Omega-3 Oils and Walnuts

I have been wanting to add some supplements into my food plan since I am aware how restrictive my diet is at the moment.

And since I believe everything anyone posts online, when I was looking for advice on appropriate supplements for Diabetes, I was happy to believe the following:

You can increase insulin sensitivity by taking omega-3 oils. Essential fatty acids help to increase the level of nutrients getting into cells by increasing the fluidity of the cell membrane. When our cells are insulin resistant the cell membranes do not allow nutrients into the cells since the cell receptors are not able to function. The omega-3 fatty acids improve the circulation of nutrients into and energy out of the cells. Your primary energy source should be from fat. But do not eat a lot of saturated fat since most of the excess fat we store is saturated fat. When insulin levels go down the triglycerides will start releasing some of the stored saturated fat. Your cell membranes require a balance of saturated and poly-unsaturated fat, and keeping that balance is what helps improve the fluidity of the cell membrane. Good sources of fats are nuts like almonds and walnuts. Nuts are a great source of protein mixed with mostly mono-unsaturated fatty acids. Supplementing with EPA-DHA fish oils is very beneficial in improving insulin sensitivity. EPA helps reduce inflammation in tissues, especially the arteries, and DHA is extremely helpful for circulation and brain function.

I visited the local health food shop looking for 'EPA please' and mentioned the Diabetes as well.

The lovely lady there sent me on my way with high-dose EPA and Gymnema, also called Gymnema sylvestre, is in the Glucose Manager product. Apparently this plant is from India and has been used for centuries as a natural medicine to treat Diabetes. Also helps with treating constipation, liver disease, water retention, blood pressure problems, arrhythmia and tachycardia. But the coolest bit is that it can be an weight loss supplement because it interferes with tasting sweet stuff and therefore reduces cravings.

And yet again, there are good reasons to add nuts into my food plan. Must get on to that.

Quote: naturalchoicesforyou.com

Hungarian Scrambled Eggs

I love the way I was shown to make scrambled egg by my Hungarian step-father, since I detest overcooked egg. This method uses the heat of the vegetables to cook the egg, not the stove top. The result is tasty but light.

Ingredients

Selection of veggies: courgette, capsicum, onion, mushroom

One egg

Seasoning

Directions

Prepare the vegetables and cook until tender. Remove the pan from the stove. Add the egg. Move the egg through the vegetable mixture until you see that the temperature has dropped enough to stop the egg cooking. Put back on the heat only enough to warm through again and continue moving mixture. Continue removing and heating sequence until egg is just cooked. Season and serve.

Serves 1

Yum.

Abdominal fat is Bad

It's amazing how excess weight goes on different people. We even have names for the basic shapes: hour glass, apple, pear, straight etc.

No wonder we need such large wardrobes, extensive (and expensive!) shopping expeditions and still can't find anything to wear!

Unfortunately for me, I put most of my weight around my waist as a tyre. This kind of fat is the worst and it's the stuff that shows on the outside the state of my organs on the inside.

Estrogen first affects females during puberty when it is part of the process for developing breasts and a wider pelvis, but it also plays a part in where fat distributes on your body. When estrogen is reduced after menopause, the absence causes fat to shift from buttock, hips and thigh to the abdomen. Excessive amounts of the masculizing hormones has the same effect, hence Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome causes weight to redistribute to the bad areas as well. Bummer.

And as Diabetes is a known co-morbidity for Polycystic Ovaries, I am even more gutted to learn that it's a double whammy.

While researching, I found the following explanation:

Your fat cells take longer to get insulin resistant. That is why we gain weight in the abdominal area when we have partial insulin resistance. Insulin takes sugar and stores it as fat in your cells. So until your fat cells become totally insulin resistant you continue to gain weight. Then your weight will plateau as the fat cells protect themselves. Your linings of your arteries do not become insulin resistant, and as insulin increases, more plague will build-up in the lining. This is why coronary artery disease is much higher in people with insulin resistance.

So basically my fat cells want to hang out on my abdomen and when they get there, they park up like good-for-nothings.

I've been having a bad weekend, food-wise, and picked at party food yesterday as well as Twisties last night, Fruit popcorn and too many grapes today and a couple of chocolate chippie cookies this afternoon.

All those carbs and sugar are poison to me! I even have the headache to prove it.

Fortunately I find the week easier to manage food-wise than the weekend, so I will be glad to get back into it tomorrow, and I know that I can always start again right now. So dinner will be stir fry kale and other veggies and lean steak. And I will make a particular effort to drink plenty of water.

So my weekly weigh in is 88.3kg. I am happy with that, but aware that it's just as easy to put back on and I have a long way to go.

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Quote: naturalchoicesforyou.com

Maybe if they haven't already chewed it!

One of my favourite meals as a kid was called Cod Creole.

This was a mixture of tinned smoked fish, onion and dried tomato soup cooked together with water to make a fishy sauce and served over boiled rice.

I have made it recently and it is as delicious as I remember, though my boys weren't so keen on it ...

As children, my siblings and I were expected to eat everything put in front of us, and every last mouthful served up to us. I think the only things I was ever allowed to say no to was oysters and toheroas.

Toheroas are an endemic Kiwi clam that are said to be delicious - bleurk - and Oreti Beach in Southland is one of only a few places toheras are found in New Zealand and my home turf. Restrictions were put in place in the 1950s and by 1990s any harvesting was banned.

The last season down there was 1993, where with a limit of 5 each of at least 10cm still saw more than 15k harvested over a nine-hour one-day season.

Since this kai moana was already restricted during my childhood, I think there was a special exemption since they would be wasted on me.

These days I think you need a customary permit approved by your iwi, if you are a Maori decendant. Not sure what you can do if you are Pakeha ... I digress.

I remember sitting at the kitchen table in Margaret Street, Invercargill with my plate of Cod Creole and my siblings. For whatever reason, we had decided that we were NOT going to finish that meal. I don't remember how long we were forced to sit there, but I do remember the day going dark. Eventually my sister comes up with a plan and we all empty our plates out of the kitchen window onto the lawn down the back side of the house. Such was the expectation to not waste food and eat everything put in front of you.

So a major internal battle to this day is not wasting food.

Thou shall not waste food on thine own plate, nor the plates of thine offspring.

I was reminded by Tania today that one of the big causes of excess food intake for mothers is finishing the food on their kids plates. So it's true: kids make you fat.

Sitting at Charlotte's house today, we talked about the extent of this problem. Only one mum easily avoids this and told us it was as simple as it grosses her out. She's the slim one.

Really wish it grossed me out! The other mothers all agreed that it's worse than that: we are willing to eat pretty much anything off the plates of our children as long as they haven't already chewed it!

My children are growing up in a world of excess and I really want them to learn to eat what they enjoy and eat it in moderation. Which means that I try not to force them to finish their plates while encouraging them not to be fussy and to make the time for eating. Ughh.

So the point is that I am creating new rules on how food should be approached through parenting.

Thou shall endeavour to create/select only enough food, but never feel guilty for not finishing a dish.

Thou shall never eat off the plate of thine offspring, if the only purpose is to prevent waste.

Done.

Image: Foodstyle.co.nz

What did I eat today?

This isn't necessarily an average day, but is typical of what I am trying to achieve. Plenty of protein and low GI veggies, low fat dairy, limited fruit and gluten and minimal fat. This is deliberately restrictive as my goal is recover from Diabetes, which requires weightloss. And to have a food plan that stabilises my blood sugars at the same time.

Breakfast

Instant Apple Cinnamon porridge sachet made up with 1/2 cup trim milk and then mixed with a couple of spoonfuls of low fat unsweetened yoghurt.

Lunch
Half a serve of chilli beef and veggies, no noddles or rice from the Chinese at the food court.  I paid an extra 20c to have it served on a plate and have a takeaways container as well and I split the meal before I ate it. The remainder is still sitting in the fridge at work for the weekend. Whoops!

Afternoon Tea

A good few Peckish crackers - Salt and Vinegar. I love these ones though probably the Chilli are better and I love that they are gluten free.

Dinner
Veggies (sliced mushrooms, capsicum and onion) laid over the base of a square baking tin and topped with an egg then baked in the oven and served with a little oyster sauce and sprouts.

1/4 tin of drained Fruit Salad in Natural Juice.

Fluids

One glass of diet lift in the morning.

One small bottle of coke zero with lunch.

A couple of glasses of water and a couple of cups of instant coffee with trim milk no sugar - I never had sugar in coffee so this is just a personal choice

Snacks/Other

Two Shrewsbury biscuits before dinner - hey they did have magic in the middle!

A fish oil capsule and a glucose stabilising tablet from the health shop.

As I posted another time, this time is working for me because I am seeing food as helpful or not helpful now. So even though someone else may be eating something "delicious", I don't feel deprived.

This is a new feeling as I have always wanted to eat everything and probably been thinking about lunch the moment I finished breakfast. Now I don't even really think about food until I am ready for it.

Choosing to severely restrict my options is helping I think. It means that when I get home, I am thinking which of 100g steak, 100g chicken or an egg I will have tonight, and not the thousands of other choices I could be having.

I do find evenings difficult still though. I prowl for food while reminding myself why I am doing this. When this works, I go to bed happy.

Yummy Egg Fritters

A long time ago, before Sanitarium told us all to have Weetbix for breakfast, an egg was a really normal breakfast food.

I remember in Intermediate the Home Economics teacher spending the first week solely extolling the virtues of the humble egg. I took away from it that eggs are about the most complete food on earth and lack only vitamin C. Feel free to correct this 12 year old's information.

Eventually we were allowed to scramble the egg and finally whipped those eggs into a sponge cake. The baking never took, but I still love cooking eggs. I create a mean omelette or scramble. The trick to delicious eggs is not over-cooking them.

Ingredients
1 Egg
4 Button Mushrooms
1/2 a Courgette
1/4 a Capsicum
Finely sliced cabbage
Cracked Pepper
Lemon Juice

Directions
Prepare the veggies and place in eggs rings in a pan lightly sprayed with oil. Beat one egg with a little water and divide between the egg rings. Squeeze over lemon juice and season with cracked pepper. Cook until bottom is set, then remove rings and turn fritters over to lightly cook other side.

I served this with a side of lettuce, vinegar and lemon juice with a little cracker broken over as croutons.

Serves 1

I reckon this meal was on the table in less than 10 minutes. I could spend longer than that deciding on what to order while waiting in the queue at McDonalds!

Beef Salad in 12 minutes or less

I've been fascinated for a while now about how different fruits and veggies are processed by the body.

Especially how the pancreas deals with them, since many are low in carbohydrate and high in fibre.

And some even have no discernible effect on blood sugars: courgette, cucumber, green beens. Mushroom, capsicum, brocolli. Tomatoes, celery, onions.

A typical meal for me at the moment is a plate of veggies with some protein.

Ingredients
100g Steak or Chicken Breast
4 Button mushrooms
1/2 a Courgette
1/4 of a Capsicum
1/2 a stalk of Celery
Coriander
Garlic, Ginger, Cracked Pepper, Chilli Flakes
Lemon Juice, Vinegar

Directions
Usually I prepare (maybe a shake of lemon pepper and a spray of oil) and start cooking the steak or chicken.While that sizzles on the hob, I chop up my veggies: sliced mushrooms and celery. Maybe a handful of cabbage. Or small amount of chopped onion or spring onion. When the meat is cooked, I put it out to rest and put the veggies into the same pan. Stir over a high heat for a few moments then put in 1/4 cup of water. I often add a splash of lemon juice and/or vinegar and/or a twist of cracked pepper too ... top with coriander. Slice the rested meat and serve warm over the stirfry.

Serves 1

But some play foul of that rule, for example pumpkin and parsnip are both high GI.

And sweet corn is a really good example. On a cob, boiled and eaten from the cob, corn is really good for you and low GI, but taken off the cob makes them higher GI.

Varieties and preparation change this too. Old floury potatoes can be high GI and new potatoes low GI. Boiled kumara has a lower GI then baked kumara.

In the meantime, I am enjoying a food plan of all the veggies that will benefit my blood sugars. Which is the goal. And who doesn't have 12 minutes or less to create a delicious healthy meal?

Another conscious decision I have made is to limit my intake of veggies as part of my plan. And it's working ... this morning's weight was 89.0kg. Yay.