One ounce of raw almonds contains about 78 milligrams of magnesium.
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Regular monitoring of your blood glucose levels is important in managing your diabetes. When deciding what to eat at a meal, knowing your current blood sugar level can help you to make good choices; like eating lower carb foods when your blood sugar is too high.
You should check your blood sugar at least four times per day:
- First thing in the morning. Your fasting blood sugar is the most important reading of the day as it gives you your starting point for the day as well as some indication about your ongoing progress.
- Before lunch. Use this reading to help determine what you can eat at lunch.
- Before dinner. Use this reading to help determine what you can eat at dinner.
- Before bedtime. If you are on medication and have a good reading before going to bed, 120 or lower, you should consider skipping that night time pill to avoid possibly driving your blood sugar too low.
When I am testing the effects of eating certain foods, I will test more often, usually 30 minutes, one hour, and two hours after eating whatever food it is that I am testing. That's a good way to learn how particular foods affect your blood sugar levels.
Just remember, test strips are expensive so test with care. By the way, a lot of medical insurance plans cover the cost of test strips; you just need a written order from your doctor. Be sure that your doctor authorizes enough test strips for you to test 4-6 times per day.
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Raw almonds are a great snack for anyone. They contain monounsaturated fat, the good kind, a few carbohydrates, protein and fiber. Not only are they delicious but they have a lot of healthy properties, such as lowering cholesterol, improved complexion, and cancer prevention.
Typically one almond is about one gram in weight, so there are about 28 almonds in an ounce. You should never eat more than 2-3 ounces per day and that is too many if you are trying to lose weight. Almonds contain a lot of fat so most people should probably limit their intake to around 1 ounce per day.
You should know that most raw almonds now sold in the United States are not actually raw as they must be pasteurized. This is the result of a few cases of salmonella being traced to almonds back in 2001 and again in 2004. Of course, that changes the healthy aspects of the almonds.
Imported almonds do not have to be pasteurized nor do raw almonds sold directly from the grower (in small quantities).
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The Glycemic Load is an even better method of determining a food's effects on the body as it also considers the portion size of the food eaten along with its Glycemic Index value.
The Glycemic Load of a single serving of food can be calculated by multiplying the amount of the food, in grams, times the Glycemic Index value of the food, and then dividing by 100.
A glycemic load of 20 or more is considered high; a glycemic Load of 10 or less is considered low; and a glycemic Load of 11-19 is considered medium.
It is best to eat foods that have a low glycemic load and avoid all foods that have a high glycemic load. Foods with a medium glycemic load should be eaten in moderation.
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The Glycemic Index uses pure glucose as its control food and rates all other carbohydrates in relation to it. The control food or standard is given a rating of “100” and all other foods are tested as to how they affect a person’s blood sugar, insulin and lipid levels compared to the standard.
Each tested food is given a number rating and defined as either “High”, “Medium” or “Low” on the Glycemic Index. Foods high on the Glycemic Index are rated at 70 or higher; foods low on the Glycemic Index are rated at 55 or lower; foods in the medium range are rated between at 56 to 69.
The actual testing to determine a food’s Glycemic Index is very scientific and takes into consideration many test subjects who undergo multiple tests with the same food and with the control, that being glucose.
A test subject, after fasting for at least 12 hours, will have their blood drawn and tested and then be given a specified amount of glucose, usually 50 grams. Their blood is drawn and the blood sugar levels are tested at several specified times throughout the rest of the testing period. This is to determine what the control level is in this individual. Many times, this exact same test of glucose is done two or three times in the same test subject in order to have a more exact result.
After all of the blood sugar levels have been determined, they are plotted on a graph, which shows the curve of how high the sugar levels rose and also how long they remained elevated. The next step is to take the same individual on another day, after another 12 hour fast and have them eat a sample of the food that will be tested. The amount in grams of carbohydrates in the test food must equal the grams of carbohydrates in the glucose control test.
Depending on the item being tested, the amount of food that the test subject has to eat may be very little in the case of foods that are very dense in carbohydrates, or may be a lot of food that has very little carbohydrate in it in order to reach 50 grams of carbohydrates.
Let’s say that the test subject had to ingest pure glucose in the amount of 50 grams of carbohydrates. If the food item being tested were a banana, the test subject would eat the equivalent of 50 grams of carbohydrates in banana. Then, their blood would be drawn and tested at the same times as with the control test with the glucose. The results of their blood sugar levels would be entered on to the same graph as the glucose tests and the results would be compared.
These “banana” tests would be repeated over the several days with the same test subject to ensure more reliable results. Now, imagine this same testing process with bananas being repeated over and over again with many different test subjects.
This is the testing that is done for every food that has any type of carbohydrate or sugar in it. Thousands of tests have been done to determine the Glycemic Index value of every one.
Let’s get back to our “banana test”. After all of the tests, both the glucose control tests and the specified food tests, have been completed, the results are determined. The number for the glucose test is always set at 100 and the food that is being tested and compared to the glucose is graphed and measured as to how it affects the person’s blood sugar levels in relation to the glucose.
Banana affects a person’s blood sugar levels only 53% as much when compared to the levels that pure glucose affects them. Therefore, a banana is rated as 53 on the Glycemic Index, which puts it in the Medium Range.
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