Timing is key

Diabetes Management
By: Regina Baz

It is essential for patients with type two diabetes to eat 5 meals a day in order to live a
healthy life, since up to 29 million people have live with it, they should know the best
way to control it. This condition affects a significant amount of people in America, and it
is important for patients with it that they are informed and know how they should treat
their body to keep it form having serious complications. Therefore, it is essential to
know what are the best ways to prevent the body form making a significant effort when
it comes to energy production. Then, in order to know how to treat diabetes, the
patient must understand completely what is it and how it works.

For someone with type 2 diabetes is essential to understand the condition perfectly
and know exactly what is wrong to attempt to make the deficit of insulin as normal as
possible. Firstly, diabetes is not only the body's inability to produce enough insulin, but
also it could be that the body is unable to use properly the insulin that it has. Secondly,
insulin is a particularly important hormone protein that is produced by beta cells, which
are located in the pancreas. Beta cells, give name to the cells that are in charge of two
main functions, one is to transfer glucose from the blood to the cells in the body, and
the other one is to transform the excess glucose into glycogen, which with the help of
alpha cells it is stored in the muscles and liver for energy. This means that when
insulin is not being produced by beta cells or cannot be used properly; it looses its
ability to produce glucose. In definition, glucose is the sugar that provides energy to
our body; this sugar is essential for the human body to function properly. That is to say,

that when glucose is not used appropriately, hyperglycemia happens; which is when
glucose accumulates in the blood stream. Hyperglycemia (in other words the function
of beta cells, insulin and glucose) can act different in several types of persons;
diabetes can be presented in two different ways. This is to say that every treatment is
different in some ways; the part of nutrition it has to be personalized.

Although, diabetes is different in every patient, it has been categorized into type I and
II, both take different courses of treatment, its important to consider that is a case by
case treatment prescription and diagnosis. Type I, which is the Insulin-dependent,
where the pancreas produces from little to no insulin. Type I diabetes normally
presents in children and young adults. In order to control diabetes, it requires regular
injections of insulin; if the regular intake is interrupted it may result in a diabetic coma.
Additionally, type II is the non-insulin dependent kind, where the amount of insulin may
vary and it can occasionally be normal, but the body cannot use it properly, normally it
is presented often after age 35. As a matter of fact, it may be controlled by exercise
and diet alone, though depending on the situation of the patient it could be treated with
hypoglycemic medications. Statistics from the 2014 National Diabetes Statistics
Report state: "Diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes in the US in 2012.Total: 29.1
million or 9.3% of the population HAVE diabetes, diagnosed: 21.0 million people,
undiagnosed: 8.1 million people (27.8% of people with diabetes are undiagnosed)",
this is a large amount of people who need to know how to take care of themselves.
Most undiagnosed patients do not even have a history of diabetes in the family tree
that is why normally they do not expect to have it.

Most patients may not know they have diabetes until they have an episode where the
patient may faint, feel extremely abnormal exhaustion or present a severe symptom.
The majority of the population has a general knowledge about diabetes but usually
patients are not aware of exactly what factors come into getting diabetes. Granted
that, some common symptoms of diabetes are: urinating often, feeling very thirsty
or very hungry (even though you are eating.), exhaustion, blurry vision, cuts/bruises
that are slowly heal, itchiness, pain, or numbness in both hands and feet, these may
not appear very unusual for most patients when they do not know they have it. This
condition is called insulin resistance for a reason; at first, the pancreas makes
additional insulin to balance for it. While time goes on, it is harder on the body to make
insulin, the best way to help (better than hormones and insulin shots) is with a good
nutrition and regular observation of the patients glucose level.

Managing your food intake and checking the glycemic index is crucial for a healthy life,
while living with diabetes. Its important for a diabetic to eat healthy, every meal should
include parts form every food group. Most importantly, the main goal of diabetes
management is, as far as possible, to restore the carbohydrate levels in the
metabolism to a normal level. To reach this, patients with a complete lack of insulin
can get it from insulin injections throughout the day or with an insulin pump. Although,
if depending on the patients condition, diabetes can be controlled by diet and exercise
alone. A good way to measure the carbohydrate intake is to check the glycemic index
in the products that are going to be inhered. Also, its called GI number, a number
related with some food that indicates what its effect is going to be on a person's blood
glucose. (Also known as blood sugar level). The glycemic index usually applied in the
context of quantity of food and the amount of carbohydrates it is going to be

consumed. Diabetics, metabolism works differently that a normal persons metabolism,

that is why it is important to check what to eat all the time (check glycemic index) and
know when to eat.

Although diabetics are restricted of a lot of foods, maintaining a healthy and complete
diet is essential. In some way, a diabetic diet can be similar to a vegan/vegetarian diet,
since protein has to be regulated; it also has to be low in carbs but not too low carbs.
Above all, the carbohydrate measurement is the key for keeping a your energy level
steady throughout the day. For instance, if we were to look at a correct diabetic diet
meal in a plate, we can picture it as a pie graph. In the case of one meal, the patients
plate should contain 50% non-starchy vegetables (low in carbohydrates), 25% protein,
it should be with the minimum fat possible, and 25% grains or starchy vegetables.
Particularly, the starchy vegetables are that ones that are going to provide the
carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. On the other hand, whole grain starches
are healthier because they will provide even more vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
Likewise, non-starchy vegetables are low in carbs and its a good way to feed your
appetite, also they provide vitamins, minerals, and fiber, and they would keep the
patients stomach full for a significant amount of time. In addition, protein is another
part of the meal that is essential. There are 2 types; meat and meat substitutes. It
includes meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, fish, and tofu. Preferably, eat small amounts of
some of these foods each day. Although, there are some specific diets for diabetics,
for example, the D.I diet, the low carb diet, the high fiber diet, the vegan diet, and the
natural foods diet. It is important to consider that this is a constant diet that indicates
that the body needs to be fed several times a day to keep glucose and insulin
production at a constant level.

Diabetics metabolisms do not work like everybody elses; it needs to be repetitively

given energy, since its already not getting enough. Ordinarily, people think its
acceptable to skip breakfast, but most do not know what they are doing to their body.
For instance, if a person wakes up, the correct thing to do is eat breakfast in the first
30 minutes awake. Additionally, if that person does not gives their body energy, the
body its going to use what it has reserved in the muscles, this means taking the stored
insulin for energy. Now, diabetics cannot give themselves that luxury, since they
already do not have enough. That is to say, that it is essential to eat at least 5 meals a
day: 3 complete meals and 2 snacks in between. Because of the difficulty of producing
insulin, the body needs constant help to keep up with the systems calorie burning .
Therefore, the body would not need to use its stored energy to keep the person going
through the day, the best way of helping the digestive system, is regulating
carbohydrates. In sum, it is essential to diabetics to keep their bodies from
compensating the energy level, since this is an effort to it.

In conclusion, without a doubt, we know that feeding a diabetics system regularly and
making healthy choices when eating can make a significant change in a diabetics life.
Therefore The goal of the treatment for this condition is to keep the body form making
a big effort to produce energy, and the best way to do that is following a consistent
meal plan that would keep your glucose and inulin production constant. Even though
its a condition that cannot be cured, a patient can take the best of it and make a
healthy and delicious meal plan for him or herself.

Word count: 1587

Pledge
I pledge that I have neither given nor received aid in this paper other than my research and
comments from my teacher.

Works Cited
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Rosen Publishing Group, 1999. Print. Its a very good book since most books give you
only what you need to have a healthy metabolsim, but this book gives you the other
side, which is the part of the dangers of diets and how you can damage your metabolism
with certain actions and foods
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article for my research since a Western Dietary pattern is a diet that is high in fat and
sugar, both of which in a high dosis are really harmful to your body. This article would
help me explain how does regulating your fat and sugar intake can make a huge
difference in how your metabolism works. It has a lot of useful information with
examples and case studies.

Brody, Jane E. Jane Brody's Nutrition Book: A Lifetime Guide to Good Eating for Better
Health and Weight Control. New York: W.W Norton Company, 1981. Print. I selected
this book, because it gives the basis about a health diet and how to keep your
metabolism in good shape. It talks about chemical reactions involved and proteins that
are created and needed. It helps me with my research because, it encloses a good and
healthy diet and lifestyle that its essential in order to have everything in your digestive
system to work properly. It directly relates with my project since having a healthy diet is
essential to a effective metabolism.
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=GALE%7CA328658391&contentSet=GALE%7CA328658391>. Its a great article,
because it explains exactly how nutrigenomics has progressed and now nutriologist are
available to personalize someones nutrition based on what they are composed
genetically, this way better results are going to come up.It is really helpful for my
research project since having a good diet helps for making your metabolism faster, this
way you can see the results of having a healthy and complete diet.
Johnson, Richard J., Timothy Gower, and Elizabeth Gollub. The Sugar Fix: The High-Fructose
Fallout That is Making You Fat and Sick. New York: Rodale, 2008. Print. This book is
helpful for my research since sugar has a huge role in the digestive system and how well

our metabolism works. It explains perfectly how sugar affects your energy leves and in
what cases its good to eat sugar, as well as in which cases its not good. It also helped
my project since it mentions a lot of useful examples.
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This article is perfect for understanding the basics about metabolism. It is really usefull
because its the base of all of my research and it is basic to understand it perfectly in
order to know what makes it slower or faster. It is important to perfectly know how it
works
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Redd, Nancy Amanda, and Angela Diaz. Body Drama. New York: Penguin Group, 2008. Print.
This book takes more about eating disorders and also psychological and physical
problems in teenagers, which is important to know how the metabolism and nutrition
can be damaged by not eating, eating too much,etc. It is good form my research because
it proves that if you do not give enough food to your system, it will slow down. Its good
for proving and reinforcing information.
Windelspecht, Michael. The Digestive System. London: Greenwood, 2004. Print. This book is
good to understand the way the digestive system works, its good to answer all of my
questions about it and to really understand and analyze how it works, so I can be aware
of the way its supposed to work, also it is a helpful tool for me to express the basic
knowledge of the digestive system to my readers.