Recently, a share on social networks made many people who are in the process of losing weight feel worried. According to Thuy An (32 years old, in Hanoi), recently she felt like her body was getting fat. She went for a health check-up, except for a slightly high blood sugar index, there were no other abnormalities. However, the weight gain made An’s body saggy and her clothes not as beautiful as before, so she decided to make a plan to lose weight.
After consideration, An chose to lose weight by cutting out starch, which means completely eliminating rice from his daily diet. An believes that this method will “kill two birds with one stone” by both losing weight and lowering blood sugar.
An’s daily menu only includes vegetables, tubers, fruits and protein supplements from lean meat, chicken breast, and salmon, but not much. On stressful work days at the company, An still did not eat rice but ordered more milk tea to drink. “Like last week, I only drank 2 cups of milk tea only when I was really hungry. If someone ordered it at work, I bought it with me and didn’t drink it regularly,” An shared.
Not eating starch but still increasing blood sugar is a warning sign of a very high risk of diabetes. Illustration.
After 2 weeks of completely giving up starch, An’s weight still did not decrease. When he checked his blood sugar, his fasting index was at 6.3mmol/l. With the above situation, Thuy An was worried so she shared her story on social networks with the hope of being “educated” by “cyber masters” or predecessors.
In the above case, Dr. Tu Ngu (Vietnam Nutrition Association) said that this girl is young and has such a fasting blood sugar index, she is at risk of diabetes, the immediate thing is to get checked. Check carefully to detect diabetes (if any). According to doctor Ngu, for normal people, the blood sugar index at that time is usually only at the threshold of 3.9 – 5.5 mmol/l. In the above case, the measured index was 6.3mmol/l, which is higher than the average threshold, so it should not be used. subjective.
The thing many people wonder the most is, after not eating rice (starch) for a while, why is blood sugar still high? Dr. Tu Ngu said that if you do not eat rice but your blood sugar still increases, it may be due to consuming a lot of drinks or foods high in sugar such as milk tea or soft drinks. Another possible cause is a metabolic disorder, the body metabolizes sugar on its own. Therefore, in this case, it is necessary to have a nutritional regimen carefully advised by an expert, and even follow a diabetic diet rather than following or listening to online advice.
Even for diabetics, doctors do not advise removing rice from the menu. Illustration.
Doctor II Doan Thi Anh Dao (Deputy Head of the Department of General Internal Medicine, Thanh Nhan Hospital) said that completely cutting starch from daily meals is a mistake. According to Dr. Dao, even for diabetic patients, doctors do not advise cutting out starch completely in the diet, but need to eat all 4 groups of substances and increase exercise. With the starch group, depending on each patient’s body, as well as the blood sugar index, doctors will recommend the appropriate amount of starch to eat.
As for cutting starch to lose weight, Dr. Tu Ngu also warned that this is an unscientific weight loss method, because the group of carbohydrates that mainly come from rice plays a very important role in the body. Accordingly, carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy, and are also an extremely important and necessary fuel source for organs, especially the nervous system and brain.
“A condition in which the body has no sugar in the blood (hypoglycemia), which can be fatal. On the contrary, blood sugar levels that are always high will cause many complications in the body, for example in the kidneys, heart, eyes, blood vessels… Therefore, it is necessary to have regular health check-ups, then doctors will Based on the indicators to have advice on eating and using starch most appropriately,” Dr. Tu Ngu said.
In some cases with the following risk factors, it is necessary to test fasting blood sugar once a year:
– People whose family members have type 2 diabetes;
– Pregnant women with gestational diabetes or women giving birth to babies weighing more than 4kg;
– People with high blood pressure;
– People with polycystic ovary syndrome;
– People with a history of cardiovascular disease;
– Patients with insulin resistance syndrome or other diseases related to insulin resistance.