These simple steps may be all it takes to stay healthy and stop worrying about sugar problems.
Diabetes-Proof Your Life
This condition is growing at a scary rate, but it’s also one of the most preventable diseases around.
Nearly 25% of Americans are thought to have prediabetes—a condition of slightly elevated blood sugar levels that often develops into diabetes within 10 years but only 4% of people know it. What’s worse, of those who are aware, less than half really tried to reduce their risk by losing weight, eating less, and exercising more.
These are just a few of the good-for-you habits that can reverse prediabetes and ensure you never get the real thing, which can mean a lifetime of drugs and blood sugar monitoring, an increased risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other scary health threats. Read on for 12 simple tricks everyone can start today.
1. Nudge the Scale
Shedding even 10 pounds can significantly slash your risk.
Even extremely overweight people were 70% less likely to develop diabetes when they lost just 5% of their weight—even if they didn’t exercise. If you weigh 175 pounds, that’s a little less than 9 pounds! Use our calorie calculator to see how many calories you consume—and how many you need to shave off your diet—if you want to lose a little.
2. Ditch Your Car
Walk as much as you can every day. You’ll be healthier—even if you don’t lose any weight. People in a Finnish study who exercised the most—up to 4 hours a week, or about 35 minutes a day dropped their risk of diabetes by 80%, even if they didn’t lose any weight. This pattern holds up in study after study: The famed Nurses’ Health Study, for example, found that women who worked up a sweat more than once a week reduced their risk of developing diabetes by 30%.
Chinese researchers determined that people with high blood sugar who engaged in moderate exercise (and made other lifestyle changes) were 40% less likely to develop full-blown diabetes. Why is walking so wonderful? Studies show that exercise helps your body utilize the hormone insulin more efficiently by increasing the number of insulin receptors on your cells. Insulin helps blood sugar move into cells, where it needs to go to provide energy and nutrition. Otherwise it just sloshes around in your bloodstream, gumming up blood vessel walls and eventually causing serious health problems.
3. Be a Cereal Connoisseur
Selecting the right cereal can help you slim down and steady blood sugar. A higher whole grain intake is also linked to lower rates of breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and stroke—and cereal is one of the best sources of these lifesaving grains, if you know what to shop for.
Some tips: Look for the words high fiber on the box; that ensures at least 5 g per serving. But don’t stop there. Check the label; in some brands, the benefits of fiber are overshadowed by the addition of refined grains, added sugar, or cholesterol-raising fats.
Decode the grains: Where that fiber comes from matters too, so check the ingredient list to find out exactly what those flakes or squares are made from. Millet, amaranth, quinoa, and oats are always whole grain, but if you don’t see whole in front of wheat, corn, barley, or rice, these grains have been refined and aren’t as healthy.
Watch for hidden sugar: The "total sugars" listing doesn’t distinguish between added and naturally occurring sugars; the best way to tell is scan the ingredients again. The following terms represent added sugars: brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, invert sugar, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, sugar, and sucrose. Skip cereals that list any of these within the first three ingredients (which are listed by weight).
4. Indulge Your Coffee Cravings
If you’re a coffee fan, keep on sipping. The beverage may keep diabetes at bay. After they studied 126,210 women and men, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that big time coffee drinkers—those who downed more than 6 daily cups—had a 29 to 54% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes during the 18-year study. Sipping 4 to 5 cups cut risk about 29%; 1 to 3 cups per day had little effect.
Decaf coffee offered no protection. Caffeine in other forms—tea, soda, chocolate—did. Researchers suspect that caffeine may help by boosting metabolism. And coffee, the major caffeine source in the study, also contains potassium, magnesium, and antioxidants that help cells absorb sugar.
However, before you start to down as much coffee or tea every day, click here to prevent over intake of caffeine.
5. Ditch the Drive-Thru
You might get away with an occasional fast-food splurge, but become a regular "fast feeder" and your risk of diabetes skyrockets.
That’s what University of Minnesota scientists found after they studied 3,000 people, ages 18 to 30, for 15 years. At the start, everyone was at a normal weight. But those who ate fast food more than twice a week gained 10 more pounds and developed twice the rate of insulin resistance—the two major risk factors for type 2 diabetes—compared with those who indulged less than once a week.
In addition to the jumbo portions, many fast food meals are loaded with unhealthy trans fats and refined carbohydrates, which may raise diabetes risk even if your weight remains stable. A better bet: Keep a baggie of DIY trail mix in your purse at all times in case hunger pangs come on. Nuts are known blood sugar—lowerers.
6. Go Veggie More Often
Consider red meat a treat—not something to eat every day. Women who ate red meat at least 5 times a week had a 29% higher risk of type 2 diabetes than those who ate it less than once a week, found a 37,000-woman study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
And eating processed meats such as bacon and hot dogs at least 5 times a week raised type 2 diabetes risk by 43%, compared with eating them less than once a week. The culprits? Scientists suspect the cholesterol in red meat and the additives in processed meat are to blame.
7. Spice Up Your Life
Cinnamon may help rein in high blood sugar. German researchers studied 65 adults with type 2 diabetes who then took a capsule containing the equivalent of 1 g of cinnamon powder or a placebo 3 times a day for 4 months. By the end, cinnamon reduced blood sugar by about 10%; the placebo users improved by only 4%. Why? Compounds in cinnamon may activate enzymes that stimulate insulin receptors. The sweet spice has also been shown to help lower cholesterol and triglycerides, blood fats that may contribute to diabetes risk.
8. Get a Perfect Night’s Rest
There’s a sleep sweet spot when it comes to preventing diabetes. A Yale University study of 1,709 men found that those who regularly got less than 6 hours of shut-eye doubled their diabetes risk; those who slept more than 8 hours tripled their odds. Previous studies have turned up similar findings in women.
"When you sleep too little or too long because of sleep apnea, your nervous system stays on alert," says lead researcher Klar Yaggi, MD, an assistant professor of pulmonary medicine at Yale. This interferes with hormones that regulate blood sugar. A Columbia University study found that sleeping less than 5 hours also doubled the risk of high blood pressure. For a good night’s rest, avoid caffeine after noon, leave work at the office, and skip late night TV. Oversleeping may be a sign of depression or a treatable sleep disorder, so talk with your doctor.
9. Keep Good Company
Diabetes is more likely to strike women who live alone. Women who live alone are 2.5 times more likely to develop diabetes than women who live with a partner, other adults, or children, according to a study published in Diabetes Care. Researchers examined what role household status played in the progression of impaired glucose tolerance to diabetes among 461 women, ages 50 to 64, and found higher risk among women living alone.
But don’t freak out if you live solo: Lifestyle factors could explain this finding. Women who lived alone were also more likely to smoke and less likely to have healthy dietary habits or consume alcohol.
12. Have a Blood Test
Many diabetes symptoms are silent. A simple blood test can reveal whether sugar levels put you at risk for the condition. People with prediabetes—slightly elevated blood sugar levels, between 100 and 125 mg/dl—often develop a full-blown case within 10 years. Knowing your blood sugar levels are a little high can put you on a track to steadying them—with simple diet and exercise changes—before diabetes sets in and medications may be necessary.
Everyone 45 and older should have their blood sugar levels tested. Younger people who have risk factors such as being overweight, a family history, and high cholesterol and blood pressure should ask a doctor about getting tested sooner. If results are normal, get tested again within 3 years. If you have prediabetes, blood sugar should be tested again in 1 to 2 years.
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