3 Diets That Help With Serious Illness

1. Low-carb diet

Helps with type 2 diabetes

Many overweight people develop type 2 diabetes. More than 750,000 Dutch people already have the disease and another 750,000 people are at risk of developing it. Previously, the advice for them was: lose weight with ‘normal’ healthy food. Nowadays, a low-carb diet is often prescribed.

Losing weight helps, but eating fewer carbohydrates also helps

When you eat carbohydrates, glucose enters the blood. Insulin is needed to remove the glucose from the blood and bring it to the cells. In type 2 diabetes, the body is less sensitive to the action of insulin. Losing weight helps to improve that sensitivity. But a low-carb diet also helps. Actually logical, because the body of diabetes patients cannot handle carbohydrates well. In addition, insulin inhibits the breakdown of fat. If you eat fewer carbohydrates, the body produces less insulin and fat breakdown improves. That means: lose weight! And that in turn improves insulin sensitivity. The diet has now been scientifically researched and many dieticians and internists are already prescribing it. Patients benefit from it: their blood glucose levels recover faster, they require less or no medication and they lose weight.

With this diet you choose a lot of vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts and fats. Replace bread with low-carb bread and leave out potatoes, rice, pasta and sugars. Ultimately, with this diet and with more exercise and weight loss, you can cure type 2 diabetes, or help reduce the symptoms considerably.

To attempt?

• Consult with a dietitian who has experience with the diet; definitely don’t start on your own if you have diabetes.
• Read the book Other Healthy Foods – Low Blood Glucose Levels, High Fat Burning by Harriet Verkoelen.
• on Nutritionalives.nl you can enroll in a lifestyle program that includes the low-carbohydrate diet.

2. FODMAP Diet

Against Irritable Bowel Syndrome

It is estimated that 5 to 20 percent of the Dutch population suffers from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Sometimes they have been helped with hypnotherapy, sometimes with pelvic floor physiotherapy, sometimes with medication. But now there is also a diet, developed and field tested by Australian scientists. This is all about FODMAPs: certain groups of carbohydrates in the diet. FODMAP stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols.

It is suspected that in people with irritable bowel syndrome, some carbohydrates end up (partly) undigested in the large intestine. There live bacteria that convert these carbohydrates into gases and substances that stimulate the gut. Furthermore, those carbohydrates can attract fluids, causing the intestine to swell and you get a painful abdominal distention. FODMAPs are found in many foods, which makes the diet quite difficult to follow. They are, for example, in milk and wheat, in some fruits and vegetables and also in honey.

Puzzle with carbohydrates

If you are going to eat according to this diet, you should remove all FODMAP-rich foods from the menu for the first four to six weeks and replace them with low-FODMAP foods. This is called the elimination phase. For example, you don’t eat wheat bread but spelled bread, no cabbage but endive and you don’t drink milk but soy drink. It’s a strict diet; you have to be very careful what you eat and check all labels. But many people notice the effect right away.

After the elimination phase, you can carefully add another group of foods, for example wheat products. Or dairy. Or fruits. If the complaints return, you go back to the basic diet and add another group of carbohydrates a few weeks later. All in all it is quite a puzzle and therefore guidance by a dietician is very important. Ultimately, a customized diet is created that you continue to follow.

Mainly fresh and unprocessed

The FODMAP diet requires a different way of shopping and cooking. Most ready-to-eat products are banned because they contain FODMAPs such as lactose, wheat, onion or garlic. In practice, many patients switch to eating a lot of fresh and unprocessed food.

Most patients benefit from this diet: less abdominal pain, normal stools, less abdominal distention. In the Martini Hospital in Groningen, for example, the diet was studied in a group of thirty patients with IBS. 73 percent of the test subjects had fewer complaints thanks to the diet.

To attempt?

• Contact a dietitian who specializes in this diet, found at Fodmap-dieet.nl.
• You can also follow a course via the same website, during which you receive eight weeks of online advice, plus daily menus and recipes (costs: €99). The FODMAP diet is not suitable for people without intestinal complaints, because FODMAP-rich foods are actually healthy for them. Anyone who just goes on this diet can get too little fiber or negatively affect the intestinal flora.
• Consult with your doctor or doctor before you start following this diet.

3. DASH Diet

Lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels

If you have high blood pressure, you usually don’t have many complaints. But for the body it is a considerable burden. Sometimes medicines are necessary, but even then, lifestyle changes are indispensable. High blood pressure is common: according to the National Compass for Public Health, almost one in three adult Dutch people has high blood pressure. There is good news for all those people: there is a diet that effectively lowers blood pressure.

Results within two weeks

High blood pressure damages the walls of the arteries and that promotes the development of arteriosclerosis. As a result, the arterial walls become less elastic and blood pressure increases further, as does the risk of heart disease. American scientists therefore looked for nutrients that can lower blood pressure and looked at which foods they contain. For example, they discovered that a diet low in fat, cholesterol and salt, and high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains and low-fat dairy products, could lower blood pressure. The DASH diet was born. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

Thus, the basis of the diet is formed by nutrients that actively lower blood pressure, such as potassium, magnesium, proteins and fiber. You will lower your blood pressure in about two weeks, even if you do not eat a low-salt diet. But if you also start using less salt, the diet has an even better result. The diet has been extensively scientifically researched and has been called “the best diet in the world” by some.

Healthy eating pattern

The DASH diet is not designed as a weight loss regimen, yet many people lose weight if they follow the diet plan. This also has a beneficial effect on blood pressure. It can also improve cholesterol levels. The diet is now recommended to everyone in the United States by the government and the American Heart Foundation as a healthy diet. What is striking about the DASH diet is that you eat a lot of fruit, vegetables and whole grains per day, and therefore also a lot of fiber. If that is more than you are used to, it is wise to increase the amounts slowly. You also eat more low-fat dairy, nuts, legumes, lean fish and poultry. Red meat, sweets, alcohol and sugary drinks are allowed, but very limited. And yes, you need to exercise, at least 30 minutes a day.

To attempt?

• If you want to follow the DASH diet, it is best to contact a dietitian for help and advice. This is reimbursed from the basic insurance (maximum three hours per year).
• By the way, everyone can immediately start eating generous portions of vegetables, fruit, whole grains and legumes. That is healthy for everyone, even if you do not have high blood pressure.