In my book The Juice Lady's Living Foods Revolution, I explain in detail how to choose and combine "living foods" to improve and maintain health and vitality. I want to apply what I have learned toward improvement, if not reversal, of diabetes and prediabetic conditions. Some experts claim that type 2 Diabetes can be completely reversed by carefully following a low-glycemic regimen that includes juicing. I am convinced that type 1 diabetics can benefit from a knowledgeable application of the same principles. I have met type 1 diabetics who have greatly improved their condition with this type of diet.
Refined and processed foods are the biggest food culprits. The body of someone who eats a lot of refined foods (which means eating a lot of sugar and refined flour products) will develop an imbalance in the hormone insulin. Over time, poor eating can lead to insulin resistance and eventually diabetes. This takes years to develop, but it doesn't have to happen at all. If you start making wise food choices now, your body (and your family) will thank you forever.
Besides learning how to shop for and prepare the foods you need, you must resist the temptation to purchase ready-made juices and (especially) soda. Instead, make your own fresh juices at home! Never resort to diet sodas to help you lose weight and fight diabetes—they are more dangerous to your health than you think. The San Antonio Heart Study—a 25-year community-based study carried out at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio—found that the more diet sodas a person drinks, the greater his chance of becoming overweight or obese, and added weight is a strong risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes. Sharon Fowler, a faculty associate for the study, put it this way: "On average, for each diet soft drink participants drank per day, they were 65 percent more likely to become overweight during the next seven to eight years, and 41 percent more likely to become obese."
What Are Living Foods?
Living foods are foods that are alive—raw (not cooked) and filled with life. They're also called raw foods or live foods. You can plant them, pick them, sprout them or simply eat them. In each case—you get life! That's because life comes from life. These foods are your "true north," your path home to health in a jungle of dietary havoc, contaminated food and abounding confusion about what and how to eat.
What constitutes human nourishment that blesses us with abundant health? Is it the antibiotic-laden, growth-hormone-laced flesh of stressed-out, factory-farm animals? How about pasteurized milk products with their denatured protein and damaged fats? Is it cooked or processed vegetables saturated with pesticides and preservatives? Maybe it's designer foods with "good health promises." Perhaps it's the long line of prescription pills coming out of the thunderous jaws of manufacturing plants.
My dear friends, we've been duped—completely led astray—by marketing campaigns. Good health is the result of consuming whole, unprocessed, clean food with a large percentage of that being raw and alive. These foods are chock-full of nutrients, water and fiber that flush away toxins, waste and "sludge" from our cells and intercellular fluids. They help us prevent disease and heal the diseases from which we suffer.
Living foods are basic foods in their uncooked form. Cooking always depletes nutrients, so it stands to reason that uncooked foods will provide more benefits. You don't have to become an all-raw foodist to benefit from them. I'm not. I am encouraging you to get more raw food in your diet and to make it a bit more than half of the food you eat every day. Juicing and green smoothies represent one way to help you reach that goal easily.
Two other terms for living or raw foods are "real foods" or "whole foods." They are the opposite of food substances that are man-made—whipped up in factories and spun out in forms that are anything but real or whole. Such foods have become the basis of the American diet, but they should not be called food and should not be part of anyone's diet. They are processed, depleted of natural nutrients and filled with chemicals to promote longer shelf life, ease of transportation and longer storage. After being grown in vast fields and saturated with pesticides and artificial fertilizers, plant nutrient values are further diminished in the course of processing and storage, so the processed foods must be fortified with synthetic vitamins and minerals. Flavorings are added to improve the taste because they have very little flavor left.
These foods are often addictive and carcinogenic, while being void of nutrients necessary for cellular function. And they deliver empty calories that get stored as fat because the body can't use them to meet its needs. These products have made Americans the most overfed and yet undernourished nation in the world.
Real foods are the foods that are the least processed. They are closest to their natural form and, therefore, retain the most nutrient value and deliver the highest health benefits. They are most nutritious when picked after they've ripened, and they are then the richest in flavor. They retain natural diversity of taste.
They have full nutrient and antioxidant content. And if they are organically grown, seasonal, and local foods, they are the healthiest choices possible.
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