Ward Off Diabetes Now!

February 13, 2007

Posted by Carey Rossi

If diabetes is in your future, take steps toward living a more healthful life. According to a report in the British Medical Journal, changing your lifestyle can change your health destiny.

After reviewing studies that measured the effects of different diabetic interventions, such as lifestyle, diabetes drugs and anti-obesity drugs, on people who are at high-risk of developing type-2 diabetes, researchers from Leicester concluded that making adjustments to your diet and activity appears to be at least as effective as prescription medication. More specifically, lifestyle changes helped reduce type-2 diabetes risk by almost half and without adverse side effects.

The best part about these findings is that you can put them to use right now with these easy steps:

Move more. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh reported at the American College of Sports Medicine Health & Fitness Summit in Orlando, Florida, that to lose weight you should aim to do 200 minutes of activity a week.

Put it to use: Using the checkbook method, subtract the minutes you spend walking, cleaning or exercising from 200 each time you do the activity. At the end of the week, your balance should be zero.

Pick your carbohydrates, wisely. Say good-bye to the white bread and the sugary cereals and pick up whole grains instead. These nutritional powerhouses of B vitamins and fiber can keep insulin levels in check and keep you satiated so you don’t overeat. In addition, reach for vegetables and fruit when craving crunchy or sweet snacks.

Put it to use: Look for breads that contain at least 2 grams of fiber per serving and cereals that contain 4 grams of fiber per serving. When reading food labels, the first ingredient should be contain the word “whole.” Stock your refrigerator with baby carrots and easy-to-eat fruit so you are prepared when you want to snack.

Plan Your Meals. By planning when and what you are going to eat, you can insure your food choices will be healthful ones, you can control your blood sugar levels and you can control your portion sizes so that you are not taking in more calories than you need.

Put it to use: Start by keeping a food diary for three days by writing down when and what you ate. This should help you recognize any patterns to your eating. On the fourth day, make a plan determining what time and what foods you will eat. Record your progress in your food diary. Research shows that self-monitoring methods like this one help keep good habits in check.

And keeping those good habits is important, especially since changing your diet and exercising temporarily won’t keep diabetes at bay. Adopting these changes is a long-term commitment to prevent the development of this disease.