Dashing diabetes with diet; it does matter where you walk
Q: I'm looking for some tips on how to best shape my diet to control my Type 2 diabetes. I know about the glycemic index and try to stay away from sweets, but what else can I do? - Fern G., Madison, Wisconsin
A: What you eat has a huge influence on all aspects of your health (food is medicine). But if you have Type 2 diabetes, there are some new findings that will superpower your ability to control elevated glucose levels.
All the action takes place in your digestive system, where fermenting complex carbs meet gut bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids.
Researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey found, during a six-year study, that eating lots and lots of diverse, fiber-rich foods significantly improves glucose control, increases weight loss and improves blood lipid (cholesterol and triglyceride) levels. What's not to love?
How It Works
Various types of gut bacteria thrive on a diet of fiber, and that allows them to produce plenty of SCFAs. SCFAs are essential for healthy cells in the gut lining. Ever hear of leaky gut? Well, nurturing SCFA-producing gut bacteria could protect you from that. They also reduce inflammation and help control appetite. Plus, byproducts of SCFA-producing bacteria, butyrate and acetate, produce a mildly acidic gut environment that reduces potentially harmful gut bacteria and increases insulin production. If you aren't feeding the bacteria that produce SCFAs, you're vulnerable to Type 2 diabetes.
What to Eat
Diverse fiber that promotes production of SCFAs comes from eating:
-Resistant starches in 100 percent whole-grain cereals, barley, brown rice, beans, lentils, green bananas, cooked and cooled potatoes or pasta.
-Pectin from apples, apricots, blackberries, carrots and oranges.
-Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and inulin from Jerusalem artichokes, onions, leeks, asparagus and 100 percent whole wheat and rye.
-Arabinoxylan in oats and all bran.
So, if you want to see your A1C improve, the researchers suggest a diet that relies on these gutsy foods.
Q: I recently read about how bad it is for you to walk through street-level air pollution. My wife and I regularly get in 10,000 steps a day in New York City. The air can be pretty bad, and over the past few years, ride-share car services have added more than 55,000 new cars to the streets. (I know this is happening in other major cities as well.) Add in well-intentioned, traffic-strangling bike lanes, and traffic is now at a virtual standstill as it cranks out harmful emissions. Should we reduce our walking? - Marty S., New York
A: Apparently, the law of unintended consequences has come home to roost in NYC - the city thought ride shares would reduce the overall number of cars, and bike lanes would help make folks healthier. They figured wrong, and instead New Yorkers face increased air pollution and congestion. (Lebron and the Cavs recently had to take the subway to Madison Square Garden from their hotel because above-ground traffic was such a nightmare that they were concerned they wouldn't make their court time.)
Yes, air pollution is a gigantic health problem, and its effects on your cardiovascular health are measurable. Researchers recently compared the effects of air pollution on a group of 60-plus-year-olds who were walking for two hours down busy commercial streets in London to the effects of a similar walk in tree-filled Hyde Park (like New York's Central Park).
Following each walk, researchers measured participants' arterial stiffness and lung function, and found that walking in the park improved lung and arterial function, while walking along polluted streets greatly diminished these functions.
The good news is that the health problems caused by walking along a polluted city street can be reversed and even improved by walking later in a healthier environment. So whether it's the gym, the mall or a walk in a park or along a body of water (like Lakeshore Drive in Cleveland or Chicago), get your steps in, and you'll stay healthy.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
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