Whether you’re a diabetic or not, it pays to balance your blood sugar.

Image from Syntagma Photographic

A high sugar/refined carbohydrate diet will almost certainly ensure you suffer from mood swings at inconvenient times. You may also endure memory lapses, mental fuzziness, acute fatigue and weight issues.

In modern times it’s not so easy simply to restrict sugary foods. Sugar is often disguised in packaged foods with other names like, glucose, dextrose and flour (white flour acts like sugar in the blood stream). It’s hard to avoid the sweet stuff without adopting a very limited diet.

It is, however, possible to balance your blood sugar naturally. A two step strategy is best. You can cut out overt sugar in your meals, and also assist the body in coping with what’s left.

Chromium is said to have an effect in regulating blood sugar and can be bought as a mineral supplement. But two natural products you can add to your food will make a difference.

Camomile may be bought as a tea, or tisane, in tea bags. Apart from its relaxing effect, it gently balances your blood sugar.

Cinnamon has a similar function. It can be taken in many ways. Sprinkling a quarter teaspoon over breakfast cereal is probably the easiest.

Research shows that drinking a glass of cherry juice a day offers the same health benefits as 23 portions of fruit and vegetables.

The catch is that it only applies to American Montmorency tart cherries.

British and European varieties only seem to contain about 20 percent of the antioxidant levels of the U.S. fruit — however, the juice can be bought in the UK in health food stores, under the name of CherryActive.

The research by Dr Robert Verkerk, compared the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of 25ml of diluted cherry juice concentrate with various fruits and vegetables. The result was an overwhelming thumbs-up for the cherries.

A leading British nutritionist, Patrick Holford said, “A recent BBC2 Horizon documentary showed the longest-living people in the world all achieve a very high intake of antioxidants, measured as over 6,000 ORAC units a day.”

One glass of Montmorency cherry juice contains 8,260 units.

Life really is a bowl of cherries, it seems.

It’s said of some things that “You either love them or you loathe them”. Marmite comes to mind.

With broccoli, though, I’ve never met anyone who even likes it, let alone loses their heart to its sulphurous odours while cooking.

President Bush Senior famously declared his distaste for the vegetable, only for the American Broccoli Growers Association to dump a ton of the stuff outside the White House.

Broccoli is a part of the brassica family, which includes cabbages, sprouts and other green leafy growths. It contains a whole load of antioxidants as well as substances that absorb poisons from the system. It’s said to be particularly effective when served with cauliflower, another brassica.

But if you just hate it, here’s what you do.

Try blending it down raw with added water in a food processor. The green drink should then be made even more palatable by adding liquified apples and sweet red carrots.

Take a glass fresh every morning before breakfast for a healthy start to the day.

You may shudder at the taste of vinegar — a surprising number of people, especially children, do — but it really is good for you.

Image by Syntagma Photographic

Cider vinegar taken with meals will reduce your blood pressure just as it’s likely to rise.

A shot of the liquid, twice a day, cuts out cravings and helps the body digest food.

Cider vinegar is deemed preferable to other forms, like malt, wine and balsamic, because it is said to have added health benefits, such as antioxidants, as well as tasting sweeter, rendering it more palatable.

It can be bought in good grocery stores, or unfiltered in health food shops.