4 Sweet Science-Backed Reasons That Diabetics Can Eat Fruit Worry-Free

Extremely low-carb diets aren’t as healthy for you because they skimp on fruit and claim that fruit contains natural sugars that just turn to sugar in the body. It’s true that all carbohydrates from food eventually end up as blood glucose—including the carbs in fruit. That said, fruit has a much lower impact on blood sugar levels than other truly harmful foods like candy bars and soda. That’s because, like vegetables, fruit is mostly water. What isn’t water is fiber, and that fiber slows the progression of fruit sugars into the bloodstream, causing a slow, steady rise in blood sugar rather than a huge spike.
Here’s more: Fruit isn’t just not bad for your diabetes. It’s good for it, and for your waistline too.
1. Fruit fights inflammation. Peaches, plums, and nectarines contain special nutrients called phenolic compounds that have anti-inflammatory properties. (These nutrient-rich foods also fight off inflammation.) These compounds travel through the bloodstream and then to your fat cells, where they affect different genes and proteins for the better, finds research done at Texas A&M University.
2. Fruit prevents diabetes. Flavonoids are nutrients found in plant foods, and especially in many types of fruit. Research shows that these compounds can lower the risk for developing type 2 diabetes, probably because these nutrients improve insulin sensitivity. Harvard’s long-running Nurses’ Health Study found that women who consumed more anthocyanins (the pigment that makes blueberries blue and strawberries red) were much less likely to develop type 2 diabetes t Continue reading

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Diabetes diagnoses rising in youth, especially among minorities

Type 1 diabetes diagnoses have risen rapidly for Hispanic youth in comparison to other racial and ethnic groups, a recent study finds.
The issue: Chronic illnesses such as diabetes present ongoing challenges to healthcare providers, insurers and the general public. Previous research on American healthcare spending suggests diabetes is the nation’s costliest illness, with expenditures reaching approximately $101.4 billion in 2013. The prevalence of diabetes is increasing for Americans of all ages, partly because of growing national obesity rates. Obesity and type 2 diabetes, which is characterized by an inability to effectively produce and use insulin the body makes to manage blood glucose levels, are linked. Type 1 diabetes is characterized by the body’s lack of insulin due to autoimmune attacks on beta cells in the pancreas.
Though diagnoses of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are on the rise, there are variations in how different groups are affected by this broader trend. A new study suggests that the incidence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes has increased for minority youths more than for their non-Hispanic white peers.
An academic study worth reading: “Incidence Trends of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Among Youths, 2002-2012,” published in The New England Journal of Medicine, 2017.
About the study: A team led by Elizabeth J. Mayer-Davis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined data from the national SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study, which comprised 11,245 youths with type 1 diabetes and 2,846 with type 2 diabetes. The researchers sought to bette Continue reading

Does acupuncture for diabetes work?

Studies have shown acupuncture can be helpful for relieving diabetes symptoms, in some cases better than diabetes medications.
According to the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, an estimated 29 million Americans are living with diabetes. Diabetes affects 380 million people worldwide, and the World Health Organization (WHO) approximates that this number will double by the year 2030.
In modern-day China, acupuncture is commonly practiced to treat diabetes. Newer studies are focusing on the biological mechanism of diabetes and suggest acupuncture can be an effective treatment for diabetes symptoms.
Contents of this article:
Acupuncture is a treatment that has been practiced in traditional Chinese medicine for 2,500 years.
Acupuncture involves stimulating points of the body with thin needles.
Diabetes is a disease where the body cannot process food to use as energy.
The result of diabetes is a buildup of sugar in the blood.
Most studies find some validation in the use of acupuncture to treat diabetes, but some suggest further research is necessary.
What is diabetes?
When people have diabetes, it means that their body is either not making enough insulin or is not using insulin as it should. This means the body cannot process sugar, the food it needs for energy, correctly.
There is more than one type of diabetes, but the most common types are type 1 and type 2.
Both types of diabetes can cause serious complications if not treated successfully. Complications may include:
blindness
kidney failure
foot or leg amputations
death
According to the Centers for Disease Control and P Continue reading

Why Is My Fasting Blood Sugar High in the Morning?

People often wonder the reasons for the high level of blood glucose when they wake up early in the morning. There can be several reasons for the same. This article deals with the topic “Why is My Fasting Blood Sugar High in the Morning?” so, join in for this article and read on:
What is Fasting Glucose?
Fasting blood glucose is the level of blood glucose that you have when you check it early in the morning before eating anything. It is usually high and there are two main reasons to explain the same. The following phenomena are responsible for the high levels of fasting blood glucose in the morning:
What is the Dawn Phenomenon?
There is a host of changes that take place in the body while we are sleeping. These changes are known as the “Dawn Phenomenon.” One of the reasons for high blood glucose levels when we wake up in the morning is this dawn phenomenon. 3 A.M is the time when our body is experiencing the soundest sleep. Hence, around this time the body hardly needs any insulin. Whatever insulin is taken by the body in the evening leads to a sharp loss in the level of blood glucose at this time. As a result, between 3 A.M to 8 A.M, the body is slowly getting more and more resistant to the hormone insulin and the stored glucose of our body is being used for the release of some energy. When all the above things are taking place, the insulin you must have taken at bedtime is also getting used up in the process. All these are responsible for the increase in the level of blood glucose early in the morning when you wake up.
What is the Somogyi Effect?
Another reason for Continue reading

India is the diabetes capital of the world!

The diabetes capital of the world with as many as 50 million people suffering from type-2 diabetes, India has a challenge to face. However, medical experts feel that timely detection and right management can go a long way in helping patients lead a normal life. Diabetes might be one of the most talked about diseases across the world and especially in India, but awareness about the same can well be estimated by the fact that India today has more people with type-2 diabetes (more than 50 million) than any other nation.
With the country having the highest number of diabetic patients in the world, the sugar disease is posing an enormous health problem to our country today. Often known as the diabetes capital of the world, India has been witnessing an alarming rise in incidence of diabetes according to the International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) fact sheet on diabetes, an estimated 3.4 million deaths are caused due to high blood sugar.
The WHO also estimates that 80 per cent of diabetes deaths occur in low and middle-income countries and projects that such deaths will double between 2016 and 2030. It has been further estimated that the global burden of type-2 diabetes is expected to increase to 438 million by 2030 from 285 million people (recorded in 2010). Similarly, for India this increase is estimated to be 58%, from 51 million people in 2010 to 87 million in 2030. But debates, discussions and deliberations aside, the fundamental thing is to know what exactly is diabetes.
To put it simply, it is a medical condi Continue reading