Author: dsp90

Defined in medical textbooks as “a metabolism disorder”, diabetes is a health condition which has turned into an epidemic that continues to grow unchecked in Costa Rica. By 2012, authorities estimated that 10.8% of Costa Ricans (around 332,000 people) have diabetes, the leading cause of severe damage to the body, such as loss of eyesight, kidney damage, nerve degeneration (diabetic neuropathy) and amputations, among others.  Sadly, with each passing year diabetes affects a greater number of Costa Rican children. Thus, we all have the responsibility of understanding this disease in order to control and prevent it in our children.  Furthermore, diabetes is closely linked to obesity and it is estimated that over 85% of diabetics also have some degree of obesity. In fact, in the vast majority of cases it is possible to control diabetes if obesity is reduced.

The solution proposed by Frank Suarez, a specialist in obesity and metabolism of Puerto Rico, author of the popular, best-selling book entitled The Power of Your Metabolism, is to educate diabetic patients and their close relatives on how to reduce glucose levels using proper nutrition to avoid health problems caused by diabetes. His new book entitled Problem-Free Diabetes proposes a nutrition system for diabetics which enables them to control diabetes while using slimming techniques to improve the body’s metabolism. The nutrition plan for diabetics that the author of this book calls the “3×1 Diet” places an emphasis on simplicity.  Nutrition of diabetics or pre-diabetics is simplified by ignoring the usual “calorie counting diets.”  It teaches readers to classify foods into two main types: “Type S” foods, FRIENDS of diabetes control, which are also slimming foods, and “Type F” foods, ENEMIES of diabetes control, which happen to be fattening.

First of all, what is taught with this new method to control diabetes is that the causes of lack of control in diabetes and obesity are the same: excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates (bread, rice, pasta, flour, cereals, sugar, etc.).  The reason for this is that these types of foods (refined carbohydrates) make diabetes go out of control when excessively consumed because they turn into an excess of glucose (blood sugar) and force the body to produce an excess of insulin, the hormone that makes body fat.

According to this method, people with diabetes or obesity would prepare their plate using the 3×1 Diet which allows consuming up to a quarter of their “Type F” foods (ENEMIES of diabetes control), providing that the other three-quarters of the plate consist of what the author calls “Type S” foods (FRIENDS of diabetes control), with the aim of creating a hormonal balance that favors metabolism by not allowing an excessive production of glucose or insulin in the body.

An example of a meal prepared based on the 3×1 Diet, recommended in the book Problem-Free Diabetes, would look something like this:

The book comes with a DVD featuring many other examples of how to use this kind of diet to control diabetes and includes extensive scientific documentation to substantiate recommendations.