Dietary Guidelines for People with High Blood Sugar: The Importance of Low-Temperature Cooking and Limiting Alcohol Consumption

Dietary Recommendations for People with High Blood Sugar

Low-Temperature Cooking is Recommended: Traditional Chinese cooking methods emphasize high-temperature techniques like stir-frying and deep-frying. However, a recent study by American scientists shows that low-temperature cooking methods with shorter cooking times are generally more beneficial to health. This is because prolonged high-temperature cooking easily generates large amounts of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Many common complications in diabetic patients are largely related to excessive AGEs in the body. Furthermore, since AGEs are naturally present in the human body, and diabetic patients have significantly higher levels of AGEs in their tissues due to their high blood sugar, high-temperature cooking is clearly detrimental to them. Therefore, patients should choose low-temperature cooking methods to avoid complications.

Limited Alcohol Consumption is Recommended: The restrictions on alcohol consumption for diabetic patients should be discussed in terms of the effects of alcohol on metabolism and glucose metabolism.

The effects of alcohol on metabolism are multifaceted, depending on the amount and speed of alcohol consumption, nutritional status, food intake during drinking, liver and pancreatic function, and the body's tolerance to alcohol. Its effect on glucose metabolism is mainly related to the body's nutritional status. In individuals with good nutrition, alcohol can raise blood sugar; however, in cases of hunger or poor nutrition, alcohol has no effect on raising blood sugar and may even lower it, leading to hypoglycemia. When liver glycogen stores are sufficient, alcohol can promote glycogenolysis and inhibit glucose utilization, thus raising blood sugar; conversely, when liver glycogen stores are insufficient, alcohol hinders gluconeogenesis, easily causing hypoglycemia. Excessive alcohol consumption reduces glucose tolerance; while small amounts have little effect. Some have pointed out that although alcohol itself does not stimulate insulin secretion from the pancreas, it may, to some extent, enhance the response of pancreatic β-cells to stimuli (such as carbohydrates).

While the effect of alcohol on glucose metabolism depends on the body's condition, long-term alcohol abuse fundamentally alters its effects. For diabetic patients, the negative effects of long-term alcohol abuse are multifaceted:

(1) Patients treated with insulin are prone to fasting hypoglycemia after drinking alcohol. Patients using sulfonylurea hypoglycemic drugs may experience palpitations, shortness of breath, and facial flushing after drinking alcohol. (2) Long-term excessive alcohol consumption can cause alcoholic cirrhosis, pancreatitis, and damage to multiple organs, and can also lead to hyperlipidemia.

(3) Excessive alcohol consumption can induce diabetic ketoacidosis.

(4) When diabetic patients drink alcohol, their blood sugar levels rise as soon as they eat any sugary food, causing their diabetes to become uncontrolled. Regularly drinking alcohol without eating can inhibit gluconeogenesis, reducing blood glucose levels and causing hypoglycemia. Furthermore, clinical data reports that although the amount of alcohol consumed varies among drinkers, the calories from alcohol cannot be effectively utilized by the body, leading to poor adherence to dietary therapy and difficulty in controlling blood sugar levels.

In principle, alcohol consumption is prohibited for diabetic patients. However, considering the difficulty some patients face in quitting alcohol, moderate drinking is permitted in the following situations:

Those with well-controlled blood sugar, with fasting blood glucose at 7.84 mmol/L (140 mg/dL);

Non-obese individuals;

Those without acute or chronic diabetic complications;

Those who do not require oral hypoglycemic drugs or insulin injections;

Those with normal liver and kidney function. It is worth noting that alcohol is a beverage containing calories, but it is almost entirely unused and unstored in the body, and is easily dissipated through the skin. Therefore, its main harm lies in disrupting and interfering with dietary control plans, complicating them, and increasing the difficulty of implementation. When calculating the calories for dietary control, ethanol should neither be excluded from the scope of dietary control nor should it be counted as its entire amount. Generally speaking, daily ethanol intake should be controlled to within 2 units, with each unit being 334.8 kJ (80 kcal). This translates to approximately 25 ml of spirits, 400 ml of beer, 200 ml of wine, or 70 ml of whiskey. Of course, this is a permissible amount, and actual consumption should be halved. Furthermore, while drinking alcohol in moderation, it is important to maintain a relatively constant proportion of daily calorie and nutrient intake, avoiding both insufficient and excessive food intake.

Additionally, it is recommended that pregnant women and patients with the following conditions abstain from alcohol: pancreatitis, progressive nephropathy, severe hyperlipidemia, and alcoholism.