In diabetes, the major reason multiple organs get damaged at the same time is rising inflammation. But why does inflammation increase so much in a diabetic body? There are two main causes, and if you understand and control these two, you can prevent the multiple organ damage that diabetes causes. In this blog you will learn those two causes and the number 3 rule to reduce HbA1c.
This is part 3 of the HbA1c knowledge series. Rule 1 was reducing your diet's glucose load. Rule 2 was the episode of eating concept with a 12-hour fast. Rule 3 is about controlling inflammation in body, which comes from two sources: glycation and an acidic environment. The solution is an alkaline diet and alkaline water, and we will explain exactly how to do it.
Why Inflammation Damages Multiple Organs in Diabetes
When someone has diabetes, their average blood glucose rises. A non-diabetic might have an average blood glucose around 115 mg/dL, which is fine. But if the three-month average reaches 135 or 140 mg/dL, that is diabetes, and organs begin to get damaged. The glucose has risen only a little, just 20 to 25 units, yet organs are damaged. Why? The main reason is glycation, which leads to inflammation, which leads to damage.
So the chain is: high blood glucose causes glycation, glycation raises what is inflammation in body, and inflammation causes organ damage. Understanding this chain shows you exactly where to break it.
Cause 1 of Inflammation: Glycation
Your entire body is made of protein. Your hair is protein, your skin is protein, your bones, your kidneys, your heart, all your organs and muscles are made of protein. Even the enzymes used in digestion and your hormones are made of protein. Protein is used everywhere in the body. You have even heard of LDL and HDL cholesterol, which are low density lipoprotein and high density lipoprotein, both containing protein.
The enemy of protein is glucose. Overall, only 0.1 percent of your body is glucose, and the other 99.9 percent is water, fat, protein and minerals. Why is glucose kept so low? Because glucose is the enemy of protein. Glucose is a highly reactive and highly dangerous chemical, very toxic to protein.
Wherever glucose finds protein, it goes and sticks to it, forming a permanent non-enzymatic bond. This is called glycation. The moment glucose sticks to protein, the protein loses its function, which we call the protein being denatured. The protein has strayed from its nature and is now useless, a waste product. As these glycation waste products build up, inflammation rises in the body, and rising inflammation causes damage.
How Glycation Damages Organs: The HbA1c Example
A perfect example is HbA1c itself, which stands for glycated haemoglobin. Haemoglobin is a protein whose main job is to carry oxygen. When glucose sticks to haemoglobin, glycation happens, and now that haemoglobin can no longer carry oxygen properly. Its function is spoiled, it is denatured, and it is useless to the body.
The same thing happens everywhere. When glucose reaches the kidney, it damages the nephrons. In the brain, it damages neurons. In the eyes, it damages the lens, and vision drops. Everywhere glucose goes, it finds protein, sticks to it and damages it, and that damage raises inflammation. This is why multiple organs are damaged at the same time in diabetes: glucose circulates throughout the blood, so wherever it contacts protein, it starts causing damage.
The good news is that glycation can be controlled, and rules 1 and 2 already do this. Rule 1, keeping your diet's glucose load low, means less glucose enters the body, so less glycation and less damage. Rule 2, the episode of eating concept with a 12-hour fast, rests the beta cells and lowers insulin resistance, which helps manage blood glucose. Together these reduce glycation.
Cause 2 of Inflammation: An Acidic Environment
The second cause of inflammation in diabetes is a rising acidic environment in the body. To understand this, look at the pH scale, which runs from 0 to 14. Seven is neutral, like pure water. Below 7 is acidic, like battery acid that would burn your finger. Above 7 is alkaline, which feels slippery like soap and tastes bitter.
| pH Level | Nature | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 6 | Acidic | Battery acid, lemon, vinegar |
| 7 | Neutral | Pure water |
| 7.35 to 7.45 | Healthy blood range | Human blood |
| 8 to 14 | Alkaline | Soap, baking soda |
Your blood pH stays between 7.35 and 7.45. The organ responsible for maintaining this pH is the kidney. The kidney is very important, it helps maintain blood pressure, it helps make haemoglobin, and it maintains pH. It does this by removing acid from the body through urine. When more acid is produced, the urine becomes more acidic. So the pH of your urine tells you how much acid your body is dealing with.
What Is the PRAL Value?
Two scientists did a large clinical study and introduced a concept called the PRAL value, which stands for Potential Renal Acid Load. Potential means how much it can produce, renal means kidney, and acid load means how much acidic load it can create. They fed people different foods and tested their urine to see which foods made the urine more acidic.
Foods that made urine more acidic were given a positive PRAL value, meaning they generate more acid. Foods that made urine more alkaline, reducing acidity, were given a negative PRAL value, which is better for health.
| Food Type | PRAL Value | Effect on Body |
|---|---|---|
| Meat, chicken, fish, eggs | Positive (acidic) | Increases acidity |
| Cheese and paneer | Positive (acidic) | Increases acidity |
| Grains, wheat, rice, dals | Positive (acidic) | Increases acidity |
| Vegetables | Negative (alkaline) | Reduces acidity |
| Fruits | Negative (alkaline) | Reduces acidity, but high glucose load |
They found that macronutrient-rich foods, whether grains like wheat and rice, dals, or protein sources like egg, paneer and non-veg, all increase acidic reactions in the body. Only two things reduced acidity: vegetables and fruits. So vegetables and fruits have a negative PRAL value and move the body toward alkalinity.
Why Vegetables and Fruits Reduce Acidity: Alkaline Minerals
The scientists studied why vegetables and fruits reduce acidity, and found it is because they contain alkaline minerals. These are sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate ion. Foods with more of these alkaline minerals reduce acidity, and foods with fewer increase it.
| Alkaline Mineral | Where It Is Found |
|---|---|
| Sodium | Vegetables, alkalizer powder |
| Potassium | Vegetables, leafy greens |
| Calcium | Vegetables, dairy |
| Magnesium | Vegetables, nuts, seeds |
| Bicarbonate ion | Alkaline water, alkalizer powder |
They even studied protein and found that animal-source proteins like paneer, egg, chicken and non-veg increase acidity more, while plant-source proteins like soybean and dals increase it less, and vegetables move the body toward alkalinity. This is the basis of the popular acidic and alkaline diet concept that people follow worldwide.
The #3 Rule: Follow an Alkaline Diet
The number 3 rule to reduce HbA1c is to keep your diet an alkaline diet, maintaining alkalinity in your body. There are two ways to do this.
Way 1: Drink Alkaline Water Every Morning
If you add alkaline minerals to your water every morning, it neutralises the acidity produced in your body through the day. An alkalizer powder containing sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate ion can be added to water. One level small spoon in a glass of water brings the pH to around 7.5. Drinking about 1 litre of this alkaline water every morning helps neutralise the day's acidity.
You can track progress through your urine pH. If someone's urine pH is 5.5 and they start drinking alkaline water and eating more vegetables, over time the urine pH moves from 5.5 to 6, then 6.5, then toward 7. This is one of the simplest ways to see the benefits of an alkaline diet working. Diabexy makes an Alkalyzaar powder for exactly this purpose.
Way 2: Make Every Meal an Alkaline Meal
The second way is to convert your diet into an alkaline diet. Whenever you eat a protein-rich food, eat twice as much vegetable with it. Protein sources like egg, paneer, chicken and non-veg are acidic and come from animal sources. Plant proteins like Diabexy Atta, which is a vegetarian source of protein with 40 percent protein, or pea protein and rice protein, are better. Whatever protein you take, take double the amount of vegetables with it.
This gives three benefits. First, vegetables add volume, creating fullness in the stomach, which calms hunger. Second, the alkaline minerals in vegetables overpower the acidic nature of the food and stop excess acidity forming. Third, vegetables have plenty of fibre, which helps clean the stomach. Note that we use vegetables, not fruits, because fruits have a high glucose load that raises blood glucose, so diabetics should avoid fruits and use vegetables for foods for alkaline diet.
How to Stop Inflammation in the Body: Putting It Together
Now you know how to stop inflammation in body in diabetes. The two causes of inflammation are glycation and an acidic environment. Rules 1 and 2 control glycation by keeping glucose load low and resting the pancreas. Rule 3 controls acidity through an alkaline diet: drink 1 litre of alkaline water each morning, and pair every protein food with double the vegetables.
When you follow all three rules, glycation is controlled, the acidic environment is controlled, inflammation drops, and your HbA1c comes down. You get benefits on every side, and you protect your organs from the multiple damage that uncontrolled diabetes causes.
Support an alkaline diet with Diabexy Alkalyzaar and a low glucose load, high protein atta: diabexy.com
How Diabexy Atta Supports an Alkaline, Low Glucose Load Diet
Diabexy Atta is a vegetarian source of protein with 40 percent protein, which makes it a better, less acidic protein source than animal proteins, while also keeping glucose load low at just 7 per 100 grams, 86 percent lower than multigrain atta. It is India's 1st atta backed by published clinical evidence, shown in the Journal of Mid-Life Health to lower HbA1c, fasting and after-meal blood sugar. Paired with double the vegetables, it fits perfectly into the alkaline diet rule while supporting rules 1 and 2 at the same time.
Diabexy is India's number one diabetes education platform, trusted by more than 2 million people. Diabexy Atta is India's first atta backed by published clinical evidence, a low glucose load atta specially designed for diabetes management. Our mission is to eradicate diabetes from India the way polio was eradicated, through the right knowledge and the right food. Visit diabexy.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Inflammation increases in diabetes due to two main causes: glycation and an acidic environment. Glycation happens when high blood glucose sticks to proteins throughout the body, denaturing them and creating waste products that trigger inflammation. Since the body is made largely of protein, this damage occurs in many organs at once, including the kidneys, brain and eyes. The second cause is a rising acidic environment, as many foods produce acid the kidney must clear. Both raise inflammation, which damages multiple organs simultaneously. Controlling glucose load, resting the pancreas and following an alkaline diet reduces both causes and lowers inflammation.
Glycation is the process where glucose, a highly reactive chemical, sticks to protein in the body and forms a permanent non-enzymatic bond, denaturing the protein so it loses its function. Since the body's organs, muscles, enzymes and hormones are all made of protein, glycation damages them wherever high glucose reaches. For example, when glucose sticks to haemoglobin, it becomes glycated haemoglobin or HbA1c, which can no longer carry oxygen properly. In the kidney glycation damages nephrons, in the brain it damages neurons, and in the eyes it damages the lens. This widespread protein damage raises inflammation and causes multiple organ damage in diabetes.
PRAL stands for Potential Renal Acid Load, a value that shows how much acid a food produces in the body. It was developed by scientists who fed people different foods and tested their urine acidity. Foods that made urine more acidic were given a positive PRAL value, meaning they increase body acidity, while foods that made urine more alkaline were given a negative PRAL value, which is healthier. Grains, dals and animal proteins like egg, paneer, chicken and non-veg have positive PRAL values and increase acidity. Vegetables have negative PRAL values and reduce acidity because they are rich in alkaline minerals like potassium, calcium and magnesium.
An alkaline diet is one that keeps the body's environment less acidic by favouring foods with alkaline minerals. It helps diabetics because an acidic environment is one of the two main causes of inflammation in diabetes, and inflammation drives organ damage. To follow an alkaline diet, drink about 1 litre of alkaline water each morning to neutralise the day's acidity, and pair every protein-rich food with double the amount of vegetables, which contain alkaline minerals like sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. Diabetics should use vegetables rather than fruits for this, since fruits have a high glucose load. This reduces acidity, lowers inflammation, and helps control HbA1c.
You can make alkaline water at home by adding an alkalizer powder containing alkaline minerals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate ion to your drinking water. Adding one level small spoon of such a powder to a glass of water raises its pH to around 7.5, making it alkaline. Drinking about 1 litre of this alkaline water each morning helps neutralise the acidity your body produces through the day. You can track its effect through your urine pH, which gradually moves from acidic values like 5.5 toward a healthier 6.5 to 7 as your body becomes less acidic. Diabexy makes an Alkalyzaar powder designed for this purpose.
To reduce inflammation naturally, especially in diabetes, address its two main causes: glycation and acidity. Reduce glycation by keeping your diet's glucose load low so less glucose is available to bind to proteins, and by resting the pancreas through fewer episodes of eating and a 12-hour overnight fast. Reduce acidity by following an alkaline diet: drink about 1 litre of alkaline water each morning, and pair every protein-rich food with double the amount of vegetables, which are rich in alkaline minerals. Avoid fruits if you are diabetic due to their high glucose load. Together these steps lower inflammation and protect your organs from damage.
Diabetics should eat plenty of vegetables because vegetables are rich in alkaline minerals like potassium, calcium and magnesium that reduce body acidity, contain fibre that aids digestion, and add volume that creates fullness, all while having a low glucose load. Fruits also contain alkaline minerals and reduce acidity, but they have a high glucose load because of their natural sugar content, which raises blood glucose significantly. Since controlling blood glucose is the priority in diabetes, the high glucose load of fruits outweighs their alkaline benefit. This is why an alkaline diet for diabetics relies on vegetables rather than fruits to reduce acidity and inflammation without spiking blood sugar.
Alkaline water. Alkaline meals. Protected organs.
