Karen Marschel, RD, LD, CDE

Green Tea May Help Prevent Diabetes, and more . . .

Polyphenols,  Flavanoids,  Antioxidants . . .  Does it sound like I'm speaking in another language?  Well, you don't have to know what these words mean or even be able to pronounce them to know that they are in green tea and may help you prevent or control diabetes.

How can green tea prevent diabetes?   There's something in green tea called EGCG for short, that researchers think may help your body use your own insulin better - which helps keep blood sugars in good control. Green tea may also help control excess sugar production in the liver - which may help lower fasting blood sugar.

Fight Diabetes and Heart Disease with Broccoli

Researchers have found another potential benefit from eating more fruits and veggies. Apparently the compound called sulforaphane in broccoli may repair blood vessels that have been damaged from high blood sugars. 

Sulforaphane was first discovered in 1992 and was found to rid the body of carcinogens and pollutants that cause cancer.  Now we have yet another reason to eat broccoli more often.

We know that blood vessel damage can start long before diabetes is diagnosed and once you do have diabetes your risk of having a heart attack or stroke is 5 times higher than without diabetes. So I guess the time for me to start eating more broccoli is now.

Broccoli also is an excellent source of fiber and great for weight control. One cup raw or 1/2 cup cooked is only about 25 calories.

Sulforaphane does survive cooking but you don't want to boil broccoli or cook too long because you will lose other nutrients. Broccoli is a great source of vitamins A, C, and K.

You will find one of my favorite broccoli recipes in my July e-zine. The sweet crunchy flavors taste great this time of summer. Beef Broccoli Stir-Fry is another one of my favorites. I would suggest using low-sodium instead of regular soy sauce in this recipe. Enjoy!

Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally with Potassium

 Did you know that you can lower your blood pressure 10-15 points by getting enough potassium foods? In the DASH  study it only took 2 weeks. We always hear about sodium and blood pressure but potassium is just as important - and it is easier to eat more of something than to always try and eat less.

Potassium and sodium try to keep a healthy balance in our body. The problem is we eat 2-3 times the sodium we need in our average American diet - and we are lucky if we get half the necessary amount of potassium.

How much potassium do we need?    4700mg daily

What should your blood pressure be?    120/80 or a little lower is great.

What do we eat to get potassium? If you are thinking bananas you are correct. But there are also a lot of other foods that you may not know are good for potassium. Smoothies, milk and yogurt are good dairy sources. A baked potato  or sweet potato averages 700-800 mg. Other great foods are spinach, tomato paste or juice, nuts, garlic, beans, mushrooms, onions, berries and cantaloupe. If you shoot for 3 servings low fat dairy and 5-10 servings fruits and veggies daily you will be getting your potassium.

Now you have another reason to join me in the fruit & veggie challenge.

Are You Game for a Fruit & Veggie Challenge?

Since I am one of the 57 million Americans with prediabetes I have decided to set myself a new health challenge each month. For August my challenge is to get my daily 5-10 servings of fruits and veggies and I invite you to join me.

Since this time of summer there are so many fresh fruits and veggies available I thought this would be a great challenge to start with. And I am also hoping it helps me lose the 5 pounds I gained over the past couple months.

How am I going to reach my goal of at least 5 servings daily? Well I am taking advantage of farmers markets, family gardens, and local growers. Today I had a couple servings of green beans and a couple servings of grapes. Supper was pizza so I suppose I could count the tomato sauce as half a serving. So I guess I'm starting out a little short. Time to do some food shopping tomorrow.

To make my goal easier to reach I am going to aim for at least 3 different fruits/veggies each day. I usually eat a couple servings at a sitting so if I can get 1-2 during morning, afternoon and evening that should do it!

The rest of my family will hopefully benefit from this as well. Having plenty of fruits and veggies around that taste good takes a little more planning but like anything else, it just takes practice!  I have actually been craving fruit the past couple days so am looking forward to my fruit smoothie tomorrow for breakfast. Stay tuned - I will share some recipes and some of the powerful nutrient benefits with you later this week. 

Let me know if you are doing the fruit & veggie challenge or if you have great tips and recipes to share with me! Leave your comments below!

Frequent Fast Food = Fatty Liver

A recent study published in the journal Gut found that just 4 weeks of fast food twice a day causes weight gain and is harmful to the liver.

Swedish researchers had 18 volunteers follow this diet with no exercise to reach a weight gain 5-15% weight. The goal was to see how this would affect their liver enzymes and liver fat content.

The fast food diet doubled their calorie intake.

Results: 17 of 18 gained the 5-15% weight and 5 of them gained 15%. The average weight gain was about 14 lbs in just those 4 weeks. Yikes!  13 of the 18 developed high ALT levels (liver enzymes) and most developed this after only the first week on the fast food diet.

If you have seen the Super Size Me documentary, then you probably are not surprised by these results. Fast food in general is very high calorie, low nutrient food.

How does this relate to you? Take a minute to think about how many meals you ate out over the past week. In today's busy world it's easy to get in the fast food rut. You don't even have to eat fast food to get excess fat and do damage to your body. Most restaurant meals in general are 2-3 times the calories and fat we should eat.

For example a large quarter pound burger with cheese, large fries and large soda is almost a days worth of calories, more than a days worth of fat, and a LOT of carbs. 

My suggestion for weight control or better health is to limit your eating out to 1-2 times/week and learn what your options are for high and low fat menu items. Your liver and the rest of your body will thank you!   Check out Calorie King - a great resource for finding this nutrition information.

What's Your Favorite Summer Exercise?

A couple days ago I told you about my favorite food on vacation - the cedar grilled salmon. Now I want to talk about my favorite exercise on vacation - hiking!

The Superior Hiking Trail, rated one of the 10 best in the country, runs about 200 miles parallel to the North Shore through forests, along rivers and waterfalls. We took 3 short hikes, each about 2-3 miles round trip. Great exercise and the waterfalls were beautiful.

This is Devil's Kettle waterfall and the pool of water is the Kettle - described as a watery cauldron that gulps down half the river but no one knows where it goes.

Anyway - we had a great time hiking and I had no problem getting my 30 minutes of daily exercise in. Now it will be a little more of a challenge going back to making sure I get it in daily with the usual busy schedule.

Hiking is also a great cardio and strength exercise, and the time flies when you can enjoy nature. When we have the chance we really need to make exercise as enjoyable as possible.

What are your favorite summer exercises? We can't always have easy access to a great hiking trail but there are many great walking and biking trails available. Leave your comments and tell me about your favorite trails or summer fun exercise!

Salmon for Diabetes Prevention and Heart Health

I'm back!

After a much needed summer vacation up the North Shore of Lake Superior I am back to work and back to blogging. Some Lake Superior trivia for you - did you know that Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area? and the average temperature is 40 degrees? This is a picture of my family testing the waters! Needless to say it was REALLY cold water!!! 

 

Now back to my topic - My favorite vacation food was cedar planked salmon slow cooked over an open fire. It was delicious! This was prepared at the lake lodge where we were staying for the week. I have been wanting to try preparing some cedar grilled salmon ever since!

You may know that salmon is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which help lower triglycerides, cholesterol, reduces plaque buildup in the arteries and prevents excess blood clotting.

Did you know omega-3 can also lower your risk of obesity? Omega-3 fats stimulate secretion of leptin, which is a hormone that helps regulate food intake. This makes salmon a great food for weight control, diabetes and heart health.

Other weight loss benefits of eating salmon are its zero carb content for those on low carb eating plans and low calorie content. A 4-oz portion will be only about 135-200 calories. Compare that to the barbecued ribs option at about twice the calories!

Here are some tips for buying and storing salmon:

• choose wild salmon rather than farmed salmon when possible. Farmed salmon can be high in PCBs.
• buy salmon from a reputable seafood store or fishmonger
• to know the salmon is fresh look for it displayed buried in ice if it is fresh whole salmon
• if salmon is fillets or steaks look for it placed on top of ice
• the smell should be fresh, not fishy
• at home store in a baking dish on ice in cold part of refrigerator
• if freezing for later use, wrap in plastic and freeze for up to 2-3 weeks

I found some recipes for cedar plank grilled salmon at www.allrecipes.com that look great. As soon as I get a chance to try them I will share my results with you. If you have some tasty salmon recipes please share your comments as well!

Queen Latifah's Weight Loss Message for Women

Queen Latifah, now a spokeswoman for Jenny Craig, has sent a great message to women about losing weight for better health instead of to get skinny. Finally some reality in advertising! Her goal was to lose 5-10 percent body weight, which she was able to achieve in a couple months through the Jenny Craig system and doing aerobic exercise 5-7 days/week.

Why did the Jenny Craig system work for her?

Many of the weight loss programs out there work because they have a system to reduce calorie intake. When I work with clients trying to lose weight for diabetes prevention or control I suggest several options and we discuss those options until they figure out what might work best for them. The key is figuring out how to stick with it for the long haul.

Another interesting thing about her weight loss is that this is the same recommendation for preventing diabetes:  Lose 5-7% body weight and exercise 30 minutes 5 days a week.

Can this work for you?

Yes. Take into consideration these 5 strategies in preparing your choice of weight loss program.

1. Are you ready to make time to change habits? 
2. What is your motivation for making the sacrifices? The benefit needs to be stronger than what you will have to give up.
3. What approach or program will fit your lifestyle best? There is no one-size-fits-all and you want to set yourself up for long term success.
4. How will you increase your activity? What exercises can and will you do?
5. Who will be your support? Do you have friends, family or professional support available when you need it?

If you would like a free Q&A consult for your diabetes weight loss concerns please email me.

Study Shows Women Eating Big Breakfast Lost More Weight

A recent study conducted by a Dr. Jakubowicz in Venezuela showed a big breakfast helped women lose weight longer than a low carb, high fat diet. This was a small study of just 94 women. Half followed a low carb, high fat diet and the other half followed a plan more evenly balanced in carb, fat and protein. Both were about the same calorie intake.

Both groups lost about 20-30 pounds the first 4 months but the next 4 months were very different. The big breakfast group lost another 16 pounds but the low carb, high fat group gained 18 pounds.

Why did the big breakfast work better? Well, both groups lost weight because they lowered overall calorie intake but the theory behind the big breakfast success is that it controls hunger better. 

The daily composition of the big breakfast diet was 610 calories for breakfast 395 for lunch and 235 for dinner. This is exactly opposite of how we usually eat our meals.  We already know that people who are successful at weight control eat breakfast daily but does this big breakfast work even better? Let me know what you think with your comments or questions on the big breakfast weight loss plan!

Heart Disease Worse for Women

Did you know?

1. Heart disease shows up much later - at least 10 years later- in women than it does in men? That sounds like it would be a good thing for women but the problem is that by the time it does show up the outlook is much worse.
2. Type 2 Diabetes is a major risk factor for heart disease. In fact the increased risk of developing heart disease is 3-7 times for women with Type 2 Diabetes. Compare that to an increase of 2-3 times for men.
3. Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease are preventable in most cases. And even I am surprised by this statistic . . . 91% of diabetes in women could be prevented.

That's where I come in  - my mission is to help women prevent diabetes through personalized online weight loss programs. For more info you can email me    karen@dietmn.com

I will be posting food and exercise tips over the next week but you can check out more information from the American Heart Association now at http://www.goredforwomen.org