It’s a fact of life: as you get older, losing weight becomes more difficult. This can happen for a variety of reasons. From increasing stress levels to a slowing metabolism to the inevitable loss of muscle, shedding that excess weight takes more effort and intention. Here’s a closer look at why losing weight is so challenging and how you can succeed in your healthy lifestyle goals.
Pairing Protein, Fibre and Zinc to Boost Your Diabetic Immune System
There are some often overlooked micronutrients that are key parts of your immune system. While everyone focuses on vitamins, they may forget that things like protein, fibre, and zinc are all very important parts of helping your immune system stay strong and competent, and call all be found in some great diabetic-friendly foods.
Protein is very important for your immune system. Many people may only associate protein with the stuff that weightlifters drink in order to get big muscles, but protein is actually the building block foundation of most cells in your body.
This includes your immune system. If you don’t get enough protein regularly, your body won’t be able to produce strong white blood cells, nor will those cells be able to use the other nutrients efficiently.
Zinc is used in most processes by your white blood cells. White blood cells are important because they’re your primary defence against viruses that are trying to take hold in your body.
If they don’t have things like zinc that they need to use to gain energy or communicate, then they won’t be as effective. It’s good for diabetics in general to get a healthy amount of zinc, because it helps mitigate some of the long term effects that diabetes can have on you.
Specifically, diabetes and high blood sugar can damage your heart as the years go on, but zinc helps strengthen your heart so that it’s not much of a problem. Finally, fibre has a much better use than just making sure you’re taking regular bathroom trips.
It actually helps improve your gut bacteria health greatly, which is an important part of your immune system that handles contaminates that may be found in your food. Fibre is also great for diabetics, since it helps keep your blood sugar much more stable, and makes insulin much more effective.
If you really want to go for one food that will help you boost all of those things, you should look into hummus. It’s made with chickpeas, which contain all of those nutrients in good amounts, and it has been recommended to help diabetics boost their immune systems.
Typically, people eat hummus with things like bread or crackers, but you can also use slices of raw vegetables and it’ll be just the same. You want something firm so that you can sort of scoop the hummus, such as long slices of bell peppers.
Selenium-Rich Foods for Diabetics to Improve Their Immune Health
Your thyroid gland plays an important role in your body, by managing hormones and helping regulate metabolism. A poorly functioning thyroid can lead to a number of problems, especially for diabetics who already have enough to deal with.
Unfortunately, diabetics experience thyroid problems at a higher rate, and the thyroid problems then make their diabetes worse. Since your thyroid helps regulate most other systems in your body, it can affect your immune system if it’s not working properly.
There are even cases where your immune system will damage the thyroid, making everything worse. However, to combat this, you should include snacks in your diet that give you a nice little boost of selenium, which helps your thyroids perform better.
By getting your thyroids under control and having them work better, you’re going to be able to control your blood glucose levels much easier, something that is crucial for diabetics.
Selenium doesn’t just help your thyroids, though. It’s also been found to help your immune system and even heart health, both of which are also very important for diabetics.
Now it’s just a matter of finding the right food to get your selenium from. You don’t need a lot at all – around 50-60 micrograms per day is fine. As long as you stay under around 400 micrograms you’ll be fine, but you shouldn’t go over that amount.
The first common source of selenium is chicken. Of course chicken can be cooked in a ton of different ways, plenty of which are fine for diabetics. You want to avoid fried altogether, but you can season it and pan sear or bake it instead.
You should also be sure to avoid sugary sauces like barbeque sauce. Selenium can also be found in eggs in decent amounts. Eggs are a good food for diabetics because they’re high in protein and fairly low in carbs, especially if you’re not adding in things like cheese to the mix.
Just having some sunny side up or scrambled eggs in the morning is a good way to get those nutrients in early on. Finally, the best source of selenium is Brazil nuts. Just 5 whole Brazil nuts is enough to give you your daily intake.
These can be eaten as a quick snack in the afternoon or along with another meal, and they’re low carb enough for diabetics to not have to worry about them.