Can a starch blocker help control high blood sugar

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Guy Anderson is a retired chemist who, overall, is pretty healthy.

"I am 75,” he says.  “Wait, 75 years young!"

But last year, Anderson learned he's pre-diabetic.   His blood sugar levels are normal, range, but he doesn't yet have type-2 diabetes.  And, Anderson has realized he couldn't keep eating the way he used to.

"I grew up on eggs, grits, bacon or sausage,” Anderson says.  “Every morning, with a big helping of bread.  All that was cut out."

Now, for breakfast, Anderson eats steel-cut oatmeal, the slow-cooking, packed-with-fiber kind, not the instant. 

It was recommended by pharmacist turned naturopathic doctor David Foreman, who says a lot of us don't realize how the foods we choose impact our blood sugar. 

"People don't get what carbs are,” Foreman says.  “They don't realize veggies have carbs, but you can eat all the veggies you wanted to but not have a negative effect on your blood sugar."'

But, Foreman says, carbs from "simple carbs" like breads, pasta, and potatoes are broken down at warp speed from starch into sugar, sending blood sugar spiking.

For people who don't want to count carbs or need a little extra help, Pharmachem Labs, a  company Foreman represents, makes a starch-blocker known as Phase II.

“It's a white kidney bean extract,” Foreman says.

"The science shows when you take Phase II before a meal that has a starch in it, you'll block 64% of the caloric effect,” Foreman says.  "If I can block 2/3rds of that starch from being broken down into sugar, that's 2/3rds less sugar I'm getting absorbed into my bloodstream."

Foreman also recommends a supplement with chromium, magnesium and a the lesser-known trace mineral valadium.  Guy Anderson is willing to give it all a try.

"I would love to be able to lose 4 pounds” Anderson says. “I would love to get my blood sugar to a range of about 120, that would make me very happy."