Control Your Carbs to Resist Diabetes

Do you love breads, fruit, potatoes or anything with sugar in it? A diet heavy in high-carbohydrate foods like these may lead to insulin resistance and diabetes, say New York City-based physicians Rachael Heller, M.D., and Richard Heller, M.D., authors of "The Carbohydrate Addict's Cookbook" (Wiley, 2001).

Consisting of starches and sugars, carbohydrates are the body's chief "energy food." They influence the release of the hormone insulin, often referred to as the hunger hormone, since it signals the body to take in food.

There are two major types of carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates, found in fresh fruits and vegetables, contain complex sugars and starches and various types of fiber, all of which are digested slowly and help stabilize glucose and insulin levels. Refined carbohydrates, which include bread, snack foods, pasta and various forms of sugar, are digested rapidly and provoke surging increases in glucose and insulin.

Insulin surges prompted by carbohydrate consumption may lead to insulin resistance. Glucose, normally transported by insulin, remains trapped in the bloodstream instead of being burned or stored in cells, and the body begins to rapidly store food in the form of fat. If prolonged, insulin resistance can lead to the dangerous condition known as adult-onset diabetes.

To prevent insulin resistance, stop eating refined carbohydrates. Limit yourself to only four servings of starches and fruits each day, and never consume more than two servings per day of starches, writes Las Cruces New Mexico-based Burton Berkson, M.D., Ph.D., coauthor of Syndrome X: The Complete Nutritional Program to Prevent and Reverse Insulin Resistance (Wiley, 2000).

Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., registered dietitian Cindy Maynard, M.S., R.D., suggests using the "plate method" to ensure healthy carbohydrate intake.

Divide your empty plate into the top half and two quarters on the bottom. The top half should hold complex, unprocessed, nonstarchy carbs such as lettuces and greens, asparagus, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, sweet and hot peppers, tomatoes, green beans, zucchini or summer squash.

In the lower half of the plate, one of the quarters should consist of protein, in the form of meat, poultry or fish. "This should be no larger than a deck of cards, or 3 to 4 ounces," Maynard says.

The final quarter of the plate can contain a serving of starchy carbs about the size of a tennis ball. Healthiest choices would include brown rice, whole-wheat couscous or whole-wheat pasta. A serving of fat, such as butter or margarine, should be no larger than a teaspoon.