Beyond Dr. Bernstein’s Low Carb Diet: Part 1 Dr. Richard Bernstein helps people achieve normal blood sugar mainly through a diet that carefully limits carbohydrate. It works because he understands the effects of food on people with diabetes - people whose system for maintaining normal blood sugar has failed. How does the system work? Carbohydrate is broken down in the intestines into sugar, which is absorbed into the bloodstream. The body keeps this blood sugar stable by controlling how much is taken into the tissues. It uses chemical signals – such as insulin – to stimulate those tissues to take in the sugar. But too much energy in the diet (calories) that’s not burned off through exercise can overload this system and cause it to fail. Tissues stop responding to the chemical signals, they stop taking in the sugar, and slowly the cells that produce the chemical signals die off. From this point on, any carbohydrate in our food causes sugar to collect in the blood. So – since our body can no longer do it on its own – cutting back on carbohydrate is necessary to control blood sugar. Cutting back on carbohydrate is the foundation of a diabetic diet, but, as we will see in the next post, all the nutrients in a healthy diet contribute to one’s health, and we need to understand the roles of those substances, too, in order to get the most from our diet. Stayed tuned!
Posted on: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 23:17:39 +0000
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