Diet is not a simple fixation/routine to be followed on general advises. You must understand the scientific relation/basis of your diet — as to what you eat becomes a part of your body.
So, why not give the body the ‘Happy Food’, i.e. both healthy and in harmony with the bodily functions, because most of the disease and disorders are majorly dietary disorders.
To help you understand the concept of curing lifestyle ailments, especially diabetes, with the help of food, let me introduce you to population of two extremes:
1. Kuwaiti population: It is one of the richest countries of the world and is also known for highest prevalence (17.5%) of diabetes. I got an opportunity to live there and understand their lifestyle and eating habits.
2. Jarawas: Jarawas, a hunter-gatherer civilization of Andaman & Nicobar, is the population with no evidence of diabetes, heart disease, cancer or any other lifestyle disease. Since they are hunter-gatherers of the paleolithic-era and have not yet learnt to domesticate animals or grow their own food through agriculture, the consumption of milk (except the mother’s milk) is absolutely zero. Their major food consists of fruits & vegetables and occasionally fish and some other sea foods.
I got the opportunity to have a firsthand experience of closely understanding both the populations — one with the highest prevalence of diabetes (17.5%) and the other without any trace of diabetes. Upon close observation, I could conclude that the factor responsible for this extreme is the kind of food consumption.
We can divide the food in two categories :
Food of Kuwaiti population: I call it the VIP diet.
Food of Jarawa population: I call it the DIP diet.
Food you are consuming can be divided in either of the two categories i.e. VIP or DIP depending on how the food behaves once it enters the stomach.
VIP Diet: It is a kind of food which on entering the stomach behaves like a VIP. In India (or you may be in any country), a VIP (Very Important Person) is like a politician or bureaucrat, who can overlook and ignore or snub the laws that are otherwise applicable to every citizen of the nation.
For instance, a VIP may ignore the red light of the traffic signal and drive anyway, ignoring the risk and discomfort they may pose to others. Similarly, some food upon entering the stomach behave like a VIP and jump into the blood stream without considering the level of sugar in the blood, the blood pressure and other parameters leading to great damage in the body.
DIP Diet: Here I call DIP as Disciplined and Intelligent People. People like the common citizens of our country, who obey the laws and rules of the country. For instance, in a traffic signal they wait for the green light to cross the signal. Similarly, certain food upon entering the body behave like a DIP, they understand the signaling system of the liver and are able to understand the communication signs of the traffic controller, the incretin hormone and safely add blood glucose to the blood stream without putting unusual burden to the metabolic system of the body.
Now, the basic question is how to choose the DIP food?
It is very simple; the food which respond to the incretin hormone, these are the food with live enzymes. In this planet, there are only three kinds of food with live enzymes: all fruits, all vegetables in raw state, all green leaves.
So, any of these or all of these can be considered as DIP diet. Along with these, lot of soaked nuts, seeds and coconut water can be considered as DIP diet.
On the contrary, the food that ignore the signaling of the incretin hormone and behave like a VIP are: animal food including dairy products, all packed and processed foods, all chemicals including medicines.
How to distinguish between DIP and VIP food?
DIP food: Fruits; vegetables; green leaves, nuts, seeds and coconut water
VIP food: Animal food/dairy products; packed and processed food; chemicals including medicines
From my experience with more than 5,000 diabetes patients in more than 10 countries including Kuwaiti population, I found one thing was common in them; they were all consuming VIP food.
On the contrary the civilizations like Jarawas or Hunza or Okinawa, are people who never suffer from diabetes or other associated illnesses and are all on DIP kind of diet.
From the above observation, it is not difficult to conclude that by switching to DIP diet, a diabetic patient can reverse diabetes.
(Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author)