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We get a lot of questions about what we eat, given that we have been on this raw food focused plant-based path for decades each, which is one of the many reasons why we share some of our raw creations here on our blog, on Instagram, in our free recipe eBooks, and elsewhere.

In fact, this week is my 30 year raw-anniversary, so in celebration I made one of my favorite recipes: raw tacos with salsa. Interestingly enough, we rarely create complicated recipes since after 30 years on this path each, we tend to enjoy simpler combinations of whole natural plant foods.

But finding some heirloom tomatoes in late January, which for us is a rare find at this time of year, inspired us to create heirloom tomato salsa.

Here are the ingredients in our Heirloom Tomato Salsa recipe:

Equal amounts of Cherokee purple and a non-specified variety of red heirloom tomatoes (about 2 of each)

Several chopped sprigs of cilantro (amount added to taste)

1 – 2 chopped green onions (optional)

Fresh squeezed lime juice added to taste

Avocado chunks added to taste

Our raw tacos are made with lettuce for the wraps, zucchini, sun dried tomatoes, walnuts, medjool dates, and paprika to taste. Sometimes we add some chickpea miso to taste as well.

Given how busy we are, it’s easy to make salads, dressings, smoothies, soups, etc. But once in a while, it’s fun to make more celebratory recipes like these tacos. If you sign up for our email list, you can receive our free Holiday (and everyday) Raw Recipe eBook for more recipe inspiration from us.

Enjoy!

We love this time of year for so many reasons! The air is cool and crisp, the leaves on trees are starting to change to beautiful golden yellow and orange hues, the autumn light casts longer shadows as the days grow shorter, and our garden is in full harvest mode.

In celebration of autumn, here is a fall harvest salad for you!

This one has:

3 cups of dandelion greens grown in our backyard

¼ cup of basil grown in our garden (so aromatic!)

3 cups of heirloom tomatoes also grown in our garden

3 figs grown in our yard

2 cups of carrots

3 cups of cucumber

8 cups of Romaine lettuce.

Enjoy with the whole food raw plant-based dressing of your choice!

And for those of you who love to know the nutrient breakdown (like I do!):

One might say that this salad is nutrient dense, given its nutrient content per calorie. Vitamins B1, B2, B5, B6, folate, C, E, and K1 are very plentiful, as is beta carotene, and lutein + zeaxanthin. This salad provides 43% of the DRI for calcium, almost 100% of the iron DRI for men and postmenopausal women, 44% of the iron DRI for premenopausal women, 58% of the magnesium DRI for women and 42% for men, 60% of the potassium DRI, and 32% of the zinc DRI for women and 24% for men.

Impressive numbers considering that this salad contains only 351 calories! For those of you who are curious, without the figs, this salad contains 240 calories.

Spring is around the corner and citrus season is in full swing here in northern California! Our lemons are out in full force along with the many other varieties of citrus grown by neighbors throughout our neighborhood. Last night Rick brought home some blood oranges, which if you have not had the opportunity to experience yet, have a red to orange outer rind and pink to red flesh on the inside.

Their flavor is much different than your standard Valencia or navel orange. Blood oranges to me taste like a cross between pink grapefruit and raspberries – both of which I love! Even though I enjoy eating sweet-tasting fruits, I have a special place in my heart for savory/astringent/tart/bitter flavors, so as of last night, these blood oranges have become one of my favorite fruits next to pomegranates. Speaking of which, the juice I made with these blood oranges had a very similar deep red color to my homemade pomegranate juice.

That deep red coloring of blood oranges gives us a clue as to what important nutrient we can find in them. Generally, when fruit has a blue, purple, or deep red coloring, the antioxidant anthocyanin is present. This is the case with blood oranges along with blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and other fruits of similar color.

Not surprisingly, blood oranges have important nutrients that one finds in other citrus fruits like vitamin C and calcium. What is surprising is the similarity in carbohydrate content between blood oranges and their more popular counterpart, navel oranges.

Here’s a comparison of carbohydrates and other nutrients per 100 g of blood and navel oranges:

So, even though blood oranges have a flavor that is more on the tart than sweet side, the carbohydrate content is similar to the sweeter navel orange. I would be interested to see how the simple carbohydrate content of each compares, such as the amount of fructose, glucose, and sucrose in each variety and look forward to a time when this information is available.

On another note, I found a recent interesting study done on the effect of orange juice consumption on gut microbiota. This study was not done using blood oranges, but with more common sweeter varieties. It was a small study with 10 women, who consumed orange juice for 2 months. The researchers found after those two months that consumption of the orange juice was associated with an increase in the population of Bifidobacterium species and Lactobacillus species, both probiotics, in their respective microbiomes, along with a reduction in ammonia production by gut flora and an increase in gut flora production of short chain fatty acids. All of these changes are positive indicators of microbiome health improvement. The study also found positive changes in blood biochemical parameters including increased insulin sensitivity!

You can read more about this study by searching for the study information shown below. It’s important to note that this study was done using pasteurized orange juice, so naturally I would love to see what the results would look like using fresh squeezed unpasteurized orange juice! Nonetheless, I thought you might find this information to be interesting as I did. I’ve seen many studies that show improvement in microbiome health with the addition of fruits and vegetables, so the outcome of this study is not surprising. It’s just another testament to the many health benefits of whole natural plant foods!

Lima ACD, Cecatti C, Fidélix MP, Adorno MAT, Sakamoto IK, Cesar TB, Sivieri K. Effect of Daily Consumption of Orange Juice on the Levels of Blood Glucose, Lipids, and Gut Microbiota Metabolites: Controlled Clinical Trials. J Med Food. 2019 Feb;22(2):202-210.

Nutrition information on navel and blood oranges: nutritiondata.self.com

The first two articles in this series on blood sugar regulation were regarding a lab measurement in the human body known as A1c and a food measurement known as the glycemic index, respectively. In this third article we discuss insulin sensitivity vs. insulin resistance. In order to get the most from this article please read the first two articles in previous blog posts below, which we will refer back to here.

Influences over Blood Sugar

There are many components of human physiology that affect our blood sugar level. This includes several interrelated hormones, the state of our autonomic nervous system, our emotions, our physical activity level, the amount of body fat and lean (muscle) tissue, amount of dietary fat consumed, type of dietary fat consumed, dietary fiber consumption, the physical structure of our cell membranes, certain nutrients, etc.

One of the key hormones involved in regulating blood sugar is known as insulin. One of the main jobs of insulin is to escort glucose, aka blood sugar, out of the blood and into the cells, where glucose can then be used to fuel cellular processes. When our cells are responsive, or sensitive to insulin, this process works properly, and glucose remains at appropriate levels in the bloodstream because it is being efficiently escorted into the cells to use for energy.

When our cells are not responsive, or resistant to insulin, the process of escorting glucose from the blood into the cells does not work as well. As a result, the glucose level in the blood remains higher than is desirable as it cannot get out of the blood and into the cells as readily. In our first article in this series on A1c we discussed some of the significant consequences of elevated blood sugar levels.

Insulin Sensitivity vs. Insulin Resistance

In our second article in this series on the glycemic index, we saw different blood sugar response curves for 4 sample people consuming straight glucose, then the same quantity of carbohydrate from bananas. We noted that the response curves varied quite a bit between individuals. How could there be such a variation in the glucose response curves when each subject was given the same quantity of food with the same glycemic index?

The answer is that some people’s cells are sensitive to insulin, while other people’s cells are resistant to insulin. Those experiencing insulin resistance have higher glucose response curves than those experiencing insulin sensitivity, no matter what they eat, even low glycemic foods! In our glucose vs. banana comparison to determine the glycemic index of bananas as described in the previous article, you may have noted that subject A had the lowest glucose curve for both glucose and banana consumption, while subject D had the highest glucose curve for both glucose and banana consumption. Subject A’s cells are sensitive to insulin, while subject D’s cells are resistant to insulin. Subjects B and C are in between on the insulin resistance vs. insulin sensitivity spectrum.

The glycemic index is a rating of the blood sugar response curve in a sample of humans RELATIVE TO THEIR GLUCOSE RESPONSE CURVE. It is not a rating of what will happen when that food is consumed by a particular individual. The state of insulin sensitivity vs. insulin resistance exerts a much greater influence. In insulin resistant individuals, every food consumed will cause a greater increase in blood sugar levels compared to someone else eating the same food who is insulin sensitive.

IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY, THIS WOULD BE A GREAT TIME TO REVIEW THOSE GLUCOSE RESPONSE CURVE CHARTS IN THE GLYCEMIC INDEX ARTICLE BELOW.

Insulin resistance is the hallmark of type II diabetes, pre-diabetes, and slightly elevated blood sugar. People with type II diabetes make plenty of insulin, in fact often times extra insulin, but their cells are resistant to it. That is why people with diabetes have higher glucose levels than people without diabetes, even when they eat the exact same food. This is because when insulin attempts to escort glucose out of the blood and into the cells, the cells are resistant to that process occurring as efficiently as it does under optimal conditions of insulin sensitivity.

Conventional Advice

It’s very important to note that carbohydrates are not the cause of insulin resistance. The body not being able to regulate carbohydrates well is the effect of insulin resistance.  However, the usual advice when this occurs is to limit the quantity of carbohydrates in the diet. Unfortunately, this process does very little, if anything, to correct insulin resistance, the underlying cause of the problem in the first place.

In fact, many low carbohydrate, low glycemic foods actually promote insulin resistance! Most doctors however advocate the consumption of these foods to their diabetic patients. No wonder these same doctors tell these patients that there is no cure, and that they will be on medication for the rest of their lives!

A Better Solution

In order to recover from type II diabetes, pre-diabetes, or slightly elevated blood sugar, the root causes of insulin resistance need to be addressed. When you stop causing insulin resistance, your cells become more sensitive to insulin, and blood sugar levels start to come down as a result.

In the next article in this series we will look at the major causes of insulin resistance and how to reverse the process and therefore allow elevated blood sugar levels to come back down to a more healthful range.

When one thinks of good raw plant sources of minerals such as calcium and iron, certain leafy greens, nuts, and seeds generally come to mind. It’s rare that one would think of fruit as being a good source of minerals. In fact, often in conversations, people ask questions like “but isn’t fruit deficient in minerals?” or “isn’t fruit high in carbs but not much else besides antioxidants?” After repeatedly hearing questions like this, I put together some tables with the calcium and iron content of a variety of fruits along with a video and a talk I presented at the Woodstock Fruit Festival a few years ago.

Seeing the actual numbers can help us make more informed food choices and increase confidence in our dietary approach:

As we can see, some fruits can actually be considered good sources of calcium, especially figs.

For comparison, the adult daily values for calcium are 1000 mg up to 50 years and 1200 mg for 51+ years.

Regarding iron, certain types of berries are quite rich in this important mineral, especially when compared to the adult RDAs for iron of 8 mg for men and post-menopausal women and 18 mg for premenopausal women:

Now, I know that not everyone is going to eat these amounts of fruit, however some raw food enthusiasts will eat even more fruit than this, so one would need to adjust the iron content based on the serving size they choose to estimate how much of each mineral is in their food. These numbers are helpful to know, however, it’s important to consider that certain leafy greens are much better sources of these minerals. So, for comparison, let’s take a look at the calcium and iron content of certain leafy greens:

There are lots of other leafy greens that are also good sources of these important minerals. But it’s also important to know that certain leafy greens are not good sources of these minerals because they contain significant amounts of oxalic acid (oxalate content). Those would include: spinach, Swiss chard, beet greens, parsley, purslane, and others. Oxalate binds to iron and calcium in these foods making these minerals less usable by the human body. These foods are not ‘bad’ foods, they are just not great sources of these minerals, especially when they are raw. If you would like to learn more about oxalate, we encourage you to watch our recent webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUGt9_Xx4rU

Wishing you the best of health!

Introduction

In our last newsletter we posted an article about a very useful blood sugar measurement called A1c. In this issue we look at another measurement that is often referred to when considering how to keep our blood sugar in an optimum range, known as the glycemic index. We have all heard about the glycemic index, but how is it determined, and how much relevance does it really have to the big picture of blood sugar regulation?

What is Blood Sugar?

“Blood sugar” is the concentration of a simple carbohydrate known as glucose in our blood. Glucose is the primary source of fuel for most cells in our body, so it is found in the bloodstream as it is being transported and distributed to those cells. The same characteristics that make glucose a good source of fuel also cause it to react with other molecules it comes in contact with. These “glycation” reactions lead to stiffness, inflammation, wrinkles, and a host of other problems. When this continues over time, circulation and nerve function becomes impaired, leading to numbness, tingling, amputations, vision problems, kidney problems, hypertension, heart disease, strokes, etc. It is therefore highly desirable to keep our blood sugar aka glucose levels in a healthfully low range.

The Glycemic Index

The glycemic index of a food is the degree to which that food raises blood sugar after being consumed. How though, is the glycemic index of a particular food determined? It starts by taking at least 8-10 people, feeding them a specified quantity of glucose, usually 50, 75, or 100 grams, and then measuring the blood sugar level of each participant at periodic intervals over the next two hours. In the figures below, only 4 sample subjects are shown for simplicity purposes.

Figure 1: Glucose response curves in 4 sample study subjects

As you can see, the resulting glucose response curve can vary widely depending upon the individual. Because of this, an average is taken of all of the study subjects. The “area under the curve” of the average curve is assigned a value of 100, to be used a reference point for the comparison food.

Figure 2: Average glucose response curve of study subjects

Then, under the same conditions as when given the glucose, the same study subjects consume the test food in a quantity that equals the same amount of carbohydrate as the glucose that was consumed initially. If the subjects consumed 100 grams of glucose for example, they will subsequently consume 100 grams of carbohydrate from the test food, in whole food form. Then just like with glucose, periodic blood sugar measurements are taken over the next two hours to determine the glucose response curves of the subjects for the test food, in this case bananas.

Figure 3: Bananas response curves in (the same) 4 sample study subjects

As we saw with glucose, the response curves vary among individuals. The curves are once again averaged out and an average banana response curve is obtained.

Figure 4: Average banana response curve of study subjects

Then the area under the average banana curve is compared to the area under the average glucose curve.

Figure 5: Average glucose curve vs. average banana curve

The area under the average banana curve is 52% of the area under the average glucose curve for the same individuals under the same set of circumstances. This means bananas raise blood sugar 52% as much as the same quantity of glucose consumed directly. As the average glucose response curve was assigned a glycemic index reference value of 100, bananas are assigned a glycemic index value of 52.

Figure 6: Average glucose curve vs. average banana curve determines the glycemic index of bananas.

Foods that have a glycemic index below 55 are considered low glycemic foods. From 56-69 is considered medium glycemic, while foods that rate at 70 or above are considered high glycemic foods.

Conclusion

Now is where the plot thickens. Brace yourself. As it turns out, the glycemic index is one of the least important factors in blood sugar regulation!!!  In fact, it leads to a great deal of confusion and often leads people into a false sense of confidence while they continue to sow the seeds of unhealthy blood sugar regulation.

Stay tuned for upcoming newsletter articles to continue this discussion and find out what is most important in blood sugar regulation.

Copyright 2018 Drs. Rick and Karin Dina, D.C. All Rights Reserved

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