Posted on 07/30/2005 9:40:05 AM PDT by FairOpinion
July 29, 2005 -- Whey may be good for more than just Little Miss Muffet.
A new study shows adding whey to a high-carbohydrate meal may help people with diabetes keep their blood sugar levels under control.
Researchers found drinking a whey supplement mixed with water along with a high glycemic index (GI) meal, like mashed potatoes with meatballs, prevented the dramatic spikes in blood sugar that normally occur in people with type 2 diabetes.
Whey is a protein found in milk and is also available as a nutritional supplement. Researchers say the results suggest that whey aids in blood sugar regulation by stimulating the production of the hormone insulin in the pancreas. Insulin helps the body regulate blood sugar naturally.
In type 2 diabetes, the pancreas either does not produce enough insulin to keep blood sugar levels at healthy levels or the body has become resistant to insulin. Therefore, people with type 2 diabetes are advised to modify their diet to avoid foods with a high glycemic index that are digested rapidly and can cause dangerous spikes in blood sugar.
Foods that have a high glycemic index -- and thus the strongest and most immediate impact on blood sugar -- include refined grains, potatoes, and sweets.
Whey to Help Keep Blood Sugar in Check In the study, researchers compared the effects of eating a high glycemic index meal with or without whey supplementation on blood sugar levels after the meal. The results appear in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
For two days, 14 people with diet-treated type 2 diabetes ate a high-GI breakfast of white bread followed by a high-GI lunch of mashed potatoes and meatballs.
A whey supplement of 27.6 grams of whey powder mixed in water was added to both meals on one day. On another day, they ate the same meals with lean ham and lactose dissolved in water in place of the whey supplement.
Lower Blood Sugar, Higher Insulin Researchers took blood samples before and after the meals and found that insulin production was higher after the whey-supplemented meals.
For example, insulin production was 31% higher after the high-GI breakfast and 57% higher after the high-GI lunch when whey was included compared with when it was not.
The study also showed that rises in blood sugar levels after lunch were reduced by 21% with whey supplementation.
Researchers say the findings suggest that whey proteins may attenuate blood sugar surges throughout the day.
Additional studies are also looking into the possibility of stimulating insulin production by specifically tailoring these proteins, which may lead to more effective diabetes treatments with fewer side effects.
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SOURCE: Frid, A. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, July 1, 2005; vol 82: pp 69-75.
Ping your list?
Instead of increasing insulin production, it decreases insulin resistance, so that the available insulin "works better". In addition, it also drops cholesterol and LDL's.
Show me the whey!
I personally drink the whey every day. After a good workout there's nothing better. However it takes a while to find a drink with a taste you can stomach.
Isn't whey something you could actually mix into the food?
I can't taste whey at all, apparently. I buy Body Fortress chocolate powdered whey at WalMart, and it tastes to me like Nestle's Quik used taste when I was a kid. But my girlfriend cannot even be in the room while I'm drinking it. There's some smell or taste she senses that's beyond me.
you eat it with kurds, although i personally find cannabalism distasteful...
Whey protein drinks are fine, except that I found out large amounts of 'whey' nauseated me. Oops!
Yup. But I "like" cinnamon, so I just sprinkle it on my morning toast. I am AMAZED at how it has stabilized my blood sugar. Really incredible. This is real peer-reviewed double-blind clinical data (though the sample size is a bit small---only 60 people). You can also get the benefit by using a piece of cinnamon as a "swizzle stick" in your tea or coffee.
I have been taking these for about a week. Don't notice any major changes, but cinammon isn't going to hurt me, so I'll give them a bit more of a trial.
I know people want to eat what they want. God knows I would love a big plate of spaghetti, but I know what that would do to my blood sugar, so I just don't eat it. By following Atkins, I have gotten off of insulin. I know I can only eat a certain number of carbs per day w/o things going out of whack. For other people, South Beach may work just as well.
All I know is, you have to control your carbs in some fashion. I'm not going to start eating high carb meals and following it w/whey (which my son uses for a health drink, so we've got it in the house). So your post-meal blood sugar is reduced by 21% - reduced from what? 400? 600? Better not to eat such high carbs in the first place.
btw-for people who only know about Atkins from the garbage science reporters on tv, you actually eat a ton of veggies and my protein ingestion isn't anymore than anyone else's. When I read his books, I was surprised to find that the real diet was so different from the way it is portrayed by the media. No wonder my endo approves.
I know. I told a friend that I had lost 40 lbs doing Atkins. She told me that she was doing a "low-carb" not a "no-carb" like Atkins. WTF?
People look to tv for their info and have stopped reading.
I knew something was up when I went to my university diabetes center and they had Atkins posters all over the place. Lemme see, a bunch of endos and other specialists want to see you as a frequent patient because you're blind and an amputee due to uncontrolled diabetes or they want you to think about your food choices and be healthy and in control?
I've been having severe problems with my blood sugar- I was always hypoglycemic, and still have some episodes, but now I have been having high sugars - in the 200s. I also have liver function problems so they say they can't give me metformin.
This is all new to me, and I can't make sense out of all the stuff on the internet. Does anyone have any advice or can they point me to a good website?
You can read up and maybe try on some herbal remedies, some of them may help. I make no claims, but here are some things you might read and decide for yourself.
http://www.flourishwellness.com/store/index.asp
http://www.hfn-usa.com/shop/cart.php?m=product_list&c=11
(on this one they have it under weight loss, but if you read more about the particular products, like carbo defense, banaba and salacia reticulata, they say it's for diabetes)
You can read the ingredients and do searches on them too.
Vanadium and chromium are also helpful.
Vanadylsulfate and chromium picolinate are the way I think you can buy them.
There are also a couple of new medications, the are injections, but subcutaneous, which supposed to help too. Talk to your doctor about them.
http://www.byetta.com/index.jsp
http://www.symlin.com/
You can also do some searches and go through what you get and see what seems informative.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=diabetes+herbs&btnG=Google+Search
Good luck!
I need to find out if Whey Low ( http://www.wheylow.com/ ) is a comparable whey supplement.
I've used/cooked with Whey Low, and unlike Spenda, Whey Low is all-natural and there's no aftertaste!
save for later
thanks for posting this...
Ping for later reading.
Is it loaded with Sugar. I try and get the low-carb stuff. I throw some Splenda in to sweeten it up a bit. It's palatable but I wouldn't drink it out of thirst.
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