How to Create a Diet to Avoid Diabetes

This eHow article shows how to avoid diabetes with the foods you eat, with some of the latest discoveries and promising possibilities for incorporating special (often delicious) foods to create a regular diet to avoid diabetes (I or II). Quite often, these foods have other health benefits as well. So as a reporter, not a doctor, here's what appears to be working for others.

Instructions

1. Eat foods with leucine. This amino acid reportedly reduces blood sugar levels within 48 hours by helping muscle cells absorb and use up excess blood sugar very quickly. The University of Illinois did a study on its positive effects as a component to a diet to avoid diabetes. One cup of cottage cheese can contain close to 3000 milligrams. Eating it daily or every other day may be very beneficial for avoiding diabetes.

2. Incorporate virgin coconut oil into your diet. Natives of the Pacific Islands who regularly consumed coconut oil had no diabetes. According to some doctors, research now shows that virgin (not refined) coconut oil stabilizes blood glucose levels. Stir it into hot cereal, spread in on muffins and toast, bake with it and if you don't mind the coconut aroma, stir fry with it as well. Coconut milk has some of the beneficial ingredients, but the oil is reported to have the most.

3. Use certain spices with each meal. Cinnamon, cilantro, ginger, cayenne, and turmeric are reported to help the liver much more easily turn sugar into fuel for up to three hours after consuming. Studies on cinnamon have shown it to be very promising in its ability to benefit blood glucose levels. Add fresh cilantro to pestos and salads if you like the flavor (some love it, some hate it), and use a teaspoon of the others with your meals. Cinnamon sticks can also be added when making tea or coffee. Heat reportedly doesn't destroy the component. However, cinnamon oil doesn't appear the contain the healing effects for diabetes, so use the whole stick or ground cinnamon.

4. Eat vitamin D rich foods. If you don't get enough daily sun, make sure your diet to avoid diabetes includes foods rich in vitamin D, or even supplement with cod liver oil or vitamin D3 capsules. Even infants are now being supplemented with vitamin D to avoid future diabetes. Rich food sources for adults include salmon and other fatty fish, and foods fortified with vitamin D. It can take two to three months to restore vitamin D levels to optimum amounts, so don't use it as a quick fix, and make it part of your regular diet to avoid diabetes down the road.

5. Add holy basil to your diet. This culinary spicy herb is unlike regular basil, but it grows easily in pots on a sunny porch, and has been reported to be able to reduce high blood sugar counts by more than 25% by apparently aiding the adrenals, allowing them to better control the body's blood sugar levels. One study is reported to have used capsules of the herb and found 400 to 900 mgs. a day to be a beneficial dose, so you may prefer capsules instead.

6. Eat cherries for snacks and dessert. A natural chemical called anthocyanins in cherries has been found by researchers to significantly help maintain level blood sugar for those with diabetes, and as an addition to a diet to avoid diabetes. Though fresh cherries are only available in early summer, frozen cherries are available year round. They make great frozen snacks. Other fruits have some of this chemical, but cherries have the most - both sweet cherries and tart (also called sour or pie cherries).

Tips & Warnings

• This article doesn't diagnose, treat or cure disease, and doesn't replace your doctor. Author disclaims liability and offers article for educational purposes only. Parents are responsible for any activities involving their children. Author's articles are registered with the national copyright office and protected with Copyscape