Transcription:
Better Understand The Link Between Diabetes and Your Diet

Melanie Cole (Host):  Switching to a healthier diet can do a lot to improve your health but it’s not always easy. If you suffer from diabetes, it may be even more difficult to maintain that healthy lifestyle and make good choices. My guest today is Dr. Jeff Bauman. He is an endocrinologist at Summit Medical Group and a Practitioner at SMG’s Diabetes Live Well Program. Welcome to the show, Dr. Bauman. What do you tell someone who has Type II diabetes is the most important thing about their diet and nutrition?

Dr. Jeff Bauman (Guest):  We hear that question, of course, all the time certainly because diet and nutrition play such a pivotal role in diabetes health. I do have to point out that it’s not just about nutrition, though. It’s about how it fits in with our lifestyle. I always think of the four pillars of health – nutrition and, certainly, exercise are going to be two important pivotal pillars but the other two of stress and sleep are also still important. It’s really finding the right balance. Focusing on nutrition – it really isn’t about finding the perfect thing for that person in terms of what’s the perfect diet for me. The perfect diet is the one that is right for them. In terms of food products, there really is no one perfect food. We’re often asked about “Is this good? Is this good? Is this good?” There really is not one perfect food. A good healthy diet probably includes a variety of different foods and focusing on good portion size. Diabetes, which is insulin not working well, and which is the most common cause of Type II diabetes – insulin resistance – it does cause blood sugar to go up. Certainly, foods that have carbohydrates – we use the short term “carbs” – are going to be what is going to make the blood sugar go up today the most. Focusing on a lower carbohydrate diet probably works the best for most people. By increasing protein and reducing the amount of carbs that we eat at any one time, people are going to see blood sugars that are probably going to be lower but also they are going to feel better and they are going to feel more energy. I always think of carbs – it’s kind of a love-hate relationship. We all love carbs. Let’s face it. Carbs – rice, potatoes, French fries, chips – all the things that we love are often based on carbs. It’s not to say carbs are bad. Primarily, it’s the processed carbs that really would be the worst but a lot of foods, like potatoes, don’t have to be processed to still have carbohydrates. Carbs--we love to eat them but they don’t make us feel better afterwards. We feel more lethargic. We feel more tired. We can’t focus as much. People talk about “grain brain” where we get foggy brain after we have a large carbohydrate meal. Where, if we increase our protein and we reduce the amount of carbs in a meal, we actually will see an increase in energy. It also allows us to focus more on other healthy things such as sticking with a good exercise program. Both of those are going to be important, being very complimentary to each other.

Melanie:  Dr. Bauman, back to carbs for a minute because with all the high protein diets and carbohydrates are also a tomato and a carrot. Those are good healthy whole grains and nobody ever got obese eating carrots. People don’t understand the difference between the potatoes and the high processed carbohydrates and the really good ones for us – the fruits, the vegetables, the whole foods.

Dr. Bauman:  Yes. I look at my two boys--I have two school aged boys and I look at what they would love to eat all the time – probably it’s going to be things that we shouldn’t be eating. There are definitely good carbs. I don’t subscribe to the idea that we should reduce the carbs to nothing. There are diet programs out there that suggest doing that for a short time. That may be good to kick start someone to get some positive weight loss as a way to keep people focused. When we see results, we actually stick to a program more effectively. It’s about a balance and I think we do need carbs. It’s just that getting the balance of the amount of carbs at any one meal and trying to increase the amount of protein. Many of us don’t get enough protein. If we can reduce the carbs and increase protein, that actually becomes a natural appetite suppressant. Many of us have eaten Chinese food. We gorge on Chinese food. It’s primarily carbs and fat, very little protein. Afterwards we feel so full, but an hour later, we’re looking for food again. We’re hungry. That’s what carbs tend to do. It makes us eat more carbs. We can stop that cycle by trying to focus on making healthier choices when we’re making our plate. In terms of diets, we are inundated with so many different diets out there. They have different and sometimes very clever names. We all know about Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig and Nutra System. Many people say, “What is the best diet out there?” It turns out that, while there certainly are scientific benefits to some diets over another, Weight Watchers has been shown in clinical trials to be a very effective diet for the majority of people that do it. The key is, though, to stick with it. I went to a conference recently and really the evidence is pointing to the fact that there is no really best diet but the diet that’s best is the one that people follow. All the studies looking at weight loss programs, when you look at maybe three months in a lot of people do lose weight but at one year, unfortunately, a lot of people don’t lose weight. You can get a lot of information about those that do lose weight versus those that don’t lose weight. The biggest difference was people sticking with the diet. No matter what diet you find that’s right for you, find one that you can do for the long term. That’s really what I emphasize. If you can’t do it for the long term, it’s not going to be one that’s going to help you. If anything, it’s going to end up making you feel like you’ve failed but you didn’t fail. Maybe the diet wasn’t right for you. When people do find that balance where they find that right program for them, the best thing about it is they see results, they definitely lose weight; they see their blood sugar is better and, most importantly, when I talk to them they feel better. They feel more energetic, they’re happier, they’re managing their stress better and overall they are just a healthier person.

Melanie:  Is it possible, Dr. Bauman, with the proper nutrition, exercise balancing those four pillars of health as you’ve discussed to get a diabetic that might be insulin dependent off of their insulin?

Dr. Bauman:  That’s a great question. That’s what keeps me talking to people about this because I get so excited when I have a good conversation with someone and we’re clicking. The patient is engaged and they’re motivated – which many people are – but they find what works for them. They come back just three months later and it’s not that they lose a lot of weight. They may lose 10 or 15 pounds, which is a lot of weight but some people need to lose more than that. Ten or fifteen pounds is really all that’s necessary to equal a medication for diabetes. When I see people that start to see results, instead of me talking about what’s the next medication we should start, I’m talking about which medication can we get rid of? When we talk about it in that way then they see, “Wow, what I did actually is affecting my health in a positive way.” That positive reinforcement is just so energetic and it really does excite me when that happens. I know this patient is engaged and it’s working. Everyone has to find the balance for them to see what it is that works for them.

Melanie:  I can hear the passion in your voice. I applaud all the great work that you’re doing. Give the listeners your very best advice about diet and sorting through all of the diets that they see and all of the--words, carbs, proteins and fats – do they affect diabetes? Just kind of wrap it up for us, Dr. Bauman, because you’re so well0spoken and I can hear that you are so passionate about this topic. Wrap it all up for us and give everyone listening your very best advice.

Dr. Bauman:  What I try to encourage people is, it’s not about eliminating foods out of their diets, especially foods that they like because no one likes to feel like they’re eating things that they don’t like all the time because that’s not going to work. It’s about getting, certainly, a good balance of lower bad carbs and higher good foods like protein, but it’s also about portion size. You can have foods that you like, just have less of it. A simple change like that can keep people engaged with their diet because they are still feeling that they’re eating foods that they like to eat but yet they’re seeing results because they’re losing weight and they’re more likely to stick with that program. One concept that I always like is the plate method. It’s a very simple method. If we can make half our plate basically non-starchy vegetables – it’s going to be your spinach, broccoli--all the good things we know in terms of non-starchy vegetables. We make a quarter of the plate a good protein source, whether it be fish or whether it be cheese or eggs or poultry. The other quarter can be what you like:  the potato which I encourage sweet potato over regular potato – potatoes and rice and other things that we like. Only a quarter of the plate and we’re still having it but yet in the context of a balanced plate it’s going to be much healthier for us.

Melanie:  Absolutely such great advice. Thank you so much for being with us, Dr. Bauman. You’re listening to SMG Radio and for more information you can go to SummitMedicalGroup.com. That’s SummitMedicalGroup.com. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.