Jerky is the obvious trail food. It’s energy dense and doesn’t require any preparation. High in protein and fat, it should be low in carbohydrates, especially for those of us with diabetes who need to control our blood glucose levels. But all the brands I’ve found in the stores are too heavy on the carbs.

Now, however, we can get low carb beef jerky online from a non-profit group making paleo-diet designed snack packs. The proceeds go to programs helping kids maintain fitness. Thanks to my corespondent Cheryl for turning me on to this great resource.

The group is Steve’s Club in the desperately poor city of Camden, New Jersey. Steve Liberati says that he started Steve’s Club to be “an athletic fitness club geared towards young boys and girls who aspire to greatness.” [Read more →]

When we don’t get our blood glucose levels low enough or take the diabetes medicine that our doctors prescribe, they often complain about our noncompliance. Particularly when we follow a very low-carb diet and are unlucky enough to have a nutritionist on our medical team, she is almost certain to give us a hard time.

When doctors and nutritionists do that, they are forgetting their place. The doctor-patient relationship is a status thing. While medical professionals usually earn more money than we do, they work for us. We are the ones who make them well off, if not rich.

We hire our doctors. We can fire them too. Several years ago when Byetta first came on the market, I knew that taking it would help me control my blood glucose and lose weight. The doctor I saw at the time had never heard of Byetta, so he had to read up on it. When he did, he refused to give me a prescription for it because he was sure that I would lose only a few pounds. I fired him and proved him wrong after I hired a compliant doctor. [Read more →]

Just changing when you eat can has a big effect on how much you weigh. At least if you are a mouse.

A new study is the first causal evidence connecting meal timing and increased weight gain. The journal Obesity on September 3 published “Circadian Timing of Food Intake Contributes to Weight Gain” online in advance of print.

Only the abstract is available free. But lead author Deanna Arble of Northwestern University’s Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology sent me the full text and answered my questions.

For six weeks the researchers fed some of the mice only during their normal sleeping hours. Their weight gain was 48 percent. But the mice that they fed the same type and amount of food only during the hours that they were naturally awake gained just 20 percent.

[Read more →]

Considering all the supplements that most of us take, we have surprisingly little evidence that the overwhelming majority of them do anything for us. The two biggest exceptions are vitamin D and omega-3 oil, which I have written about here.

Even with these well-tested supplements, the experts have little advice to give us. Now, however, a team of scientists from the University of Lyon in France just reported on how much of one type of omega-3 oil to take so that we can prevent heart attacks and strokes, the major complication of diabetes. This is the first study to identify how much omega-3 oil we need to promote optimal heart health.

They studied DHA or docosahexaenoic acid, which some studies suggest have more potent and beneficial effects than the other omega-3 oil that we usually take, EPA or eicosapentaenoic acid, according to their research communication in September issue of The FASEB Journal,  which the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology publishes.

Only the abstract of the study is online. But one of the study’s authors, Evelyne Véricel, was kind enough to send me the full text. [Read more →]

Preliminary research seems to show that a little known type of cholesterol might be the biggest threat to our heart health, the most severe complication of diabetes. Even worse than LDL cholesterol is something called oxycholesterol.

The 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society heard study leader Zhen-Yu Chen, Ph.D., of the Chinese University of Hong Kong point out the problems with oxycholesterol. We can expect published research to follow, but the chemical society’s Michael Bernstein tells me that, “There is no formal published paper connected to this study.”

Dr. Chen told the chemical society which foods have the highest levels of oxycholesterol. Fried and processed food — particularly fast-food — contains high amounts of oxycholesterol, he says. Avoiding them and eating a diet that is rich in antioxidants can reduce our levels of this really bad cholesterol.

Dr. Chen’s research team measured the effects of a diet high in oxycholesterol on hamsters, which scientists often substitute for humans in in cholesterol research. Cholesterol in the blood of the hamsters fed oxycholesterol rose up to 22 percent more than hamsters eating non-oxidized cholesterol. The hamsters fed oxycholesterol also had more cholesterol lining their arteries and a tendency to develop larger deposits of cholesterol. These fatty deposits increase the risk for heart attack and stroke. [Read more →]

Those of us who have diabetes and don’t get enough vitamin D can’t process cholesterol normally. It builds up in our blood vessels, increasing our risk of heart attack and stroke.

Now, however, new research has identified how low vitamin D levels link to heart disease risk and a good way to fix the problem. The solution is simply to increase our levels of vitamin D. Researchers already knew that low levels of vitamin D nearly double our risk of cardiovascular disease. Since this is the major complication of diabetes, this research takes on great importance for us.

The American Heart Association’s professional journal Circulation published the study in its August 25 issue. Only the abstract is free online. But the principal investigator, Carlos Bernal-Mizrachi, M.D., kindly sent me the full text of the research report. He is an assistant professor of endocrinology, metabolism and lipid research at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. [Read more →]

When we have a lot of belly fat, we are at greater risk of heart disease because of the inflammatory molecules that this fat produces. But a new study by scientists at the University of Illinois suggests that even moderate amounts of exercise can reduce the inflammation.

Since people with diabetes are at an especially high risk of heart disease, this is an encouraging finding for us.

The study examined the effects of diet and exercise on the inflammation of visceral fat tissue — belly fat — in mice. Maybe people will react differently, but only the sedentary mice got the inflammation that usually results from having big bellies.

“The surprise was that the combination of diet and exercise didn’t yield dramatically different and better results than diet or exercise alone,” says Victoria Vieira, a University of Illinois Ph.D. candidate and the study’s lead author. [Read more →]