Do you have questions about nutrition? Send them to comer@lavangurdia.es, our nutritionist Aitor Sánchez will answer all your questions.
What to eat if you have insulin resistance? (Roser Dama, reader)
Hi Roser,
The situation of insulin resistance is closely linked to other pathologies and is part of what is known as prediabetes, it is a state in which our body has not yet developed type 2 diabetes but is very close to it, the good news It is that we have room for improvement and that if we follow healthy lifestyle habits we could avoid it.
The nutritional approach is very similar, except that we will not be so conditioned by the medication since many times the treatment of type 2 diabetes usually includes insulin or the use of oral antidiabetics.
The fundamental pillars that we will work on would be the following:
1) Nutritional status. Insulin resistance is favored by excessive fat accumulation, so following a diet that is focused on fat loss (especially visceral) is very effective. The best way to do this is with a healthy diet, with the same tips that we share every week in the office. I would like to highlight that in this case physical activity is even more important, since it improves our body’s sensitivity to insulin and will make the situation improve much more.
2) Sources and quantity of carbohydrates. Since our body does not tolerate carbohydrates as well, it is important to restrict those that are unhealthy (sweets, pastries, soft drinks…), This does not mean that we have to limit those sources that are healthy such as legumes. , fruits and vegetables, but we must pay attention that foods such as potatoes, rice or pasta are in accordance with our physical activity. If we are not doing much exercise, it is better that they have less importance in our diet.
3) Origin of the protein. In the last two decades we have made a lot of scientific progress regarding the fact that the consumption of protein of animal origin is not the most appropriate for the prevention and management of diabetes, for this reason it is important to increase the amount of legumes we eat at night. week and that we especially do it by reducing the amount of meat and eggs. We also know that it works well to include vegetable drinks instead of dairy, so if you like soy drinks it can also help reduce cheese and milk.
I leave you here some material that may be useful to you in which everything is summarized:
Is it good to eat fruit at night? (Mónica Homedes, reader)
Hello Monica,
Without any problem we can eat fruit at night. We should simply consider that serving of fruit as another healthy source of carbohydrates.
It is very curious how a lot of hoaxes have been shared about the fact that fruit at night is harmful, going so far as to say pseudoscientific phrases such as “it ferments in the stomach” or that “it is heavy at night.” It is surprising to see how a food with these characteristics has such a bad popular reputation, but on the contrary it is completely normalized to have a hamburger, a slice of pizza, and even drink a glass of milk before going to sleep; Any of these three examples would be much heavier and less appropriate, and yet we see them absolutely normally.
Yes, I would like to clarify that it would not be ideal to have only fruit for dinner, which is, by the way, a routine that many people do especially if they feel heavy or do not feel like preparing something to cook at night. If we do it occasionally there is no problem, but our meal design normally tends to include a serving of vegetables and another of proteins at both lunch and dinner. In our society it is very rare for a person to consume vegetables or sources of protein between meals, and if we are not taking advantage of dinner to include them, we should ensure that our diet throughout the day incorporates them.
Returning to a typical dinner that includes fruit for dessert, we could ask ourselves, What better dessert is there that is not fruit? Normally, families that do not consume fruit for dessert fill that gap with sugary yogurts or other dairy desserts, so consuming fruit is also a guarantee that other, less nutritionally interesting products do not enter. Another reason for it to also be present in the dinner dessert.
