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Proteins are the natural choice when a patient is faced with diabetes. If diabetes is uncontrolled, muscle protein is broken down into amino acids and converted into glucose by the liver. Proteins have to supply enough energy to substitute for carbohydrates and proteins are broken down faster than they are made. If this happens the body ends up with a protein deficit which affects normal body functions.

A protein deficit has been shown to impair resistance to infections in diabetics.

Nutrition therapy for diabetes has progressed from prevention of obesity or weight gain to improving the effectiveness of insulin. With this new approach, a high protein diet (30% of total food energy) is a very pertinent part of nutrition therapy.

It is speculated that a high protein diet has a favorable effect in diabetes due to the ability of proteins and amino acids to stimulate insulin release from the pancreas.

As well, dietary supplements containing proteins like whey and casein come highly recommended. A protein supplement containing casein can increase the amount of energy manufactured from every meal and, at the same time, reduce the need for pharmacological insulin.

Ask your health care professional about your dietary protein needs if you have diabetes.

Tagged with: diabetes • diabetics • protein deficit • proteins

Carbohydrates are made up of carbon and water. Atoms of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen form carbohydrate compounds such as sugar and starch. There are five types of carbohydrate sugars: glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose and lactose.

Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred way of getting energy and in fact your brain needs a constant supply of carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose by the body and as you may know, are absorbed into the blood stream. Carbs can also be stored in your muscles and liver as glycogen. You need about 40 – 50 % of your diet to be made up of carbohydrates for good health.

Fats are waxy, oily substances and are essential for good health. Fat has double the amount of calories, and because of this, poses a problem to individuals who find it difficult to exercise. When the body breaks down a fat, it gets broken down into something called a fatty acid and glycerol.

Proteins are made up of chains of amino acids and are necessary for your body to build enzymes, antibodies and hemoglobin. When you eat protein, your body breaks the protein down into amino acids and then tries to re-assemble them into other configurations to make other needed proteins for use around the body.

Tagged with: Carbohydrates • Carbs • Fats • hemoglobin • proteins

Carbohydrates, fats and protein can all be broken down into smaller units.

Each one of those smaller units can be sub-divided. In the case of proteins, proteins are made up of amino acids. Not all proteins have the eight essential amino acids that the body needs. If you are consuming protein and you don’t get the essential ones for
long periods of time, you are putting yourself at risk of becoming malnourished. In places around the world where food isn’t so plentiful, children can become malnourished and develop diseases such as Kwashiorkor. These children have distended tummies, however the rest of their bodies are fine, this unfortunately is caused by a protein deficiency.

Scientists can measure the quality of nutrients that people are getting. The amount of protein consumed is controlled. They can measure how much is excreted, how much weight a person gains and basically they can determine how much of that protein is utilized by the body.

Some proteins are absorbed extremely well, an example would be egg albumin, which is a protein found in the white of an egg rather than the yolk. The egg white protein has an extremely high biological availability and all of the essential amino acids in
the right balance.

Gelatin has many of the essential amino acids, however, does not have an amino acid called tryptophan and because it is lacking, it isn’t considered a complete form of protein.

Tagged with: amino acids • egg white protein • Kwashiorkor • proteins • tryptophan

This question may have more than one answer.

There are researchers who have studied this and feel that they can boil it right down to all kinds of enzymes and mechanisms that come into play, stimulating appetite or depressing appetite.

Different foods offer different nutritional scenarios that affect hunger. For example: when one goes and exercises and then sits down afterwards, they need to replenish their water intake. This is something the body needs even though there is no nutritional value to water, per say.

Next, one may become hungry after exercising. A combination of fruits, primarily because they are made up of water, and sugar carbohydrates may satisfy the need for energy after exerting energy. Because the digestive process is pretty rapid when it comes to breaking down sugars into glucose one can consume a lot of fresh fruits and it doesn’t necessarily satisfy hunger.

Hunger pains may still be present because the digestion is completed so rapidly with things such as fruits. However, proteins take longer to digest.

It all comes down to the balance between how many calories your body needs to replace and the calories burned and what kinds of foods you are consuming. It is complex and is another whole area to think about whether it is emotional or whether it is your body actually telling you need nutrition or if it is your body adjusting to less calories.

Researchers studying this issue may have their own theories and their own recommendations. If you have questions about your nutritional requirements, ask your doctor.

Tagged with: digestive process • enzymes • fruits • hunger • proteins