Top 10 Worst Foods For Diabetics

Hello Health Champions. Did you know that most  people in the world are either diabetic or are  

moving toward diabetes or pre-diabetes today. But  the good news is that the foods I'm going to talk  

about today are the same ones you want to avoid if  you want to prevent or reverse both pre-diabetes  

and diabetes. Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes are  both metabolic diseases. And what does that mean?  

Metabolism. It means to change or transform. To  take something and turn it into something else.  

So we've often heard the phrase you are what you  eat and that makes sense that you eat the food and  

some of the food becomes energy and some of the  food we turn into tissue into new body parts and  

new cells. But then some people misconstrue that  a little bit and they think that the dietary fat  

that we eat becomes body fat. And then if we gain  a bunch of body fat now we get obese and we have  

type 2 diabetes because these two are associated.  But that's a little bit too simplistic and think  

about this. Think about cows like this guy here  is eating grass and if the cow became what it ate  

then we would expect to find a bunch of grass  inside the cow but we don't because the cow  

transforms, metabolizes that grass into meat. And  that's how it turns out for humans as well that  

most of the fat on your body does not come from  the fat that you ate. Metabolic health is when  

the body can take a substrate which means a raw  material or the things that you start with. And  

for most of us most of the time that's fat protein  and carbohydrate. And if we have a good metabolic  

health then we can take these and we can turn  them into tissue and energy like we just said.  

But metabolic health is a continuum so some bodies  can do this really well and some have gotten a  

little out of balance. So if we're balanced if we  have metabolic flexibility if we have not ruined  

or worn out our metabolic machinery now we can  take pretty much any combination of these for a  

while at least and we can still make tissue and  energy. And especially if we have a good balance  

between feasting and fasting if we don't eat a  whole bunch of meals more than what we expend. But  

if we eat an unbalanced if we eat way too much of  one of these for a long time and in diabetes we're  

talking about carbohydrates because carbohydrates  raise blood glucose and trigger insulin which is  

at the root of the problem. If we do that for  years and decades now we get unbalanced we wear  

out our metabolic machinery. So now in order to  become unbalanced we basically had to exceed the  

threshold exceed the capacity of that metabolic  machinery. There are basically four causes  

of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes and  the first one is what we mentioned we exceed the  

threshold. We wear out the metabolic machinery  and basically that refers to the liver when we  

overload the liver when we give the liver too much  to handle of the things that only the liver can  

handle, it gets toxic. It gets exhausted and we  get a fatty liver. That sets the stage for insulin  

resistance. The second thing is when we eat too  much glucose chronically eat too much glucose that  

raises blood sugar, triggers insulin and when we  have high insulin levels for years or decades, now  

the cells become desensitized, which is another  way of saying insulin resistance. The third way  

is inflammation which also promotes insulin  resistance it desensitizes receptors to insulin  

and anything causing inflammation primarily  sugar grains and vegetable oils when we get  

excess omega-6 fatty acids that shifts the body's  ability to regulate inflammation. And number four  

is stress so stress raises cortisol, which raises  blood sugar, which raises insulin so it sort of  

works a little bit like eating too many carbs  but stress also promotes certain inflammatory  

signal molecules in the body. Number 10 on  the list is one of the most controversial  

because fruits and berries are like a sacred  cow. They're a holy grail we can't talk ill  

about these things so let's put it in perspective  they're not good or bad we have to understand who  

they're good or bad for and what kind. So berries  are the best kind because they're high in fiber  

high in nutrients low in sugar. Then we have  things like regular fruit more like cherries and  

apples and oranges and things like that. Then we  have tropical fruit which are sweeter. They're  

pineapple banana mango etc. And then we have  canned fruit which is more processed that's not  

a great thing. It often has the peel removed which  has a lot of the fiber and it is often packed in  

the juice from fruit which adds sugar or it's  packed actually in syrup which adds sugar to it.  

So they're getting worse from top to bottom  and the worst would be fruit juice because  

here we have only the sugar suspended in water.  We have removed all of the fiber and we've broken  

down all the cells so the sugar is just floating  around ready for fast absorption. So how much of  

this we can have depends on where we are on the  spectrum of metabolic health. If you're very  

healthy if you're very insulin sensitive which is  maybe 10% of the population you can have some of  

all of this. You can have plenty of berries you  can have some regular fruit you can have a little  

bit less of tropical and canned fruit ideally.  And you can even have some fruit juice if you  

squeeze it yourself it can be very nutritious you  might be able to have a glass a day and not really  

ever mess anything up. I wouldn't recommend the  pasteurized fruit juice bought in stores because  

it doesn't have all that many nutrients left. But  if we're talking about type 2 diabetes we have to  

understand you're not anywhere near the green end  of the spectrum. You're not even near the middle  

you're over on the side of poor metabolic health.  You've broken your machinery and any amount of  

sugar is very difficult to tolerate. So basically  what that means is the berries which are the best  

kinds you can have some of those because they're  very low in sugar and they're very high in fiber  

but all the rest of it you should probably avoid  and fruit juice for you would be really no better  

than Coca-Cola is. Metabolically it would just  be sugar in water essentially. Number nine worst  

food for a diabetic is starch. Because starch  turns into glucose and anything made from wheat  

or corn so things like bread and crackers waffles  pasta pretzels biscuits they only take minutes  

before these branches these trees these chains of  glucose start breaking down to individual glucose  

molecules and start raising blood sugar. And  the same thing holds true for things like rice  

and beans and potatoes they are mostly starch. So  that means that they will very quickly raise blood  

sugar and start triggering insulin which is the  second most important factor after overwhelming  

the liver. But what is the difference between  sugar and other forms of carbohydrate in how they  

impact the liver. Let's say that we eat a hundred  calories of glucose so that could be potatoes or  

rice or something like that then 20%, 20 calories  are going to go through the liver and 80 percent  

are going to be metabolized by the rest of the  body because every cell in your body can use  

glucose. It's the most fundamental energy molecule  of life and the impact on the liver is actually  

even less than that because most of this glucose  going through the liver is going to be repackaged  

as glycogen so the liver might actually only burn  up a couple of percent of that glucose so the  

metabolic burden on the liver is very small. Let's  contrast that with something like alcohol ethanol  

in liquor and wine and beer. The liver now has to  take care of 80 percent, the vast majority, and  

the brain and the pancreas and the stomach will  burn up a little bit and a little bit would spill  

out through the kidneys but roughly 80 percent  of all that alcohol is exclusively burned by  

the liver transformed by the liver so that places  an enormous burden if we have a hundred calories  

of alcohol 80 has to be metabolized by the liver.  Now for fructose that number is 100%. There is no  

other cell in the body that can do anything with  fructose so all of the fructose that you consume  

has to be metabolized by the liver. And then if  we look at sugar or sucrose, table sugar, white  

sugar, then that is 50% glucose and 50% fructose,  so we get 60% of the burden on the liver and 40%  

on the body so that makes a lot of sense because  that is the average between the glucose bar  

and the fructose bar. But here's the thing that a  lot of people miss and misunderstand. Let's think  

about our metabolic health spectrum again so  what this means is if you are on the green end  

of the spectrum if you were a hundred years ago  before you had a bunch of sugar you ate rice and  

potatoes you were working hard in the field  then you were very insulin sensitive and now  

you can tolerate a lot of glucose you can eat that  all day long because you're going to burn it off.  

However if you are on the unhealthy on the insulin  resistant side of the spectrum, the situation  

has changed. So a lot of people say that you can  reverse diabetes with a bunch of carbohydrate but  

once you have broken your carbohydrate machine now  any form of glucose is likely to be very difficult  

for your body. It's likely to really screw with  your metabolic situation with your blood sugar and  

your insulin. So an insulin sensitive person can  handle a lot of glucose a lot of potato and rice  

but does really well to avoid alcohol fructose  and sugar. But a diabetic person needs to avoid  

all these categories. And this explains why  number eight is low-fat foods and I'm not  

talking about things that are normal whole foods  that are natural little fat they are totally okay.  

I'm talking about packaged foods processed  foods some type of food that used to have  

fat in it but now it doesn't. So what  does that mean if it now has less fat  

that means that it's either naturally high  in starch or that they have taken the fat out  

and now in order to make it attractive they have  to put something else in so they give it flavor  

through sugar or through chemicals. And some  examples of this would be non-fat fruit yogurt  

for example. They took the fat out they put  some fruit in but now they still have to add  

a bunch of sugar to make it tasty so oftentimes  that little itty bitty yogurt pack is like a  

half a can of Coca-Cola. Another thing is  cereals which can be naturally low fat and  

high starch but with cereals they also add a bunch  of sugar and with adult cereals they might be 25%  

sugar with kid cereals they could be as much as  50% sugar on top of the starch other examples  

are things like mayonnaise that is normally a very  high fat product and if they make something that  

appears similar to mayonnaise but it's less  fat now they have to add a bunch of chemistry  

to it. And the same holds true for dressings  if they remove the oil now they have to put in  

a bunch of sugar and chemicals which brings  us to number seven which is salad dressings,  

sauces, condiments etc. And very often products  are promoted as being "free of". So here this is  

fat free and it is gluten free and it is no high  fructose corn syrup. So we've been conditioned for  

so long that certain things are bad and then  they say that this product is free of that  

bad thing and then it's promoted as a health food.  So a lot of these things we can actually find in  

health food stores and this health section  the natural section of various stores.  

But being free from does not indicate that there's  anything good about it. And very often these  

dressings that are fat free and free from will  have 15 to 30 percent sugar instead. This one  

for example has nine grams of sugar out of two  tablespoons. That's 30 sugar in this dressing.  

But if it's a honey dijon then it has to have  some honey in it and honey is such a good thing,  

right? It's so natural. Well sugar, like we said,  is 50% glucose 50% fructose. Turns out that honey  

is more fructose. It's 57% fructose 43%  glucose. And then we have this abomination  

called high fructose corn syrup that everyone is  so concerned with. It has 55% fructose and 45%  

glucose so really what you're seeing is that  the honey is the worst out of these three but  

in reality they're all pretty much the same thing  it's half fructose half glucose. It's all sugar.  

And again honey is a natural substance but our  ancestors didn't have a grocery store to go  

and buy it from every day. And if you are on  the healthy end of the spectrum and you have  

a teaspoon or two a day you're going to be  totally fine. Then it is one of the best  

sweeteners available. But again if you're on the  unhealthy part of the metabolic spectrum then all  

of this is just sugar to your body. Another thing  you have to watch for is how much is a serving?  

Here the serving size is two tablespoons but  if you go to a restaurant and you get a salad  

they'll typically bring you a bowl or they'll  bring you these little pouches. One pouch is  

usually one serving but I've never seen anyone  use one pouch almost everyone uses two pouches  

which is actually six tablespoons or three  times as much as the serving on the bottle  

which would give you 27 grams of sugar and you  thought you were being healthy eating a salad. So  

there are good dressings and the best part is  if you make it yourself for you to stick to  

olive oil and vinegar. And most condiments  will have a lot of sugar but one of the worst  

is barbecue sauce they can have up to 50 percent  sugar in some of the brands. So watch for that  

and same thing as with the dressing how  much is a serving? Well I don't think  

a lot of people would have much trouble getting  through six tablespoons with a rack of ribs  

so there is 45 grams of sugar for you. And now  in most health food stores and health sections  

you'll find a whole rack a whole row there'll  be a lot of shelf space devoted to protein bars.  

And some of them are really good some of them  have mostly nuts and and healthy things in them,  

but a lot of them are quite sweet and some  use reasonably healthy sugar substitutes,  

but a lot of them still use just sugar, as up  to 30 - 40 percent of calories come from sugar.  

And these sugars aren't always called just  sugar you have to kind of watch for this so  

another name for sugar could be agave  nectar. And if you don't know what that  

is then you might think hey this is a good  bar. Or grape juice solids or barley malt,  

dehydrated cane juice, moscovado, sweet sorghum  or brown rice syrup solids. So don't be fooled.  

All of these and 60 other names just mean sugar.  Number five worst food for diabetics is cakes  

and cookies and you probably knew this but now  you're starting to understand a little bit more  

why because they are mostly made from sugar, white  flour and if you bake them yourself you might put  

in some good butter but if they're store-bought  you're probably going to have mostly vegetable  

oils that are going to be highly processed and  very high in omega-6s. And even though most people  

look at calories and they look at fat providing  most of the calories we have to understand that  

fat in a healthy form is okay but sugar  and fat at the same time is not okay  

because fat is very satiating it provides  stable blood sugar and if you just eat the fat  

and the vegetables you're going to burn through  the fat. But if you eat the sugar at the same time  

now you're going to produce insulin  and you're going to clog up the liver  

and you won't be able to burn through the fat  because the body is so busy burning through the  

fat that is converted from sugar into fat.  So a high sugar diet is a high fat diet,  

but the difference is the fat in itself doesn't  trigger insulin whereas the sugar does. Number  

four on the list to avoid is candy and it is a  little bit worse still. If you eat dark chocolate  

that can be all right if you manage to limit  yourself so if you go at least 70 percent cocoa  

I would prefer 85 then that would be okay if you  have a few pieces here and there it is not going  

to cause too much harm but if you go with milk  chocolate now there's way too much sugar in that.  

There are also some positive introductions there's  a brand called Lily's for example that make  

various chocolate flavors and they use erythritol  stevia and monk fruit now the thing to bear  

in mind here is that even though most of the  sweetness comes from erythritol, they are marketed  

as sweetened with stevia and monk fruit because  stevia and monk fruit are more politically correct  

than sugar alcohols. But erythritol is one of the  best ones about 95% of it is absorbed very quickly  

and it doesn't mess up your digestive tract at  all, but then there is that other five percent  

that still goes down to your digestive tract  to your biome to your intestinal bacteria and  

there that sugar alcohol can create some bloating  and some problems if you're sensitive especially.  

But just about everything else that you see things  like this in the picture is going to be somewhere  

between 50 and 100 percent sugar. And in addition  to that you're going to get a lot of chemicals  

and artificial flavors and artificial colors. The  third worst thing for your liver and your diabetes  

is alcohol and most people know this because  we've all heard of alcoholism and liver disease.  

So alcohol is a burden on the liver the liver has  to do 80 percent of the metabolizing so a tiny  

little bit once in a while is not a problem. The  dose makes the poison so if you have a lot of it  

on a regular basis that will overwhelm the liver.  I don't recommend that you drink but if you do,  

and a lot of people would like to have some  anyway, then your best bet is distilled liquor.  

So things like whiskey, rye ,bourbon, vodka,  gin, cognac, rum etc . Things that are distilled  

have only the alcohol portion with it so with that  you're getting around 16 grams of alcohol which is  

bad enough but at least you're not getting any  fructose and you're not getting any glucose to  

add insult to injury. Your next best option is dry  wine dry red dry, white wine still has the same  

alcohol but it has a tiny little bit of sugar one  or two grams of sugar so we average it out roughly  

speaking you get one gram of fructose one gram  of glucose so it's not significant. Next is beer.  

Same amount of alcohol for a standard serving  some beers are going to have more some less  

and you're not getting any fructose with this  because beer isn't sweet, but you're getting  

carbohydrate and that carb turns into glucose so  a really skinny beer might have five or six grams,  

whereas some of the most flavorful might have  13, 14, 15 grams. So on average you're probably  

getting 10 grams of glucose out of a beer. So  it's not going to clog the liver directly but it's  

going to produce some insulin that adds a little  bit of stress to the system. But here's what you  

really want to understand that what most people  really like to drink especially the sugar addicts  

are mixed drinks. So here not only are you getting  the alcohol but you're getting probably around 15  

grams of fructose and 15 grams of glucose because  a lot of sugary drinks will have 30 or even  

40 grams of sugar in a single drink. So the  burden on the liver here with a mixed drink  

is more than double than if you just had distilled  liquor or dry wine. And again I don't recommend  

that you drink. I think there are better ways  of relaxing however if you do I would suggest  

that you keep it to two or less and if you're  a woman probably one or less because women  

don't process alcohol as well. And then you also  give yourself several days off that you have  

probably at least two or three days off every week  where you don't drink anything to give your body  

a break. And the second worst food for diabetic is  going to be agave syrup and now we're getting into  

tricky territory here because this is supposed  to be health food right we find this in health  

food stores it's got a big earth on it it says  wholesome it has organic on it so we're made to  

think that this is really, really healthy stuff  it says low glycemic and we've been taught to  

look for low glycemic. But what's really going on  here is that agave is 75 to 90 percent fructose,  

right? It's it's a hundred percent sugar but it is  essentially the ultimate high fructose corn syrup  

and because of that it is basically a liver  poison. Again if you are extremely metabolically  

healthy and use a teaspoon or two a day then  this is a really healthy sweetener because  

the dose makes the poison. But if you are on  the unhealthy end of the metabolic spectrum  

then this is some of the worst stuff you can do.  And the number one worst thing a diabetic can do  

is to drink sugary drinks so these are things  like soda and sports drinks and energy drinks.  

And while we all pretty much know by now that soda  is not a great thing a lot of people still think  

that sports drinks are good for you and that  energy drinks give you energy. But what they  

have in common is that they are full of sugar  and or high fructose corn syrup. And the biggest  

problem is that as you probably have noticed or  you've seen with your kids that it's very easy  

to drink one, two, three, four, five, six and that  is because of the fructose the fructose does not  

suppress ghrelin so normally when we eat something  even starch even though it's short term it  

suppresses ghrelin which is a hunger hormone. So  we eat something and our hunger goes away but that  

doesn't happen with fructose, because fructose  has no signaling impact on ghrelin and therefore  

the brain doesn't register that you have eaten  anything. So you took in a bunch of substrate  

that places a metabolic burden on your liver but  your brain wasn't informed. The brain doesn't know  

and this stuff tastes sweet which means  it has a drug impact, a drug mechanism,  

so you drink more and more and more  and there is no sensation of satiety  

and therefore you can't stop. If you enjoy this  video you're going to love that one, and if you  

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