Zhejiang women do not eat meat for 12 years! Upon checking the results, To reduce blood sugar diabetes | blood sugar | women
Aunt Jiang, a Ningbo native who was over 60 years old, was found to have diabetes 12 years ago. Since then, she has started taking hypoglycemic drugs, mainly vegetarian.
With astonishing perseverance, she has hardly ever touched meat in the past 12 years. Moreover, due to her thin physique and concerns about weight loss, she also rarely exercises.
Recently, Aunt Jiang suddenly experienced a sudden drop in weight, losing 10 pounds in a short period of time and feeling weak and uncomfortable all over, which has not happened in the past decade. After going to the hospital for examination, the whole family was surprised to find that her blood sugar exceeded the normal value by a considerable amount!
Long term vegetarianism
Why is blood sugar still out of control?
Why did Aunt Jiang's blood sugar go out of control? After careful inquiry, the doctor of the First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University learned that Aunt Jiang does not monitor blood sugar on weekdays, and she likes to eat pasta, which accounts for too much of her main food. For breakfast, Congee and Mantou are mainly served with salted vegetables, while for lunch and dinner, noodles are mainly served with a small amount of vegetables.
Because being a vegetarian can easily lead to hunger, she usually eats corn, sweet potatoes, and biscuits between meals to satisfy her hunger. Due to regular use of hypoglycemic drugs, she did not have any serious symptoms of diabetes over the years. However, as she grew older, her blood sugar gradually became difficult to control.
Considering Aunt Jiang's lean physique and unreasonable dietary structure, the doctor adjusted her hypoglycemic medication, added long-acting insulin hypoglycemic treatment, and instructed her to wear a dynamic blood glucose monitor for continuous blood glucose monitoring.
At the same time, Fan Xuelan, a diabetes specialist nurse, gave Aunt Jiang diet guidance for diabetes, instructed her to increase the intake of vegetables, meat, eggs and milk, reduce the intake of staple food at each meal, replace white noodles made of refined flour with buckwheat noodles, choose foods with low sugar content such as cucumbers and small tomatoes when she felt hungry, taught her to adjust the amount and structure of her diet with a dynamic blood glucose meter, and urged her to exercise properly.
After two weeks of adjustment, Aunt Jiang's blood sugar gradually stabilized and her fatigue and discomfort symptoms improved.
Why is there diabetes after long-term vegetarian diet? Fan Xuelan said that such questions would indicate that patients still have misunderstandings about diabetes diet. In fact, unreasonable vegetarianism not only does not lower blood sugar, but also increases blood sugar, for the following reasons:
Firstly, vegetarianism includes not only vegetables and fruits, but also refined carbohydrates such as rice, noodles, and rice noodles. Many patients attempt to control their blood sugar by consuming whole vegetables. Although they do not consume meat and eggs, they eat a lot of staple foods to resist hunger, resulting in excessive total calorie intake and ultimately leading to an increase in blood sugar.
Secondly, vegetarian dishes themselves have a light taste, and their taste or taste is not as good as meat dishes. Oil and seasoning can improve the taste of vegetarian dishes. Therefore, many patients, in order to improve the taste of vegetarian dishes, often use too much oil, salt, sugar, sauce and other seasoning products, turning originally healthy ingredients into high oil, high salt, and high sugar dishes, resulting in excessive intake of oil, salt, and sugar, which actually increases blood sugar.
Thirdly, many patients consume a large amount of potatoes, corn, pumpkin, taro, lotus root, edamame, and other foods. In fact, these foods have a high starch content. If consumed too much, it can lead to excessive carbohydrate intake, ultimately leading to an increase in blood sugar.
Blindly being a vegetarian is not advisable
Be careful of diabetes ketoacidosis!
Fan Xuelan said that in the daily diet of diabetes patients, they must remember that besides meat, fish, fat, protein, fat, nuts and carbohydrates, the foods that affect blood sugar control.
"Eating vegetarian food also requires controlling total energy. If you think that as long as you don't eat meat, you can open up and eat everything else, which is extremely detrimental to blood sugar stability. Moreover, you believe that eating all vegetables can lower blood sugar, so it is not advisable to avoid eating animal foods for a long time, because animal foods also contain the nutrients that the human body needs."
Fan Xuelan reminded that if you are a vegetarian without fully understanding your own state, you should be careful to lead to diabetes ketoacidosis! Previously, she had encountered such a patient.
"That was a 29 year old boy who had been diagnosed with diabetes for one year. He usually took oral medication. Not long ago, his fasting blood sugar was found to be 12.2mmol/L during the physical examination, seriously exceeding the standard. So he immediately began to reduce blood sugar by taking vegetables and exercise. He ate a lot of cucumbers, vegetables and a little rice every day. He insisted on running outdoors for one hour every night. Later, he suffered from fatigue and nausea. Finally, he was diagnosed as' diabetes ketoacidosis'." Fan Xuelan said.
Later, this young man was admitted to the hospital. The doctor gave insulin intensive hypoglycemic treatment, supplemented by a large amount of fluid replacement treatment, strengthened diet education for diabetes, and instructed them to drink more water. After 5 days, his urinary ketone body disappeared without any discomfort symptoms such as fatigue or nausea. His blood sugar control was stable, and he was eventually discharged smoothly.
Why did the patient not only fail to control his blood sugar well but also have an acute complication of diabetes - diabetes ketoacidosis through vegetarian diet and exercise?
According to doctors, when the body lacks energy intake for a long time, it will automatically break down fat to provide energy. Fat breakdown will produce ketones, which are acidic products. When they continue to accumulate, acidosis occurs.
Diabetes ketoacidosis may present symptoms such as anorexia, fatigue, nausea and vomiting at the early stage. If not treated in time, the condition may deteriorate rapidly and even endanger life. So, relying solely on vegetarian diets and exercise to lower blood sugar is not advisable.
Dealing with diabetes
These misunderstandings need to be avoided!
Doctors said that diabetes is a long-term chronic disease, and the key to reducing the harm of diabetes is to carry out reasonable management of diabetes.
At present, some patients still lack understanding of diabetes management, and even often fall into some misunderstanding, thus delaying the condition.
Myth 1. It doesn't matter if you get diabetes
In fact, long-term soaking of human organs in high blood sugar can cause damage, ultimately leading to various complications, decreased quality of life, and even disability and death. The correct approach is to regularly monitor blood sugar, and regularly screen diabetes related complications according to the doctor's advice, so as to prevent the occurrence and progress of diabetes complications and improve the quality of life.
Myth 2. The more exercise the patients with diabetes have, the better
In fact, diabetes patients should exercise according to their ability, step by step, and persevere, not the greater the amount of exercise, the better. Excessive and excessive exercise can increase the risk of hypoglycemia and lead to other sports injuries! Adults with diabetes can achieve the amount of exercise by ensuring more than 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise every week.
Misconception 3: Insulin must wait until oral medication is ineffective before use
In fact, early use of insulin can help control blood sugar early, thereby delaying or reducing the occurrence of complications. As pancreatic function decreases to a certain extent, insulin injection is inevitable.
Myth 4. diabetes patients cannot travel
In fact, patients with stable blood sugar can travel. It is suggested to work out a disease management plan with the doctor before traveling, travel together, and carry drugs, injection tools, blood glucose monitors and diabetes treatment cards with them. Pay attention to protecting feet and properly preserve hypoglycemic drugs.
Myth 5: Controlling dietary intake means eating less is better
In fact, diabetes is a chronic disease. Patients need to live and work normally every day. They need to provide the calories needed for metabolism. Eating too little can not ensure the normal nutrition and energy needs of the body, and may also cause the risk of hypoglycemic coma. Develop relevant dietary plans based on the actual weight, ideal weight, and work intensity of different patients to ensure sufficient calorie intake every day.