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The wisdom of eating a wide variety of plant foods, rather than over-emphasizing any one food, is shown by the fact that the content of the amino acid L-arginine in the herpes simplex virus, and possibly many other types of virus including HIV, is substantially higher than that of L-lysine (PDR for Nutritional Supplements, L-lysine). Therefore viruses thrive when supplied with a mix of aminos high in arginine, but the immune system performs more effectively with a balanced intake.
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Excess arginine elbows aside lysine (diminishes the assimilation of lysine, competes for metabolic pathways), feeding viruses and starving the immune system. Since many nuts, seeds, and grains (gluten, seitan) contain arginine to large excess over lysine, eating a wide variety of plant foods provides a more balanced mix. For research results and further comments on the interplay between arginine and lysine, please see “Chronic fatigue syndrome, HIV/AIDS, and fibromyalgia”.
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Beware: Long term supplementation of specific aminos may throw off the balance. For example, many people supplement arginine to increase performance in specific areas, putting themselves at risk for increased virulence of viral infections. Instead of pushing artificial chemical buttons in the body with engineered substances that the body can’t recognize as natural, buttons that make the body respond like a robot in chemical jerks and spasms, how about letting the body fulfill its natural potential to increase performance by using only whole plant food supplements or simply shopping the produce section?
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Many people supplement lysine to fight herpes simplex and stimulate immune cell growth, but excessive lysine has been shown to increase tumor growth in lab rats by feeding them dairy casein (www.pcrm.org), which has a high lysine content, as do other animal foods (land animals and fish). High lysine foods (animal products) are also associated with high cholesterol levels and increased rate of bacterial reproduction. Balance with a wide variety of plant-based foods is the guideline for health.
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Please also see “Curing the common cold and other acute infections, flu”.
Helping hypoglycemia and diabetes -
A superb fact sheet on diabetes: pcrm.org/health/prevmed/diabetes.html
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The oral glucose tolerance test can trigger hypoglycemic symptoms in people with no signs of the disorder. For a more accurate diagnosis, blood sugar can be tested at the same time a person is experiencing hypoglycemic symptoms (paleness, irritability, trembling, sweating, rapid heart beat, and/or a cold, clammy feeling).
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Many diabetics experience glucose levels that are multiples of the high end of the “normal” range. The effect of high glucose is to change the watery viscosity of blood more towards molasses, slowing the blood flow through all vital organs and eventually damaging the circulatory system as well as organs.
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Continual overproduction of insulin in hypoglycemics lowers blood sugar too much even while fasting. The brain’s usage of sugar represents 20% of the body's total. Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) starves the brain and can cause short-term memory loss.
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A balanced and supportive breakfast consists of lentils, green veggies, nuts, and grains or fruit, providing more even blood sugar levels for a longer time than say toast and jam. For optimal digestion, the lentils need to get soaked say 8 hours, then rinsed before boiling.
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The reigning “wisdom” of eating fats with fruits to slow the digestion and lessen the impact of fruit sugars has been challenged. The fat in the blood can coat and enter cells (intramyocellularlipid), reducing the effectiveness of insulin receptor sites, forcing higher insulin production for a longer period, stressing the pancreas, thereby worsening diabetes and hypoglycemia. Fat from high fat meals can linger in the blood the following day. For me, eating foods high in saturated and monounsaturated fats with fruit debilitates, but well-chewed celery and very small amounts of soaked raw walnuts and/or flaxseeds eaten with fruit energizes after resting 15 minutes. Too much of even these foods, predominantly polyunsaturated fats plus fruit, clogs and debilitates me. (Please see “Appendices: Food Combining”.) Another problem with eating too much fat with fruits to slow the digestion follows from the toxins and gas produced by fermentation in the stomach. (Please see “It’s a gas! -Fermentation during digestion-”.)
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Resistance to insulin transport of glucose across cellular membranes increases pancreatic production of insulin to overcome resistance. However, even with effective insulin transport, a high fruit and especially a high refined sugar or refined wheat diet increases the amount of insulin produced, stressing the pancreas.
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Hypoglycemics may be especially sensitive to alcohol.
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Legumes, broccoli and celery, or leafy greens, help regulate blood sugar. One could experiment with eating sweet fruits combined with a few florets of broccoli, celery or leafy greens. (Please see “Appendices: Food Combining”.) Hybrid fruit such as popular “dessert” apples (Braeburn, Empire, Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Pippin, Red Delicious, Russet, Spartan) have been bred to very high sugar content, possibly resulting in a higher glycemic index for some varieties. Even though bananas have a higher overall glycemic index, they may provide more even assimilation over time than apples with their lower glycemic index, since bananas contain more pectin to slow sugar uptake. From my own reactions to foods, I speculate that most fruits other than bananas have a large, sharpish peak in the glycemic reaction curve, whereas the curve for bananas may have gentler slopes, although overall more area under the curve. (Please see “Debating fruit”) However, I like eating fruit more than it likes me: I do maintain more even blood sugar eating only 2 to 3 pieces of fruit per day, with the rest of my calories from veggies and grains. (Please also see “Appendices: Author’s diet and exercise”.)
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A traditional antidote for excess blood sugar is eating bitter foods such as bitter greens (endive, escarole, dandelion, wild greens like the thistle family), bitter melon, turmeric, or bitter herbs. All of these foods are diuretics, so consumption needs to be restricted. (Please see “Diuretic disorders”.)
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The unrefined soluble plant fiber content of a food may be as important as the food’s glycemic index for more even blood glucose. Foods with more soluble fiber include flaxseeds, oatmeal, and bananas.
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For those using insulin: As one’s diet improves, meaning emphasizing veggies while paying special attention to the glycemic indices of refined foods if any are consumed, less supplemental insulin may be needed. Insulin sensitivity of cells may increase, which is good, but maintaining the same dose of insulin may result in a low blood sugar crisis, a hypoglycemic reaction. Also, blood pressure may drop as vasculature becomes more elastic, necessitating diminution of medication for high blood pressure (www.DrFuhrman.com). It’s safest to take steps to change the diet to an optimal dietary approach under supervision of a health professional.
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If one experiences challenges with sweets, the sweeter fruits and kiln-dried fruits can be avoided, as well as juices. Of the sweet potatoes, garnet yams taste the sweetest to me, but due to a relatively low glycemic index may be tolerated better than fruit. Peeled, sliced raw yams are more agreeable to me than cooked.
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A substantial portion of digested protein is held in reserve, ready to get metabolized into glucose, enough to help balance out blood sugar lows. This relatively slow metabolic process may not help in the event of a very sharp hypoglycemic reaction to an extremely sweet food such as dried fruit or table sugar. In those who “under-digest” protein, possibly due to low secretion of HCl and/or protease enzymes, symptoms of hypoglycemia may manifest. In this case, sources of protein can be increased in moderation, depending on activity level. Very concentrated vegan sources of protein include chlorella and nutritional yeast, as well as rice protein powder (Please see “Super nutritional algae” and “Nutritional Yeast”.)
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Metabolizing protein for energy in substantial quantities is hard on the kidneys, as they get bombarded with high levels of toxic, ammoniac waste byproducts. A healthier approach to reducing glycemic impact than protein could be the soluble fiber found in many whole, unrefined plant foods. Soluble fiber may help lessen the impact of carbohydrates on blood sugar. Soluble fiber typically creates a viscous mass in the stomach and intestines in which foods take longer to reach the absorptive tissues. Whole wheat contains mainly insoluble fiber, but little soluble fiber compared with other foods like oatmeal or beans.
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Chlorella also helps maintain more even blood sugar. Both the liver and pancreas are involved in the regulation of blood sugar, particularly the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, which produce insulin. Chlorella cleanses the liver while supporting and balancing pancreatic functions.
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Nopal (prickly pear) cactus is reputed to support the liver and pancreas. I haven’t tried it.
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Eating fruit when blood sugar is normal may cause a hypoglycemic reaction as blood sugar increases beyond normal. Eating fruit after exercise or when blood sugar is low is less likely to cause a reaction.
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Many diabetics try to lose weight via the extremely dangerous Sears’ “Zone” or Atkins diets. Dr. Joel Fuhrman MD offers a critique of such diets. (Please see “Fad diet hype”.)
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In this book, “too much” body fat is defined very roughly as more fat around the belly button (abdominal fat) than a hand can easily grasp while sitting. Excess fat coats and permeates many cells throughout the body, quite likely making it difficult to transport insulin into and through the cells. With 50 pounds of excess fat, the pancreas has to produce at least six times more insulin than a lean person, possibly eventually exhausting the pancreas, causing diabetes.
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High glucose levels are particularly damaging to the eyes and kidneys, possibly leading to blindness and kidney failure. The blood tests that monitor kidney function do not begin to detect dysfunction until more than 80% of the kidneys have been destroyed.
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Injection of insulin injures the blood vessel wall, providing a site for formation of atherosclerotic lesions. Insulin blocks cholesterol removal and delivers it to cells in the blood vessel walls. For these reasons insulin aids in the creation of atherosclerotic plaque. Nearly 80% of deaths among diabetics are due to atherosclerosis, especially coronary artery disease (Dr. Fuhrman’s Healthy Times Sept. 2003, www.DrFuhrman.com). Excess insulin prompts the body to create a hormone that causes cancer cells to multiply. Excess insulin increases appetite.
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Type I insulin-dependent diabetics often can reduce quantities injected after adopting vegan diets not based on cooked grains (www.DrFuhrman.com). Type II diabetics can often eliminate all injections. It’s safest to take steps to change the diet to an optimal dietary approach under professional supervision. Blood sugar could drop (improve) with the improved diet, so that the medication itself could cause a hypoglycemic event, unless adjusted. (Please see “Reversing advanced clinical disorders”.)
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The antioxidant cinnamon has been found to help decrease blood sugar in Type II diabetics (Diabetes Care 26(12):3215). Weil recommends half a gram twice a day. One quarter teaspoon contains half a gram (Dr. Andrew Weil’s Self Healing pg 6 July 2004). The active ingredient in cinnamon is a water-soluble polyphenol compound called MHCP. MHCP mimics insulin, activates its receptor, and works synergistically with insulin. The active ingredient is in the powder but not in cinnamon oil. Cinnamon contains blood thinning eugenol, so caution is advised if one’s already taking a thinner such as Warfarin (Coumadin), also if pregnant.
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It’s particularly important for those with high blood glucose to eat plenty of various plant antioxidants, because oxidizing stress combined with high blood glucose increases damaging sugar glycation of hemoglobin (in the Maillard reaction of sugar with amino acids). The body produces AGEs (advanced glycation end products) as metabolic waste byproducts, then tries to eliminate them as quickly as possible, because they tend to interconnect proteins within cells and connective tissues, stiffening them, aging blood vessels and accelerating aging throughout the body. High glucose levels promote high levels of AGEs.
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Diabetics don’t convert LNA to EPA and DHA efficiently. One could supplement refrigerated vegan DHA. (Please see “Outstanding Omegas”.)
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If one eats a lot of carbohydrates at a sitting, then over the period of digestion and assimilation, one’s blood gets overloaded with glucose repeatedly without eating more.
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Drinking alcohol can cause blood sugar to drop precipitously.
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If I’m overly hot I tend to get a worse hypoglycemic reaction to many foods.
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Bending over allows blood to flow more readily to the brain so that the brain can use whatever glucose remains in the blood.
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Aspirin consumption can worsen or cause hypoglycemia. Excellent sections on hypoglycemia and diabetes with many very worthwhile tips can be found in Balch (Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch MD, ISBN 1-58333-077-1, available at many large health stores).
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