Diabetes, Obesity and Processed Food

I don’t get it.
Me neither. I'm asking about fasting and your talking about meditation and drinking bone broth. Was it reduction in cortisol via stress management that saved you or was it fasting?

Also what kind of digestive issues did you have?
 
Me neither. I'm asking about fasting and your talking about meditation and drinking bone broth. Was it reduction in cortisol via stress management that saved you or was it fasting?

Also what kind of digestive issues did you have?
It’s all connected. So both.
 
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/what-are-processed-foods/

Rule of thumb: anything that has a label / more than 1 ingredient is processed food. Anything that has added sugar and artificial flavors / coloring is the worst kind of processed food.

Pasta is indeed classified as processed food but if the only ingredients are durum wheat and water then it's not that bad. Rice is not processed food (as long as it is just rice, not a rice-based meal in a can).

I'm not familiar with Panda Express but generally any fast food restaurant is going to serve processed food. BK, McDs, and Wendy's are among the worst.

Mashed potatoes are fine if you make them yourself from real potatoes. But a mashed potato mix is a whole different story! Check out the ingredients:

source: https://idahoanfoodservice.com/products/bistro-mashed-potato-mix/

Corn syrup and maltodextrin are also added sugars so you basically have sugar x3 in that mix, as well as artificial color and artificial flavors. Horrible.

Diners can vary in terms of food quality but they generally will still use/serve processed food since it's cheaper, faster and more convenient.

Bottled ice teas are very bad, since they usually contain A LOT of added sugar, artificial sweeteners and coloring.

Carton/bottled milk is fine, again, as long as it is pure milk with nothing added.

I hope I've answered all your questions. Let me know if you need any other advice.

PS. The best way to avoid processed food is to cook! :)

Then most everything on Supermarket selves is processed. Are you sure Wendy's and McD's are that bad. They advertise 100% white meat chicken, and Wendys even does never frozen beef. Or are you talking about their buns and fries?

As for the bottled ice teas, there are some brands like Pure Leaf or Good Brew that advertise 100% tea. Are they lying? I try to stay away from Snapple, Nesteas, or Arizona, Minute Maid and I never drink flavored teas.

There is new brand of milk called FairLife. They sell themselves on well treated cows, and lactose free milk, but on their bottles, they list a lot of things that are not milk.

Are all sauces in a bottled processed then? I guess from now on when at a restaurant/diner, I only order baked potato. That I know is a just one real potato.
 
Then most everything on Supermarket selves is processed. Are you sure Wendy's and McD's are that bad. They advertise 100% white meat chicken, and Wendys even does never frozen beef. Or are you talking about their buns and fries?

As for the bottled ice teas, there are some brands like Pure Leaf or Good Brew that advertise 100% tea. Are they lying? I try to stay away from Snapple, Nesteas, or Arizona, Minute Maid and I never drink flavored teas.

There is new brand of milk called FairLife. They sell themselves on well treated cows, and lactose free milk, but on their bottles, they list a lot of things that are not milk.

Are all sauces in a bottled processed then? I guess from now on when at a restaurant/diner, I only order baked potato. That I know is a just one real potato.
There are fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, whole bread, uncooked meat and fish and plenty of unprocessed food in supermarkets. You just gotta cook most of it. ;)

Yes, McD's is bad for you. The buns, the fries, the shakes, practically everything.

Pure Leaf iced sweet tea has 42 grams of sugar per serving. That's over 8 teaspoons!
https://www.pureleaf.com/us/products/iced-sweet-tea

Pure Leaf unsweetened tea has none. But why not brew you own tea for a fraction of the price?
https://www.pureleaf.com/us/products/unsweetened-black-iced-tea

I'm not familiar with FairLife but it looks like it's filtered milk with vitamins added. Not bad, I guess. Here's a helpful website I found:
https://www.fooducate.com/app#!page=product&id=54B6FCB4-3421-A6C5-46F2-B6DBCC52A03D

Are all sauces in a bottle processed? Yes.

Listen, I'm not advocating that you suddenly drop ALL processed food and just eat grass off a field. :D I want to spread awareness - so that you read the labels, know what to spot and choose the healthier alternative! Start by cutting down on sweets and fast food and progress from there. Good luck!
 
There are fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, whole bread, uncooked meat and fish and plenty of unprocessed food in supermarkets. You just gotta cook most of it. ;)

Yes, McD's is bad for you. The buns, the fries, the shakes, practically everything.

Pure Leaf iced sweet tea has 42 grams of sugar per serving. That's over 8 teaspoons!
https://www.pureleaf.com/us/products/iced-sweet-tea

Pure Leaf unsweetened tea has none. But why not brew you own tea for a fraction of the price?
https://www.pureleaf.com/us/products/unsweetened-black-iced-tea

I'm not familiar with FairLife but it looks like it's filtered milk with vitamins added. Not bad, I guess. Here's a helpful website I found:
https://www.fooducate.com/app#!page=product&id=54B6FCB4-3421-A6C5-46F2-B6DBCC52A03D

Are all sauces in a bottle processed? Yes.

Listen, I'm not advocating that you suddenly drop ALL processed food and just eat grass off a field. :D I want to spread awareness - so that you read the labels, know what to spot and choose the healthier alternative! Start by cutting down on sweets and fast food and progress from there. Good luck!

I dont drink the soda, or the shakes or any drinks from fast food. But the bread is just white bread isnt it (McDs, Wendy's etc)? I always thought the fries were frozen potatoes.

Oh I never drink sweet tea. I used indulge every now and then in it, but not now because tastes too sweet. I used to get the McD's Sweet Tea, and add cream into yum yum yum.
 
I dont drink the soda, or the shakes or any drinks from fast food. But the bread is just white bread isnt it (McDs, Wendy's etc)? I always thought the fries were frozen potatoes.

Oh I never drink sweet tea. I used indulge every now and then in it, but not now because tastes too sweet. I used to get the McD's Sweet Tea, and add cream into yum yum yum.
Just frozen potatoes? Guess again.
There are 19 Ingredients in Your McDonald's French Fries.
https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/there-are-19-ingredients-in-your-mcdonalds-french-fries-736343

There's plenty of reasons to avoid fast food in general and McDs in particular:
https://articles.mercola.com/mcdonalds-hamburger.aspx
 
Some excellent writers on the subject of whole vs. processed foods are:

Marion Nestle
Michael Pollan
Yoni Freedhoff (he writes about "dieting" but his book and blog pretty lucidly discuss healthy eating and what processed/unprocessed foods are)
 
Insulin sensitivity has a genetic component so, many people can eat high carbs in life with no issue.
 
Concerning heart disease, I'm more of a believer in the endothelium dysfunction theory. The endothelium in the lining found in our blood vessels. When healthy the endothelium keeps blood from sticking inside our arteries. When damaged, blood clots form to heal that section of the endothelium. With continued damage to the artery, the blood clot can grow further in size, eventually causing a cardiac event.

The key to avoiding a heart attack is to keep the endothelium healthy.

I thought this a nice article by Dr. Kendrick listing the many known ways in which the endothelium can become damaged.

https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2018/11/27/what-causes-heart-disease-part-59/
 
It does with something like Cowden syndrome (a genetic condition resulting in high levels of insulin sensitivity).
Outside of genetic abnormalities though; who knows...?

I can go off my own experience of having a terribly high carb diet of soda, fast food, bread, pastries, and basically anything with refined wheat flour for 10 years. I'm still fairly young but my last blood test before I switched from soda to seltzer water and cleaned up diet showed extremely high levels of sensitivity. And I didn't read the results, the dr actually brought it up and said they were the best he's seen. Of course my cholestoral is another story.

Point being, diet is not the sole cause of it. It's more genetic or being extremely fat that have bigger impacts.
 
It does with something like Cowden syndrome (a genetic condition resulting in high levels of insulin sensitivity).
Outside of genetic abnormalities though; who knows...?

I don't actually think it's to do with genetics apart from genetic conditions.

I believe, gut bacteria and our diets....... Diabetes type 2 can be controlled and even reversed with a change in diet......

We still don't fully understand the complexity of the gut brain axis......

They are only starting to find links to other organs like the liver.....

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/29485654/
 
I don't actually think it's to do with genetics apart from genetic conditions.

I believe, gut bacteria and our diets....... Diabetes type 2 can be controlled and even reversed with a change in diet......

We still don't fully understand the complexity of the gut brain axis......

They are only starting to find links to other organs like the liver.....

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/29485654/
I completely agree that the gut microbiome is a huge factor in our metabolic health. As you say it's really early days in terms of our understanding.

I also agree that Diabetes type 2 can be controlled/reversed by diet but that's more than just an effect on gut bacteria; the correct strategy directly addresses cellular insulin (and leptin) sensitivity.

Anyway, it's a really interesting field of research at the moment.
 
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I completely agree that the gut microbiome is a huge factor in our metabolic health. As you say it's really early days in terms of our understanding.

I also agree that Diabetes type 2 can be controlled/reversed by diet but that's more than just an effect on gut bacteria; the correct strategy directly addresses insulin (and leptin) sensitivity.

Anyway, it's a really interesting field of research at the moment.

Data will come out that gut bacteria is the primary factor in signalling regarding diabetes type 2, IMHO.
 
I can go off my own experience of having a terribly high carb diet of soda, fast food, bread, pastries, and basically anything with refined wheat flour for 10 years. I'm still fairly young but my last blood test before I switched from soda to seltzer water and cleaned up diet showed extremely high levels of sensitivity. And I didn't read the results, the dr actually brought it up and said they were the best he's seen. Of course my cholestoral is another story.

Point being, diet is not the sole cause of it. It's more genetic or being extremely fat that have bigger impacts.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's genetic, it could be to do with the make up of your gut microbiome (see posts above).

Interestingly, much of our gut biome is passed from our parents/environment but that doesn't equal heredity (genetics).
 
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