First of all, my BMI is 18 and I don't know why I am prediabetic. But it's probably because I eat nothing but sweets and drink a liter of Pepsi every day. Anyway im scared to death of getting diabetes, i started seeing advice that I need to eat protein, olive oil, or healthy oils from nuts to slow down digestion so that my blood sugar doesn't spike quickly, i also started doing 3 sets of chest exercises not for the purpose of building muscle mass, but just so the muscles can use up the sugar I ate. Is there anything else I can do to lower my fasting blood sugar (FBG) numbers???
>>34915835>Is there anything else I can do to lower my fasting blood sugar (FBG) numbers???Eat less sugar. Nothing else you do will help unless you're willing to cut down on that.
>>34915835>a liter of Pepsi This is the easiest thing you can change cut that shit out for water or milk
>>34915835>it's probably because I eat nothing but sweets and drink a liter of Pepsi every day.Bingo. To be fair, it's probably also partly genetic. But it's mostly that.
>>34915848Honestly, everything is just carbs and sugar. ithought about going on a protein only diet, but its just too unrealistic and expensive
>>34915851i was larping as Richard Ramirez>>34915860Do juices and carbs impact the body the same way soda, pastries, and refined sugars do?
>>34915875>Do juices and carbs impact the body the same way soda, pastries, and refined sugars do?Yes unfortunately. Eat actual fruit if you want something sweet.
>>34915875>Do juices and carbs impact the body the same way soda, pastries, and refined sugars do?It varies. But in general you want to reduce the amount of carbohydrate you're eating, and also make sure that it has the lowest glycaemic index possible. So, for example, whole fruit is better for you than fruit juice, because you absorb the sugars a little more slowly. Eating far with carbs slows down absorption. Some fruits are fairly low in sugar and also have a fairly low GI: strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, for example. Others have a bit more sugar: oranges, pineapples and grapes. But almost anything is better than sweets and Pepsi. (The bubbles in fizzy drinks make you absorb the sugar faster).Pure starch is absorbed very fast. If you calculate the carbohydrate content of rice, there's almost no difference between eating that amount of carbs as white rice, and that amount of carbs as pure sugar, in terms of absorption time. Brown rice is a bit better; pasta is better, especially if it's cooked "al dente".
>>34915872>ithought about going on a protein only diet, but its just too unrealistic and expensiveProtein only would probably overload your kidneys. But you've probably heard of the keto diet? That involves getting three quarters of all the calories you eat from fat, and eating less than 20g of carbohydrate a day. I did that for a couple of years, and enjoyed it a lot. But it's not for everyone. It's a disaster if you want to do any resistance exercise, and it can be a problem even just climbing a lot of stairs or walking up a steep hill. You've got to watch out for vitamin and mineral deficiencies too.
>>34915912>Eat actual fruit if you want something sweet.i liked my sugary drinks with my food : (>>34915932Beautiful wait, I looked up the glycemic index and found out that brown bread is high af??? well that’s a shock. But anyway, is there a solution or a hack now if I want to drink soda or eat cake and food with high glycemic index? For example, should I start my meal with protein, nuts, and vegetables so my stomach absorbs the rest of the things slowly? And after I finish eating low glycemic index food, can I eat whatever I want right after it? Most importantly, after all this, can this actually lower my fasting blood sugar/FBG? Or is it just a way to preserve what’s left and keep things from getting worse?
>>34916646One sugary drink has most of the daily value of sugar. Swap it for a low or no calorie drink.
>>34915943I thought about starting keto, but i felt the whole thing was weird perhaps? because i actually want to gain about 15 lbs still Plus i want to start working out, and like you said, I won't have any energy, so I don't know what to do>It's a disaster if you want to do any resistance exerciseThat is the most frustrating thing to hear for someone who is prediabetic, wants to work out, and is underweight
>>34916647i never thought that no calorie drinks wouldnt raise my glucose levels, i thought "no sugar" meant its only good losing weight>no calorie drink.music to my ears after i learned they wont affect my sugar levels
thanks
>>34916651If you want to do cardio/aerobic exercise, you don't need carbs for that. When I was doing keto I used to walk 45 miles a week, and that wasn't a problem at all. But yes, if you want to do resistance exercise (e.g. lifting, climbing, cycling hard) then you do need to be eating some carbohydrate. But "some" doesn't mean mountains of it, and carbohydrate doesn't have to mean sugar. Eat a sensible amount of carbs, don't make them your whole diet; and always keep the glycaemic index as low as possible. Whole grains, for example, are great. Even al dente pasta isn't too bad. Porridge can be quite good. Wild rice is good. Brown basmati rice, while not exactly low GI, certainly does less damage than white rice. (There are plenty of other options). When you do eat carbs, eat fat with them so you absorb them slower. Don't drink anything with carbon dioxide bubbles in (e.g. diet soda) because that increases the GI of what you eat with it. If you do all of that, you can very easily take in enough carbs for even the hardest workout without doing any damage. It's the sugar that's the problem.
>>34916646(part 1 of 3)>But anyway, is there a solution or a hack now if I want to drink soda or eat cake and food with high glycemic index?No. >And after I finish eating low glycemic index food, can I eat whatever I want right after it?No. I'm afraid you are in need of some hard truths, here. There is NO scenario in which you can keep eating and drinking all that sugar. If you do, it will kill you. I'm not exaggerating: if you keep eating sweets and drinking Pepsi in the way you have up to now YOU WILL DIE. There are plenty of things you can do that will help, and there are some compromises you can make to consume *some* sweet things without doing too much damage. But you need to start by accepting that eating sweets and drinking Pepsi in the way you have been up to now is something that has to stop, and that you will never be able to do it again. If you can't get that through your head, nothing else will help you. You have to stop thinking in terms of "There must be a safe way to keep eating all that sugar." There isn't. There never will be. You need to accept that. Now, if you want some ways to eat *some* sweet things without spiking your blood sugar, then yes, there are options, but most of them come with compromises, and you'll need to understand what they are.(to be continued)
>>34917240(part 2 of 3)Fresh fruit, of course, is good, especially berry fruits like strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. Peaches/nectarines and plums are also good.Diet soda is less damaging than regular soda for someone in your position, but it still has problems. It's very acidic - cola especially - so it will still rot your teeth, even if there's no sugar. There all kinds of additives in them which can mess you around in other ways. And the carbon dioxide bubbles make you absorb food (including sugar) faster. They also tend to make you crave sugar.Artificial sweeteners, including those found in diet soda, are a mixed bag. Some of them actually cause your body to release insulin, which A: makes your insulin resistance worse, and B: makes you desperate for sugar. Some (most of the ones that are called polyols or sugar alcohols) are actually a form of carbohydrate and are higher GI than you might expect: maltitol, especially, is a problem, in that respect. Polyols can also cause diarrhoea if you eat too much of them. The sweeteners I would recommend are Sucralose (great for tea or coffee) and Stevia. Erythritol can be a good substitute for sugar when you're baking. (It is a polyol, but works a little differently from the others, so it's a bit less likely to give you the runs and really does have negligible GI). It also goes well with fruit and acid flavours. If you're baking and need something that caramelises, then Xylitol is worth a try (although that isn't zero GI and will give you the runs if you overdo it). Personally I avoid Saccharin, Aspartame, and Acesulfame K.If you want cake, find a recipe for a cake that doesn't use flour (for example, Torta Caprese, or Tarta di Santiago, both of which use finely ground almonds instead of flour) and substitute Erythritol for sugar. The end result isn't too bad. You can also buy low carb cake mix: just add water and bake.(to be continued)
>>34917244(part 3 of 3)There are a lot of low carb alternatives to things if you explore a bit. Some kinds of low carb pasta are actually quite plausible (but check the nutrition information carefully). Konjac rice is okay with a strongly flavoured sauce. You can buy low carb bread (although it's not usually very good; if you're in the UK, check out a place called the Low Carb Food Company, theirs is probably the best of a bad bunch). You can buy low carb chocolate - not quite like the real thing, but tolerable. In the UK try Carb Zone for that; they also do a nice low carb jam (what Americans would call jelly). There are even sugar-free sweets, but they always use polyols, so be careful. There are a lot of other things you can substitute if you want to. The things to avoid are sugar, fruit juice, white rice, and anything with a lot of flour in, especially white flour.>Most importantly, after all this, can this actually lower my fasting blood sugar/FBG? Or is it just a way to preserve what’s left and keep things from getting worse?Well, it's a bit of both. You can reduce insulin resistance a bit. Getting fitter and improving muscle performance will help. Keeping your blood sugar steady will eventually help. Taking Chromium and Lipoic Acid supplements may help a little. There are also medications: Metformin is the most obvious one, but things like Ozempic were originally designed as treatments for diabetes and work too. But it's important to understand that things like this will *mitigate* the damage you've done, they won't reverse it. You MUST NOT think in terms of "If I do those things, I can eat sugar safely." You can't. You need to quit the sweets and the Pepsi forever. If you do, and if you eat healthily from now on, your insulin sensitivity will improve and your fasting blood glucose will get lower. But you are *treating* the problem, not curing it.(the end)
