[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsIxN-cpQAU[/youtube]
Eating out can often be a challenge for people who are starting out on a Paleo diet. Going out to eat is one of my favorite things to do and I find that most restaurants ofter healthy substitutions (especially here in Portland). Breakfast in America tends to be fairly starch heavy, but if you replace the potatoes and toast with vegetables you’ll find that your energy will be consistent throughout the day. One potato has the same impact on your blood sugar as a can of Coca Cola. So that side of hash browns and toast with jam in the morning is setting you up for a blood sugar crash later in the day, which usually leads to more sugar or that afternoon cup of coffee to get you through the rest of the day.
Eating a breakfast high in protein vegetables and fat is essential for maintaing healthy insulin level. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the major cause of death in patients with Type 2 diabetes or hypertension. Ironically (or sadly) the diabetic and heart associations are still recommending a low-fat, higher carb diet. Thus the hollandaise sauce on my eggs would be frowned upon while the whole wheat muffin it normally comes with would be recommended. The only way to control insulin and glucose is to remove the excess sugar and starch from your diet. Study after study has shown that the true cause of heart disease is sugar- not fat. Below is an excerpt from The New York Academy of Sciences from 1999.
In addition to Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, insulin resistance is associated with a cluster of risk factors for CHD, including relatively higher plasma glucose concentrations, a dyslipidemia characterized by higher triglyceride and lower HDL-cholesterol concentrations, smaller, denser LDL particles, an accentuated degree of postprandial lipemia, and increased concentrations of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 –
Any one, or combination of them, would be viewed as increasing risk of CHD. In addition, two reports have recently been published showing a significant relationship between insulin resistance and ultrasound evidence of carotid artery thickening. These studies have been interpreted as evidence that insulin resistance, per se, may lead to enhanced atherogenesis. In this context, we have recently published evidence from a prospective study that insulin resistance was a significant predictor of CHD in a group of healthy volunteers.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 892:45-57 (1999)
