The Trilogy of Diabetes (4)

Excessive amino acids triggers
high blood sugar level,
cancelling the effort of insulin.

Episode 3: Excessive proteins induces insulin resistance

Q:  Why does this happen?

A:  It's all related to the confusion of another signalling pathway.

The story goes like this...

During starvation or emergency (e.g. life threatening events)
glucose are consumed quickly and low blood sugar situation occurs.

Our body will then be signalled to increase the blood sugar level
in order to feed the relevant muscles for emergency rescue,
via the release of two hormones:
cortisol (a stress hormone) and glucagon.

And, how exactly these two hormones are triggered
is, interestingly, via an elevated level of blood amino acids (or proteins)
which originate from
injured tissues (e.g. animal attack) or
digested muscles (due to starvation).

On a normal day,
when we have our 3 proper meals at proper timing,
comfortably at our dining table,
cortisol and glucagon shouldn't exist in significant level
(as there is no starvation or emergency occuring).

However,
with the large intake of meat and dairy in a meal,
our body mistakes those increased amount of dietary proteins/amino acids
as a signal of starvation/emergency!
Consequently, when cortisol and glucagon
(which act in the exact opposite direction of insulin)
are released,
they create a condition similar to insulin resistance,
subsequently forcing the pancreas to secrete exaggerated amount of insulin
to bring back the blood sugar to normal after the meal.

In long term, same drill, the pancreas gets exhausted and
fails to keep up the insulin production with the 'false emergency alarm'
after every high protein meal that we eat,
leading to high blood sugar level eventually.

The above are actually very established biochemical facts
which one can easily find in textbooks.
But, the general public who are under-informed about this "general knowledge",
may perhaps be mistaken that eating more protein food (meat and dairy)
in place of carbohydrate food,
is a 'wise' way to avoid the risk of diabetes.

How many times have we seen diabetic friends
dedicatedly cut down their carbo food,
but only to worsen their condition
by taking in large amount of proteins via a meat-based diet?
-- whenever I see that, I sense the shiver down my spine...

Next, we will discuss on two "magic bullets"
to mitigate the severity of insulin resistance
and the principles to formulate a diet to prevent diabetes.


Take care,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Trilogy of Diabetes (3)

The condition where the insulin signalng/instruction
gets hindered/retarded is known medically as
insulin resistance.

While most people didn't know about the true cause of
insulin resistance,
they naturally turn to blame the result of insulin resistance
which is the sugar in the blood.

That under-information consequently lead to
unnecessary (or dangerous) action
of cutting down sugar/carbo/starch intake severely,
sometimes to the extent of developing phobia towards carbo.

Hence, it's not difficult to see some mis-informed diabetics ended
with weak limbs and poor concentration,
craving for fatty food to perk them up.
This in turn makes the situation worse.

Some diabetics even resist to shed off their excessive weight
despite doctors' advice,
as they couldn't make sense in between fats and their 'sugary' urine.

Even worse,
when their insulin resistance increase day by day,
and doctor's insulin pills slowly lose their efficacy,
they continue to cut down on sugar and replace calorie loss with fatty food.
Eventually. with frustration,
they blame it all on their genes (and sometimes even give up on treatment).
-- all because of serious misunderstanding of the cause of diabetes.

While diabetes indeed could be inheritable,
it's still mainly due to an imbalanced diet.
See The Humble Truth of Genes on why gene is not be blamed.

In the next episode,
why protein is the next culprit for diabetes.
-- yes, not mistaken at all, excessive protein causes diabetes as well.
Tune in!


With love,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Trilogy of Diabetes (2)

Many of us may still find it puzzling,
to claim that sugar doesn't (directly) cause diabetes.

Question arises here:
-- if sugar is ok, then why are we constantly hearing advice not to take too much sugar/carbohydrates?

A simplified answer:
>> When sugar is taken in refined form (e.g. in soft drinks, sweets, white flour and processed foods)
they shock the blood sugar level and quickly get converted into fats, ultimately contritbuting to obesity issue (which may indirectly evolve into a diabetic issue as explained later).

However, if sugar is taken in whole food manner (e.g. brown rice, wholemeal bread and whole grains), with the presence of fibre, the blood sugar level rises gently, and doesn't contribute to obesity easily.

Also, because whole food are usually loaded with high fibre, one gets satisfied more quickly and doesn't get overboard in sugar consumption easily.

If we are choosing the right form of sugar/carbo, it's even harder to convince that sugar causes diabetes.

Episode 2: Fat is one of the cultprits

Those who are in tuned with diabetic medicine,
probably won't be too unfamiliar with the remark
that waist line of a person is tightly correlated to
the risk of diabetes.

One may get the hint now that it's
fat that actually plays crucial roles inducing diabetes.

There are two ways fat causes diabetes
by failing the insulin to control blood sugar level:

(I) Hindrance of insulin signal :
When blood sugar rises, insulin secreted from the pancreas
will be circulated thoughout the body to inform the necessary tissues/cells
to do the necessary actions to reduce sugar in the blood stream immediately.

However, if there are too many fat molecules in the cells/tissue,
the insulin signals will get retarded and faded away,
consequently leading to inefficient signalling.

As long as the blood sugar level doesn't get normalised,
the feedback system in our body will keep informing the pancreas to
work harder and to release more insulin
until the desireable blood sugar level is reached.

In long term, the pancreas gets overworked
and eventually fails to produce matching level of insulin.
This is a classical case where diabetes arises.

(II) Defective insulin signal reception:
This pathway of diabetes is getting more prominent day by day,
when under-informed public, uncounsciously
take in molecularly impaired fats (ie bad fat).

As mentioned in The Fats of Life series,
any fat/oil which is treated with high heat
will render the fat molecular structure deformed.
Little that the general public knows that
the common cooking oils sold in the market
are treated with extreme high heat before bottling
to prolong their shelf-lives.

These deformed fat molecules
once assimilated into our body,
part of them will be used to make defective insulin receptor,
ultimately blocking partially the initiation of insulin signaling.

In the end, it doesn't seem that the pancreas
will ever be able to produce sufficient insulin to compensate
the blockage of insulin system.

Scary as it sounds,
but many people still prefer not to change their habit
in the choosing the right type of cooking oil
(which are not high heat treated).
-- good cooking oil are easily accessible at many Health Food Shops

More to come in the next blog,
as we still have one more culprit of diabetes to unveil.
Also, we will be discussing on how to devise
our food intake to mitigate the severity of existing diabetic condition.


Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Trilogy of Diabetes (1)

I promised long ago to write a blog series on diabetes (Type II)*

which is of increasing significance to general public health nowadays.

Here, we are going to discuss about the true causes of diabetes
in a in-depth manner and hopefully could encourage readers
to do the appropriate preventive steps.
-- especially till today, many people have substantial misunderstanding
on the causes of diabetes.

Episode 1: The Myth of Sugar-induced Diabetes
In contrary to what most people believe,
diabetes although closely related to blood sugar,
is not a disease caused by too much sugar intake, technically speaking.

Blood sugar level happens to be a indicator of the severity of
the disease and hence it's easily mistaken to be the culprit
(in fact, it's a scape goat in the entire issue).

Excessive consumption of sugar may aggrevate the severity of diabetic condition,
but certainly, it's broad misunderstanding that excessive sugar induces diabetes.

There are a few points below to be reminded, in regards of sugar,
when we clarify about this misunderstanding:

(i) our body is design to be able to harmonise/normalise any dramatic
fluctuations of blood sugar level (via homeostasis/negative feedback loop),
to ensure stable blood sugar concentration for optimal bodily functions

(ii) sugar is critical for survival ever since human being started to walk on the Earth;
excessive sugar is very welcomed, as a backup for incidences
of starvation and emergency escape.
(Excessive sugar are happily stored in liver as glycogen and under the skin as fats)

(iii) high amount of sugar consumption doesn't necessary always
results in high level of blood sugar concentration,
depending on the type of sugar/carbohydrate (in term of digested rate)
and the presence of fibre to slow down the absoprtion of sugar through the GI track.

None of the scientific facts above support any solid path towards diabetes.

Diabetes which is truly a degenerate disease showing symptoms of the body unable to

to control the blood sugar level after a meal (or sugar intake),
is, strictly speaking, caused by the failure of insulin-system to function.
(and sugar has no reason to directly cause the insulin system to fail)

In the next few blog posts, we will delve into how actually this insulin-system fails,
and some may be surprised that the culprits of diabetes
don't quite look 'sugary'.


Well wishes,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


*Diabetes are categorised into two types: Type I which is rarer and happened to young children/newborn with impaired pancreas; Type II which is most common, preventable and diet-induced. In this blog series, I refer specifically to Type II diabetes. 


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Meeting a rawsome guru -- Diana von Cranach



Raw food guru,
Diana von Cranach at her
creative and rawsome
food demo

Just a few days after a fun-filled organic trip at Titi Eco Farm,

I went for another raw-some living food workshop, with
a raw food guru, Diana von Cranach
@ The Green Room Cafe.

The entire afternoon spent with Diana
was inspiring.

It was like a magic seeing how the guru put together,
effortlessly,
some of the humble raw veggies
to create dishes which are very pure tasting and nourishing.

During the 4 hour workshop,
we went through the recipes with full serving of 4-course lunch
from Eggplant Roll appetizer to Sweet corn - Coconut soup,
to Mixed Veggie Timbale to Coconut jelly.

Diana also shared on many topics about healthy eating,
including differentiating what are the truly living food,
the real way of organic un-cooking,
as well as giving us some recommendation where to get
the good quality food sources and reliable kitchen appliances.

Other than skill and knowledge transfer,
the participants also had a good time networking with each other,
and exchanging 'living' ideas ;)

Some of the nice looking dishes captured at the workshop.
Happy Eye Feasting!
-- yes, these are what we had for lunch!! hahaha.. :D

With gratitude,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: I absolutely fell in love in Diana's food ever since Green Room Cafe re-opened with raw cuisine early May this year. I want to help spread further the concept of true organic and healthy vegetarian, hence am organising a special dinner session with Diana on 3rd Sep 2011. If interested, please check out Organic Meet Up =D 



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Oasis of Organic Living - Titi Eco Farm

Titi Eco Farm Tour organised by
Cielo Sereno

Just about 10 days ago,

I was leading a memorable organic tour

to Titi Eco Farm in Malaysia.

Altho' that was probably my 5th or 6th visit to the farm,

I enjoyed the stay, with thrill and gratitude,

like it was my first visit =D

Titi Eco Farm expanded quite a bit since I last visited a few years back,

but the essence of the farm hasn't changed all these years!!

I liked how the fresh air and

the beautiful sunset view from the front yard

still remained,

how the creative raw food chef, Elaine,

was still passionate about raw organic diet,

how the various organic produce there

were still vibrant!

During the 3D2N stay,

the experience was absolutely relaxing, pampering and enriching:

-- basically, we were:

feasting on nourishing and mouthwatering
organic food everyday

(with almost free flow of

organic salad and fruits!),

 

soaking our our legs in steam foot-spa,

drinking herbal tea to detox,

chilling ourselves at the balcony of the chalet,

joining in workshops on making papaya salad

and Hakka Farmer's Tea (擂茶)**,

doing laughter yoga together in the Energy Garden 

... and so much more!!

Titi Eco Farm was truly a gem.

It's a place where we realised the sweetness of humble living,

the abundance of love that mother Earth offers,

and how we should treasure, in deep gratitude,
the purity of unpolluted air, land and food.

I am definitely going back to Titi again! :D

With metta,

Kee Yew

pureland2012-at-gmail.com

**Bonus:

[Titi Eco Farm's recipe on traditional Hakka Farmer's Tea (客家擂茶)]

Mix and grind, in a mortar, equal portion of
. Eleutherococcus trifoliatus 苦粒心
. Basil 九层塔
. Xiao-Ye-Gan 小叶甘
. Guava Leaf Buds 番石榴嫩芽
. Peanuts
. Sesame seeds
into fine paste using Guava pestle. Pour in hot water, and adjust to desirerable thickness, add some rock salt to taste and serve with crunchy diced veggies and brown rice. Bon Apetit!

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Holistic transformation in the pipeline -- The Veg School



A symbol of good will
for social, animal
and environmental wellbeing

 Some 8 months ago,
I was sitting in a 3-day T. harv Eker's workshop
on how to make our dreams into reality,
inspiring me to open a vegetarian school.

I took the inspiration to my heart so deeply that
I made broad public commitment on Facebook and my Blog
and
started to recruit talents to prepare for the biggest project of my life.

Given the overwhelming support from many many friends,
the management team for the vegetarian school quickly took shape,
the vegetarian school officially registered with ACRA as "The Veg School" in March 2011
and today,
The Veg School's official website goes live!!

As I write this blog,
my cells resonate in excitement:
I couldn't believe this very ambitious project (and mission)
that will potentially transform the lives of many people
finally takes place.

At the same time, I am also feeling grateful :
without the mutual support and dedication of
the TVS team members,
this very critical start of the life-transforming project
couldn't have been so smooth --
be it the booking of teaching venue,
publicity platforms,
content write-up,
website construction or back end support...

The Veg School (TVS) promises to be an educational figure
that doesn't just talk about how to lead a holistic and healthy vegetarian lifestyle,
but also help students to actually impart the knowledge into their lives
and make the real change happens!

Unlike the conventional schools which
passes on only theories and notes to students,
TVS will provide step-by-step systematic guidance
and follow through the growth of the students along their path towards vegetarianism.

TVS is a school with personal touch and
sincerity to offer true values to the people (+animal+environment).

Here, I sincerely invite you to visit
TheVegSchool.net

Register as a student (take the opportunity of the admin fee waiver till 31st July 2011!)
sign up at least a full day module with The Veg School -- if not the entire program ;)
and
recommend to your loved ones and your best friends!

There is one critical point that TVS needs your help --
TVS needs the very YOU to be in the scene
so that TVS could honour its promise
to transform your life and lives of many others
via holistic, ethical and healthy vegetarian lifestyle.

The first module starts 2nd October 2011.
Be there =)


With deep gratitude,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}