Whole Wheat May Not be Better, Afterall.

My boyfriend’s beloved little Italian grandmother, whom I call Nonna, is everything you envision a little Italian grandmother to be. She is found making “gravy” (this is tomato sauce for those of you who didn’t grow up in an Italian neighborhood) every Sunday afternoon to feed anyone who walks through the door at 3 P.M. Leftovers go to the Mexican grocery worker down the block, or sent via foil pan to her 15-year old granddaughter who lives several blocks away.

Upon entering her house, you are free to roam her cupboards, refrigerator and stove until you find something appealing to your taste buds. But beware of telling her that you once enjoyed a certain dish many years ago-she will have it ready the next day and everyday afterwards.  I made the mistake of mentioning a I saw Giada make a spinach and egg Quiche on the Food Network.  I then ate Nonna’s replication four times a week for almost a month.

She reminds me a lot of my “situ” in Egypt, whom I never get to see, so I’ve grown quite attached to all 5 feet of Nonna. Thus, I want her to be around for a long time. So I started to help her monitor her Type 2 diabetes about 2 years ago. She has since dropped a significant amount of weight. She doesn’t know how much, but I would take a guess of about 20 pounds. Although every time she grabs her belly fat she exclaims in her thick Italian accent “Imma too fat!”, so I guess she’d like to lose a little more. She accomplished this by keeping track of both her diet and her blood sugar, which was in the 300 mg/dl range daily (ideal is below 99 mg/dl), when I started helping her. Now it’s about 115-130 mg/dl..which is an improvement, but not good enough yet.

Nonna is a complete carb junkie. She’s hesitant to eat eggs out of fear of raising her cholesterol, but thinks nothing of snacking on bread that will turn into sugar and thus exacerbate her ALREADY THERE problem of diabetes. This steams from poor guidance and education from her health providers. She once ate 4 cantaloupes (yes, 4) and her blood sugar shot so high she almost went to the hospital. She thought this much fruit would be OK because she switched to whole wheat pasta recently.

I know Nonna is not alone. Sure, it doesn’t help Italians think bread and pasta is a complete meal, but I know plenty of non-Italian diabetics who have the same health behaviors. As of 2009, 24 million Americans were diabetic and between 22-39% were pre-diabetic. The reason for the large range is because they keep changing the definition of pre-diabetes. That’s way too large a percentage of people to not know how to control their condition.

The USDA guidelines teach us to increase whole grain consumption, even when addressing those with diabetes. It doesn’t make much sense to tell someone with a blood sugar problem to eat foods that will, without a doubt, increase their blood sugar. Consuming 2 slices of whole-wheat toast can increase your blood sugar more than 2 tablespoons of table sugar. You read that right.

There are tons of studies promoting the idea that insulin medication can be greatly decreased if patients simply decreased their carbohydrate consumption, and to take it a step further, their overall wheat consumption.  Dr. Eric Westman of Duke University and Dr. Mary Vernon, former Medical Director of the University of Kansas Weight Control Program, both reported their patients reduced their insulin dosage by 50% when they decreased their wheat consumption.

Another study from A Temple University, shows that an intake of no more than 21 grams of carbohydrates a day led to a 3.6 pound weight loss in 2 weeks, along 75% improvement in insulin response!  To give you an idea of how much 21 grams of carbs is, it’s about the amount in a whole-wheat Arnold’s sandwich thin.

S o what does this all mean?

1. It means we need to redefine what we mean when we say whole grains. Whole wheat Wonderbread is NOT a whole grain. Quinoa, rye, amaranth and brown rice are better examples.
2. Sugar is killing diabetic patients slowly but surely. It’s not always the obvious form of sugar and cakes; it’s disguised as wraps, breads, crackers, english muffins and bagels claiming to be nutritious and part of a healthy diet. But this is no better than telling someone with lung cancer to smoke “light” cigarettes. It’s hurting them no matter which way you slice it (no pun intended).
3. More education is necessary about nutrition recommendations for those with diabetes. Most of you have no idea that whole wheat bread can raise your blood sugar so drastically, or why it does. Chances are neither do those that need this information to improve their health.

I have come across several “diets” in my life, most as a Nutrition professional, but some as a vain teenager who wanted her ass to look sweet in her club jeans. Most of these are fad diets; but what I’m writing about today is about lifestyle education and challenging what we’ve been told is healthy. Statistics can tell you that America just DOESN’T GET IT.
So as of this week, I’ve attempted to put Nonna on a very restricted diet to see if we can decrease her medication by half. I’ll keep you posted at how it goes, but I’m really confident that if she sticks to it the way I’ve recommended she will drop even more weight and will stabilize her blood sugar even further.

I really recommend reading The Wheat Belly, if you’d like to learn more on how wheat consumption is hurting our health.

For those of you who couldn’t give a rat’s ass about Diabetes, a nice bonus to reducing wheat intake is it helps get rid of belly fat. That’s right, decreasing your intake of muffin tops, will indeed be rid you of your muffin top. Sold yet?

Thanksgiving…a Time to Get Fatter, America.

In 1621 the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that became what we know today as Thanksgiving. For more than 2 centuries, days of Thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states, until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November. The original Thanksgivings were celebrations of events such as drought recoveries or Squanto teaching the pilgrims how to harvest corn. The meals were made of available resources, so I imagine there wasn’t any green bean casserole. They also didn’t have use of ovens or Paula Deen’s recipe book to artery clogging hell, so more than likely pies weren’t there either. But leave it to America to turn it into a binging, free for all, food comatose holiday.

History was never my strong point, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that this holiday has been scrutinized to reflect our gluttonous society. Before I go on any further, let me make one thing clear: I LOVE THANKSGIVING. As an adolescent, I often starved myself 3 days before so that I would have the appetite to play the sport known as “how much can you eat before you throw up?” That was of course before fitness and nutrition took over my life. Now, I’ve literally lost the ability to eat that much, and thankfully can enjoy the holiday without hating myself the next day. So I’m not bashing Thanksgiving, I’m just pointed out our bad habits during it.

This time of year is the one people love and hate. It’s full of family get-togethers, work parties, Christmas parties, happy hours, dinner preparations, fighting over who’s going to be Santa this year, etc. The most feared aspect of it however is weight gain. Oh, the dreaded holiday weight gain. So what do you do? Well first, you use a hanger to zip your jeans. Then you stand up, having had enough of jiggling like the Jello you just ate, wave your fist in the air and vow that this year will be different. You make a New Year’s resolution. January 2nd, you join the gym and give up carbs for a week! You’ve got determination in your eyes matched only by your irritability from starving yourself. Then, by February you’re over it and give up because “eh what the hell, bikini season isn’t for month.” Then you blink, Thanksgiving’s here again and you haven’t lose a pound( and possibly about to gain some more).

Through all this, who stops to think about how children are affected? We’re all so worried about adults gaining weight that no one’s paying attention to the examples we’re setting for the youth. They’re raised to believe it’s OK to eat until you’re full to capacity. Then they listen to you complain about gaining 20 pounds in 2 months (which for the record is NOT healthy). You more than likely speak badly about your stomach and ass fat while shoving Ring-a-Dings in your mouth like a hamster storing food in its cheeks for winter. These habits follow the children through their life and the cycle continues as they become adults. It’s no wonder the obesity epidemic is getting worse. Every season is a different excuse to gain weight, and we’re trained to think it’s OK. Well I’m here to tell you it’s NOT. A little weight gain here and there is normal, but we’re talking 5-6 pounds. We all get off our game once in a while, but as long as we get back on our weight shouldn’t be that drastically changed. But we’re constantly injuring our bodies and using the reason “It’s the holidays!” Well there ain’t anything joyous about having to wear spanx so people don’t ask you when you’re due.

Change can happen! That’s the beauty of a new day; it’s a chance every 24 hours to get it right. So here are a few tips:

• This holiday, just don’t overdo it! That’s all. No tofu turkey, no special diet, no binge eating. Make yourself one plate, and if you must have seconds, then by all means have it. Just try to only have the salad, and vegetables on your second go-round.
• Have more turkey than carbs and fat (that includes marshmallow sweet potato pie), because protein is less likely to pile on the pounds. Also, protein is going to full you up really quickly and will help slow the insulin spike the carb-loading is going to give you.
• Go easy on the gravy! Also,  make homemade cranberry sauce using HALF the recommended amount of sugar, and add cinnamon or agave syrup instead. It’s full of antioxidants and healthier than gravy and delicious.
• Skip the wine, if you can. If you absolutely must have it then limit yourself to one glass, but not while eating so as to space out your meals accordingly.
• For dessert, PICK ONE THING!!! If you love pumpkin pie then go ahead and enjoy a slice.
• Try to do a workout first thing the next morning BEFORE breakfast. This will help undo some of the damage. Make it strictly cardio. Examples are running, Zumba, aerobics, step, etc. Even a half-hour will really help.

Follow these tips, and then spend the evening enjoying your company and setting a good example for those that look up to you. If you change the habit now, then it won’t carry into December and you won’t be upset with yourself come January. I believe in you, America. I think we can change….do you?