Diabetics Need To Watch Protein In Their Diet

Diabetes is all about the levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood stream, and about having too much sugar (hyperglycemia) or too little sugar (hypoglycemia). It is thus no surprise that the bulk of dieting advice about diabetes revolves around sugars and carbohydrates. For good reason, diabetics should avoid foods with a high glycemic index, like fructose and other simple sugars. Instead, diabetics should focus on slow-digesting carbohydrates, like those found in natural fruits and vegetables, and should increase their fiber intake.

But the dieting advice doesn't just stop it carbohydrates. It goes to protein as well. Too much protein can lift blood glucose levels just as much as simple sugars.

It goes back to how insulin works in the body. Insulin doesn't just help the body process blood sugar, it helps the body process almost everything relating to nutrition, including processing protein. If, for example, an athlete works out hard at the gym and then guzzles a protein drink, they will have a large insulin spike to help them process the protein. That's a good thing in the athlete, it's how the protein gets into their muscles.

But what about someone who doesn't have that same insulin response? What about a diabetic?

For a diabetic, if they consume a large amount of protein, they won't have enough insulin to process it, and so the body will start breaking down the protein into, you guessed it, glucose. For fast digesting proteins like whey, this problem is even worse.

So what does this mean for diabetics? Thankfully, the advice for proteins is very similar to the advice for carbohydrates: avoid the simple stuff. The simple, fast-digesting proteins like whey and other proteins typically found in the supplements used by athletes and bodybuilders are the type that need to be processed so rapidly that diabetics won't be able to handle them. In contrast, complicated proteins like the ones found in meat and fish are far less likely to go into the liver unprocessed, where they would be converted into glucose.

In short, diabetics need to remember that any sort of "quick fix" food is a problem, whether it's a sugary treat or a protein bar. The essence of diabetes is the inability to quickly break down and use foods, and so every diabetic needs to choose the foods that will take the longest to process and their body.