Sarah Samaan - DASH Diet For Dummies

When the body’s various systems become overloaded with glucose, the situation is anything but sweet. High blood sugar and high insulin levels are directly damaging to the lining of your blood vessels. This accounts for many of the tragic consequences of diabetes, including the following:

Blindness

Heart disease, including heart attacks and heart failure

Intestinal disease

Kidney failure

Liver disease

Nerve damage

Poor healing, which may lead to dangerous skin and bone infections, sometimes requiring amputation

Stroke

Complications from diabetes can usually be managed with medication and surgery, but they can’t be undone. It doesn’t take a medical degree to recognize that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Rest assured that diabetes will change your life, but it’s usually preventable, and DASH can be part of the solution. With its emphasis on healthy whole foods and limits on sugary foods and snacks, DASH is a great fit for people with diabetes. Critics of DASH cite its relatively high carb count, but it’s important to remember that not all carbs are the same, and the fiber content of DASH is quite beneficial to anyone with diabetes. In addition, the carbohydrate balance is reasonable and can be adjusted (anywhere from 45 percent to 50 percent of your total calories). DASH includes plenty of nutritionally rich complex carbohydrates, including fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, but it eliminates sugary beverages, candy, chips, pretzels, salty processed crackers, high-sugar snack bars, and other highly processed foods.

The DASH creators weren’t dummies. They realized that everyone needs to sneak in a little treat from time to time, so the diet allows for up to five not-so-healthy snacks per week. It’s up to you to make those goodies count. If you have diabetes, you’ll need to account for all carbohydrates and calories.

You don’t have to take our word that DASH works. Several important studies have evaluated the effect of DASH on type 2 diabetes showing that adherence to DASH can help reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes. In the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study (a mouthful if there ever were one), more than 850 non-diabetic individuals ages 40 to 69 filled out a detailed food questionnaire. After five years, those whose diets were most like DASH were 70 percent less likely to become diabetic compared to those whose eating habits strayed the farthest from the diet.

Due to physicians’ and dietitians’ nagging concerns about potential negatives of a high-carb, lower-fat diet, the Omni-Heart researchers tested their higher protein and higher monounsaturated fat diets against DASH. In diabetes, the body becomes less sensitive to insulin, so the Omni-Heart researchers’ goal was to find out whether DASH or a higher protein or high mono-fat version of the diet (substituting for some of the carb content) would improve sensitivity to insulin, potentially cutting the chances of developing diabetes.

Although the higher protein diet didn’t seem to make a difference, the mono-fat version of the DASH diet, which included more olive oil, canola oil, nuts, and seeds, improved participants’ insulin sensitivity. Not only do they taste good, these healthy-fat foods are also known to be heart-smart, brain-protecting, and hunger-busting. It makes sense to make them part of your healthy eating plan.

In a study published in 2011, a cooperative endeavor between American and Iranian researchers, people with diabetes who spent eight weeks on DASH

Dropped blood sugar levels nearly 30 points

Lowered LDL cholesterol 17 points

Increased HDL cholesterol more than 4 points

Lowered systolic pressure nearly 14 points

Dropped diastolic pressure nearly 10 points

Cancer is a term fraught with dread. It makes people miserable, often requires horribly draining chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and may even be disfiguring. But what exactly is it? Cancer is really a catch-all term for a wide variety of diseases that happen when cells stray from their normal function, mutate, and begin to divide and grow out of control. Eventually, these growths can interfere with the body’s ability to carry out its day-to-day, life-sustaining processes.

There are more than 100 different types of cancers. Some you can live with for decades and never know they’re there. Others can be deadly within months or less. Often, doctors have no idea why a particular cancer strikes a particular individual. It’s possible to live an entirely pure way of life and still be struck down by the disease. Others engage in every possible vice and yet live well into their 90s. Be that as it may, some triggers are guaranteed to drastically raise your risk for one or many forms of cancer. Smoking is the obvious offender. So is long-term unprotected exposure to sunlight. But body weight and lifestyle can play a factor too, both positive and negative.

Many cancers, including breast cancer, colon cancer, and pancreatic cancer, are strongly linked to diet and lifestyle. It’s estimated that as many as 40 percent of cancers can be prevented with simple lifestyle changes. None of these changes are radical, but all require some effort on your part. For example, if you’re a smoker, dropping the habit can significantly reduce your risk for lung cancer, cancers of the mouth and throat, and more.

Body weight and the food you eat are two very important and modifiable risk factors for cancer. When you commit to a heart-healthy diet like DASH, you cut your risk for cancer and boost your chances of staying healthy for the long term.

With its emphasis on fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, combined with limited amounts of sodium, sugar, red meat, and processed foods, DASH is spot-on for reducing the risk of some cancers.

Fruits and vegetables not only are great sources of powerful antioxidants and other cancer-fighting nutrients but also provide loads of colon-friendly fiber. Whole grains likewise deliver another wide spectrum of equally important nutrients and fiber. Diets rich in these healthy foods have long been associated with a lower likelihood of cancer.

Red meats, especially processed meats such as bacon and lunch meats, have been clearly linked to a higher risk for colon cancer. DASH keeps these high-sodium foods to a minimum, with the option of avoiding them altogether. And because a high-salt diet may raise the likelihood of esophageal and stomach cancers, choosing DASH can make all the difference.

Finally, obesity itself contributes to a spectrum of cancers, including cancers of the breast, esophagus, pancreas, colon, uterus, and prostate. Combining DASH with calorie-cutting and exercise can get you back on the right track.

Chapter 4

IN THIS CHAPTER

Establishing new lifestyle routines