Julie RN DCES

Keto diet risks and what you can do

06/11/2021 by Julie RN DCES Leave a Comment

When my metabolism started to slow down, I was willing to try anything to control my weight gain. Keto diets appear to be a miracle cure. Who doesn’t want to eat bacon every day? You can lose weight without being hungry. But is a keto diet too good to be true? Let’s look at some keto diet risks.

Quick fixes can lead to long-term problems

Any time you lose weight quickly, you risk the problem of slowing your metabolism rate. This causes you to gain weight more quickly when you are no longer dieting.

How many times have you gained more weight back after your quit your diet? There is a real reason for that problem!

Keto diets can cause nutritional problems that are hard to diagnose

Our body is complicated. Take, for example, calcium. For your body to use calcium supplements, you also need magnesium and
vitamin D. This combination is similar for every element in your body.

Doing keto properly, you should be eating green leafy vegetables and you’ll get the nutrients that you need. But many people think that a keto diet is a license to eat fatty meats and cheeses, but forget that they need to incorporate vegetables. Here’s a list of keto foods that are rich in calcium.

Trace mineral deficiencies are just as significant but even more difficult to diagnose. When you remove all fruit from your diet, you eliminate many trace minerals. Over time this can cause symptoms, for example, heart palpitations.

Doctors treat symptoms

Our medical system (AKA, your doctor) is trained to quickly access your problem, then fix the problem. If you complain of heart
palpitations, they will verify the problem by monitoring your heart rate, then recommend a pacemaker. Oftentimes, they do not investigate the root cause of your problems which could be an imbalanced diet.

What you can do

I recommend that everyone on a keto diet should take a vitamin supplement. You know that are at high risk for trace mineral imbalances. A vitamin and mineral supplement will help to offset the imbalances.

Your best bet is to make improvements. Make subtle changes to your diet that will improve your overall health at a pace that you can maintain. Here’s a recipe that I posted for low-sugar cookies. This is an example of a subtle change that will have a positive affect on your health in the long run.

Bottom line, the medical community does not know the long-term effects of keto diets. Are the unknown side effects worth the short-term gains?

How to increase metabolism without exercise

05/18/2021 by Julie RN DCES Leave a Comment

According to the Miller-Keane Encyclopedia & Dictionary of Medicine, your basal metabolic rate is the “minimal energy expended for the maintenance of respiration, circulation, peristalsis, muscle tone, body temperature, glandular activity, and other vegetative functions of the body.” It is the measurement of energy you need to sustain your life force. So how do you increase metabolism without exercise?

Your body has certain processes to increase your metabolic rate. For example, the release of epinephrine prepares you to fight or fly away by providing a release of energy. A high fever can also increase your metabolic rate as well as eating a large meal.

Exercise and weight loss

Many people who start an exercise program report weight loss. But is it fat or water that you lose?

Inflammation is produced by excess calories. Inflammation contains water. So when you don’t have excess calories, your body loses water weight by reducing your inflammation. To truly determine the source of your weight loss, you need to measure your body fat percentage.

Many of our home scales measure BMI (body mass index). This is a calculation of height and weight ratios, but not an indicator for body fat. Athletes can have a higher BMI because muscle mass weighs heavier than fat.

Exercise can increase the calories burned but not change your basal metabolic rate.

Follow the science

Herman Pontzer, an evolutionary anthropologist and author, has studied the cultural patterns including available foods, against the metabolic rates of many cultures. Dr. Pontzer has concluded that daily exercise levels can determine the body fat percentage composition but it does not correlate with basal metabolic rates. Increasing one’s metabolic rate goes against our evolutionary physiology. It would actually increase our risk for starvation because it increases our need for food.

Dr. Pontzer warns starvation diets are dangerous. Whenever people push their body to a limited time for eating, they actually lower their metabolic rate. They trick their body into believing their food sources are limited. This triggers a lower metabolic rate in our evolutionary (hormone) method to conserve energy to sustain life.

The result is the individual gains weight easier until their body is convinced the risk for starvation is passed. Unfortunately, no one can predict how long it takes for your body to convert back to normal.

Exercise is very beneficial

Individuals on a regular exercise program will preserve muscle tone, improve heart health, and decrease cognitive decline. In addition to exercise for the aforementioned benefits, reducing your daily calorie intake should be used for weight loss.

Lifestyle changes

Changing your lifestyle is very difficult. Many people have gained weight during the Covid shutdown. We wanted to feel some relief from stress, so we ate to cope. What you need to do now is focus on what you want. Pairing activities is a good way to remind you. I talk about stacking habits in this post.

If you are gaining weight every year, you need to change your daily habits. I talk about this in great detail in my book, Parent’s Guide to Healthy Kids. It says “for healthy kids”, but really, it’s for the whole family. And actually, since you’re reading this post, I’m happy to give you a discount if you want to check out my book. Use this code at checkout to get 50% off! qb1vxm1

Many people need to lose weight for their health. It is important to find a safe way to do it. Remember, we did not gain weight overnight. It is by changing your habits that you will lose weight.

Bottom line

The easiest way to increase metabolism without exercise is to gain weight. An increase in body mass (BMI) requires more energy (calories) to move around. This is why when people lose weight they report feeling more energy.

The average active adult burns about 2500 Kilo-calories each day. Your body does not care about the type of calories it burns for energy. It can be carbohydrates, proteins, fats, or alcohol. Whatever you eat, your body can convert to energy. When you eat more than your body needs, the excess is stored.

So the truth is, you CAN increase metabolism without exercise. But the addition of exercise is going to increase your muscle mass and will contribute to the weight loss that you probably desire.

I hope you found this article to be informative and helpful! Please check out my eBook to learn more about the lifestyle changes that you can incorporate to see the changes that you desire for yourself and your family.

Low sugar chocolate chip nut cookies

02/19/2021 by Julie RN DCES Leave a Comment

Cookies are a mainstay when it comes to the holidays, right? Or anytime you’re stuck at home (ahem, Covid…) But when you’re diabetic, pre-diabetic, or have gestational diabetes, you need to be extra aware of the sugar that you’re taking in. This low sugar chocolate chip nut cookie recipe is sure to be a hit in your household!

How am I qualified? I am a certified diabetes educator and I put together a recipe for chocolate chip nut cookies that clocks in at only 6 grams of sugar per cookie!

How does it compare?

McDonald’s chocolate chip cookie is 19 grams of sugar. Yikes! According to Fitbit, Toll House chocolate chip cookies are 14 grams of sugar per cookie.

Here’s the recipe!

Low-Sugar Chocolate Chip Nut Cookies

Makes 18 cookies with 6 grams sugar each

1/2 cup butter or margarine melted
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon water
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup Truvia Brown Sugar Blend
½ teaspoon Baking Soda
1 cup white flour
½ cup chocolate chips
½ cup chopped nuts (you can use almonds, or pecans, walnuts, or peanuts)

Preheat your oven to 375 F.

In a large bowl combine the butter, vanilla extract, egg, water, salt, and Truvia Brown Sugar Blend. (Truvia should start to melt.)

In a separate bowl combine the flour with the baking soda. Add the chocolate chips and the nuts and mix well.

Now add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients while continuing to mix well.

Using a spoon, drop cookie dough onto cookie sheets forming 18 cookies. Keep in mind that if you make less than 18 cookies, your sugar content will be higher. To get the amount of sugar per cookie, take 18 x 6 grams of sugar to get the total sugar content for the entire batch. Then divide that by the number of cookies that you actually make. For example, say you form 15 cookies. So 18 cookies that the recipe suggests x 6 grams sugar each equals 108 grams sugar for the entire batch. Then divide by 15 cookies and you have 7.2 grams of sugar per cookie.

If you struggle to divide it up into 18 pieces, try this: divide the mix in half. Divide it in half again. Each quarter needs to make 4.5 cookies. That’s basically making 4 cookies and taking a pinch from each cookie and set it aside. Then each half of the mix should make 1 extra cookie out of the little extras that you set aside!

Any cookies that are mounded up should be spread out to allow proper baking.

Cookies will spread out while they bake so leave a little room between them. You’ll probably need more than one cookie sheet to make the full batch. Or bake the first batch and after your cookie sheet cools off, you can bake what’s leftover. *Remember the dough should be refrigerated while you wait!

Bake for 6-7 minutes in a preheated oven until the edges are golden brown.

Allow the cookies to sit for 2 minutes on the baking sheet after you take them out of the oven. Then you can place them on a cooling rack.

Variation

If you don’t want nuts, you can double the chips, but I would recommend using the mini-size chips for better texture. And remember that this may affect your sugar content.

You can also use whole wheat flour to add fiber.

I have not tried gluten-free flour.

If you want to try Truvia Brown sugar blend in your other recipes, you convert the regular brown sugar to Truvia by cutting the amount in half.

This recipe makes 18 cookies with 6 grams of sugar each.

I hope you enjoy baking these cookies for your loved ones!

8 Tips to Avoid Gestational Diabetes

03/11/2020 by Julie RN DCES Leave a Comment

Gestational diabetes can be frightening. Below are 8 tips to avoid gestational diabetes!

Women typically get tested between 24-28 weeks gestation. But you can avoid gestational diabetes by knowing your risks and taking action steps to avoid these problems.

Evaluate Your Risk

According to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Diabetes Association your risks include:

Over the age of 25
A body mass index (BMI) over 25
A family history of diabetes in a parent, sibling, or a child
A history of a baby born over 9 pounds
Ethic groups at highest risk include Pacific Islanders, Asians, Hispanic
and certain Native American tribes.
A random blood sugar test over 200
A1C test equal to or greater than 5.7%
A history of Polycystic Ovary Disease
High triglycerides or a prescription to control triglycerides.

It is Proven that Gestational Diabetes can be Prevented

The American Diabetes Association has proven through the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) that lifestyle changes can prevent or delay the diagnosis of diabetes. It is believed that gestational diabetes can be prevented through lifestyle changes. Gestational diabetes is controlled by pregnancy hormones, so you need to make changes early in your pregnancy. As your pregnancy develops, it will become increasingly difficult to control your blood sugar because of your changing hormones. Learning how to eat for your body’s needs is essential.

8 Tips to Avoid Gestational Diabetes:

Eat 3 equally spaced meals each day
Limit snacks between meals. (once you start following the gestational meal plan you will have nutritionally balanced snacks between meals and one at bedtime.
Eat a balanced diet (limit sugar, fat, and salt)
Include fresh fruits and vegetables as much as possible
Include whole grains
Limit saturated fats
Avoid sugary drinks and rich desserts
Learn to check labels for portion sizes (Do not eat for two – you need to control your weight gain during pregnancy!)

Making lifestyle changes is very difficult. It is said that it takes 3 months to change a habit. My eBook (coming soon!) will talk about ways to help make changes that will last.

I hope you enjoyed these 8 tips to avoid gestational diabetes! Together we can make a difference in your future.

Please keep an eye out for my eBook – coming soon!

The Link between Pregnancy and Diabetes

03/10/2020 by Julie RN DCES 1 Comment

Did you know there’s a connection between Pregnancy and Diabetes? And did you know there’s also a connection between Gestational Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes?

Read on to understand the connections.

Scenario:

Woman in her late twenties gets pregnant. At 26 weeks, she takes an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and is diagnosed with gestational diabetes. She is challenged to keep her blood sugar within the recommended zone.

At 32 weeks gestation, she starts having trouble with high blood pressure (hypertension). Her doctor admits her into the hospital on mandatory bed rest. They give her drugs to encourage fetal lung development. She is informed she will be induced.

During the induction, it is determined the baby is not in the head down position. She is immediately scheduled for a C-section.

After delivery, the new mother’s blood sugar is higher than normal. Her baby has a poor sucking reflex which makes it difficult to nurse. For some unknown reason, the nurses want the new mother to nurse at least every hour. The medical staff informs her that stress can cause elevated blood sugars and she is not to worry.

Follow-up appointment:

Her doctor recommends she returns for a follow-up appointment at 3 weeks. She feels that is a little odd, but they explain it is the new recommendation and will be covered by her insurance.

At 3 weeks, she is feeling better and the baby is doing better nursing. They take a random blood sugar test and it is a little high. She explained that since she was out of the house, she treated herself to a deep dish pizza. She believes that her lunch was the reason her blood sugars were a little high because every time she ate pizza while she was pregnant, her blood sugars would go up for a long time. Her nurse smiled and said, “We’ll keep an eye on it.”

At her next follow-up appointment, her doctor required an A1c test. Her result was 6.8. She was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She now blames her pregnancy on her diagnosis and she is convinced it will go away.

What went wrong?

Chances are she was prediabetic (aka borderline diabetic) before the pregnancy. Her fasting blood sugar tests were normal, because through the night her body could bring her blood sugar into normal range.

The A1c test is an average blood sugar test over the previous 2-3 months. Unfortunately, once you are diagnosed, you will always be flagged as at-risk for high blood sugar.

Pregnancy places a stress on your body in many ways. There are a lot of hormone shifts during pregnancy. Diabetes is caused by the hormones required to grow the placenta. The larger the placenta gets, the more you become at risk for high blood sugar.

This is the reason the oral glucose tolerance test is delayed until 26-28 weeks gestation. After delivery and you expel the placenta, your body should go back to normal.

One complication from uncontrolled blood sugar is eclampsia. This is a chemical reaction that causes uncontrolled high blood pressure. It causes heart problems and sometimes death of the baby and/or the mother.

When blood pressure (BP) starts to increase, doctors are proactive and require strict bed rest to prevent the chemical progression of pre-eclampsia into eclampsia. The doctor will induce as soon as it is safe. Many times, the baby is not in the correct position, so the doctor will do a C-section.

Typically, your blood sugar will go back to normal after delivery. But we all gain weight with pregnancy. It is very possible someone can develop insulin resistance from the weight gain. Hopefully this is a temporary condition. Sometimes it can take over a year to lose the weight. If you have developed insulin resistance, you can have prolonged sugar problems.

Once diagnosed, always a diabetic

The standard for diagnosing type two diabetes has changed. Previously, you needed two fasting blood sugar results over 125. Today, you only need one.

The medical community is trying to diagnose earlier in this disease progression to encourage lifestyle changes. Women who develop Gestational Diabetes are at high risk for developing Type 2.

Over 40% will be diagnosed within 5 years. When this disease is diagnosed early, there is a better chance of reversing it. Your diagnosis may be changed to T2 in remission, but you will always be at risk of it returning as you age.

Knowledge is Power

The internet has a lot of suggestions to reverse diabetes. Unfortunately, many of the suggestions you’ll find online are false or misleading. The American Diabetes Association encourages a balanced lifestyle. Remember, only 1% of people who attempt irrational weight control are successful in the long run. Yo-yo dieting is very hard on your body and can cause other health problems.

Slow and steady wins the race!

Many people need support to make and maintain new habits. If you need help setting realistic goals and sticking to what you really want to do, I can help you.

About the author

Julie Stelting is a registered nurse with a bachelor’s degree in nutrition. She is the founder of Kids at Risk for Diabetes LLC. Julie designed a program for gestational diabetes, to help women understand and cope with their diagnosis. She is passionate about preventing or delaying diabetes through holistic lifestyle changes.

For more information go to www.kidsatriskfordiabetes.com, or email Julie directly at Julie@kidsatriskfordiabetes.com.

Help for Diabetes During Pregnancy

03/05/2020 by Julie RN DCES 2 Comments

Your Gestational Diabetes Diagnosis can be Traumatic

When you are pregnant, being diagnosed with gestational diabetes is the last thing you want to hear. You are given a crash course on how to manage your blood sugar with diet and exercise. You are so stressed out, you probably don’t remember one tenth of what was said. Your stress continues as you try to “manage” your blood sugar by testing multiple times each day. You feel like your body has betrayed you. All you want to do is have a healthy baby. I know what you’re going through.

Fasting Blood Sugar Test

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) is now requiring new clients to have a fasting blood sugar test during early pregnancy to determine un-diagnosed Type 2 and prediabetes in their patients. Due to the average woman waiting to have their first child later in life and the increasing weight problems they face with age, pregnant women are at increased risk for developing sugar problems. (Get my free gift to evaluate your risk for gestational diabetes.)

How Does Gestational Diabetes Affect You and Your Baby?

At about 12 weeks gestation, your baby starts growing rapidly. This requires increasing amounts of energy, and insulin requirements increase accordingly. Around week 24, your body’s insulin production cannot keep up with your baby’s growth.

Typically, the fasting blood test for gestational diabetes happens between weeks 24-28. The ACOG is allowing your blood sugars to increase enough during the day so that your body can not recover through the night. At that time a random blood sugar test over 200 is a positive result for gestational diabetes.

Your baby continues to grow until about 36 weeks gestation. At delivery, the hormonal effects of the pregnancy disappear and the demand for insulin drops dramatically. Postpartum, your body’s requirement for insulin can go below normal. Many women are placed on IV insulin during labor and they need to be monitored carefully during postpartum.

After Gestational Diabetes Delivery

Because your baby has developed in a blood supply rich in sugar, your baby’s pancreas will also go through an adjustment after delivery. You will see the nursing staff taking blood samples from your baby. Don’t get excited. They will monitor your baby’s blood sugar as needed to keep them safe.

Since insulin requirements shift dramatically during pregnancy, true diabetics need to be monitored carefully for adjustments in their medications. Type 1 diabetics need to be under the care of an endocrinologist throughout their pregnancy. Type 2 diabetes should expect to be placed on insulin during pregnancy. They should also expect to have weekly insulin adjustments.

What to do Before You Get Pregnant

To have a successful pregnancy without complications, all diabetics need to have their blood sugars under good control for six months before conception. The success of their ability to control their blood sugar is often determined by an A1C test.

If you need support in controlling your blood sugars before pregnancy, consider my 1:1 phone consultation program. For a free evaluation please schedule a FREE call with me.

Wishing you a happy pregnancy and a healthy baby!

Julie

P.S. Remember to get my list to evaluate your risk for gestational diabetes.