30 Days of Diabetes-Healing Giveaways

You did it! You’ve just achieved something that the “experts” have deemed impossible: you’re actually reversing diabetes—a disease that has often been known as “incurable.” Congratulations.

So, now what? It’s been 30 days and you’ve turned your life around for the better—it’s time to celebrate! And the best way to do that is by making this day, day 30, all about you and the promise you made to yourself. Start your day early to reflect on the success you’ve had. Then treat yourself to a diabetes-healing breakfast. Buy yourself a bouquet of flowers, share the day with someone special and allow yourself to feel gratitude for having made this transformation.

Remember, this isn’t the end—it’s the beginning. Celebrate with this congratulatory package! It’s filled with diabetes-healing gadgets and helpers. For example, Tart and Sweet, a fantastic book filled with 101 canning and pickling recipes will empower you to preserve local, organic produce…all year long. Learning these techniques will help you stay on track with your new lifestyle because you’ll always have canned fruits, veggies and unsweetened jams at hand.

Also included is the Hydracoach, an intelligent water bottle that keeps track of your fluid consumption during the day and calculates your personal hydration needs. It helps you make goals for yourself as you go about your day—it even factors in how much exercise you’ve done or if you’re at a high altitude–and you can track your progress. So as you continue your 30 minutes of walking a day, you’ll have all of the fuel you need to keep it up!

For a delicious treat that you can eat, the Cabot Organic Cheese Selection package will surely tickle

your taste buds—and you won’t have to feel guilty about it. Cabot is a cooperative, run by the farmers and their families (ie, the opposite of Big Food) and eating quality cheese is one of the cornerstones of staying healthy, satisfied, and full. It will fill you up without getting you off track.

When life lacks its luster, sometimes we look for entertainment in food. Here’s where the trouble starts and ends.

If you’ve heard of being “bored to tears,” the phrase should be “bored to death.” Boredom is a very real health risk for most Americans. In a study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, those who were severely bored by their jobs had a 250% greater risk of dying from heart disease than their no-bored peers. Add in the bad habit of overeating when bored, and you’re headed in the wrong direction.

But there’s a way to keep food entertaining without the excess. Cooking can be fun, and most of all, help you to appreciate the healthy, diabetes-fighting meals you create! Find your passion and purchase the Diabetes Healing Cookbook, which features 60 original unpublished “meals that heal” developed in the MyHealingKitchen.com  Test Kitchen. Combine this book with the excellent, day-by-day coaching in the 30 Day Diabetes Cure, and diabetes doesn’t stand a chance!

It’s important to keep learning new things. Make time for the things that you love doing. When you allow yourself to relax and engage your mind in the world around you—boredom is gone for good! (And so is unhealthful eating-as-entertainment.)

You’ve followed the instructions in the 30 Day Diabetes Cure, you’ve made the recipes, added the exercise-but you might want to kick things up a notch. And we don’t blame you! Even if your meals are based on organically-grown whole grains, veggies and naturally-raised meats, you still need a little extra nutritional support to accelerate your progress.

This, is where supplements come into the picture. High-quality supplements paired with your already nutrient-rich diet will help your body regain its natural balance. And I know there are tons of options out there for you—where should you begin? With your doctor’s permission, start off with the Big Three: fish oil, CoQ-10 and Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA). Fish oil’s got the omega 3′s, CoQ-10, a nutrient made by the energy-producing mitochondria in your body will help you burn body fat, and ALA will control blood sugar levels and improve your nervous system.

Once you’ve introduced the Big Three into your routine, try adding other helpers like Magnesium or the fish oil alternative, Phytoplankton. The omega-3’s in fish oil and Phytoplankton is well-documented to turn off inflammation in your joints and arteries, lower blood sugar levels, even relieve depression! Go straight to the source with Phytoplankton supplements from Activation Products. Oceans Alive, a concentrated marine phytoplankton that Activation offers, is a super-potent micro-algae, “Fresh Harvest Captured,” and requires no refrigeration.

Give their Topical Magnesium a go to0, because this supplement is a crucial macro-nutrient for your health. It’s required to absorb and regulate calcium, to power the movement of electrically charged ions through the blood and maintain strong bones and ligaments. In fact, a University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill study found that participants who took in the highest amount of magnesium were half as likely to be living with diabetes 20 years later than those who took the lowest amounts. In other words, those that didn’t take enough magnesium were 53% more likely to develop diabetes!

And while I’m sure you want to jump right in and try all of the supplements mentioned above, it’s best to give them some time. Introduce one a new supplement and give it several weeks to work. These aren’t drugs that act immediately; these nutritional helpers take time to build up in your system before you’ll notice their benefits.

Sometimes good things come in small packages. Phytonutrients from plants, for example, become a concentrated superfood in green drinks, adding the “nutrient density” you need to help you reverse your diabetes–helping you to make every bite and sip count. Drinking a green smoothie doesn’t mean you should put down the dark leafy greens you’ve been eating thus far-those have the fiber, vitamins and minerals that are extremely important in supporting insulin sensitivity.

But…green drinks include the highest concentration of plant nutrients and contain, ounce for ounce, more phytonutrients than an equivalent amount of leafy green veggies. The magic lies in the blue chlorophyll, which boosts the production of stem cells. You can find this in algae like single-cell spirulina and chorella, which are packed with protein, amino acids, enzymes-all proven to boost metabolism and lower blood sugar. And green drink powders are great for your pancreas and reduces the inflammation of tissues and organs.

Try Ultra Greens from Dr. Sears for a quick and easy mix of these phytonutrient-rich ingredients. Just two spoonfuls a day feeds every cell in your body and helps eliminate the toxins hiding in your blood, tissues and organs. This concoction’s got  ”super foods” like barley grass (500% times more iron than spinach), spirulina (65% protein) and chlorophyll (great for stem-cell production).

Going Green is easy because there are so many ways to do it! Take a pill-supplement or mix powder with water, vegetable juice, milk or soy milk. In either form you’ll be getting the green kick you need to enhance your blood sugar metabolism, immunities, and reduce inflammation.

You don’t need to be an Arnold Schwarzenegger to lift weights-strength, or resistance training can make a huge difference in the way your body processes blood sugar. A simple strength-training program can lower insulin resistance by 22%!

The Stretchmatic Strength System from Naturecast Products offers a non-traditional exercise program that will build strength-without the weights. For just 20 minutes several times a week, you’ll increase your energy levels and your muscle mass-all while improving circulation. The system is broken down into three target areas: the quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. When all of these muscle groups are strengthened and more flexible, you’ll feel great…strong…vital…ready to take on the world.

Why? As you build lean muscle, your body clears more sugar from your blood. Lean muscle is highly sensitive to insulin. As you build it up, your insulin sensitivity will improve because your body responds to this type of training by pumping more blood through your muscles. And even after your workout, the benefits keep coming! Over time, the more muscle mass you build, the more calories your body burns, even when you’re resting.

Toxins are directly linked to higher diabetes risk. The chemicals in the foods you eat and the products you use disrupt the smooth functioning of your body. In fact, the persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in your typical body lotions disrupt your endocrine system (which includes hormone levels and diabetes-centric blood sugar metabolism, just to name a few functions).

To make matters worse, cleaning products contain everything from formaldehyde to hydrofluoric acid-all labeled as “irritants.” But when you look at the harmful effects these POPs have on your body, you might say they’re a bit more than irritating.

But with eco pioneer Seventh Generation’s Healthy Home gift set, the all-natural products will let you stay on top of home care without having to fret about exposure to needless industrial toxins. (Chores are enough of a bummer without health-damaging fumes and residues.)

The set includes…

Free and Clear Natural All-Purpose Cleaner

Free and Clear Natural Glass and Surface Cleaner

Emerald Cypress and Fir Tub and Tile Cleaner

Emerald Cypress Toilet Bowl Cleaner

Disinfecting Wipes

Natural Hand Cleaner

A jumbo roll of recycled paper towels

And a cute Seventh Generation reusable shopping bag (Using a reusable shopping bag can save 300-700 disposable shopping bags per year!)

Everything in this package is free of harsh fumes, harmful chemicals, aerosols or dyes.

Charity begins at home–and so does health. Short of living in a bubble, it’s  impossible to eradicate all toxins, but you are in charge of your home–and with Seventh Generation’s essential oil-scented products, green cleaning is both safe and enjoyable.

Maintaining your new lifestyle can be difficult when battling diabetes. But who says you’ve got to do it alone? Getting support can make all of the difference in your progress. You can find external reinforcement anywhere, but if your network could use a boost, consider going straight to the source: Dr. Stefan Ripich. Check out the 30 Day Diabetes “Video Coaching Program” to help you keep motivated and looking forward. Each of the three DVDs guides you through stages 1-3 of the plan, so he’s got you covered from day one!

Take action now and assemble a team of those you know will support you as you follow the plan. Stay positive by surrounding yourself with positive people. Get the help you need to get to the next level.

If you haven’t noticed by now, 30 Day Diabetes Cure is not a diet. It is a lifestyle change that can actually save your life. It’s easy to feel discouraged and frankly, it’s part of the journey. The changes you are making are not just monumental–it takes bravery and commitment. Have you given in to some of your old cravings or skipped your daily walk? Breathe, it’s okay. You don’t need to throw your plan to the wind because of a few slip-ups.

We’ve been raised to believe that willpower is a virtue, not a “muscle.” But in the book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, groundbreaking science from Roy Baumeister and New York Times health writer John Tierney shows that people have more willpower when they’re well-rested…when their blood sugar isn’t low…when they haven’t just made several decisions in a row. It also reveals that working on increasing your discipline about one thing (like standing up straight) strengthens the power of your willpower when it comes time to exercise it on something else. But those are just a few of the valuable, applicable insights within Willpower, and steeping in its lessons won’t just ramp up your success with The 30 Day Diabetes Cure; it will do so in every area of your life.

Are you ready to re-enter the “outside world”? I think you are.  But even the most determined 30DDC-ers can find the irresistible food traps in the “real world” difficult to beat without adequate preparation.

 It’s important for you to feel confident that you can have an active social life–without feeling deprived. What’s more, you now know how to prepare yourself for the challenges you may face once you step out of your comfort zone. How? Don’t put yourself at the mercy of whatever foods are at hand.

 With this Picnic Time Turismo Insulated Cooler backpack, you can easily bring along healthful snacks (and even lunch) when you’re out for the day, or traveling via “trains, planes and automobiles.”

You won’t have to eat what the airport food court (or flight attendant) has to offer, because you’ll have  diabetes-healing snacks and goodies to eat at blood sugar-regulating intervals. The food wastelands on the long stretches of the US highways will have nothing on your lined tote containing everything from veggies, dips, hard-boiled eggs—even artisan cheeses. When you’re swimming in a sea of greasy burgers and gooey cinnamon buns, your ”goodie bag” of healing treats will keep you headed in the right direction.

Overeating: the anti-healer. The world moves quickly and we often neglect to make time to prepare nourishing meals for ourselves. It is just too easy to munch when you’re stressed, on the go, or sitting in front of your favorite Sunday-night lineup of television. These types of behaviors interfere with your ability to tell when you’re full, how much is too much, and whether you were even hungry in the first place. In order to reverse your diabetes, you need to eliminate these unconscious eating habits and start thinking about the things you put into your body.

If you’re not aware of how much you’re eating, you simply cannot control consumption and you will gain weight. It’s easy to overeat when you’re otherwise engaged because your brain isn’t paying attention. Eat too quickly and your body won’t release the same amount of leptin, meaning you won’t get that “I’m full” sensation until it’s too late.

Cravings and comfort foods account for 75 percent of overeating, researchers say. Foods like ice cream or your favorite chocolate cake satisfy an emotional hole and can have the same chemical effects as recreational or prescription drugs. But that instant gratification has nothing to do with real hunger and can lead to guilt and intestinal problems like heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

A great way to start really thinking about your foods is to keep a journal. How much did I eat? When did I eat it? Why? Putting your choices into context will help you remove your old habits. Keeping track of your diet and exercise with the Body Minder and Diet Minder diaries from MemoryMinder Journals help you to break down your day, meal-by-meal and activity-by-activity. There are options to set weekly goals, keep track of your total carbohydrate intake, and note ups and downs in mood and vitality.

Consciousness is key when you’re engaged in self-healing…and in that department, these journals deliver. 

Eating healing foods is one thing, but adding exercise to your lifestyle is another

important medicine for diabetes. Now that you’ve introduced at least 30 minutes of walking into your daily regimen, you’re read to kick it up a notch! Low-impact, low-stress movement is the way to bring your fitness routine to

the next level.
Everyone’s exercise regimen is different. With the 30 Day Diabetes Cure, there’s wiggle room for variation in your plan. Some participants maintain a strict schedule of activities, while others prefer to switch it up and go solo. A great tool for all folks, however, is a pedometer. These nifty devices keep track of how any steps you’ve taken—and motivate you to take more!

The Sportline 308 Snapshot Pedometer, offers a complete view of all of your fitness data on the same screen. No more scrolling through multiple pages to track down data. This device includes a distance tracker, calorie-burn tracker, measures the length of your strides, among many other things. The best part? Unlike some bulkier pedometers, this slim, sleek beauty fits nicely in your pocket.

Keeping track of your steps will help you set goals for yourself and remind you of the progress you’re making. Work up to 10,000 steps a day. Break it up into three shorter walks, or hit the marker in the morning—it’s totally up to you. Walking regularly will add muscle, boost mood, increase mental clarity, improve insulin sensitivity, and tone your frame. Be creative in hitting your goal! Make extra trips to the car when unloading groceries or take the long way home. Every step counts.

Walking 5,000-10,000 steps per day will decrease your risk of developing metabolic syndrome by 40%. And a study revealed that women who wore pedometers during their 30-minute daily walks took significantly more steps than women given the same exercise routine who did not wear pedometers.

PS: It’s not too late to enter the KeenFit walking pole giveaway (or any of the other 30 Days of Giveaways. The benefits of adding this one small element to your walk are pretty impressive. Not only are you engaging your upper body to create a total body workout, but you’re also increasing your calorie burn by up to 46 percent! The poles will assist you in balance and relieve stress from your knees, hips, and other weight-bearing joints.

Our culture’s go-go pace can take a large toll on our sleeping habits. It often feels impossible to hit the hay for more than 5 to 6 hours a night (and when we do put head to pillow, the brain isn’t always in the mood to mellow out). The truth is, we need to make time to recharge. In fact, how much and how well you sleep is directly linked to blood sugar and insulin levels.

Sleep deprivation worsens insulin resistance, increasing your chances of developing diabetes and making it worse if you’re managing the condition. If you sleep less, your brain releases the chemical cortisol. Cortisol  gives you a temporary spurt of energy, but disrupts blood sugar metabolism.

But wait, there’s more! Sleep deprivation also affects your appetite, causing weight gain—regardless of your physical activities or food intake.

And popping sleeping pills are no quick fix. Prescription sedatives have side effects ranging from dizziness and back pain to anxiety and memory-loss. They still disrupt your metabolism and may lead to addiction.

A natural supplement like DeltaSom from Best Life Herbals can help you get the sleep you need, every night. It’s non-groggy formulation allows you to wake up, bright-eyed and fresh—no prescription required. The nutrients in DeltaSom restore your levels of melatonin to youthful levels in its synthetic time release form—which means it does not contain additives, binders, fillers, or animal parts that may carry viruses. DeltaSom’s formula will improve your quality of sleep and enhance your morning alertness without the side effects found in other supplements.

Taking this (combined with a concerted effort to make time for at least 8 hours of sleep a night) will help you restore your body’s ability to regulate insulin levels and set your metabolism back on track.

Take a moment and press pause. Healing your diabetes is not just about monitoring your blood sugar levels—focus your energy on your mind and your heart too! Yoga is an excellent way to meditate and engage your mind and body with its no-impact, stimulating, and restorative exercises.

For those with chronic illnesses like diabetes, higher-impact forms of exercise like running on
the treadmill or lifting weights can be damaging to the joints and muscles. Yoga increases flexibility, tones muscle, and provides superior stress relief—without the wear and tear.

So, take a deep breath and get started with this high quality “minty” yoga mat from Yogamint. Wake up, roll it out onto your bedroom floor, and set your body—and your mind—on the healing path. Yoga movements stimulate the vagus nerve, which is responsible for controlling your heart rate, breathing, and your digestion. Stimulating this nerve with yoga will boost your energy, balance your hormones, and give depression a run for its money.

Once you’ve got a rhythm, pair regular yoga stretches with Yogamint’s Food & Flow video series that connects healthy eating and your yoga practice. Each monthly episode has a theme- Radiance, Love, Strength – and features a vegan cooking class paired with a yoga exercise. Combining healthy mind and body movements with the right healing foods will increase the benefits of your practice exponentially.

The demands of managing diabetes add  layers of stress to life that is often already hectic enough. Type 2 patients are told to monitor their glucose levels, watch what they eat, exercise more, and lose weight. The fear of heart disease and other complications are endless.

In fact, diabetes and depression are directly linked. According to the ADA, up to 20 percent of people with Diabetes are depressed.

But you can battle the blues with an unlikely candidate–fish oil.  The omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil–more specifically its EPA, or eicosapentaenoic acid—are beneficial for mild depression.

Taking a quality fish oil supplement is a MUST if you’re suffering from depression. We’re so happy to be giving away Norwegian Gold Super Critical Omega because these gels combine concentrated EPA, DHA and other powerful Omega oils, as well as Vitamin D (a diabetes mega-helper) to promote optimum digestive function and enhance overall health. I love this formula because it’s burp-free and its benefits don’t stop at mood improvement! The high-EPA, super-concentrated oil blend supports healthy heart function,; helps reduce stiffness in joints and, and helps reduce anxiety. Added Vitamin D3 supports cognitive function and bone health. These are all things to “feel good” about.

Take one or two daily and remember to keep up with other simple remedies like walking outside (it boosts your serotonin and can alter your mood for the better), or journaling and talking to an understanding friend.

A multivitamin “fills in the blanks” of your diet (no matter how good it is), so you’re not running dangerously low on the essential nutrients your body needs for optimal functioning. And if you’re on a quest to reverse your type-2 diabetes, you want this powerful healing tool at your disposal.

Be sure to avoid the TV-advertised one-a-days you find in your local drugstore. These are nearly worthless because their ingredients are based on the “bare minimum” official Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA), now upgraded to the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI).

The RDA evolved from the old Minimum Daily Requirement (MDR) set by the government. This means the nutrients in most of the popular multis contain the minimum doses necessary to prevent nutritional -deficiency diseases, such as scurvy (vitamin C), beriberi (vitamin B1), and others. This certainly is not how to guarantee optimal health.

These mainstream multis are notoriously feeble. For example, Consumer Reports recently concluded that Centrum is the worst vitamin for seniors in its class. (There goes that advertising revenue!)

Consumer Reports also found that The Vitamin Shoppe’s One Daily failed to dissolve in a simulated stomach environment, while containing less vitamin A than its label claims.

You can avoid this pitfall by sticking to high-quality, bioavailable multivitamins that are reasonably priced and lab-tested. One of my favorites is Ultimate Daily Support, formulated by Dr.William Campbell Douglass. It’s a terrific multi that contains a broad list of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, and enzymes that easily are absorbed and quickly bioavailable.

One of the best ways to unwind and renew your calm vitality is to “check out” for a few minutes with meditation. In addition to immediately relaxing you, meditation lowers your heart rate and blood pressure, reduces the adrenaline and cortisol in your bloodstream, and sharp­ens your mental functions and creativity.

Regular meditation produces profound benefits on the body and brain. As Deepak Chopra reports in his book Ageless Body, Ageless Mind, “We now know that meditation may actually reshape the brain, modify our responses to daily situations and train the mind.… In terms of aging, the most significant conclusion (about meditation) is that the hormonal imbalance associated with stress – and known to speed up the aging process – is reversed. This in turn slows or even reverses the ag­ing process, as measured by various biological changes associated with growing old. From my experience with studies on people using Transcendental Meditation, it has been established that long-term meditators can have a biological age between five to 12 years younger than their chronological age.”

Enter to win Wild Divine’s Secrets of Meditation program,
which includes the Wild Divine iOM hardware.

BEANS ARE the world’s most powerful Diabetes Healing Superfood. No other single food packs the diabetes-reversing power that they do. Beans are extremely low in calories, high in protein, packed with fiber and versatile enough to be enjoyed at every meal of the day. And man, are they inexpensive. Now that’s a superfood!

The more often you eat beans, the faster your blood sugar will normalize.

Canned beans are high in BPA, sodium, and even have a higher glycemic index than home-cooked. Subtract time and fuss from the process with today’s giveaway.

This 360 Cookware 4-quart pot (a $275 value!), can work like a pressure cooker without all of the pressure cooker anxiety. Its “vapor technology” creates a seal that locks in heat and reduces cooking time. That means that your home-cooked beans take less time to go from rock-hard to succulently soft.

I also love 360 Cookware because you can steam veggies without a steamer insert, and with just a smidge of water, so that the nutrients don’t leach into that cooking liquid–they stay in the vegetables! Ever notice how emerald green water is after you steam broccoli, asparagus, or spinach? Wouldn’t you rather your food hung onto those precious green nutrients? Instead, unless you’re super-conscientious, you pour that precious green water down the drain.

360 Cookware is also “green” conscious in another way–it’s built so that you need less heat to get the job done–which is great for the earth and your household energy budget. How? The heat doesn’t just “touch” your food on the bottom of the pot; your food is also cooked by heat coming at it from the sides and lid.

You can have your beans and eat them too–and cut down on the times you turn to canned beans to get your fix.

Study after study shows that being active brightens a person’s mood, boosts intelligence, improves memory and makes you feel more fully “alive.” In short, physical activity is a true anti-aging, anti-diabetes elixir.

 If you’re not sufficiently active to burn off excess glucose, blood sugar levels become constantly elevated, your cells begin to resist insulin’s effect so that greater amounts of insulin are required and you wind up with Type 2 diabetes.

 Walking is an excellent entry point to daily exercise. But if you want to get more out of your jaunts, add KeenFit walking poles (today’s giveaway!). Walking poles take the pressure off lower joints. Researchers have also noticed that pole walking helps improve muscular endurance of the upper body, and tames neck and shoulder pain. Studies also found that poles help lift depression (by making it easier for people to get more physical activity). And get this: walking poles increase the calorie expenditure of a walk by up to 46%!

Whole grain foods are true “diabetes fighters” because they’re packed with fiber, which slows digestion and sends a steady flow of glucose to your bloodstream at a rate your metabolism can handle. This is precisely how you’ll control and eventually reverse your Type 2 or prediabetes diagnosis: By having balanced blood sugar, instead of the peaks (hy- perglycemia) and valleys (hypoglycemia) caused by a glucose rush from fast carbs.

 The natural fiber in whole grain foods is essential for controlling your blood sugar. Whole grains also increase insulin sensitivity.

 Unfortunately, most “whole wheat” products at your grocery are totally bogus (see our recent expose here): white flour products tinted with food coloring to look less pasty.

 Arrowhead Mills’ whole grain products are the real deal.

Today’s giveaway is compliments of Arrowhead Mills:

-Organic Old Fashioned Oatmeal, 1 lb.

-Organic 4 Grain Plus Flax Hot Cereal, 1.5 lb.

-Organic Stone-Ground Whole Wheat Flour, 2 lbs.

-Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Mix, 1.75 lbs.

That’s 7.25 pounds of healing, whole grain goodness!

Beneficial fats such as omega-3s are Diabetes Superfoods, thanks to their ability to protect your heart and blood vessels from the risks of cardiovascular disease, a serious complication often stemming from diabetes.

Foods high in good fats – wild Alaskan salmon and the mono-unsaturated fats in extra virgin olive oil, avocados and nuts – also lower your cholesterol, prevent obesity and insulin resistance, and reduce dangerous inflammation, all essential for healing your diabetes.

Today’s featured giveaway is a “liquid gold” bottle of extra-virgin olive oil from T.J. Robinson, “The Olive Oil Hunter.”

T.J.’s fresh-pressed oil is produced by hand on small family farms. When the olives are perfectly ripe, farmers pick them by hand and the oil is made on site in small batches. And then it is immediately bottled and loaded on a plane to be shipped to members of T.J.’s Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club.

When it comes to Diabetes Healing Superfoods, fresh vegetables top the list. They’re loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber, plus other phytonutrients that have overwhelmingly positive effects on your blood sugar, your metabolism and your cardiac health – making them a virtually unbeatable healing food.

How do vegetables work so much healing magic? For one thing, they’re incredibly low in calories, meaning you can eat your fill without gaining weight. And because they’re rich in all-important fiber, they slow down the digestive process so glucose is metabolized slowly. That means they provide your bloodstream with a steady supply of energy, instead of spiking it up and down like a roller coaster. On top of that, they’re loaded with roughage that scoops up choles- terol, fats, toxins and waste products and escorts them out of your body.

 The Green Polka Dot Box, a new, online, warehouse-priced natural and organic food delivery service, is gifting one lucky winner with a $50 gift certificate. They’ll soon be adding a produce line to their offerings, but in the meantime, check out the rest of their deeply discounted organic offerings!

You may not be aware that there are two kinds of animal protein available to you. There are animal products generated from huge factory feedlot operations, which are then manufactured into a variety of “meat products” laced with chemicals, hormones, antibiotics and carcinogenic preservatives.

Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Luckily, you have an alternative. There are also ranch-style operations where cattle, dairy cows, bison, pigs and poultry are allowed to roam and graze on grassy pastures all day and fed organic grains to supplement their diet. This is humane animal husbandry. The meat and food products of these animals are hormone-free, devoid of antibiotics and chemical additives.

Protein is a vital part of a diabetes-healing diet. If you’re overwhelmed at the thought of sourcing the good kind of protein, fret no more. Today’s featured giveaway is a US Wellness Meats gift certificate for $50! Browse around their website—they offer meat eaters countless opportunities to dig in to healing beef, lamb, pork, bacon, and more.

Please, please snack. If you don’t snack while on The 30 Day Diabetes Cure, your blood sugar levels will drop and you’ll feel lousy. Feeling lousy will lead to discouragement and poor food choices. Then you won’t succeed, and there’s nothing we want more than your success.

But make sure to snack on the right kinds of foods. Step away from the cupcakes! Choose raw nuts, sensible portions of cheese, and fresh, crunchy veggies.

Vital Choice is our go-to source for healing, organic fare. They’ve donated a $50 gift certificate and it will allow one winner to stock up on a delicious stash of raw, organic nuts. If you’d rather snack on Pacific wild-caught fish or soup, Vital Choice has those items too. You choose, you chew, you rule.

The neoprene Built Gourmet Getaway lunch tote is insulated, collapsible, machine-washable, and cool as a cucumber.

Bring your diabetes-healing lunches to work or on outings, and rest easy knowing that your meal is healthy, fresh and customized to your needs and wants. Best of all, bringing lunch eliminates the chances that you’ll find yourself at a fast food drive-through window.

The 30 Day Diabetes Cure loves yogurt and kefir.

Protein-rich kefir is naturally-fermented milk that offers a wealth of health benefits, starting with the stabilization and reduction of glucose levels. In addition, according to a study published in Natural News, fermented foods have a lower glycemic index (GI) than unfermented food because they convert sugar into lactic acid, thus bypassing the glucose-insulin cycle.

The secret is in kefir’s beneficial bacteria (called probiotics), added to milk and kept warm until the lactose (milk sugar) turns to lactic acid and ferments, providing an ideal environment for the good bacteria to multiply. That makes eating yogurt and kefir like sending in the cavalry to reinforce the beneficial bacteria in your GI tract, where infections are fought and the immune system is kept strong. These beneficial bugs also keep the “bad-guy” bacteria (such as e. coli, salmonella, listeria, Campylobacter and clostridium perfringens, which cause food poisoning and other health problems) from overwhelming your body.

Plain, organic Lifeway Kefir is a fabulous breakfast staple. Have it in a green smoothie…drink it with cinnamon…or stir in some nuts. Today we’re giving away 6 bottles of Lifeway Kefir to one lucky winner. Enter now!

In order to be successful at beating diabetes, you need to take fast carb foods (chips, white flour pasta and baked goods) off the menu. But that doesn’t mean you need to feel deprived!

Today’s giveaway is a roundup of delicious replacements: 4 bags of Rhythm Superfoods Kale Chips, to crunch on instead of junky, glucose-spiking tortilla and potato chips…

and the ingenious Spirooli, compliments of Raw Food World. The Spirooli turns zucchini, carrots, and other veggies into beautiful pasta-like spirals and strands that take the place of the white flour pasta. And it’s not just a spaghetti-replacer. I also use my slicer to make peanut sesame “noodles,” apple rings, baked zucchini “chips” and so much more.

Today’s giveaway is a SodaStream machine. This compact, easy, and eco-friendly machine is bringing sparkling water to families for a mere 19 cents per bottle! The SodaStream BPA-free bottles are refillable, so you can forget about schlepping seltzer bottles home from the store and later, into the recycling bin.

Add a wedge of lemon or lime, and you have yourself a thirst-quenching, diabetes-healing drink…in a near-bottomless cup. You can even control the level of carbonation! CO2 cartridges are affordable and recyclable, and available at many convenient retailers (Bed, Bath and Beyond, for instance). You even get half-off the cartridge refill when you turn in your old one. It’s good for your health, the earth and your wallet…in that order!

PS: You can still enter our Nov 1, 2, and 3 giveaways, so take a look!

Win a one-month supply of delicious AloeCran, Nature City’s healing aloe vera and cranberry juice concentrate. Add it to sparkling water and quaff it as a soda replacement!

Why drop-kick sodas? Here are just two reasons from The 30-Day Diabetes Cure (the book has many more).

• According to study at University of Texas-San Antonio, people who drank one diet soda daily were 65% more likely to be overweight than those who drank none. Drinking two or more diet sodas a day boosted the risk of obesity even higher.
• A 2009 study published in Diabetes Care found that drinking diet soda every day increases the risk of metabolic syndrome (another way of saying “prediabetes”) by 36% and the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by as much as 67%.

Throw your hat in the ring to win AloeCran today.

Here’s a delicious way to lower your blood sugar: add cinnamon to your coffee, tea, yogurt, or baked chicken. According to researchers at the USDA, cinnamon contains a compound called MHCP that helps improve your body’s response to insulin by stimulating insulin receptors, accelerating the conversion of glucose into energy.

Getting the right cinnamon is tricky; most supermarket cinnamon contains pesticides and is so old that its nutritional benefits are minimal at best. That’s why we tracked down this choice, fair trade, organic cinnamon from Ceylon (aka zeylanicum), sourced by Mountain Rose Herbs.

Cinnamomum zeylanicum is the best type of cinnamon for lowering blood sugar. It’s also known as sweet cinnamon, true cinnamon, and Ceylon cinnamon. The other cinnamon, cassia, appears to lower blood sugar, but the cassia also contains blood thinners known as coumarins that are hard on your liver and possibly carcinogenic.

Enter to win a gift basket of the following from Mountain Rose Herbs:

An assortment of organic cinnamon zeylanicum sticks, organic cinnamon zeylanicum powder,cinnamon zeylanicum chips and a three ounce bag of cinnamon-spiced Firefly Chai tea.

Enter to win a prize pack of Celestial Seasonings herbal teas!

I won’t sugar-coat the truth: If you have a serious sweet tooth, taking a break from sugar will be challenging. But it’s absolutely essential – and entirely possible. (As you’ll soon see, The 30-Day Diabetes Cure includes plenty of clever tricks and ingenious strategies that will help make this easier.)

One simple pleasure that helps soften the transition is sipping a big fragrant mug of herbal tea.

One lucky winner will take home the following:

1 box of Peach Blossom Green Tea

1 box of Fruit Tea Sampler

1 box of Mandarin Orange Spice

1 box of Red Zinger

1 box of Tangerine Orange Zinger

and a Mega-box of 40 Authentic Green Tea bags!

That’s 140 cups of delicious, healing tea