Prevent Type 2 Diabetes With The Setpoint Diet
If you’ve been wondering how to prevent type 2 diabetes, you’re not alone. In 2015, 23.1 million American adults were diagnosed with diabetes, and 7.2 million were undiagnosed. Though huge, these numbers do not even come close to the estimated 84.1 million Americans who have prediabetes.
Prediabetes is a condition in which blood sugar levels are consistently higher than normal, but they are not yet high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. Research shows if steps are not taken to reverse prediabetes, it often turns into type 2 diabetes within 5-10 years. Though many people and even medical doctors consider prediabetes benign, only something to worry about if it turns into diabetes, the truth is that prediabetes can cause many serious health problems. It is important, therefore, to not only stop type 2 diabetes but to also stop prediabetes.
Why is it important to stop type 2 diabetes and prediabetes
It is important to stop type 2 diabetes and prediabetes because of the health problems high blood glucose levels cause.
You naturally have glucose circulating in your bloodstream, and this amount ebbs and flows throughout the day. Your blood sugar level is influenced by diet, stress, exercise, and other factors. But carbohydrate consumption has the biggest impact on your blood sugar levels, and the extent of the impact depends upon 2 factors: the number of carbohydrates consumed in one sitting and the form of the carbohydrate.
When you consume carbohydrates, they are broken down into glucose and then absorbed into your bloodstream. Your blood glucose levels rise, and your pancreas releases the hormone insulin to move the excess glucose into your cells.
If you consume a large number of simple carbs, such as refined sugars and refined carbohydrates, you experience a rapid rise in blood sugar levels. Your blood sugar levels also spike higher than normal. This is because refined sugars and refined carbs are digested quickly and then rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream because they contain no fiber to slow this process down.
If you eat complex carbs, such as non-starchy vegetables, you’ll experience a slower, more gradual rise in your blood sugar levels because the fiber slows down the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream.
How do simple carbs affect blood glucose levels?
Because of their simple chemical structure, simple carbohydrates can be readily converted into energy by the body, which leads to a faster rise in blood sugar and insulin secretion from the pancreas – resulting in negative consequences for health. Blood sugar spikes also trigger excessive fat storage and weight gain.
How does this happen? Simple. Your cells and organs need glucose for energy, but they cannot handle a huge amount of glucose at one time. When you eat a large number of simple carbs at one time, your body can’t deal with them.
Insulin cannot get it to your cells fast enough, and your cells cannot absorb that much glucose at one time anyway. But since insulin has just a short time to clear the glucose from your bloodstream, it sends most of it to your fat cells. (Fat cells always have room for glucose.) This causes weight gain, the leading risk factor for type 2 diabetes. (More about that shortly.)
In addition, if you regularly eat large quantities of simple carbs, your pancreas regularly releases large amounts of insulin into the bloodstream. Insulin’s job is to unlock the door of the cells to allow glucose to enter. But if the cells are continually exposed to insulin, they become resistant to it and refuse to open. This causes your blood sugar levels to rise, eventually leading to weight gain, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
Health Complications of Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes contribute to many serious health problems, including:
- Abnormal cholesterol levels
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Amputations
- Eye diseases (retinopathy, cataracts, glaucoma)
- Foot damage
- Gallbladder disease
- Gum disease
- Heart disease
- High blood pressure
- Kidney disease/failure
- Neuropathy (nerve damage)
- Skin problems
- Stroke
Because diabetes is the underlying cause of many of the most serious diseases, being able to stop type 2 diabetes is the best way to reduce the risk for these other diseases. But government health officials, doctors, and nutrition “experts” have not been able to develop a plan to stop type 2 diabetes that actually works.
Meanwhile, millions of people are getting sicker every day. Many of them are dying from complications of diabetes. Millions more are suffering symptoms that they do not yet realize are diabetes related.
Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes
Most of the symptoms of type 2 diabetes are caused by cells not receiving the glucose they need or because the buildup of glucose in the bloodstream causes fluid to be pulled away from the tissues. These symptoms usually occur gradually and can be so subtle at first they are easy to miss.
Below are some of the most common symptoms of type 2 diabetes:
- Increased thirst: Excess sugar in your bloodstream pulls fluid from your tissues, resulting in increased thirst. This makes you not only drink more fluids but also urinate more often.
- Weight loss: Since your cells cannot absorb much glucose, the excess may be excreted in your urine, automatically reducing the number of calories consumed.
- Increased hunger: Your body becomes hungry when your cells cannot access glucose for energy.
- Fatigue, weakness: This occurs when the cells cannot obtain the glucose they need for energy.
- Dry mouth: This occurs because of excess sugar in your bloodstream pulling fluid from these tissues.
- Blurred vision: The excess sugar in your bloodstream pulls the fluid from the lenses of your eyes.
- Slow-healing sores: High glucose levels slow blood circulation, making it more difficult for your red blood cells to reach your wounds. This results in sores that heal slowly or, in some cases, don’t heal at all.
Type 2 diabetes risk factors
To stop type 2 diabetes, it is important to know your risk factors. Below are the most common risk factors for type 2 diabetes.
Being overweight or obese: This is the number 1 risk factor for type 2 diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control reports that approximately 90% of those who are obese will develop type 2 diabetes. Studies show one of the reasons for the link between obesity and type 2 diabetes is that obesity causes insulin resistance.
Family history: Having a close family member, such as a parent or sibling, with diabetes increases your risk of developing this disease, too.
Sedentary lifestyle: Research shows those who do not get enough physical activity have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Age: Those 45 or over are at a higher risk of developing this disease. However, the rates of children and adolescents with type 2 diabetes are on the rise.
Ethnicity: Diabetes occurs more often in certain ethnic groups, though researchers do not know why there’s an ethnic link to this disease. The ethnicities affected are African-Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, Pacific Islanders, Asian-American, and those born in Alaska.
Stop type 2 diabetes by lowering setpoint weight
As obesity is the number 1 risk factor for type 2 diabetes, the best way to stop type 2 diabetes and reduce your risk for this disease is to lose weight. But if you’re like most people who struggle with their weight, you know how difficult permanent weight loss can be.
What usually happens is that you go on a crash diet, severely cutting calories while eating low-quality foods. It doesn’t matter if it’s a granola bar diet, a grapefruit diet, or Weight Watchers. The body still typically receives a low-quality diet with fewer calories.
Well…your body fights what it sees as starvation — a slow death. The body is an amazingly complex biological machine with the main mission of keeping you alive. Your body needs a certain amount of fat to keep you alive and healthy. The brain, digestive system, and hormones are in constant communication with each other to synchronize the activities that automatically maintain body fat at a specific level. This is your setpoint weight.
If you eat less than your body needs to maintain that level of fat, your body goes into emergency alert. It marshals all the hormones necessary to prevent you from losing weight. These hormones make you hungry, cold, weak, and irritable. They slow your metabolism and keep your body from burning fat.
Why crash diets fail
That’s why your weight loss slows down almost nothing a few weeks into a new diet. Your body is fighting you every step of the way. The crash diet also slows your metabolism, so when you finally go off the diet and start eating regular foods again, you’ll start gaining weight back. This happens even if you monitor your food intake, eating just enough calories to maintain your new weight loss. Plus, starvation dieting raises your setpoint weight, making you heavier in the long run!
You will lose weight on a crash diet, but there’s a good chance you will not keep the weight off. Statistics show only about 5% of people manage to maintain their weight loss for two years. The only way you can maintain this weight loss is to eat a low-calorie diet for the remainder of your life. But even then, you will have to eat progressively fewer calories with each passing year to maintain that weight. This is completely unsustainable.
The only way you can lose weight long-term is to lower your setpoint weight. Your body will then fight to keep you thin in the same way it fought to keep you heavy.
How do you lower your setpoint weight and stop type 2 diabetes?
Lower your setpoint weight and stop type 2 diabetes: 4 types of foods to remove from your diet
Many clinical research studies show a poor-quality diet is the biggest factor in an elevated setpoint weight and type 2 diabetes. The foods we eat either heal or break our metabolic system. Poor-quality foods create a hormonal clog that prevents hormones from sending or receiving correct signals, resulting in weight gain and an elevated setpoint weight.
To lower setpoint weight and stop type 2 diabetes, try to reduce or remove these 3 types of foods from your diet.
Ultra-processed foods: These are manufactured packaged foods that contain high amounts of added sugars, processed carbs, fats, and chemicals. They are also devoid of fiber. They cause a rapid rise in blood sugar levels that can lead directly to obesity and type 2 diabetes. Plus, they cause hormonal dysregulation leading to an elevated setpoint weight. Examples of ultra-processed foods include baked goods, microwave dinners, sauces, and cookies.
Processed carbs and refined sugars: These foods also have no fiber to stop their absorption into the bloodstream, and the result is the same as consuming ultra-processed foods.
Grains: Consuming grains — even whole grains — also causes spikes in blood glucose levels. Plus, they are not nearly as nutritious or filling as their non-starchy vegetable counterparts.
The setpoint diet: the easiest way to stop type 2 diabetes
The easiest way to stop type 2 diabetes is to switch to the setpoint diet. On the setpoint diet, you’ll eat foods scientifically proven to lower setpoint weight, regulate blood sugar levels, remove hormonal clogs, and activate fat-burning hormones. The foods are easy to remember, and the diet is amazingly simple to implement. No calorie counting, and no hunger or deprivation.
All you really need to remember is to eat whole foods that contain water, fiber, and protein. (Whole foods are those as close to their natural states as possible.) Try to eat foods from the following 3 food groups at every main meal, as they work together to remove hormonal clogs. The goal is to be so full of these delicious, satisfying foods — what we call SANE foods — that you’ll be too full for inSANE ones. In other words, hunger and deprivation is NOT a feature of the setpoint diet!
Non-starchy vegetables
10+ servings per day
Examples:
- Asparagus
- Broccoli
- Carrots
- Eggplant
- Kale
- Spinach
Nutrient-dense proteins:
3-5 servings per day, 30-55 grams per meal
Examples:
- Chicken
- Egg Whites
- Grass-Fed Beef
- Liver
- Nonfat Greek Yogurt
- Salmon
Whole-food fats
- Examples:
- Almonds
- Cocoa/Cacao
- Coconut
- Flax Seeds
- Macadamias
- Olives
You can also feel free to enjoy up to 3 servings of low-fructose fruit per day. Examples include blueberries, goji berries, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, and strawberries.
With the setpoint diet, you’ll be able to lose weight permanently and stop type 2 diabetes without suffering.
Next step: Learn how the setpoint diet prevents type 2 diabetes with SANE
Ready to finally break free from the yo-yo dieting rollercoaster by balancing your hormones and lowering your body’s setpoint weight?
Want to know the exact foods and serving sizes that are scientifically proven by over 1,300 peer-reviewed research studies to boost metabolism, burn fat and enjoy virtually effortless weight loss like a naturally thin person?
Download the free SANE metabolism boosting food list, cheat sheet, and “Eat More, Burn More” weight loss program by .
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