This question keeps coming up every now and then ! So I decided to come out with this post for reference of all members.
Nutrition is a simple subject though we human beings have made it complex...
We eat food to live ...but the type of food we eat varies depending upon our traditions, Religion, Culture, belief and it's suitability to one's metabolism..it also depends upon availability & affordability of the type of food we want to eat. Availability and affordability of food would depend upon the place of our living, our Geographical locations, Climatic Conditions which permits production of the food stuff......And then comes the most convenient of availability of Fast food , Processed food, Ready made eatables, Deep-Fried food, Pizza's and Burgers , Ready to eat white bread Sandwich, Potato chips , Samosa, Potato wada, Cold drinks , Coco cola , Thums up which are conveniently available every where 24×7👍......... junk food very very tasty ... I can not afford to say No...🙂 So much so Healthy Fruits and Vegetables become tasteless for us....🙂 And then we don't have time for physical exercise due to our very busy life ... We become stressed always at work and not able to manage our relationships with people around us.... We remain tense all the time....this kind of life style perhaps has made us to reach our current stage ...though genetics has also played it's Role...
Coming back to our food - the type of food we choose is our own choice !
When we have a health condition , we are always in look-out to change our diet after getting some tips/advice from others or from news media with a hope to see if it helps in normalising our health.
At times, we are so desperate that in order to control blood sugar, someone drinks coconut oil , someone drinks olive oil, someone-a pure vegetarian guy is asked to take only meat day and night to control blood sugar. ..🙂
It is important to note that there may be several ways/ tricks to reduce blood sugar....but for a Diabete , Blood Sugar is only one indicator -one should not ignore other health parameters- BP, Body weight, Lipid profile , hsCRP, Kidney function, Heart rate, CV risk, Neurological issues, eye health, fatigue leg syndrome, 8 hours sound sleep .....all are equally important...
What food we eat is important... Food can be our medicine to treat our condition ... If we understand the basics of food & nutrition....
What are Macronutrients and Micronutrients ???What is the role of each Macro's and Micro's in the human body?? How do these Macro's and Micros's get metabolised in our body ? ......To understand this,
I would strongly recommend you to study a 6 months certificate course in Food & nutrition (CFN) offered by IGNOU- India... The course fees is only Rs 500 & you get very useful Nutrition books worth Rs1500. Or even you can do 1 year Diploma course called DNHE- Diploma in Nutrition & Health Education. Then you can become a Certified Nutritionist for You and your family.🙂 No joke ..even you can practice as dietician- you can be a better Nutritionist because of your experience in handling your own health and then your study/ education on Health & Nutrition! 🙂
For doing these above course, attending classes at week ends is optional ....you can study at home and write assignments and appear for the exam for which you need to go to Ignou center...
I think Shooter George had done this course and I completed it last year.. now I am doing a more advanced 2 years course MSCDFSM.....not sure whether I can complete it...🙂
Back to our food - what we should eat?
I see some members are able to control Blood Sugar and overall health by simply eating " Ghar ka khana - Roti Dal Sabuji or Dal Chawl Sabuji" yet some members struggle and make it more complex by going to any extremities... .in order to bring down Blood sugar.....eating anything and everything based upon Hear-Say and ignoring all other health parameters......
( Please read my previous two posts on Insulin resistance & Know your pancreas ...)
There was a trial of diabetes (Accord trial ) with strict blood sugar control within 6% HBA1c with Intensive Medication and another group with relaxed blood sugar control up to 7 to 7.5% with standard dosage...
The trial was given up midway since the group with strict blood sugar control with Intensive medications - the mortality rate was very high .....The objective of the trial was to see if strict blood sugar control with intensive medication helps in reversing diabetes ... the link on this study is given at the end ( last link ) ...you must read the research paper.. in fact it says people trying to control blood sugar below 6 HBA1C carry more risk..... Please see the last paragraph of the article .
Further, One should know one's capacity....for example Intermediate fasting/ one meal a day could help positively someone with overweight- or obesity ...but someone with low BMI, under weight , IF- intermediate fasting may not be ideal though 12-14 hours fasting is something which most of us can practice.. which helps...however people with frequent hypoglycemia should be careful while doing any kind of fasting .
So what is advised ? What food should I take ?? What is Evidence Based Science ??? Is there any long term study on Diet on large number of people???
Yes, I have collated some long term study research carried out for 10,15,20, 30, 40 years ....on very large number of people....in USA, Europe, Sweden, & Greece.
Some of these studies were started since 1960 and Partcipants are still being monitored for Health conditions with different types of Diet, life style changes....and all Nutritional experts Healthcare authorities , medical professionals from all the nations from all over the world are referring to these studies to frame Dietary Guidelines to Prevent illness and reduce Health care cost. I have taken these research reports from Pubmed data base maintained by the United States National institute of Health, though you can find these research papers in multiple websites..
Please take out time in reading these research papers- it is worth spending your time .....At least look for the conclusion at the end of each research paper.
(1) The Adventists Health Study (AHS) (1960-2014) conducted by Loma Linda University, USA.
The Seventh-Day Adventists in USA follow a certain kind of life style with Vegetarian diet as advised and followed by the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Three different long term studies were carried out covering 23000, 34000 &1,25000 participants. The 3rd study includes Adventists from USA & Canada.
While 3-seperate study reports are available, I found a Wiki covering all the 3 research reports- AHS, AHS-1 & AHS-2. Please refer the 1st link from top.
(2) The EPIC-Oxford Study (European Prospective Investigation in to Cancer & Nutrition). 12 years follow up on more than 4,00,000 people from 8 European nations. There are 3 research papers. Please refer 2nd, 3rd and 4th link from top.
(3) Nurses Health Study (NHS) USA from 1976- till date. 4,00,000 approx Nurses participated in NHS/ NHS-2/ NHS-3.... Nurses were identified for the Study since they were well educated and informed on Health & Nutrition and it was easy for follow up and monitoring since they were working in hospitals. Initially it was thought of finding out the long term effects of contraceptive pill , but later it was converted in to a full fledged diet, life style Trial. You can read the history / back ground of NHS ( link given below- 5th link serially from top ) before you read the research papers- 4 Research papers, all given below in the links. Please refer 6 th,7th, 8th & 9th link.
(4) Diet trial on Swedish women - 1 research paper on 34670 women and 40291 men followed up for 10 years and 2nd research paper on 42237 women followed up for 12 years. Please refer 10th & 11th link .
(5) Greek study 1 research paper on 22944 Greek adults followed up for 10 years. This was part of the EPIC study done seperately for Greek adults. 12 th link.
Stay Safe, Stay Healthy! May God Bless You ! 🙏
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adven...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/247...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/229...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/308...
nurseshealthstudy.org/about...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/104...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/237...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/211...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/173...
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