The best meal of the year

Happy Thanksgiving from me, my staff, and my family to you and yours. [Click here](1770d7/ct0_0/1/ms?sid=TV2%3AkDb7Pdkv3) to view this message in your browser | [Click here](1770d7/l-002e/zout?sid=TV2%3AkDb7Pdkv3) to stop receiving our messages [] [] Al Sears, MD 11905 Southern Blvd. Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411 [] November 24, 2022 [] Reader, Happy Thanksgiving from me, my staff, and my family to you and yours. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year… For me, this holiday is all about being with family. Barbara, my sons and I spend the day at home, relaxing and having fun with our guests. Hopefully, I’ll get in a few extra games of tennis today with my son Dylan. And of course, we always eat a great meal. Every year I get a big free-range turkey delivered to the house. It’s not only delicious, but it’s also healthy. A traditional Thanksgiving dinner is one of the healthiest meals you eat. The turkey, the zucchini, the green beans with almonds, Brussels sprouts with bacon, the deviled eggs we make as an appetizer… It’s a treasure trove of health benefits. But there is one traditional Thanksgiving food that is as bad as it gets. I’m not talking about candied yams or mashed potatoes with gravy. I’m talking about cornbread. Every time you take a bite of cornbread, your body reacts by massively overproducing insulin. You produce this storm of insulin whenever you eat foods that are high on the Glycemic Index. And one piece of cornbread scores a 110 on the Glycemic Index. That’s twice as high as a blueberry muffin or a piece of pound cake. And five times higher than a full-size Dove Dark Chocolate bar. This insulin overload tells your body to shut down burning fat for energy and shunt every calorie toward fat accumulation and storage. I call this process Lipogenic Energy Accelerating Deprivation. Lipogenic literally means the forming of fat. And it leaves you vulnerable to every disease. When you’re unable to use energy because your body stores it for fat, chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease get the upper hand. I always recommend that my patients choose foods low on the glycemic index. As a general rule, carbs are the foods that rank highest on the GI. Of course, eating well doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself. Indulging every once in a while – like a holiday that comes only once a year – is perfectly OK. But here’s what I tell my patients and my family… When you get in the mindset of thinking about certain “forbidden” foods as a reward, it implies that good, healthy eating is the opposite –a punishment. And nothing could be further from the truth. I tell my patients that as long as they choose foods with a low Glycemic Load (GL), they can indulge (almost) as much as they want. Here’s a refresher on what I mean... The GL is simply a number you get when you multiply a food’s Glycemic Index (GI) rating by the total amount of carbohydrates in each serving you eat. That makes it much more practical for your everyday life because the GL tells you how fattening a food is. It’s a fresh way to look at everyday foods. Some GL ratings may surprise you – especially foods like watermelon … high GI but low GL. I consider foods with a Glycemic Load under 10 as good choices. They are a green light. Foods that fall between 10 and 20 on the GL scale are more like a yellow light: Not bad, but proceed with caution. Foods above 20 are a red light. Eat those foods sparingly and try to eat protein instead. Protein has a GL of zero. [For my complete Glycemic Load chart, click here](1770d7/ct1_0/1/lu?sid=TV2%3AkDb7Pdkv3). For Thanksgiving, I offer my guests pumpkin pie. It’s a common misconception that this dessert will cause a blood sugar spike. Pumpkin indeed has a high GI at 75. But... it has a low GL at just 3. And pumpkin has other benefits when it comes to blood sugar. One animal study found that two components in pumpkin lowered the insulin needs of rats with diabetes by naturally increasing insulin production.1 Another animal study observed that two compounds in pumpkin — polysaccharides and puerarin — lowered blood glucose and reduced insulin resistance in mice with type 2 diabetes.2 Delicious Pumpkin Pie Ingredients: - 1 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree - 1 teaspoon of real vanilla extract - 1 cup of monkfruit sweetener - 2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice - 1/4 teaspoon salt - 1 1/4 cups whipping cream - 3 large pastured eggs Directions: [bali sears] - Preheat oven to 300 degrees F and grease a 9-inch pie dish with butter. - Heat the first five ingredients in a pan over medium heat. Stir constantly for five minutes. - Remove from heat and place in a ceramic bowl. Let sit for 20 minutes until cool. - Add fresh whipping cream and stir to combine. - Stir in each egg, one at a time. Don’t over-stir. Pour into greased pie dish. - Bake for about 50 minutes. Your pie shouldn’t be too firm when it comes out of the oven. - Let cool for two to three hours, then refrigerate. - Serve with fresh whipped cream. To Your Good Health, Al Sears, MD, CNS --------------------------------------------------------------- References: 1. Yoshinari O, et al. “Anti-diabetic effects of pumpkin and its components, trigonelline and nicotinic acid, on Goto-Kakizaki rats.” Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2009 May;73(5):1033-41. 2. Chen X, et al. “Synergistic hypoglycemic effects of pumpkin polysaccharides and puerarin on type ii diabetes mellitus mice.” [Molecules.](1770d7/ct2_0/1/lu?sid=TV2%3AkDb7Pdkv3) 2019 Mar; 24(5): 955. --------------------------------------------------------------- alsearsmd@send.alsearsmd.com [Preferences | Unsubscribe](1770d7/l-002e/zout?sid=TV2%3AkDb7Pdkv3) 11905 Southern Blvd., Royal Palm Beach, Florida 33411, United States