Diabetes and Nutrition

Diabetes Information Network

Diabetes and Nutrition

Nutrition

We Americans live in world of extraordinary abundance. We are indeed fortunate to live in a country with such extensive natural resources and such a productive economy. So you would expect that Americans are among the best fed and most well-nourished people in the world. But you’d be sadly mistaken.

The foods we eat every day are simply terrible. We down vast quantities of diet soda which is a chemical soup completely devoid of any useful nutrition. Then we stop off at our favorite local junk food restaurant and load up on foods that contain far too much saturated fat, far too little fiber, much too much sodium, way too many calories, the wrong kinds of fats, too much animal content and far too little nutrition.

The result? A nation of vast wealth full of terribly malnourished sick people. There can be no doubt that poor nutrition plays an important role in the near epidemic levels of the diabetes, allergies, asthma, obesity and other auto-immune disorders that are ravaging our land. And to make matters much worse, our current health care system all but ignores the pivotal role nutrition plays in our health. Every day millions of sick and tired Americans march off to their health care providers and then consume tons of highly-toxic artificial drugs when all many of them need is a diet built around more natural health-promoting foods.

And the situation is far more critical for diabetics. This is yet another area that diabetics simply must pay close attention to. By ensuring a sufficient intake of several key nutrients, they can help ward off the complications that so often plague diabetics.

It’s important to take a good quality multi-vitamin/mineral product every day. Perhaps you’re taking one now but I’d urge you to very carefully examine it’s ingredients and consider switching to a food-based product (if you can afford to). The individual nutrients in a food based vitamin capsule are extracted from specific food items and then combined in a convenient tablet. Sure, they cost more than conventional synthetic vitamins because the manufacturing process is more involved, but are better as they are more readily absorbed and utilized by the body.

A good quality food-based multi-vitamin with minerals should cost you around $40-45 for a two month supply. But for this price you’ll be getting a single product that will provide almost all your nutritional needs, though you’ll have to take three or four tablets each day. (food based nutrients are less compact than the synthetic forms)

Below is an ingredients list for one popular product – “Super Nutrition Perfect Blend High Potency Formula 2”. It contains a very wide range of nutrients as you’ll see. This product was purchased at a local Midwest health food store and cost $41.50 for 240 tablets which is a sixty day supply (at four tablets per day)

Multi-Vitamin/Mineral Supplement Dosage Levels

Nutrient

Super Nutrition Formula

Vitamin A (as Beta Carotene)

5,000 IU**

Vitamin C*

1,000 Mg

Vitamin D

400 IU

Vitamin E*

400 IU

Vitamin K

80 Mcg

Thiamine (Vitamin B1)

68 Mg

Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)

60 Mg

Niacin (Vitamin B3)

100 Mg

Vitamin B6

66 Mg

Folic Acid*

1,000 Mcg

Vitamin B12*

200 Mcg

Biotin

300 Mcg

Pantothenic Acid

150 Mg

Calcium*

500 Mg

Iodine

225 Mcg

Magnesium*

300 Mg

Zinc*

30 Mg

Selenium*

200 Mcg

Copper

2 Mg

Manganese

10 Mg

Chromium*

200 Mcg

Molybdenum

       10 Mcg

Potassium*

99 Mg

Mixed Bioflavanoids*

25 Mg

Rutin

5 Mg

* Key nutrients for diabetics

** 5,000 IU for smokers, 25,000 IU for non-smokers



The minerals Calcium, Magnesium, Selenium, Chromium and Potassium are critical for diabetics. If you’re unable to find a multi-vitamin product that contains all the minerals listed above in at least the minimum dosage levels listed, perhaps you’ll need to take two separate supplements, one a Vitamin supplement and a second multi-mineral supplement.

Two final notes concerning nutritional supplements. When it comes to taking vitamin pills - more is definitely not better. There is an understandable tendency to think that if a small amount of a particular nutrient will help you feel good, a much larger dose should make you feel really fabulous. But this simply isn’t true. Too much vitamin B-6 can leave your hands and feet permanently numb. Too much Selenium can cause permanent brain damage. Your body needs nutritional substances but too little or too much can cause serious problems.

Also, the nutritional supplement industry is almost entirely unregulated so you must be very careful when you do your shopping. If you live in a major metropolitan area, buy your supplements at a local well-stocked health food store. Though it may be more convenient and economical to buy your supplements at a drug store, the nutritional products they sell tend to be cheaper, contain more artificial nutrients and contain lower dosages than those commonly found in health food stores.

The most common type of multi-vitamin is the deficiency-prevention kind. (such as Centrum or One-a-day) They contain extremely small amounts of various nutrients. They are intended to help individuals avoid gross vitamin deficiencies. However, as diabetes tends to cause serious deficiencies of several key nutrients, research indicates that they may need to take in much more substantial doses, far more than these deficiency-prevention products contain. You should discuss your individual needs with your health care provider.

After you shop in a health food store for awhile you’ll learn that most of the products sold there were manufactured by firms that have been around for many decades or longer. Some have histories reaching all the way back to the 1800s. They have excellent reputations and produce products that you can use confidently.

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