Simple Steps to Preventing Diabetes

Diabetes is a cause of major morbidities such as nerve, kidney and heart damage, and making a few simple changes in your lifestyle and diet may be all that you need to avoid these serious health complications.

It is very important to make diabetes prevention a priority, especially when you are at increased risk of diabetes.

Consider these simple diabetes prevention tips:

1. Regular physical activity - Exercise is extremely important for preventing diabetes.  You need at least ½ hour of exercise per day. That means brisk walking to get your heart rate up or any other type of exercise that helps you to work up a sweat. One hour a day is even better. New clinical trials showed that when participants walked vigorously for 30 minutes a day 5 days per week and also lost weight in the amount of 5-7% of their total body weight, they cut their risk of developing diabetes by 50%.

Not only will lots of exercise help in preventing diabetes, it also enhances your immune system by getting your lymph system moving, it builds muscle and bones, improves heart and lung efficiency, reduces stress, burns fat, raises your metabolism and generally keeps your body young.

Studies have revealed that exercise also lowers blood sugar and keeps it down for several hours after the exercise which also contributes to preventing diabetes.

2. Eat right:

•        Limit saturated fats intake - Get less than7% of your total fat intake from saturated fats. New researches have shown that development of diabetes is associated with saturated fat (from animal products like meat and dairy).

• Minimize trans fats - They have been shown to contribute to heart disease and may also contribute to diabetes type 2. Check nutrition labels on packaged foods for trans fat.

• Curb dietary cholesterol. Get less than 200 milligrams of cholesterol in your daily diet.

• Cut calories from your diet: That should help with weight loss.

• Avoid high glycemic index foods: Avoid eating foods made with sugar, bleached (white) flour and other refined carbohydrates such as white rice and dry cereals in order to help in preventing diabetes. Processed and fried foods are particularly unhealthy and the fats and carbohydrates found in them undermine your health.

• Skip low-carb or high protein diet: They may not work out in the long run.

• Get plenty of fiber: Fiber will go a long way in preventing diabetes because it helps to buffer high amounts of sugar or carbohydrates in your diet, keeping your blood sugar even rather than having it gyrate wildly up and down. Foods high in fiber include fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds, oatmeal or oat bran.

• Get 14 grams of dietary fiber for every 1,000 calories you eat.

3. Shed some weight: Weight loss is extremely important in preventing diabetes. Studies have shown that overweight adults reduced their risk of diabetes by 16 percent for every kilogram (2.2 pounds) of weight lost. Also, those who lose at least 5 to 10 percent of initial body weight and exercise regularly reduced the risk of developing diabetes by almost 60 percent over 3 years.
In fact just losing weight and exercising can often completely control all symptoms of diabetes.

4. No smoking: Smoking is not only associated with the development of diabetes but it also contributes to heart disease and causes lung cancer.

5. Don't drink alcohol: Alcoholic beverages contain refined carbohydrates that are quickly absorbed into the body so they contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes by quickly raising blood sugar to unhealthy levels thus overworking the cells that regulate blood sugar.

6. Get support: Friends, relatives and support groups can help you prevent diabetes. They can help you stick to your new healthy lifestyle.

WHO estimates that more than 346 million people worldwide have diabetes and that this number is likely to more than double by 2030 without intervention! Don't be a victim of circumstance, good health is in your hands - take steps to prevent diabetes today.