Clean Eating

[JustJo]

Originally Posted by nycfembbw

Thanks for this post Jo. I've been pre-diabetic for a number of years and have steadily improved my knowledge of healthy eating and the actual doing of it over the past three (and have lost some weight along the way). I gave up coffee and all caffeine and have found that really helpful. I switched from white/bad carbs to pure whole grain carbs and love that! I now have a job at a school instead of working long hours at a hospital. This has helped tremendously because I can come home and cook healthy dinners for BB and me (who, thankfully, eats whatever I cook). I still drink diet soda sometimes, though my primary drink is water. How does it help to give up diet soda in regard to diabetes? Maybe you'll answer will motivate me

It's amazing how much a less stressful schedule helps, isn't it? My life improved dramatically when I started working from home...no commute, able to cook from scratch and slowly...much, much better.

The diet soda thing is tricky as there are many opinions on both sides. Most doctors tell diabetics to use artifical sweeteners because they don't raise blood sugar.

However, there's some evidence that they actually activate incretin in the brain, which makes us both crave sweets and absorb glucose (sugar) more effectively. So, you might not get any sugar from your diet soda, but it will make your body suck up more of the sugar in everything else you eat, and make you want to eat more sweet stuff overall.

Here's a link to an article that explains it better than I can.

I used diet soda as a crutch (cuz I still miss my coke...sob), but it actually makes it harder to stick to my diet. I do better when I eliminate it completely and drink iced tea instead.

Ironically, stevia (which is an herb) sweetens without calories, is totally natural, and appears to have a stabilizing effect on diabetic blood sugars. Give it a try!