8 Ways to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes
If Type 2 Diabetes were an infectious disease (i.e., passed from one person to another), public health officials would say that we are in the midst of a health epidemic. This disease, once called adult-onset diabetes, is striking an ever-growing number of adults. Even more alarming, it's now beginning to show up in teenagers and children.
– Harvard University Medical Center
Type 2 diabetes accounts for a whopping 95% of all cases of diabetes! Although for some, the development of diabetes is inevitable, such as with type I diabetes, type 2 diabetes is often preventable.
Before type 2 diabetes becomes fully developed you go through a stage known as pre-diabetes. Unfortunately, Pre-diabetes is generally a silent condition, meaning that it has no overt physical symptoms, and can usually only be revealed with a blood test. Pre-diabetes and its underlying causes of obesity and insulin resistance can be reversed.
By making these 8 steps part of your daily routine, you can significantly reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes:
1) Watch Your Weight - Perhaps the single most important contributor to type 2 diabetes, excess weight increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes by up to 40% (study link). By simply reducing the amount of food on your plate, you gradually eat less and will start to lose weight. Drink a glass of plain water before your meal to take the edge of any hunger pains. Better yet, add a scoop of fiber, such as Metagenics’ Meta Fiber to the glass of water for an even better filler.
2) Choose good fats over bad - The type of fats in your diet can affect the development of diabetes. Reduce the amount of saturated fats you are eating, especially those found in margarine, packaged, fried and fast foods. Replace these with “good” fats such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats which can be found in fish (rich in omega-3s), flaxseeds,walnuts, and oils such as: olive, corn, sesame, safflower and soybean (study link).
3) Give the “Red Light” to Red Meats - If you regularly eat red meat you have a 20% greater change of developing Type 2 Diabetes than people who rarely or never eat red meat. Moreover, the high iron content of red meat has been shown to diminish the effectiveness of insulin and can damage the cells that produce insulin (study link).
4) Choose Whole Grains over Highly Processed Carbs - In the Nurses' Health Studies I and II, researchers looked at the whole grain consumption of more than 160,000 women whose health and dietary habits were followed for up to 18 years. Women who averaged two to three servings of whole grains a day were 30 percent less likely to have developed type 2 diabetes than those who rarely ate whole grains (study link). When the researchers combined these results with those of several other large studies, they found that eating an extra 2 servings of whole grains a day decreased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 21 percent.
5) Consult a Glycemic Index - Check the glycemic index of the food(s) you are eating - Knowing beforehand what each food(s) glycemic index potential is will help you to maintain your blood sugars within a safe range. Following is a link to an online chart that will get you started: http://www.glycemicindex.com/ or click HERE.
6) Ban Sugary Drinks - Instead drink at least 8 eight-ounce glasses of water, and or herbal tea every day and omit sugary beverage. Combining the Nurse’s Health Study with several other studies (study link), women who drank one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day, had an 83% higher risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes, compared to women who drank less than one sugar-sweetened beverage per month.
7) Get up & Get Moving - Findings from the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study suggest that walking briskly for a half hour every day reduces the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes by 30 percent. (source link 1 & 2) More recently, The Black Women’s Health Study reported similar diabetes-prevention benefits for brisk walking of more than 5 hours per week. (study link) However, if you are not used to a regular exercise regimen, then we suggest you start in moderation. Fifteen (15) minutes of gentle walking each day will ease you into a regular exercising pattern.
8) Smoking RAISES Blood Sugar – That’s right! The nicotine in cigarettes raises blood sugar levels by 34% (study link). Another study, which drew on a compiled analysis of several previous studies, suggests that smokers are roughly 50% more likely to develop Type 2 Diabetes than nonsmokers (study link).
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References:
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Aune D, Ursin G, Veieod MB, Meat Consumption and the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies, Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1122, 0317 Oslo, Norway. Diabetologia 2009 Nov;52(11):2277-87. Epub 2009 Aug 7. PubMed
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Foods that Meet Nutrition Guidelines 2011 The University of Sydney Site Link
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Capri Gabrielle Foy, PHD, MS, Ronney A. Bell, PHD, Deborah F. Farmer, PHD, David C. Goff, Jr., MD, PHD and Lynne E. Wagenknecht, DRPH Smoking and Incidence of Diabetes Among US Adults: Findinds from the Insulin Resistance Atheroscerlosis Study, American Diabetes Association: Diabetes Care, Site Link
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