type of antioxidant found in cocoa products, may be responsible for the positive effects, and boosted by nitric oxide in the body that improves the function and pliability of blood vessel walls. It seems that working together, those factors provide especially positive results.

The investigators did not differentiate between the various types of chocolate available, all types were acceptable, dark, milk, or white chocolate. Chocolate of every sort was part of the mix.

Conclusions of the research into chocolate consumption
The article reported studies carried out in Britain. Researchers in the U.K., after analyzing seven earlier studies involving the results of individuals who regularly consumed chocolate, have concluded that eating chocolate can be beneficial in lowering the risk of cardiovascular and some other related health complications.

While first acknowledging that the over-consumption of chocolate and cocoa products can lead to harmful consequences, the conclusion reached by the British researcherswas that the existing studies generally confirmed that chocolate consumption lowered the risk of what they termed as “Cardiometabolic disorders”.

What are cardiometabolic disorders?
Cardiometabolic is an “umbrella” term to encompass several well known health conditions that include high blood pressure, diabetes, elevated triglycerides, low HDL (the “good” cholesterol), and other health problems frequently associated with obesity, and poor lifestyle choices such as tobacco smoking and physical inactivity. An estimated 47 million U.S residents fall into that category and are therefore at increased cardiometabolic risk, meaning increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

It seems the more chocolate that was consumed, within reason, provided the greatest amount of benefit, when compared with individuals who consumed the least amount of chocolate.

The reference attached to the article cited here was:
Presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2011 Congress, BMJ 2011; DOI:10.1136/bmj.d4488.

The article explaining the research, included the following summation.

“This beneficial association [of chocolate consumption] was significant for any cardiovascular disease (37% reduction), diabetes (31%), and stroke (29%), but no significant association was found in relation to heart failure”.

In conclusion — a caution
As is often the case, the study’s researchers added that further investigation into this matter is needed. However, if we don’t over-indulge, we who often seek a suitable diabetic snack to add to our diabetic food list may now feel more comfortable perhaps about “sneaking” the odd piece or two of chocolate, as I sometimes do, in fact, we may be encouraged to add chocolate to our diabetic food list now that it may be considered “legal” from the diabetic viewpoint.

Was it not Oscar Wilde who said something along the lines of “All the best things in life are either illegal, immoral, or fattening!”?

A follow up on the suggestion that Salsa might be a worthwhile addition to the diabetic menu
It was about a week or two ago, in a discussion of neuropathy, that I mentioned a doctor’s suggestion that the capsaicin in hot peppers can be, for some, an antidote to relieve the pain of neuropathy that often occurs when a person has had diabetes for some time. That includes me, being a type-2 diagnosed more than 20 years ago. For several years I have experienced a typical diabetic neuropathy, a lack of sensation in my feet, other than a feeling that they are very cold, especially when I am in bed and ready for sleep. The cold feeling is painful to the extent that sometimes I cannot get to sleep and have to get up and walk around, I assume somehow improving the circulation in my extremities. But before we get to the possible salsa remedy, I’ll just mention vitamin B-12 that has been of help to me — and still is I think.

After a few years, when it got really bad, I finally mentioned this problem to my doctor, I was immediately advised to take a B-12 vitamin pill each  day, in the amount of 1000 mcg, and I do believe it has helped, I wish I had known about it sooner. But even so, recently it has become worse again, I assume because my neuropathy is getting worse.

Important re vitamin B-12
For the record, I should mention that vitamin B12 is available in most health food stores and also available in some drug stores if they have a vitamin section — and it is inexpensive. With 90 small pills in a bottle, at one per day, that’s a 3 month supply and the cost is less than $10 a bottle in my area of the northeast. I don’t know of any othe vitamin that costs less, and probably not even aspirins.

The vitamin also goes under the chemical name of cobalamin. But what is important is that I found that B-12 comes in 2 forms, cyanocobalamin and methylcobalamin. My reseach into which  of those two to use, informed me that the best is the methylcobalamin because it is easier for it to be absorbed and lasts actively longer in the body. Also it is to be taken sublingually, meaning that it has to be placed under the tongue and be dissolved there — which it does quickly.

Getting back to salsa as an ingredient for the diabetic menu
Well, I have been adding salsa to my diabetic diet slowly in a small amounts of a couple of tablespoons a day in a suitable generally diabetic friendly meals. It comes in middle and hot. And I think it may be working somewhat, at least my feet have been more comfortable without keeping me from sleep and I still, of course, continue to take my 1000 mcg B-12 pill.

I found the following salsa recipe and it’s obviously the jalapeno chilli peppers that make it hot.

Ingredients: 3 or 4 roasted jalapeno peppers, 2 cups of diced scallions, and 3 or 4 tomatoes.
To those add a teaspoonful of basil and some black pepper to taste, and any other herb that seems appropriate plus salt to taste if necessary.

That is not too specific, I know, but like many men, I’ve never understood much about the art of cooking and I’ve accepted the fact that many women just know what to do to make a dish better anyway, even with the undefined amounts used, for instance, when I asked my mother-in- law how long I should cook something, I was given the less than precise answer of “Until it’s ready!”

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Salsa is the food list topic but first a few words about neuropathies

A neuropathy is the medical term to describe nerve damage, a not uncommon side effect of diseases such as diabetes, the common problem to which this diabetic food list website is addressed.

Anyone who has not experienced a diabetic neuropathy of the feet would not realize how painful it can be, often striking during the night, preventing a person from getting to sleep, awakening them from sleep or preventing them from getting back to sleep. There is also the sharp stabbing pain, usually of shorter duration but recurring, that is aptly named “burning toe syndrome”.

Peripheral and autonomic neuropathies
The type of neuropathy described above, that affects the extremities, the feet, hands, or legs, is called a peripheral neuropathy. But nerve damage is not limited to the extremities, they can also affect almost every part of the nervous system and many organs of the body can become impaired as a result. The term autonomic neuropathy is used to refer to the several symptoms that occur when there is damage to many nerves that manage organs that control the body, including blood pressure, heart rate, the emptying of the bowel and bladder and the digestion process among others.

Especially common in diabetes
Neuropathies are common in people who suffer from diabetes, a serious metabolic disorder which results from the existence of higher than normal blood sugar levels that circulate throughout the body.

And in diabetics, neuropathies are more common in those who have had difficulty controlling their blood sugar levels for a long time. A comprehensive explanation of neuropathy can be found at the National Institute of Health’s Diabetes Clearinghouse.

Pain relief
There is not a lot that can be done to alleviate the pains of neuropathy. There are pain killing medications that might help but it’s the high levels of blood sugar that does the damage and a first line of defence might best be to achieve improved blood sugar control, not always easy for some, I realize.

Liniments and ointments that provide heat to the affected areas might provide relief for some people. Capsaicin ointment is one of those that might be a remedy and is available in the first aid section of most pharmacies, together with other similar pain relief products.

Some doctors treat the pain of neuropathy with Vitamin B-12 injections and B-12, in the form of sublingual tablets, has been recommended by my own doctor at a dosage of 1000 Mcg once per day. It is inexpensive, a 3-month supply costs less than $10, available without prescription at health food stores and some drug stores. Note: B-12 tablets are available in 2 forms, cyanocobalamin or methylcobalamin, I have been advised that methylcobalamin is the better form because it is better absorbed by the body. Other B vitamins have also been suggested as possible neuropathy-specific remedies. For me, the 1000 Mcg tablets did help for about a year or so but either its effectiveness is diminishing with time or my neuropathy is getting worse and I need to seek an alternative, which brings me to the title reference of Salsa.

Salsa
Salsa, is a new and, for me, an unusual addition to my diabetic food list. My discovery of Salsa as an aid in dealing with foot pain came from the book The Diabetic Male’s Essential Guide to Living Well, by Joseph Juliano, M.D., who is a type 1 diabetic. The book was published in 1998 by Henry Holt Books, and is still available from some sources, and is a favored reference for all things diabetic for me.

Dr. Joseph Juliano on Salsa
After commenting on capsaicin, mentioned above and an extract of hot peppers that gives them their fiery taste, Dr. Juliano points out that the peppers are used to make Tabasco sauces and salsas. Since he now eats a lot of salsa, he has found that it has reduced his neuropathyy to zero and he has suffered no pain for many years. How much he eats is not mentioned other than to say that it is always part of his lunch. For me, that is enough to prompt me to incorporate salsa into my diabetic diet and I have just started to do so.

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