A good selection for Granny Smith is one that is smooth and has clean skin. Its color is deep green but sometimes has a blush of pink. Avoid storing it in cold areas for a long time because it develops dark spots and skin wrinkles. You can get fresh Granny Smiths in Washington from September and November.

WINESAP│ This red wine-flavoured apple is crisp, tart, and almost spicy in taste. It has a tough, coarse skin that is yellow on the shaded side and almost violet on the other side. This can be a healthy marinade and applesauce.

To make an applesauce, simply combine water, sugar, cinnamon, and Winesap. Cover the saucepan and cook for 15-20 mins over medium heat. Let cool and mash it with fork or a potato masher.
MCINTOSH│ These apples have green and red skin but a tender white flesh. It is the most popular variety in New England and Easter Canada. It is known for the pink sauce than an unpeeled Mcintosh can make. In fact, it has a longstanding reputation for being a healthy snack that is suited for cider, pies, and applesauce.

GALA│ This kind is excellent for baking and fresh eating. This is also superb when turned into a dessert. Galas are yellow-gold with stripes of pink/red.

It doesn’t matter what variety you choose, as long as you combine it with other healthy food, you will surely get a diabetes-friendly snack.

What’s best about this spherical-shaped fruits is its benefits to human body. Many adults would love to eat this as it is a strong anti-oxidant and it has anti-aging properties.

It also improves body’s insulin sensitivity and can reverse the damage brought about by high blood sugar. This means this is a good fruit to eat for diabetic people.

One recipe you can make out of it is pomegranate cake. The main ingredient is the fruit juice. In just an hour you will be able obtain a cake with a light crumb.

Other ingredients include:

1 cup pomegranate juice

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup sifted cake flour

2 large eggs

3/4 cups granulated white sugar
Confectioners’ sugar

To prepare, you must preheat the oven to 350 F. In an 8-inch baking pan, streak a non-stick foil. In a bowl, whip together the baking powder and cake flour. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until foamy. Add sugar. Add the flour to the mixture. And add the fruit juice. Beat the entire mixture until well-combined.

Pour the mixture into the baking pan you first prepared for about 35-40 minutes. Slightly touch the cake’s centre. If it springs back and is already light brown, let cool to room temperature.

Carefully lift the cake out using the non-stick foil. Have a paper doily placed on top and sprinkle the confectioners’ sugar. Remove the doily. Slice into 16 2-inch squares and serve.

This time, you need to explore the natural ways of curing diabetes. Your doctor will prescribe with you supplements. He will suggest you should try exercising and dieting. All these will help you of course. But going beyond the glucose problem will help you unlock what the problem really is.

First, let’s see what happens when we are affected by diabetes. Our body is weakened because of lack of energy. That’s why diabetics get tired easily. In this condition, our body fails to produce enough insulin or does not properly react to such. Insulin is the hormone which allows our cells to absorb glucose and change it into energy.

Most often, we focus our efforts too much on the symptoms of the glucose problem. The greater problem lies on our body becoming so weak, not able to heal itself. This leads us to the conclusion that what we need to heal diabetes is energy.

This means we have to try energy healing programs like chakra healing and acupuncture to cure our diabetes. Chinese healers say that the glucose condition is just an imbalance of yin and yang energy in our kidney. There exists a hyperactivity of excessive heat in the lung and stomach fire.

Other energy healing activities you should try are meditation, yoga, and color therapy. These activities will help provide the necessary energy for our body. If done regularly, our body will start to work effectively and eventually undergo the healing process.

When it comes to sweets and desserts, most of the time we cannot control ourselves to indulge to such cravings. There are a lot of sweet yet healthy recipes for desserts which are suitable for people with diabetes. These yummy desserts can be enjoyed by diabetics without worrying too much, especially with their sugar intake.

Here are two easy, quick and tasty desserts diabetics can always select.

Apple Pecan Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients: 2 eggs, ¼ cup granulated sugar or sugar substitute, 3 thinly sliced apples, ½ cup toasted pecans, 1 tsp vanilla, ½ cup brown sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 cup flour, ¼ cup butter

Preparation: Foil a baking pan and spray nonstick cooking spray on it. In a mixing bowl, put in baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and flour then mix. Beat butter in a bowl with granulated sugar and brown sugar with the help of a blender. Add vanilla and egg white then continue beating. Add flour mixture in it. Mix properly. In the baking pan, add the sliced apples. Add the above mixture onto them. Spread evenly. Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Cool the pan. Invert onto the serving plate. Remove the foil carefully.

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients: 2 tbsp Grand Marnier, any egg substitute, 3 cups sliced strawberries, ½ cup heavy cream, 1 tsp cornstarch, ½ cup Splenda, 1 cup low fat milk, 3 oz. non-sweetened chocolate

Preparation: In a mixing bowl, put in Grand Marnier, Splenda, cornstarch, and egg substitute and mix. In a medium flame, heat the milk and chocolate in a saucepan. Wait until chocolate melts completely. Add the bowl mixture into the saucepan. Stir until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from the flame. Blend properly to get the proper texture. Pour it in another bowl. Refrigerate for about two to three hours. Whip the mixture with cream. You can always choose to add strawberry toppings on this cake.

These recipes are just two of the best recipes for people with diabetes. Have a healthy and tasty meal out there!

Today, diabetic people should be informed with the new guidelines the American Diabetes Association has released. The guidelines state that every diabetic person should work with their doctors to control an appropriate A1C target.

The whole thing practically suggests that younger people with diabetes and those who are just newly diagnosed with type II diabetes must maintain a level of 7 or 6. Meanwhile, older people with heart disease are okay with level 8.

ADA and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes’ newly released statement was published in the Diabetes Care. The A1C test is done in a laboratory but home kits for A1c tests are available in the markets. But home glucose has a different number scale used for monitoring.

According to Vivian Fonseca, president of the American Diabetes Association, it is unrealistic to consider everybody with diabetes have the same level of glucose to control. Everyone has special needs and they don’t have the same goals and same medication taken.

This information is already known by most practicing physicians. Mary Ann Banerji of the SUNY Downstate Medical Center said blood glucose management needs to be tailored to every patient. But with this information set as a new guideline, patients and doctors are given permission to focus on the right diet, exercise, medication, and glucose testing to take.

One of the favorite desserts is pies. The ingredients of pie recipes have been creatively substituted or enhanced so that diabetics can also enjoy the delectable taste of these pie recipes.

Diabetics do not need to worry anymore, because they can now taste their favorite pies. However, they must still be mindful of the fillings of the pies. They are still given the opportunity to enjoy their favorite pies, but on special occasions only. For the fillings, like fruits or vegetables, pick up those that are naturally sweet or use a minimal amount of sugar substitutes.

Blueberry Pie

You need…

1 pie crust
4 cups blueberries (unsweetened, fresh or thawed frozen)
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tsp splenda (or any sugar substitute)
2 tbsp quick tapioca
¼ tsp cinnamon
8-10 drops liquid butter flavoring
Pinch of nutmeg

You have to…

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Place crust in a ten-inch pie plate.
3. Pick the softest blueberries and measure four cups of those. Wash the blueberries and drain the toxic substances.
4. Beat all of the other ingredients in the mixing bowl.
5. Stir in the berries. Be careful not to crash them. Pour the mixture into the crust.
6. Cover the pie plate with the crust top. Have a slit to allow steam to escape.
7. Put into the oven and bake at 425°F. Keep it in for ten minutes.
8. Lower heat to 325°F. Continue to bake for 45 minutes. Check until the crust is golden brown.

You are now ready to cool in the blueberry pie for a day’s event. Have a tasty blueberry pie afternoon!

For diabetics a higher-than-normal blood sugar level is challenging. It has been a rule of thumbs for diabetic people to change the kind of lifestyle they have. This starts from changing their eating habits to consuming a diabetic diet and to performing exercises that control their sugar levels.

For sugar intake, this means that the diabetics need to avoid sugar-loaded desserts and sweets. But fortunately, there are sugar-free dessert recipes already available for them! Sugar-free desserts and sweets are specially made for diabetics. This is for them to enjoy the desserts and sweets they want to eat without any worries of increasing their blood sugar levels.

One sugar-free dessert than can satisfy diabetics’ sweet cravings is the Sugar-free Fudge.

Here’s what you need to make this sugar-free fudge:

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup chopped pecans
16 ounces of softened cream cheese
2 unsweetened melted and cooled chocolate cubes
½ cup sugar substitute

Preparation:

1. Line a baking pan with non-sticky foil. Keep aside.

2. Beat together vanilla extract, sugar substitute, chocolate cubes, and cream cheese in the mixing bowl. Beat until the mixture turns into a smooth blend.

3. Add pecans and beat again.

4. Pour into the baking pan. Put cover. Cool in for overnight in the fridge.

5. Cut the chilled fudge and cut into pieces.

That’s an easy way to prepare a sugar-free dessert for diabetics. You are now ready to serve your sugar-free fudge and share it to everyone.

At its worst, a patient may experience sleep disruptions at night leading to over fatigue and depression. It is believed that with this condition, diabetic people have excess glucose in the blood. The glucose infiltrates the nerves and interferes with electrical signals.

According to studies, about four million diabetes patients suffer from this nerve pain and is present in many levels. But the American Academy of Neurology has released a report on a possible treatment for this, enough reason for people to celebrate.

The academy reports strong evidence on Pregabalin, an anti-seizure medication as an effective in treatment for the pain caused by neuropathy. There are also moderate evidences showing other medicines can be used as treatment. These include anti-seizure drugs gabapentin (Fanatrex, Gabarone, Neurontin), valproate (Depacon),  antidepressants duloxetine (Cymbalta), venlafaxine (Effexor), and amitriptyline (Elavil, Endep, Vanatrip), and a variety of opioid painkillers. Also, the use of TENS or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation will be effective as well as Capsaicin which is derived from hot peppers.

The guidelines strictly note that doctors should only prescribe these medicines depending on the patient’s case. In any case, these treatment options could mean a better chance of aiding the pain. This will certainly be better for millions of diabetic patients all over the world.

The academy report also added that the use of magnetic field therapy,  reiki therapy, and low-intensity laser therapy are found to be not effective.

Meanwhile, precose is a method which decreases carbohydrates absorption from the intestine. Generally, it is a requirement that carbohydrates are broken down into glucose (smaller particles of sugar). It is broken down by the small intestine’s enzymes. But, there are instances that absorption of glucose is delayed because carbohydrates are not immediately split down.

Precose also known as acarbose is taken for thrice a day. It is consumed before the start of every meal—breakfast, lunch and supper. Variation of dosage ranges from 25mg to 100mg. If it’s your first time to take it, the lowest dosage is recommended. This is important so that your body will not be upset and will be able to adjust. After series of precose intake, dosage may increase. You must consider your tolerance before going into higher amount of dosage.

But, precose medication has side effects such as gas, diarrhea and abdominal pain. Approximately, 75 percent of patients experienced those effects. Despite this, clinical researches found out that blood glucose is treated through this medication. The treatment can be used alone. It can also be combined with sulfonylurea.

Of course, proper diet and regular exercise are traditional ways yet the most effective of them all.

Treatment and Management

The moment your doctor tells you that you have diabetes; you will be given a treatment regimen that you should follow.  The main goal is to be able to bring down high blood sugar levels to normal.  Some of the treatment guidelines would include:   1) Monitor blood sugar levels frequently.  Keep a record to determine if you are successful in maintaining normal blood sugar levels.  2)  Exercise regularly to maintain your ideal weight. Exercise also enhances the effectiveness of insulin in the body.  3)  Observe good eating habits. Find out about your food’s nutritional value and the benefits that it can do for you.  4)  Change your harmful habits like smoking and drinking alcohol.  5)  Follow your medication guidelines.  Know more about your prescribed medicine, its side effects, action and the schedule on when you need to take it.

Being in-the-know when it comes to diabetes or any other disease is very important.
Consulting a physician and taking a test to determine whether you have the disease are some of the things that you can do.  Remember, knowledge and education are valuable tools in handling illnesses such as diabetes.

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