Sesame Oil, Diabetes, and Cholesterol

Calling all diabetics and people who are flirting with diabetes! Cooking with sesame oil, it seems, can help lower triglycerides, blood glucose, and normalize blood cholesterol in your body. So says a study published in December of 2010 in the journal Clinical Nutrition.

In this study, diabetics used 35 grams of sesame oil a day for 60 days. (This equates to about 2 1/2 tablespoons of oil.) They either cooked with it or used it as a salad dressing. Here are the results after 60 days:

• Total cholesterol decreased 20%.
• Low-density lipoproteins (LDLs - the bad form of cholesterol) decreased 33%.
• Triglycerides decreased 14%.
• High-density lipoproteins (HDLs - the healthy form of cholesterol) increased 16%.

These results are cause for celebration. Diabetics have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease than non-diabetics. If a food that can be easily integrated into a daily diet can significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and angina, ideally, it should be.

It's good to note that the study also tested diabetics who were on a drug called glibenclamide (aka glyburide, a powerful drug used to reduce blood glucose). Some only took glibenclamide, while others took the drug in addition to sesame oil. The cardiac risk factors listed above were slightly normalized when subjects took the combination, except for LDLs, which were decreased 38% - a 5% advantage over sesame oil alone.

Here's another great example of letting your food be your medicine, just as Hippocrates suggested thousands of years ago. Integrate sesame oil into your daily diet. Add it to salads. Use it in stir-fries. And decrease your chances of cardiovascular issues easily, harmlessly, and tastefully!

Apple Cider Vinegar for Diabetes and Heart Disease

One of the biggest "cure-alls" in the realm of natural medicine is apple cider vinegar. It frequently makes its way into lay publications. Unfortunately, touting apple cider vinegar as a cure-all is problematic. First and foremost, it is not a cure-all. Second, saddling natural medicine with so-called panaceas makes natural medicine look like the realm of snake oil, and brings its reputation down.

But the effects of apple cider vinegar on cardiac risk factors and diabetes have been studied. And the results have been quite impressive.

One study has shown that cardiac risk factors improve with apple cider vinegar supplementation. According to this study, normal rats who took apple cider vinegar with meals showed a significant decrease in LDLs (the "lethal" form of cholesterol), and a significant increase in HDLs (the "healthy" form of cholesterol). Rats with diabetes had a decreased HgbA1c (basically, the average of blood glucose over the past 3 months), decreased triglycerides, and increased HDLs. This is a promising study, but a human study should be done to see if this trend applies to humans also.

A second study shows that apple cider vinegar can improve insulin sensitivity for persons with type 2 diabetes, or even those with insulin resistance (a precursor to type 2 diabetes). And a third study demonstrates that in type 1 diabetics, blood sugar spikes after eating (aka postprandial hyperglycemia) are lessened when vinegar is taken before meals. What does this mean? If you are diabetic or at risk of developing diabetes, I strongly recommend that you take apple cider vinegar regularly.

Here's the "recipe": take a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in 4-8 oz of water, shortly before meals. You can also take it after meals if you experience indigestion. If it tastes too sour, you can add a teaspoon of raw honey to the mix, making it taste like apple cider. Some people believe that this is the ideal way to take it. It is not recommended to take it undiluted, as it may dissolve tooth enamel.

By The Numbers: Vitamin D

0-25 - Level of vitamin D (measured in nanograms per milliliter, or ng/mL) that gives a diagnosis of Vitamin D Deficiency Syndrome, when accompanied by two or more of the following: osteoporosis, heart disease, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, certain cancers, depression, chronic fatigue, or chronic pain.

50 - Minimum acceptable blood level of vitamin D (in ng/mL) for optimal function.

75-125 - Ideal level (in ng/mL) of vitamin D.

200 - Amount of IUs (international units) recommended by the US Food & Drug Administration per day for adults to prevent osteomalacia - not for optimal health.

400 - Amount of IUs recommended by the US Food & Drug Administration per day for children to prevent rickets - again, not for optimal health.

5,000 - Amount of IUs recommended for adults to boost Vitamin D levels by 50 ng/mL within 3 months.

10,000 - Amount of IUs recommended for adults to boost vitamin D levels by 100 ng/mL within 3 months.

20,000 - Average amount of IUs generated by individuals when sunbathing in the summer with maximum skin exposure, for roughly 15 minutes.

156,000–2,604,000 - Amount of IUs a man unknowingly took daily for 2 years, which produced one of the few documented instances of vitamin D toxicity. He recovered with sunblock, steroids, and discontinuing the (poorly measured) vitamin D supplement.

Source: Vitamin D Council

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