Here are some research statistics. Start before it’s too late…
Although genes may influence the development of type 2 diabetes, lifestyle factors such as excess weight, lack of exercise, an unhealthy diet, and smoking play a far greater role in the development of the condition.
Some research statistics.
- Women who have a healthy weight (body mass index less than 25), a healthy diet, 30 minutes or more of exercise daily, and are non- smokers have 90 % less chance of developing diabetes.
- Consuming a “Western” diet ( a lot of red meats and processed meats) along with lack of physical activity and excess weight, significantly increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes in men.
- In the Diabetes Prevention Program on men and women with pre-diabetes, the ‘weight loss and exercise’ group showed 58 percent fewer cases of diabetes and the benefits continued even after the program ended!
Simple Steps to Lower Your Risk
Make a few Lifestyle changes. They can significantly lower the chances of developing Type 2 diabetes as well as lower the chances of developing heart disease and some cancers.
- Control Your Weight
Excess weight is the single most important cause of Type 2 diabetes.
- Are you overweight? Shed the excess weight because it increases the chances of developing Type 2 diabetes seven times over.
- Obesity makes you 20 to 40 times more likely to develop diabetes than someone with a healthy weight.
- If your weight is above the healthy-weight range, get rid of 7 to 10 percent of your current weight. It can reduce your chances of developing Type 2 diabetes by half.
Not being active increases your chances of developing Type 2 diabetes.
- Exercising more often and increasing the intensity helps muscles to use insulin and absorb glucose. This puts less stress on insulin-making cells.
You don’t need long hours of hot, sweaty exercise.
- Take a brisk walk for half an hour every day. It reduces the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 30 percent. This amount of exercise has a variety of other cardiovascular benefits as well.
A very harmful type of inactivity is when you do nothing but watch serial after serial or other programmes for most of the day on television.
- Every two hours you spend watching TV increases the chances of developing diabetes by 20 percent.
- It also increases the risk of heart disease by 15 percent and early death by 13 percent.
Also, most people cannot resist the bag of chips or popcorn or the cold drink while watching TV. These unhealthy diet patterns may also explain some of this relationship.
So, take a break from watching TV and take up other hobbies.
Tune Up Your Diet
Four dietary changes can have a big effect on the risk of Type 2 diabetes.
- Choose whole grains and whole grain products over highly processed carbohydrates.
Diets rich in whole grains protect against diabetes.
- 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.
- Eating an extra 2 servings of whole grains a day decreased the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 21 percent.
What’s so special about whole grains?
The bran and fibre in whole grains make it more difficult for digestive enzymes to break down the starches into glucose. This leads to lower and slower increases in blood sugar and insulin, and a lower glycaemic index. Whole grains are also rich in essential vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that may help reduce the risk of diabetes.
On the other hand, white bread, white rice, mashed potatoes, doughnuts, and many breakfast cereals have a high glycaemic index and glycaemic load. They cause continuous spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels, which in turn may lead to increased diabetes risk.
- Researchers found that women and men who ate the most white rice—five or more servings a week—had a 17 percent higher risk of diabetes than those who ate white rice less than one time a month.
- People who ate the most brown rice—two or more servings a week—had an 11 percent lower risk of diabetes than those who rarely ate brown rice.
- Researchers estimate that using whole grains in place of some white rice could lower diabetes risk by 36 percent.
- Avoid the sugary drinks, and choose water, coffee, or tea instead.
Just like refined grains, sugary drinks have a high glycaemic load, and drinking a lot of this can increase the risk of diabetes.
Studies also suggest that fruit drinks - either fortified drinks or juices, are not the healthy choice that they are advertised to be.
- Women who drank two or more servings of fruit drinks a day had a 31 percent higher risk of Type 2 diabetes, compared to women who drank less than one serving a month.
How do sugary drinks lead to this increased risk? Weight gain may be one reason.
However, weight gain caused by sugary drinks does not completely explain the increased diabetes risk. There is increasing evidence that sugary drinks can cause chronic inflammation, high triglycerides, decreased “good” (HDL) cholesterol, and increased insulin resistance, which are all risk factors for diabetes.
Drinking water is an excellent replacement.
- Choose good fats instead of bad fats.
The type of fats present in the food you eat can also affect the development of diabetes.
Good fats, such as the polyunsaturated fats found in liquid vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds can help hold off Type 2 diabetes.
But beware of Trans fats or bad fats that are found in margarine, packaged baked goods, fried foods in most fast-food restaurants, and any product that has “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil”.
Polyunsaturated fats from fish also known as “long chain omega 3” fats, do not protect against diabetes, however there is much evidence that they help prevent heart disease.
If you already have diabetes, eating fish can help protect you against a heart attack or dying from heart disease.
- Reduce red meat and avoid processed meat; choose nuts, whole grains, poultry, or fish instead.
Eating a lot of red and processed meats seems to trigger diabetes in people who are already at genetic risk.
- The evidence is growing stronger that eating red meat (beef, pork, lamb) and processed red meat (bacon, hot dogs, deli meats) increases the risk of diabetes, even among people who consume only small amounts.
- Researchers found that eating just one daily 3-ounce serving of red meat increased the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 20 percent.
- Eating even smaller amounts of processed red meat each day—just two slices of bacon, or one hot dog—increased diabetes risk by 51 percent.
- The good news: Replacing red meat or processed red meat with nuts, low-fat dairy, poultry, or fish, or for whole grains lowered diabetes risk by up to 35 percent. The maximum reductions in risk came from not having processed red meat at all.
Why do red meat and processed red meat appear to increase diabetes risk?
Researchers feel that the high iron content of red meat could reduce the effectiveness of insulin or damage the cells that produce insulin .The high levels of sodium and nitrites in preservatives in processed red meats may also be culprits.
- If You Smoke, Try to Quit
Smokers are roughly 50 percent more likely to develop diabetes than non-smokers, while heavy smokers are at an even higher risk.
STAY LEAN AND STAY ACTIVE.
Five key words for preventing diabetes
( Statistics from the Nurses Health Studies I and II , Black Women’s Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study…)
