Ketogenic diet and Type 2 Diabetes

On ketogenic diet, our body converts fat instead of sugar into energy. The way this lifestyle changes the way our body store and utilize energy, making it a great help in easing diabetes symptoms.

What is Type 2 Diabetes?

Type 2 Diabetes formerly known as "Sugar diabetes" is extremely common. It is a chronic disease in which people have problem regulating their blood sugar. Diabetics have high blood sugar because their bodies

• do not produce enough insulin
• are not responsive to insulin
• combination of both.

Insulin and Low Carb High Fat Diet

Insulin is a storage hormone secreted by the Pancreas, responsible for the moving of nutrients out of our blood stream to their respective tissues. It helps to regulate our blood sugar level.
When we eat carbs, our body has to produce insulin to keep up with the high level of glucose in our body. This sometimes leads to insulin resistance and subsequently Type 2 diabetes.

However, when we adopt a ketogenic lifestyle, we reduce our intake of carbs, less insulin is needed to be secreted into our bloodstream and our blood sugar is well regulated. This means for individuals with Type 2 diabetes it is the most suitable lifestyle.

Types of Sugar

Sugar can be found in 3 forms

• Natural - Found in fruit, Honey, Vegetables, Milk based products
• Added - Found in processed foods and drinks like Biscuits, Cereals, Sweetened drinks etc
• Products of the digestion of complex carbs - These are starchy foods and can be broken into

1. Grains - such as Rice, Corn, Wheat, Oats, Barley, Rye, Millet etc. This means tha processed foods like pasta, spaghetti, noodles, cookies are all starchy foods
2. Starchy Vegetables - such as Potatoes, Sweet potatoes, Yams, Cassava, Onions, Carrots, Cocoyam etc
3. Dried Beans - such as Brown beans, Black-eye beans, Red beans, Lentils etc.

Sugar is a form of carb that quickly affects blood sugar level. All carbohydrate raises blood glucose level and sugar has a very quick effect, therefore too much sugar in your daily meal more so, in a keto lifestyle is a big NO.
The more sugar in the diet, the higher your risk of type 2 diabetes.

Ketogenic lifestyle encourages people to reduce their starch and sugars and replace them with foods higher in healthy fat and proteins. This leads to weight loss which improve all the major risk factors for diseases including blood sugar, insulin levels, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL pattern and blood pressure etc.

Lunch on a budget

What are you having for Lunch? Thank you Chinonso Onyeneke and Faith for sending in this beautiful pictures, they are just perfect. Boiled Mackerel (Protein) with spicy Red oil (fat) and Afang soup made with red oil too. Let's keep losing weight the healthy way.

You too can send yours on kaichu.oo@gmail.com.

Let's go keto together.

Happy Easter darlings.

Why am i not losing weight??

 

 

Ok, so some of us have been on this lifestyle for awhile. At first, it was awesome. Kilos were disappearing. You felt great. Your old clothes were starting to fit. This lifestyle is da bomb!!

Suddenly, the weight loss stops. Why aren't I losing weight anymore?? What could have gone wrong?

I remember when mine stalled and I became frustrated but never really gave up. It didn't take long to find the "causer" of the stall, I was gorging myself with way too many Avocados.

Today let's look at the possible reasons why one's weight loss can stall. A lot of times it is as a result of not paying attention.

1. Eating too many Carb  It is very important to remember that fruits and vegetables contain carbohydrate. Eating too much fruit and vegetables is very easy. Just because is natural doesn't mean you should gorge yourself with it. Remember we humans are notoriously bad at estimating nutritional values of food. A plate of Okro soup has enough carbs in form of okro and ugu. Then maybe you decide to eat a fruit on the same meal without taking into account the amount of carb already consumed. The fructose and sugar in the fruit with the carbs in the vegetables are enough to knock you over your 20g daily carb limit. On packaged products, always check nutritional info and for whole food try to look up carb counts.
2. Eating too little Fat   It is true that most people get their calories from carbs especially sugar and grains, but for those of us on low carb lifestyle it is important remember that we 've replaced carbs with fat. Unfortunately, some people think that since low carb is a great idea, then low-fat combine with the low-carb is a better idea. People! You can not starve the body carb and also deny it fat. If you do you will be very hungry and crappy and eventually give up on the plan. Add fat to your meals to compensate for the carb. To get enough of fat choose fatty parts of meat, add a good amount of healthy fats like butter, Coconut oil and Olive to your meals.
3. Eating too much Protein  low-carb eaters most times eat a lot of lean animal foods and some times end up eating too much. When you eat too much protein than your body needs, the amino acids in the protein acids will be converted to glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis. This can become a problem on low carb keto diets and prevent one from going into Ketosis.
4. Lack of Sleep Lack of sleep makes one to produce less growth hormone, have impaired metabolism and show decreased level of Leptin - the "satiety hormone" which regulate energy balance by inhibiting hunger. When you are sleep deprived you are more likely to store body fat because you will end up eating way too much.
5. Too Much Stress  research has shown that stress increases our cortisol levels and disrupts its natural rhythm. This broken cortisol rhythm wreaks so much havoc on our body and leads to the following: raised blood sugar, sugar craving, reduces your ability to burn fat, increases your belly fat and makes your liver fatty etc. Stress can also come from too much exercise, so take it gently while on this lifestyle.
6. Not taking a enough water  While on this diet, it is very important to drink water. Staying hydrated helps our liver and kidneys to process the protein and fat we consume in the most efficient way.
7. Caffeine caffeine is a stimulant which increases our adrenaline. It stimulates the liver to release glucose from its glycogen stores. This causes insulin to be released again, fat gets stored and fat burning is turned off. You don't have to give up your coffee but switching to a decaf is much better
8. Lack of Patience When we cut carbs it will take our body time to shift to another energy source which is fat. It will definitely take your body a few days to adjust to primarily burning only fat. During this period of adjustment one usually feel a bit under the weather. This is called Keto-flu or Induction Flu and starts from the 2nd day of the diet till day 4 but full adaptation can take several weeks. So it's very important to be patient and strict with your diet especially at the beginning

Low-carb is a wonderful way to lose weight and also help fight most of the world's biggest health challenges and problems, including obesity and diabetes. It is very important to be patient to avoid making mistakes.

Ciao!!

Basics of the Ketogenic lifestyle.

A low carb diet involves eating real food, natural, unprocessed with low carbohydrate content. The type of food you decide to eat depends on things like, how healthy you are, how often you exercise, how much weight you want to lose. Truth is each of us are different so no rule is set on stone.

Foods to Avoid

1. Sugar: Fruit juices, Ice cream, Sweets, Chewing gum, Soft drinks etc
2. Trans fat: All hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, Margarine first comes to mind.
3. Grains: Wheat, Rye, Millet, Barley, Rice, Oats. This includes breads, cake, spaghetti, macaroni, noodles etc
4. High Omega-6 Seed and Vegetable Oils: Cottonseed , soybean, sunflower, grapeseed, safflower oil and canola oils.
5. Artificial Sweetners: Aspartame, Saccharine, Sucralose, Cyclamates and Acesulfame Potassium. Liquid stevia can be used instead
6. Diet and Low-Fat Products: Avoid any dairy, cereals, crackers, etc
7. Highly Processed Foods: If it looks like factory produced, please don't eat.

PLEASE ALWAYS READ LABELS EVEN ON THOSE WITH "HEALTH FOOD" ON IT.

Foods to eat

1. Meats: Beef, Ram, Pork, Chicken, Snail etc
2. Fish: Mackerel, Salmon, Tilapia etc
3. Eggs
4. Leafy Vegetables: Spinach, Ugu,Waterleaf, etc
5. Fruits: Berries and Guava (In moderation)
6. Nuts and seeds: Almonds, Walnuts etc ( In moderation)
7. High Fat Dairy: Turkish /Greek Yoghurt, Heavy cream, Cheese
8. Fats and Oil: Coconut oil, butter, lard, olive oil and cod fish liver oil

In moderation, one can take

1. Dark Chocolate: 70% Cocoa and above
2. Wine: Dry wines with no added sugar or carbs, Vodka

Drink

1. Decaffeinated Coffee or tea
2. Water
3. Carbonated Soda without artificial sweeteners

Snack

1. Barbecued meat: Suya, Kilishi (Be careful with the peanut sauce, Yaji)
2. A handful of Nuts
3. Avocado
4. Hard boiled egg.
5. Berries ( less than half cup)
6. Garden Egg and few groundnut (Less than a handful)

Dairy, Beverages and Sweetners in low carb lifestyle.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

On a ketogenic diet, full fat are preferable over low fat or zero fat. But we should aware that dairy protein that is Whey and Casein are insulinogenic which means they cause an insulin spike in the body. So if losing weight becomes tougher, it's best to cut off or reduce these milk products.

• Heavy whipping cream
• All hard and soft cheeses ( Wara is a great example here in Nigeria)
• Unsweetened whole milk yoghurt ( Full fat Greek or Turkish)
• Full Fat cottage cheese
• Mascarpone Cheese
• Full fat sour cream.

Personally, i avoid all these dairy products because the stalled my weight for almost 5 days. It took me awhile to figure this out, so please learn from my mistake.

NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF DAIRY PRODUCTS

BEVERAGES

On this lifestyle, there is usually an increase in thirst. It has a natural diurectic effect. Before this lifestyle, it was very difficult for me to drink water, I could go a whole day on just half glass of water. This lifestyle needs lots of water. It's important to drink up to 3ltrs of water daily. Drink liquids like it is going out of fashion.

• Water
• Coffee ( Decaf. Caffeine drives up blood sugar)
• Green Tea (Unsweeten)
• Soda water
• Herbal Tea

SWEETENERS

On this diet it is best to go cold-turkey on every sweet tasting stuff to help curb carb craving to minimal level. Although a lot of low carb eaters use liquid stevia but it still contains 5g of Carb. Some may say Agave nectar is ok but the truth is that it is no different sugar.

NUTRITIONAL VALUES OF SWEETNERS

Aspartame is found in all these orange flavoured Vit C and children drinks. Aspartame is so dangerous that there 90 different documented symptoms listed in FDA report. Part of the dangers are

• Headaches/migraines
• Dizziness
• Heart Palpitations
• Memory loss
• Vision problems
• Depression
• Weigh gain
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Joint pain etc

According to researchers and physicians studying the adverse effect of aspartame, chronic illness can be triggered or worsened by taking aspartame:

• Brain tumours
• Multiple sclerosis
• Epilepsy
• Parkinson disease
• Fibromyalgia
• Birth defects
• Lymphoma
• Mental retardation
• Diabetes
• Alzheimer's

It has been referred to as Chemical poison. Aspartame is found in Chewing gum, diets Sodas, lots of children drinks in Nigeria have aspartame too. Ingesting Aspartame with Carbohydrate is very deadly,so before you take that Sugar free gum or Diet Soda, please check for Aspartame.

Have a lovely day.

What else can be eaten on a Ketogenic diet?

The best way to get into nutritional ketosis and experience the full benefits of a low carb lifestyle is to reduce carb, to below 50 g daily. To able to achieve this we should understand that vegetables, Nuts and seeds, Sweeteners and even spices all contain carbs too.

Vegetables

 

 

 



In a low carb meal, 80% should be healthy fat,18% protein while just 2% should be carb. Now this 2%  is usually from vegetables. On keto diet, acceptable vegetables are those leafy green ones that grow above the ground like Pumpkin leaf (Ugu), Cucumber, Pickles, Lettuce, Broccoli, Okro, Cauliflower, Spinach etc. These non-starchy vegetables are very low in carbohydrate, just less than 5g for a cup unlike their starchy root vegetables like Carrot, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Onions (White), Shallots, Garlic etc. Vegetables are extremely important part of every healthy diet, but we should bear in mind that some of them are very high in sugar  so we need to weed them out.

NUTRITIONAL TABLE FOR FRESH VEGETABLE

ketogenic diet resources

 

 

Limit your daily intake of those vegetables with carb above 7g and above.

Nuts & Seeds

Nuts and seeds are very high in calories and even higher in carbs. The danger with them is that it is very addictive, making it very easy to eat more than a handful without realizing the carb per serving. peanuts (Groundnuts) are actually legumes and should be eaten with lots of caution.
Cashews, Pistachios and Chestnuts are much higher in carb, so be careful while eating so you don't exceed your carb limits. Nuts like almond flour and milled flaxseed are great substitute for regular white flour, so yeah, you can bake some cake! People, if you are having a hard time getting into ketosis or losing weight, reduce or avoid nuts, simple.

NUTRITIONAL TABLE FOR NUTS & SEEDS

Spices

One thing lots people don't realise that is that spices have carbs too. They are a tricky part of ketogenic diet foods. Make sure to count when adding them to your meals. These ready made one in bottles have sugars added to them.

NUTRITIONAL TABLE FOR SPICES

Protein! Eat all you want.

On strict low fat diet, recommended amount of protein to be consumed is 18%. Luckily for us here in Nigeria, our farmers are not yet into feeding animals growth hormones unlike in the western countries, so we are free to eat every type of proteins.

• Fish.    preferably those caught in the wild not farmed. Mackerel (Titus), Catfish, Cod (Okporokpo/ Stockfish), Tuna, Halibut, Salmon, Tilapia
• Shellfish   Oysters, Mussels, Lobster, Clams, Periwinkle, Shrimp, Crab etc
• Whole Eggs.   You can prepare them in different ways like fried, deviled boiled, poached and scrambled
• Meat.  Beef, Veal, Goat, Lamb, Bush meat of any kind, Pomo, Shaki etc
• Bacon and sausages.  Please check labels very well on this. Lots of these sausages are filled with Wheat products as filling. Chicken Franks are not sausages and is unacceptable. Hotdogs should be carefully checked for carbs
• Pork.  Pork loin, Pork chops, and Ham. Be careful with Hams lots of them have added sugar.
• Poultry.  Chicken breast, Turkey,
• Snails.

These proteins can be eaten fried, boiled, smoked, sautéed . Favourite way of passing time is nibbling on fired chicken legs and wings, Lol. So eat all the protein you want but make sure it has enough fat. Hmm, I think I'll make a delicious Isi Ewu to enjoy my weekend.

Bye!

Healthy Fats we need.

Hi people, now being on any diet is not easy especially when you don't know what you should eat.
Today I will try to put together food list to make it easier for eating and shopping.

First lets talk of healthy fats. Why did fats start getting a bad rap? It all started in the '60s when American Heart Association had recommended that people reduce their fat intake and increase their carbs in form of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Unfortunately many people understood it as - any kind of carbs were good ( even refined carbohydrates like white bread, white rice and white paste). Trust the food industries to pounce on that,suddenly everybody is producing low fat foods which are unusually high in sugar because the truth is - Once you remove natural occurring fat from food, it becomes tasteless. To give it taste large amount of sugar are added to these "Low-fat" foods. So what do we have today, high increase in obesity.

Healthy fats are wonderful. They not only lower bad cholesterol and help in shedding excess weight, they also give us shiny hairs and nails.

Healthy Fats and Oils

In ketogenic lifestyle, meals are supposed to be made up of at least 75% Fat. The three types of healthy fats needed are:

• Healthy Saturated Fat - Coconut oil, red Palm Oil and high-fat dairy like grass-fed butter and ghee
• Omega-3 fatty acids - These are found in Omega-3 foods like Mackerel (Titus in Naija), Sardines, Salmons, Tuna, Cod etc
• Healthy Omega-9 fatty acids - These are found in Olive Oil, Avocados, Almonds

Please AVOID hydrogenated oils such as MARGARINE which are usually exposed to heat, chemicals, hydrogenation, bleaches, emulsifiers, and additives. Most times what we call butter here in Nigeria are Margarines. Note that Butter is usually wrapped in paper foils unlike Margarines that are in plastic containers.

Other sources of fat are

• Mayonnaise ( Carbohydrate content MUST be less than 2g per 100g)
• Coconut butter
• Beef Tallow
• Non-hydrogenated Lard
• Chicken Fat