India will soon be the diabetes capital of the world. A lot of emphasis is being laid on right nutrition, exercise and a stress-free lifestyle to prevent diabetes.

On World Diabetes Day, we take a look at the benefits of eating a low glycemic index diet. Low GI foods can reduce the average blood glucose levels of diabetics. This is important in reducing the risk of developing diabetes-related complications.

Healthy low GI diets
• Help to fill you up and keep you feeling satisfied for longer — thereby avoiding over-eating or too much snacking.
• Lower your insulin levels — which makes fat easier to burn and less likely to be stored.
• Help you lose body fat and maintain lean muscle tissue.
• Reduce your triglycerides, total and ‘bad’ (LDL) cholesterol.
• Increase your levels of ‘good’ (HDL) cholesterol.
• Reduce your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
• Help to manage your blood glucose levels and reduce your risk of developing diabetes complications.
• Reduce your risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
• Reduce your risk of developing certain eye diseases.
• Improve your skin
• Sustain your energy levels longer, — which improves both mental and physical performance.

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Nutrition and Dietetics expert, Parvathy Radhakrishnan answers readers’ questions on nutrition. Get your doubts cleared and see them featured on our FAQ page every Wednesday.

This week’s answer:

1. Does wheat roti in lunch, wheat ravva(Upma) in dinner and neembu paani with honey in the morning and oil less dosa in breakfast and 30 minutes walking in the morning help in reducing LDL ?
my LDL is 149,
HDL-49
Triglyserites-109
Cholesterol-219
No B.P and No Diabetes
Kindly suggest breakfast/ lunch and dinner diet i am an eggarian only.
T.Vijayshankar

You are doing fine, but please also include couple of fruits like guava, apple, pineapple, orange, etc. apart from the diet, if you are smoking stop it and if you are overweight, reduce weight with diet and one hour of exercise.

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I have been asked this question about how to reduce bad cholesterol (LDL) and increase the good cholesterol (HDL) an umpteen times that I thought I must write on to guide those who struggle to achieve a good lipid profiling. Most often when one is diagnosed with high total cholesterol, the first effort is to reduce the total and LDL. One finds that is achieved through diet and medication, but the HDL needs a little more consistent coaxing to climb up to a desirable point.
Why this difference of LDL and HDL? Fat, since it is insoluble in water, attaches itself to protein part to get itself into cells and hence they are known as ‘lipoproteins’ (lipo meaning fat) LDL has lesser protein while HDL has more protein fraction.

How to lower triglycerides

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Include vegetable oils, nuts and seeds and fish in your daily diet as they contain good fats which are vital for the development of the eyes and brain in children. It acts as insulation for your body. And, it is also what keeps your skin glowing with health.

People who consumed one apple a day for four weeks have been found to have 40 percent lower blood levels of a substance linked to hardening of the arteries, a study has found.

Taking capsules containing polyphenols, a type of antioxidant found in apples, had a similar, but not as large, effect.

The study, funded by an apple industry group, found that the apples lowered blood levels of oxidized LDL-low-density lipoprotein, the “bad” cholesterol.

When LDL cholesterol interacts with free radicals to become oxidized, the cholesterol is more likely to promote inflammation and can cause tissue damage.

“When LDL becomes oxidized, it takes on a form that begins atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries,” said lead

researcher Robert DiSilvestro, professor of human nutrition at Ohio State University and a researcher at the university’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

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I am sure there are others like me who do not eat chocolates. Somehow chocolates have always been related to spoilt teeth or weight gain. When the whole female world went reaching for it at their various hormonal stages, I would snub them, reaching for Bengali sweets to appease my moods.

But of late I find myself liking dark chocolates and craving for its texture and taste. I have these 60 %, 72% and 86% dark chocolates individually wrapped – intense mood elevating therapies- sitting in my freezer.

Yes, as a nutritionist I know how to eat them without guilt, for dark chocolate is not just a comfort food for us all at some level, it has healing properties in as much as red wine or green tea.

So what does it do?

Dark chocolates and cocoa contain the flavonols known as procyanidins and epicatechins which are antioxidants. These are found in the extracts of the cocoa bean. So lesser the bean is processed, darker the chocolate, and the healthier it is for your heart. Emerging research shows dark chocolates with over 60% cocoa mayreduce LDL cholesterol, reduce blood pressure aid in better blood flow to heart and brains reduce risk of blood clots and possibly improve cognitive function and thinking ability in older people

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People who cooked with a blend of sesame and rice bran oils saw a significant drop in blood pressure and improved cholesterol levels, according to a study conducted in New Delhi.

The researchers found cooking with a combination of these oils in a variety of ways worked nearly as well as a commonly prescribed high blood pressure medication, and that the use of the oil blend with medication yielded even more impressive results.

“Rice bran oil, like sesame oil, is low in saturated fat and appears to improve a patient’s cholesterol profile,” said Devarajan Sankar, M.D, Ph.D., a research scientist in the Department of Cardiovascular Disease at Fukuoka University Chikushi Hospital in Chikushino, Japan.

“Additionally, it may reduce heart disease risk in other ways, including being a substitute for less healthy oils and fats in the diet,” he noted.

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Nutrition and Dietetics expert, Parvathy Radhakrishnan answers readers’ questions on nutrition. Get your doubts cleared and see them featured on our FAQ page every Wednesday.

This week’s answers:

1. Thank you for the kind response – for b.fast they serve typical south indian foods like idli’s / dosas and pongal, for lunch they serve rice, sambar, vegetable and one chapathi. For the past one week I have been eating oats in the night. The current food is not supporting me physically and I am not getting enough energy to work out. Please advice a diet plan with high protein. Please also advice if I take whey protein sold is stores is good on a long term basis.
Choose foods that are not oily or not fried from the office menu. For example, for breakfast most days have idlis and not dosas. Eat a fruit like apple 3 hrs after your breakfast. For lunch have one chapatti, one serving (equal to your fistful) of rice of whatever variety served but most often stick to plain rice, sambar, vegetables as needed and a cup of buttermilk.
Later at tea time have a fruit and whey protein drink.
Continue with oats at night, a full glass of fat free milk, a plate of salad (vary the vegetables) a fruit.
I assume you exercise after 7pm?
Hope this helps. Do update me after a week on this. Check your weight every week to make sure you are maintaining your weight.

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If your cholesterol levels are high, the first thing you should do is to consult a physician as some diseases raise cholesterol levels in the blood, especially blood LDL (a type of blood lipid which has higher percentage of cholesterol in it) levels. If no such disease is present, diet changes are advised.

Approaches for lowering LDL levels through dietary modification

Include these nutrients in your diet to see positive changes in your cholesterol levels:

1. Increase intake of dietary calcium: Some studies show a fall in LDL cholesterol when calcium intake increases from 400mg/day to 1000mg/day. The calcium binds with the fatty acids in the intestine and is excreted out. Thus, cholesterol is prevented from being absorbed in the blood.

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Strawberries, the traditional summer treat, could offer unexpected health benefits of preventing development of heart disease and diabetes, says a study.

University of Warwick scientists have been studying the beneficial effects of strawberries on cardiovascular health, particularly around how they prevent the development of heart disease and diabetes.

Paul Thornalley, professor at the Warwick Medical School, heads the team that discovered extracts from strawberries positively activate a protein in our bodies called ‘Nrf2′, which is shown to increase antioxidant and other protective activities.

This protein works to decrease blood lipids and cholesterol, the very things which can lead to cardiovascular problems, said a university statement.

Eating strawberries has previously been found to counter post-meal blood glucose and low density lipoprotein, or ‘bad’ cholesterol and therefore decrease risk of diabetes and heart disease, but this is the first time that strawberry extracts have been proved to actively stimulate proteins that offer us protection against disease.

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