Your metabolic health and immune function with diabetes

Your metabolism, all the systems that keep you alive and healthy, runs on energy, like gas in the car. Your immune system, your ability to protect yourself from outside invaders requires a strong response that also requires energy. An upset in the ability to supply energy can lead to risk of chronic metabolic disease. Your immune system has to deal with adapting to the changing environment you live in. This includes what you eat and drink, your sleep, exercise and how you deal with stress.

When there is a breakdown in communication between your metabolism and your immune system, the effect on your metabolism can lead to malnutrition, obesity and or diabetes. Many things regulate this interaction, like genetics (which we don’t have control over) and epigenetics (which we do have some control over). Epigenetics has to do with all the activities we do in our lives that affect whether our genes are turned on or off. This includes your nutritional status and the state of your gut microbiome. If you are eating what we call a Standard American Diet (or SAD), which includes a lot of red meat, processed food, sugar and unhealthy fats, your gut bugs can lead you to metabolic disorders like metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. The quality of your gut microbiome affects your weight – they influence how much and what kind of food is actually absorbed.

What’s the best way to keep your gut bugs happy and healthy? Eat a good amount of dietary fiber. Now, you can buy something powdered in a jar but the best way is to eat real food. Why? Because food has more and different stuff in it that your body needs.

What are some high fiber foods? These will be plant foods such as Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, lentils; dark green leafy vegetables like kale, chard, spinach; nuts and nut butters; seeds like chia, flax, sunflower, sesame and pumpkin and more. Go for the colors of the rainbow and change it up to add variety. Now, as a person with diabetes, you may want to limit fruit to 1 or none a day depending on your blood sugar. Also, these are all carbs. Remember, fiber carbs are subtracted out of total carbs because they handled differently. You may not know how many carbs are in a serving of vegetables. You could look it up online or better still you could check your blood sugar about 1 ½ hours after you eat them to see what they do to your blood sugar. It also depends on if you add some healthy fats such as olive or avocado oil, coconut oil or butter from grass fed cows. This fat will add flavor and will slow the release of food from your stomach. This will slow the release of blood sugar which helps keep it steady with less spikes. Be sure to drink plenty of water as well. Increasing your fiber quickly can be constipating so start low and work your way up.

Dietary fiber is food for the microbiome. It provides energy needed for growth and maintenance of the microbe community residing in your gut. These microbes form metabolic end products that benefit your health. The major one is breakdown of carbohydrates. This leads to short chain fatty acids: acetate, propionate, butyrate and gases we need for our metabolic processes. Some are a source of energy for the cells in your large colon. Some are used by the liver to make glucose and fats. In addition, your gut bugs make the B-vitamins (B for bacteria…) and Vit K which is important in blood clotting. Eating the right amount of fiber can help you control your body weight, control and maybe prevent high blood pressure and help keep blood sugar levels steady. It helps you eat slower because you have to chew more. Slower meals aid digestion and help reduce discomfort after meals. Are you all in for fiber? I hope so, especially for your type 2 diabetes!

Dr Elaine

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This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.

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