The Seven Secrets of Magic Eating

Jot down the secrets and post them on your fridge for a blood sugar friendly diet.

If you remember only one strategy, remember the Seven Secrets of Magic Eating. Some of them may sound unusual, while others seem like the good old rules of healthy eating you already know about. But each one was chosen for a specific reason: to keep your blood sugar levels steady throughout the day. Here's a quick summary. You may even want to jot down the seven secrets and post them on your fridge as a daily reminder to keep you on the Magic Foods course.

1. Choose low-GL carbs and limit carb portions. Carbohydrate-rich foods, especially grains and starchy vegetables, are the main contributors to high blood sugar. By choosing "slow-acting" (low-GL) carbs instead of "fast-acting" (higher-GL) carbs, you can help keep blood sugar low and steady. You'll also want to limit your portions no matter what kind of carbs you choose.

2. Make three of your carb servings whole grains. You're not eating as many carbs, so make those you do eat count by choosing whole grains, which help prevent heart disease and diabetes independently of their effects on blood sugar.

3. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Aim for at least seven to nine small servings a day. Most fruits and vegetables have little carbohydrate and are packed with vitamins, fiber, and health-protective compounds, with few calories. Eating fruits or adding vegetables to carbohydrate-rich dishes helps make your diet blood sugar friendly.

4. Eat protein at every meal. Protein lowers the GL of meals and helps curb hunger, making weight loss easier.

5. Favor good fats. "Bad" saturated fats can interfere with your ability to control blood sugar, but "good" unsaturated fats help your body control it better. Good fats also lower the GL of meals.

6. Add acidic foods to your meals. It's an amazingly simple way to blunt the blood sugar effect of a meal.

7. Eat smaller portions. We're talking not about just carb-rich foods here but about all foods. Even when you eat a low-GL diet, calories count. Cutting calories can help you fight insulin resistance -- and of course, along with exercise, it's still the way to lose weight.

From Magic Foods

 

• Lose the Weight
• Diabetes
• Blood Sugar
• • Fight Disease
• Nutrition

• Why Blood Sugar Matters
• It's no longer just certain people who need to worry about their blood sugar; it's pretty much everyone.
• 
• Insulin Resistance: A Growing Epidemic
• In the West, where the mega-meal and recliner are all too pervasive, insulin resistance is increasingly common.
• 
• What Makes Some Carbs Better Than Others
• Why would one high-carb food have a different glycemic load than another?
• 
• 13 Dietary Downfalls and Solutions
• Learn how to stop sabotaging your efforts to control your blood sugar and lose weight.
• 
• The Art of Eating Out
• How to outsmart the menu and order healthy when dining out.
• 
• Introducing the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load
• Measuring the effects of food on blood sugar.
• 
• More on Blood Sugar
• 

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