3 Essential Minerals in the Diabetic Nutrient Arsenal
The high blood sugars that occur in diabetes can cause you to lose excessive amounts of essential vitamins and minerals in your urine. The losses become part of a self-reinforcing downward spiral in nutritional health. The leading minerals at risk include zinc, magnesium, and chromium. Each nutrient plays its own important role in how the body repairs itself and functions.
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1. Make sure to take enough zinc in supplement form to make up for urinary losses of this and other key nutrients from high blood sugars in diabetes. Zinc is crucial to foster proper healing after injuries in diabetics.
Too much zinc is bad also and can cause restless legs among other problems, in part by getting out of balance with another bodily mineral, copper. However, the daily recommended allowance is 15 milligrams, an amount that can be hard to get from foods in a typical Western-type diet (e.g., what most Americans eat). Foods like animal proteins, including dairy products, legumes, and wholegrain cereals, are high in zinc. For vegetarians, pumpkin seeds contain a good concentration of zinc.
2. Take magnesium supplements regularly to maintain good cardiac health and nerve function. Many diabetics lose excess magnesium in their urine as a result of high blood sugars. Taking the right amounts of magnesium can improve sleep and lessen anxiety, in addition to helping the heart beat normally. Foods high in magnesium include beans, nuts, and vegetables.
3. Include a chromium supplement to improve glucose tolerance. Chromium is a trace mineral – so more is not necessarily better. As with many nutritional supplements, it is important to get not too little and not too much chromium. Chromium helps the body use sugars made from foods more effectively. In type II diabetics, in particular, chromium can change the resistance of the tissues to taking up glucose from the blood properly. The result is that you can lower abnormally high blood sugars by taking the right amount of chromium.
Foods that contain chromium include some fruits (e.g., grape juice), vegetables such as broccoli, and spices. The high sugar foods are low in chromium and tend to deplete the body of this essential mineral.
