All,
I'm glad this thread started... I am a type 2 diabetic... and I can tell you from personal experience that the ADA recommended diet will only make your diabetes worse.
The FDA and ADA recommendations are a diet high in complex carbs and low in fat.
How do you fatten cattle for slaughter? feed them lots of complex carbs...(grain)... why? because it raises insuline and that causes them to put on fat... Why in the world would we then believe that a diet high in complex carbs would be healthy for us?
But it gets even worse... A diet that raises insuline levels (high carbs) also effects cellular enzymes which causes the body to produce more of a very bad kind of fat called Arachadonic Acid (AA). This fat is one of the main driving factors behind metabolic syndrom-x. Which includes a whole host of diseases... including diabetes.
But wait it gets worse... This combined with trans-fats (margarine, crisco, kraft food products in general, all those yummy creamy sauces and mayo) means your bodies fat metabolism is just completely out of whack. And you don't have the good fats in your diet to repair cells properly... so your body uses the bad fats.... but they don't make insuline receptors very well... etc...
How do you fix this?
Well 2 doctors IMO have found the real answer. Dr. Atkins and Dr. Sears.
Almost everyone knows who Atkins is... because his diet carries his name. His concept was an extremely high protein diet to kick the body into ketosis... which causes the body to burn fat. Unfortunately Dr. Atkins failed to use completely sound judgement in protein selection in his diet and allowed people to eat just any high protien source without taking into consideration the bad fats contained in those protein sources.
Fewer people know about Dr. Sears... but have likely heard of his diet called "Zone Nutrition" or 40-30-30 Nutrition or "Balance".
Zone nutrition doesn't go to the extremes atkins does... and it encourages the use of higher quality protien sources... and the avoidance of foods loaded with the bad fat AA. Something to note is that "The Zone" is not a diet you go on and then stop when you lose the weight... it is a life long nutritional program to change the way you are eating to be more healthy... and the quantities of food you will eat on this diet will amaze you... I am a 6'1" 250 pound guy... and I could hardly eat it all.
You will NOT go hungry on zone nutrition.
Dr. Sears in his latest research has found great benefit to adding supplemental omega 3 fats... especially EPA and DHA to the diet.
Now.. that being said... some people will find they plateu in their weight loss and and they need to re-ignite the fat burning process... and kick it up a notch.
The South-Beach diet basically does this by combining atkins and zone...
It starts off with atkins for 2 weeks, then switches to zone nutrition... after which.. any time you plateu and weight loss slows... you can kick back over to atkins for a week or so... just to get you over that hump... then switch back to zone nutrition.
So... here in a nutshell are the basics of zone nutrition:
1. It takes fat to burn fat... You must eat the right kinds of fats to stoke the cellular furnaces and activate and grow the enzyme pathways that burn fat in your cells. This means NO TRANS-FATS... AND NO FATS THAT CAN SIT OUT IN A CLEAR BOTTLE AND NOT GO RANCID.
The best fat sources are:
a. Extra Virgin "cold pressed" olive oil... for no and low temp cooking.
b. Light olive oil (not heat processed) for low to med temp cooking.
c. Macadamia or peanut oil for high temp cooking.
d. Flax seed oil (with lignans) for cold uses like salads... (keep in fridge as can go rancid in as little as 30 min)
e. Supplelmental Omega 3 fats (fish or sea algea based oil pills where at least 50% of the fat content is a combination of DHA and EPA.)
f. Grass/vegetable fed (non-grain) animal products... meat, eggs, milk, cheese, etc... (health food store)
g. non-holstein dairy products... raw if you can get them that way in your state. (health food store)
h. Coconut Oil also called Coco Butter... A Medium Chain Fat that makes a good replacement for things like shortening or lard in baking/cooking.
i. Fatty sea fishes (wild caught, not farmed) like salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, anchovies, etc...
2. A proper balance of protien, fat and carbs at every meal and snack will cause the body to go into "The Zone" where it burns fat for fuel instead of sugar.
3. It's important to eat the right kind of carbs to avoid insuline spikes. Essentially what this means is the lower the food is on a Glycemic Index chart, the longer it will take to be converted to blood sugar... The more even your insuline profile will be... The more fat your body will burn.
Note: lots of people expressed concerns about kidney damage due to long term ketosis... And if you were eating straight atkins and eating lousy protein sources like lots of grain fed bacon, and rib-eye and eggs it could be a problem... or actually lots of problems... to many to go into here...
However, If you are eating good solid protien sources without all the extra AA (bad fat) found in most commercially farmed animal produce... The simple truth is... if your body is burning fat... it is producing ketones... even if your not technically in ketosis. When the body goes into ketosis it basically becomes impossible for non-nerve cells to burn sugar for fuel.
Zone nutrition basically rides that balance between opening the fat burning enzyme pathways and allowing the cells to make use of both energy sources while burning more fat... and pushing to the extreme of ketosis.
As with most things in life... extremes are usually only useful for a short period of time... after which a more balanced approach is required.
I think this is true for nutrition as well... while the extremes of high carb or high protein may be useful at various times... the best approach seems to be a more balanced one.
Lastly, I wanted to point out that the FDA's idea of a balanced diet has nothing to do with your health... and has far more to do with the FTC trying to federally mandate support for certain portions of our food industry. The FDA is so wrong about so much... I stopped believing anything they say long ago...
Disclaimer:
I am not a doctor or a nutritionist... just a lay person who bothered to study and learn some basic truths about the way God designed us... Everything I have stated here is my personal opinion... protected by the first amendment... and should not be construed as medical advice.