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Julie: Hey there, welcome to episode 385 of the Find Your Food Voice podcast. I’m your host and registered dietitian, Julie Duffy Dillon, and I am excited to unpack a very, very popular topic today. One that many people have asked me recently and over the years. So I am really prepared to help you to navigate insulin and blood sugar. Maybe you have a high A1C or gestational diabetes, or you have a strong family history of diabetes. All of these topics often will feel like they clash with giving up dieting, whether you’re experimenting with intuitive eating, or maybe you’re using some other non -diet tool. Maybe you’re recovering from an eating disorder and feel like you have to restrict these things like carbs and sugar in order to help treat disease, prevent disease, to manage these health conditions that are associated with insulin and blood sugar. And I am here to say, no, you don’t have to cut those foods out. 

Julie: So this is a mini session episode. I have accumulated the discussion points my clients and I would often go over in a session when they’re felt to be like a clash with trying to move away from dieting and managing some kind of health condition associated with insulin or blood sugar. So just like any other mini session, we know that they do not replace individual therapy or individual time with your own in -person registered dietitian but certainly bring this information to one of your in -person providers and use it as maybe like a roadmap as you are trying to figure out your next best steps in conjunction with their guidance. So something I want you to know, because one of the first questions or maybe it’s not even a question, it’s probably more of a dig that I get whenever I talk to people about not dieting anymore is basically like that type of eating style is not for someone who has a serious health condition like diabetes. And I think it’s really important for you to know that I haven’t just been an anti -diet or intuitive eating type of dietitian for the last 25 years. There were many years where I was practicing as a dietitian in very acute areas. So I was a hospital dietitian, I was a clinic dietitian, rehab dietitian.

Julie: I did lots of different areas before I came to this place where I was like, fuck, diets suck. They don’t work and they are harming us. So what I can confirm with you is I have struggled with this topic and come out on the other side and have helped other people do the same. One of my very first jobs, actually, I think this was my first job as a dietitian. I worked at a very large teaching hospital. It was over a thousand beds if you worked with me back there, hey, I hope you’re doing well. We had a great time. There were 20 dietitians that all worked together in this thousand plus bed hospital. And my first job included covering the cardiac rehab units. So basically if someone had a heart attack or something like that, and they were in the cardiac ICU, and they lived to tell about it, they had to go to this like kind of step down unit this cardiac unit just to make sure that they were stable before they went home. And my job was every person who was on that unit before they could go home, no matter what, they had to attend one of my discharge heart healthy classes. You can imagine how this felt. If you were someone who had just been through something very tragic, I would imagine you would do one of two things, because this is what I would see from folks in these classes. One, you would be like scared to death again, scared so much and hanging on every word as I described what you and shouldn’t eat. Because again, this was before I had found weight inclusive nutrition. Or you maybe would be in the group that felt like kind of like the dichotomy, the opposite of that. Someone who was falling asleep in that class or not paying attention, just like ready to go home and knew you just had to check this checkbox off to give to the discharge nurse so you can actually go home to the comfort of home. And that’s what I saw. I saw that extreme.

Julie: And around that time, I started to become a diabetes educator. And what I found out in that early time in my career is that you don’t have to cut out foods. Research shows you don’t have to do this. And when I saw people cutting out foods, it wasn’t effective. There are some things that are gonna blow your mind that are the most effective ways to help balance blood sugar that have nothing to do with cutting out food groups. So before we get to this list, and I actually have six different tools that can help lower insulin and blood sugar with intuitive eating and without dieting. So we’re gonna get to it in a moment after this very quick sponsor break.

Julie: All right, welcome back. And I am excited to just jump right in into my favorite tools to help you balance your insulin levels and your blood sugar. And like I said, this comes from 25 years plus of helping people to do these health interventions. And for most of that time, I have also been combining it with anti -diet or intuitive eating strategies.

Julie: Number one is to not skip meals. So I know that flies in the face of everything that is popular right now with intermittent fasting. But what I have found is long -term intermittent fasting and skipping meals is something that not only is it not sustainable, but for most human beings, because of how our brain is wired to stay alive, it promotes after restriction or not eating enough for a longer duration, eventually it leads to these out of control eating experiences that people may describe as binge eating or emotional eating or stress eating. But it makes sense if you’re not eating enough, your body thinks that you’re like holding your breath. And so it’s like, breathe, take a deep breath now, please. So don’t skip meals, don’t fall for the hype of intermittent fasting. And if you need more umph, like maybe you’re already doing this, you’re having three meals, snacks when you need them. The other thing you can experiment with, I call this kind of experimentation, curious nutrition and the find your food voice book. But if you want to give this some more umph is to try to eat around the same time every day. This doesn’t mean to be like very rigid, like I have to eat at eight and 12 and five, but just Again, not skipping meals and kind of having a flow to your eating. The reason why this can help some people have some more umph is blood sugar management. It kind of likes boring lifestyles. It tends to have less stress on the pancreas and our other organs if there is kind of consistent nutrition, dependable nutrition coming in. So not everyone will need that extra umph, but I just wanted to throw it out there in case you wanted to see maybe you’re already not skipping meals, but if you can make them around the same time every day, that tends to help people with their blood sugar and insulin management. 

Julie: Okay, so number two, make sure you are actually eating enough. This is probably more than you think because we all have been trained, whether you’ve been on a diet or not, whether you have had an eating disorder or not, we have all been trained to assume we eat more than we need especially if you’re in a larger body, we all have this kind of download that has been downloaded without our consent that we need less than we actually do. Make sure you’re eating enough. And this is where you may need an in -person provider like a dietitian helping you, maybe a health coach to help make sure you’re arguing enough. And this is something that you, if you can connect with hunger and fullness cues, satisfaction cues, that may help you to know if you’re eating enough. But if you wanna add some more umph to this one, to make sure you’re eating enough, when you are adding foods in, as you’re trying to like repair your body from not getting enough, make sure you’re adding protein, fat, and or fiber. Those are the three types of additions that I have found can be helpful for many people with insulin and blood sugar concerns and which one is best, there really isn’t one that’s best. I have the most experience with clients adding protein and seeing a benefit. And yet there’s been a number of people who don’t find protein adds that much umph to their management of insulin and blood sugar, but they find that instead with fiber or fat. So you may need to experiment around again, some more curious nutrition kind of experiments where you don’t judge it. You just are collecting data. And yeah, so add more umph with adding protein, fat and fiber or some combination of those while you are trying to make sure you are eating enough. All right, the next two are supplements and we’re gonna get to it after a very quick sponsor break.

Julie: Welcome back. Like I mentioned, the next two are supplements. There are two that I love and I haven’t mentioned that yet in this episode, but I actually have insulin resistance. So these are two supplements that I also take and I hope it goes without being said, but I’m gonna say it anyway. Make sure you check with your in -person health provider before starting any supplement. I am a dietitian, but I’m not your dietitian. I’m just like this random dietitian.

in a podcast feed or a YouTube channel. like make sure that this is actually something that’s consistent with your healthcare requirements or needs. But two, that I would encourage you to explore. You may have heard of before, but I wanna actually share with you why they’re are taking these supplements and they’re not taking the right amount.

Julie: Okay, so first up is Inositol. If you have PCOS, you probably have heard of Inositol. You may not know if Inositol is helpful when you don’t have PCOS, but one thing I can tell you as someone who, again, has insulin resistance, I don’t have PCOS. I take Inositol, but I take it a little bit differently than people with PCOS, it has been the one addition that’s made the greatest impact on my insulin resistance. So, want to share this really great tip with you. So, inositol, what that is is a B vitamin, and there are nine different types of this type of B vitamin that basically when our body has insulin receptors that get kind of broken, they need repair, our body sends these little messengers that tell the body to fix it and fix and repair these insulin receptors. So people with PCOS and people with insulin resistance, and if you have pre -diabetes or type two diabetes, you may have insulin resistance that has led to that condition or you may not. It’s something that you can ask your doctor about. But inositol basically, there may be a deficiency of it. And so supplementing with it is something that will help your body to be able to use your insulin your body releases, so you can actually get your energy from food. So for people with PCOS, when they take the amount that they need, it’s something that they will say helps their cravings and their energy levels with just a few days helps their cycles. I know for me taking and inositol has significantly impacted my energy levels. helped me to not have as many migraines. I do have migraine as a chronic condition, so I have so many fewer since I started inositol. And inositol is also something that can help with your sleep along with your energy levels because of its impact on insulin. So how much do you take? The amount that has been researched has mostly been within the population of people with PCOS. And that therapeutic level is two servings a day. And we need to be really specific with this one. The serving is 2050 milligrams and it has a combination of two different types, myo to D -chiro. So this becomes very complicated, I know, but I have a blog post that goes through all the particulars of this. If you go to my website, julieduffydillon.com/inositol. It’ll go through all these numbers that I’m sharing with you right now to make it clear, because it’s very important. There are a few supplements on the market that already have the right ratio and the third party tested so you can trust them. But there are many that don’t have that ratio or they don’t even tell you which type of inositol that’s in there. So you want to make sure that you’re getting the right amount because these two different types of inositols have been the two of the nine that had been found to be deficient or defective in those of us with insulin resistance. So you want to provide the right kind, right? So anyway, so two servings of that. So 2 ,050 milligrams twice a day is what people with PCOS are recommended as per the research. And then just one serving or 2 ,050 milligrams for those of us with insulin resistance. And keep in mind, if you do that lower dose because you don’t have PCOS, but you find it’s just not helping enough, it’s okay to go higher on that. And that’s what I recommend to my clients. That’s what I’ve kept in my pocket for my own kind of reference for one day, you know, when my chronic condition of insulin resistance is progressing, because that’s what it’s gonna do. I can add another serving of inositol to help with that. Okay, so that’s inositol. 

Julie: Let’s go to the next supplement. The next one is Omega -3. So Omega -3s of course are something that have been super popular for a really long time. And there’s a reason. One thing we know to be true is that our body needs to have certain essential fats from food in order to just be able to go through the normal kind of repair process that our body needs to go through every day. When we breathe in air and eat food and just like our human being, our body does these chemical equations that results in some waste, some trash. Some people call it toxins and I don’t know that’s toxins is kind of a diet culture buzzword to me. So I don’t like using it too much, but if that one suits you, that’s fine. But anyway, our body needs to get rid of this. And when we have a buildup of this extra waste, these toxins, whatever we’re to call them, if it builds up, then it can promote extra inflammation in the body. Now, inflammation is really normal and important, but when we have more building up that’s not able to be smoothed over, it will cause us to be stressed and has been found to predict disease. And that’s why we want to lower inflammation. And when our body has to go through a lot of stress, whether you’re experiencing racism, transphobia, xenophobia, or you have a chronic condition and you’re not able to navigate healthcare without experiencing trauma, or you have a chronic condition and your body has to do all this extra work, especially with PCOS, your body has to like go through all of the daily struggle from this hormonal imbalance. I’m listing all these because these are all items that will provoke more inflammation and cause extra buildup of this waste in your body. And what your body needs to do then is use extra of a certain type of omega -3.

Julie: It’s DHA or the initials, extra DHA in order to smooth over all this extra stress in your body. And when that becomes depleted, then inflammation builds up. So by supplementing with enough of this type of omega -3 or DHA is something that can help replete your body and help inflammation levels to go down. So Again, this is way more detailed than a podcast episode can provide, but just know an omega -3 supplement that labels how much DHA and EPA is in there, like actually specifically says how much is really important. And just like inositols, omega -3 supplements often don’t label what they have. So you will be limited on what choices to make. And, you know, something I know to be true in the food industry is that omega -3 supplement makers, need to know specifically which fish they’re going to catch in order to be able to label that information. And sometimes they just don’t know. So that’s why they often will not have how much DHA is in there. So there’s one brand that I use a lot, and that’s the Costco Kirkland brand. A lot of the times it’s labeled on there how much DHA is in that, but sometimes it’s not. And I have to check it every single time that I’m replenishing my stores. So I encourage you to do the same.

Julie: All right, we got two more tools to get through. The next one is sleep. If you have insulin resistance, diabetes, pre -diabetes, gestational diabetes, PCOS, any of those conditions, you need more sleep than everybody else. You probably already know this. You’re probably already exhausted, but even if you’re not exhausted, you probably need more rest. And again, it’s because of that inflammation that your body is trying to repair from every single day. So you may find that you need eight or nine hours of sleep. Maybe you need a break during the day where you can just go feel the outside fresh air. Maybe an extra couple minutes of meditation every day is something your body needs just to bring your inflammation levels down. As I say all this, you may say, is no way in hell I have time for all that. And you know what? If you don’t have time for all that, I hope you can give yourself the compassion that you need to know that in the season of your life, you may just find that what you’re experiencing right now is your normal. And adding more rest in your future when you can is gonna be so beneficial. I can’t wait until you’re in a season when you can have more rest. And if you don’t have enough rest because of life circumstances, because of the oppressive systems that you’re dealing with, it’s on the rest of us to help you. You do not have to do that. So just know we are all working together to chip away of the on those systems so you can actually get the rest you need. And rest, along with not skipping meals, those are the two tools that I saw, especially in diabetes care, having the most impact on A1C levels. So again, it’s not about what you’re gonna take away. It’s like, what are you gonna add? 

Julie: All right, let’s get to the last tool. My last tool is a favorite. It is boundaries. So one thing I know to be true, those of you with insulin resistance or any of those other conditions we’ve named already, you are probably fabulous caregivers for everyone else in your life. You are someone’s go -to person. You may be many people’s go -to person. You are taking care of everyone’s needs probably accept your own. And if you’re doing that and you are dealing with insulin resistance, high blood sugar, maybe some of the consequences from those physiological kind of markers, having boundaries where you can help your stress lower, prioritizing your needs, however you can do that, you are gonna see it impacting your A1C, your insulin levels, and your inflammation levels. So, I would say start practicing saying no. No is a full sentence. One of my favorite, favorite tools that I learned in my own personal therapy. However, we can help support you to set these boundaries. It’s gonna help you with this condition again, without taking anything out. So with that all being said, I hope you can appreciate with all six of these, it was not removing a food group. I have found that to be, I always say it’s like, putting the cart before the horse, like it’s not something you need to do. Adding these tools and thinking about that as you are mending your complicated history with food, what can you add to your life instead of what you can take away is going to be a really great mantra just to hold onto as you are navigating life ahead. All right, so there you have it. Those are my favorite insulin and blood sugar tools without diets. I hope they help.

Julie: Let me know if you found them helpful or if you want me to add anything to them, And before I go, I wanna let you know that I have really appreciated all of your attention on my podcast reviews, Spotify, Apple, and YouTube, and leaving comments on YouTube is something that I have found really helps other people find my show. If you didn’t know that, I’m on YouTube as if you are someone that’s on YouTube and would rather watch this podcast, hey, I’m over there. So come give me a follow or a subscribe or however you’re listening, doing that of course helps the show grow. So before I let you go, I wanna let you know that the next episode is a bonus episode. There is a very special dietitian conference I’m going to in a few days. And so I have a very special episode just for dietitians and other healthcare providers.

Julie: So I am very excited to share this bonus episode with you in just a few days. All right, thank you for listening. And again, hit subscribe or follow in any way that you’re watching or listening to this show. And until next time, take care.