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Jean H.'s avatar

Thank you for this great article and recommendations. I am always looking for nutritional advice.

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William H Bestermann Jr MD's avatar

You are a great example of what can be accomplished

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Jean H.'s avatar

Thank you! I am still a work in progress. I see my Internal Medicine practitioner this week. I hope to be able to share good news! I am still holding to 20#'s weight loss. We average walking 5 days/week at 3 miles each day. I try to eat low carbs and good protein. Maybe cheat once or twice a month, if that. I enjoy reading your articles.

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Jean H.'s avatar

I had a great appointment at my Internal Medicine this week. My blood pressure was 100/64, the lowest it has been in 3 years. Or, since my journey started. He even tweaked my meds a little as a result. He said my lipid panel was to die for! So I am feeling pretty good about my results. Thanks to you and Dr. Shen I may live longer and better!

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William H Bestermann Jr MD's avatar

That is the greatest news possible and you are an inspiration.

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Beverly Stone's avatar

I think legumes and to a lesser extent nuts aren't great for someone with diabetes 2. Legumes are high in lectins and nuts are hard to digest. I'd avoid legumes altogether and keep nuts to a minimum.

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William H Bestermann Jr MD's avatar

That would be a view that is held by an extreme minority. If you compare food groups, legumes are high in fiber and protein and the carbs in them are absorbed slowly. Most of the calories in pecans come from beneficial fats. The evidence points to beans and nuts as two of the most beneficial foods for your health.

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Beverly Stone's avatar

I guess that assumes the gut is healthy and these harder to digest foods are prepared properly. That means soaking to inactivate the enzyme inhibitors and phytates. For nuts, roasting can help but isn't better than soaking.

I acknowledge you may not agree with this.

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William H Bestermann Jr MD's avatar

These are the whole real foods that humans evolved to eat. For most of our history we did not have the luxury of properly preparing them. Our current processed diet is truly toxic. Eating whole, real food is not.

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Beverly Stone's avatar

Our digestion/microbiome has been heavily damaged by myriad issues in our modern culture (compared to our ancestors), leaving me again to question the value of harder to digest foods. To that end, low disaccharide diets are important for people with damaged guts who lack the ability to break down polysaccharides. Anything that doesn't get digested, ferments and leads to gut permeability.

Further, there is evidence that our ancestors would have ground and boiled foods that are best not consumed raw. Acorns are a good example of that and were an important part of our ancestors' diets. In central Europe, there is evidence of a ground oven dating back to around 29,000 BCE.

All that said, we agree that the modern diet is toxic. I also agree that in terms of glycemic index, nuts and legumes are better than many other food choices. Nuts are generally anti-inflammatory but legumes are a mixed bag. Given that diabetes and inflammation are closely linked, I'd eliminate those foods during a healing phase and re-introduce them after the body has achieved homeostasis.

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William H Bestermann Jr MD's avatar

I have treated hundreds of patients with diabetes and related conditions over decades. For the vast majority of patients, this is not an issue. They tolerate a whole food diet including lean meat, seafood, eggs, fruit, vegetables, beans, peas, and nuts just fine. When individuals have food intolerances, then we deal with it.

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Jean H.'s avatar

Thanks so much! Im working on it!

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Micki Jacobs's avatar

Thanks for this!

As an additional aspect of diabetes, please see:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37171959/

Vitamin K-dependent carboxylation regulates Ca2+ flux and adaptation to metabolic stress in β cells

A follow up of additional suggested peer reviewed publications (offered below Pubmed abstract) regarding this topic of VK and diabetes furthers the roles of VK in diabetes. This is newer.

And also search there about VK in calcium regulation and all the common chronic diseases. There's a reason they tend to be concomitant.

A dietary change in more recent times is reduction in intake of K2 bc fewer fermented foods, no liver (a super food), and less K1 (which, along with all VK intake forms, converts to MK-4).

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