The Hemp Connection:
blood glucose

Source: amazon.com via Jason on Pinterest

One of the most frequently asked questions we get at inCYST, is whether or not a specific food raises blood glucose. It is understandable, given the fact that women with PCOS are insulin resistant and highly likely to develop diabetes, that this would be a concern.

And in response to that concern, it is understandable that nutrition and wellness experts often quote a list of foods to avoid in order to maintain a low-glycemic diet.

Did you know, this"low glycemic" list is highly variable? That even though there are trends, certain foods may affect one person more than another? and that a food that has a tendency to be"high glycemic" on its own…may be perfectly fine when eaten with a mixed meal?

Those high glycemic lists floating around the Internet tend to report the response of your body to a food when it is eaten by itself. So all of those people telling you not to eat carrots or bananas are not telling you the entire story. We rarely eat that way. If you dip carrots in hummus, or eat a banana in a smoothie with Greek yogurt, for example, your body will respond completely differently to that nutrient mix than it would eating either of those foods by themselves.

So when you ask us if a food raises blood sugar and whether or not you should eat it, unless someone has measured YOUR blood sugar two hours after you have eaten it, any advice they give you is pure surmising and not based on relevant factual information.

You can do these tests yourself, you know. All you have to do, is buy a glucose meter at your nearest drug store and test your blood sugar a couple of hours after eating a meal. And before you conclude whether or not a food doesn't work for you, you need to try it alone, in a mixed meal, and at different times of day in order to determine how your body interacts with it.

My point here is, a nutrition, fitness, or wellness expert who is merely parroting information he or she has read on another website and is not customizing that advice to YOU is doing you a disservice. You may be cutting out perfectly healthy foods that you could eat in the right situation. You may be dealing with a food sensitivity that is not going to respond to a low glycemic diet.

Why waste time on information anyone can Google when you can tailor information to your own personal situation?

We love to do this kind of detective work at inCYST, and our network members have taken a lot of time to learn how to interpret that kind of data and make specific recommendations based on how YOUR body works.

Listen to someone who doesn't know you and who may be misguiding you, for free…or get evidence-based, customized information with personal relevance. It may cost you in the short term but save you a lot of trouble in the end.

Hello,

I'm glad you stopped by the blog. I thought I would answer your question since it's likely one that others have. It's a little more complicated of an answer than you might have anticipated.

SCENARIO ONE: Empowered Use of Ice Cream

If you're eating well in general, and you'd like to have a little bit of ice cream once in awhile, good for you! It turns out that ice cream, because of its fat content, has a lower glycemic index than many people would anticipate. And…women who eat at least one fat-containing serving of dairy are more fertile than women who do not. The best way to capitalize on this, is to eat ice cream in conjunction with a meal, so that the protein and the fat from that meal further modulate blood glucose levels. The fewer ingredients, preservatives, additives, and stablizers your ice cream has, the better. Eat it at the table, not standing in the kitchen, not out of the carton, not sitting in front of the TV. Savor every delicious spoonful.

SCENARIO TWO: Ice Cream's Calling the Shots

The worst way you can ever eat ice cream, is by the bowlful, right before bedtime. Raising your blood sugar around bedtime increases the risk of precipitous drops in blood glucose during sleep. In response, your body will secrete cortisol to bring the blood sugar back up, so that when you wake up, you've got a high fasting blood sugar. It is why you may not be hungry for breakfast. Start to take notice — what was going on in your food world the 12 hours before you woke up not hungry? If you can identify either a long stretch of not eating, or eating something high in sugar, not balanced with protein…figure out a way to change it.

The most important question I might ask you here, is why you're looking for PCOS-friendly ice cream. If the answer is, you're not quite ready to make true PCOS-friendly changes, and hoping there is a way for you to continue along your path that, while comfortable, is heading you down a serious path of medical complications, you're in denial. It simply doesn't work that way.

There is no ice cream, no ice cream at all, that is PCOS-friendly when eaten as an emotional outlet for loneliness, stress, anger, frustration, or any other emotion you're struggling with. You're only fueling your PCOS fire and making it worse by using food to cope with the emotions the disease is intensifying. Perhaps your PCOS diagnosis is your invitation to learn to use other outlets for those emotions, rather than hiding from them or self-medicating. If that is what you want, you need to be honest with yourself. You're looking for binge-friendly foods, not PCOS friendly foods. That's NOT what we write about or support.

Last week I posted a quote on my Facebook page that came across my Twitterfeed:"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die". I got more than a dozen"likes" for that one. If you're bingeing on ice cream because you're angry at your spouse, your doctor, me, your diagnosis, your body, whatever…all of us walk away unscathed. The only person you're hurting is you.

Make this the day that ice cream becomes something you have a little taste of after a satisfying meal, and stops being the thing you turn to when something is feeling out of control.

We've been doing some business with companies working with nopales (prickly pear cactus pads). I'd seen a lot of research suggesting that nopales are good for quite a few health issues, particularly blood glucose.

We started selling Ibitta's products a couple of months ago and I was amazed at where the orders were coming from — Memphis, Philadelphia, not simply Arizona and California like I'd expected! I finally called one customer to see why she'd ordered it. Apparently her mother had been bugging her to try it as it is a popular Mexican supplement for weight loss. When her mother finally gave her a bag, she felt it couldn't hurt to try it. She noticed that when she stirred a couple of spoonfuls of Pinalinaza into a glass of water and drank it before a meal, it helped her appetite. And over a couple of months she lost 20 pounds.

Another woman with PCOS, in military basic training, wrote:

I just wanted to give you an update. Although I knew that Nopales was used…in my Hispanic heritage, I didn't know that it would help me out with my sugar so much!! I ordered the products that you hosted on this site (Pinalinaz … a, etc…) and can't wait to start them! In the mean time, I am eating nopales I bought from the local store. For one week, I've eaten them in the morning every other day. I lost 3 pounds and during that week I was only able to walk for exercise as the week was too busy. I have kept track of my sugar and the nopales has regulated it so much so that now I am falling into a Hypoglycemic instead of Diabetic. I am determining how I can balance it, however this is an awesome break through for me. I was doing the military basic training for two months and only lost 5 lbs because of PCOS. Now that I incorporated nopales, the stubborn sugar is being removed!! I can't wait for shipment!! This is a big breakthrough for me, it is extremely hard for me to digest the sugar and the nopales are doing something right!!

Last Friday, I gave a presentation on PCOS at the local Indian Health Service Hospital here in Phoenix. One of my clients made a big batch of nopales salad for everyone to try. It was lunchtime about an hour and a half later, and several people noted that they weren't really very hungry.

There is research to support these testimonials. A 2007 study reported that 85 g nopales with a meal reduced the glycemic index of the meal. Way back in 1991, researchers reported that nopal had a glucose-lowering effect.

For the non-native eater, the prospect of de-stickering a cactus pad, not to mention what to do with the cactus once that's done, likely keeps many people from trying it. In Phoenix, we have a company, Oro Verde Products, that sells ready-to-prepare cactus pads as well as chopped nopales ready to add to your recipe. It's popular in salads, stews, and scrambled eggs. I've even heard of some people juicing it if they have a powerful blender. Check Oro Verde's website for information and recipes.

Ibitta's products are nice because they're powdered and mixed with flax. I've used them on my oatmeal, in smoothies, in vinaigrettes, and breadings. I even made a vanilla cheesecake with the hibiscus (Jamaica) flavored variety in the crust. They're very versatile and more user-friendly in the typical American kitchen.

These we do carry in the store, if you're interested in ordering.

If you live in Los Angeles, look for Nopatillas, a tortilla made with nopal. This would be super easy to include in breakfast burritos, lunch wraps, etc.

Wherever you are, however you eat it, be sure to try nopales. They could be a great way to help control your blood glucose.

Bacardi-Gascon M, Dueñas-Mena D, Jimenez-Cruz A. Lowering effect on postprandial glycemic response of nopales added to Mexican breakfasts. Diabetes Care.2007 May;30(5):1264-5. Epub 2007 Feb 26.

Frati AC, Gordillo BE, Altamirano P, Ariza CR, Cortés-Franco R, Chávez-Negrete A, Islas-Andrade S. Influence of nopal intake upon fasting glycemia in type II diabetics and healthy subjects. Arch Invest Med (Mex). 1991 Jan-Mar;22(1):51-6.

Did you know that vitamin C is necessary for collagen formation? And since PCOS ages skin as radically as it ages the rest of your organs, you need this vitamin more than ever?

If you've gone on a drastic low-carbohydrate diet, you may be depriving yourself of many great vitamin C sources, as they tend to come from fruits:

strawberries
lemons
papaya
kiwi fruit
cantaloupe
oranges
grapefruit
limes
raspberries
pineapple
watermelon

Whenever I make a salad, I throw in some kind of fruit and some kind of seed/nut. Turns out, if I do that and add the vinaigrette with the 2 parts vinegar/1 part oil ratio, it helps to moderate the influence of the sugar in the fruit. And some of the fruits, strawberries, for example, help to keep blood sugar from spiking as well.

Vegetables also have vitamin C:

broccoli
bell peppers
kale
cauliflower
mustard and turnip greens
brussels sprouts
chard, cabbage
spinach
snow peas
tomatoes
zucchini
asparagus
celery
lettuce
fennel
peppermint
parsley

As long as you're eating fruits and vegetables, preferably in their whole form, on a regular basis, it's not hard at all to get enough vitamin C. If you're looking for some ideas, PCOS Diva has put together a week's worth of menus focusing on vitamin C.

Your skin will thank you for it!