8 Foods To Eat To Beat Diabetes (and 5 To Avoid!)

8 Foods to Eat to Beat Diabetes (and 5 to Avoid!)

Not all carbs are bad. Foods made with whole grains, such as whole-wheat bread and brown rice, are sources of filling fiber (aiding weight loss, which can reduce your diabetes risk) and nutrients such as potassium, which helps the pancreas release insulin, the hormone that helps your cells use glucose for energy. Continue reading

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I Have Diabetes and I Still Love My Fat Body

A year ago today, I sat in my doctor’s office. I was leaving for a cruise with my then-boyfriend the next day. I had gone in a few days prior for a physical because I needed a prescription for motion sickness patches. I figured that doing a physical rather than a well visit would mean my insurance would cover the appointment I really just made to get the patches. I have never been so grateful to be cheap.
When my doctor insisted I come in for a follow-up, I tried to tell him that I couldn’t come because I had a cruise to go on the next day. He insisted I make time. I’m glad I listened. He told me that I had diabetes. It’s funny to me now but my first question was “can I still go on the cruise?” I’m pretty sure I was in shock. We talked through my immediate treatment needs and some additional tests I would need to go through to ensure I could go on the cruise the next day. I took most of it in stride before truly breaking down.
I ended up being able to not only go on that cruise but while I was away, I also went on a deep sea submarine tour, I went ziplining and cave-tubing and I hung on the beach with my friends. I wrote about that trip for my blog and about my first experience zip-lining for On The Plus Side. The majority of people didn’t know that I did all of that only a few days after finding out I had diabetes.
Over this past year, I have continued to challenge myself to conquer a lot of my own fears. I made a conscious decision that I was going to spend this year living with diabetes and not living in fear of diabetes. My motto became: it’s okay to b Continue reading

The Best Foods You Can Eat to Prevent Diabetes

Coming down with a diabetes diagnosis is more than just frustrating. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. But what exactly is it? Diabetes Research explains diabetes is a metabolic disease that causes the body to produce too little insulin. Insulin allows the glucose, or sugar, from the foods that you eat to enter your cells to use as energy, but diabetics don’t have enough insulin to make this happen. This means the sugars stay in your blood, and your body doesn’t have the energy necessary to complete daily functions.
To lower your risk of diabetes, try adding the following six foods to your meals.
1. Whole grains
There’s evidence to suggest that whole grains can protect you from diabetes, whereas refined carbohydrates, like those you would find in white bread, can increase your risk, explains Harvard’s School of Public Health. The fiber and bran found in whole grains make it harder for your digestive system to break down the grains into glucose. Because this process is more difficult, your blood sugar and insulin are increased very slowly, putting less stress on the body. Choosing whole grains that have a low glycemic load can decrease your risk of diabetes dramatically.
2. Carrots
The color of carrots is a key indicator that they’re rich in carotenoids, which are antioxidants that may help prevent diabetes, says Prevention. Research from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health found, out of 4,500 people tested over a 15-year span, those who had the highest levels of carote Continue reading

Diabetes risk gene 'from Neanderthals'

A gene variant that seems to increase the risk of diabetes in Latin Americans appears to have been inherited from Neanderthals, a study suggests.
We now know that modern humans interbred with a population of Neanderthals shortly after leaving Africa 60,000-70,000 years ago.
This means that Neanderthal genes are now scattered across the genomes of all non-Africans living today.
Details of the study appear in the journal Nature.
The gene variant was detected in a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) of more than 8,000 Mexicans and other Latin Americans. The GWAS approach looks at many genes in different individuals, to see whether they are linked with a particular trait.
People who carry the higher risk version of the gene are 25% more likely to have diabetes than those who do not, and people who inherited copies from both parents are 50% more likely to have diabetes.
The higher risk form of the gene - named SLC16A11 - has been found in up to half of people with recent Native American ancestry, including Latin Americans.
Drug hope
The variant is found in about 20% of East Asians and is rare in populations from Europe and Africa.
This could illuminate new pathways to target with drugs and a deeper understanding of the diseaseProf Jose Florez, Harvard Medical School
The elevated frequency of this variant in Latin Americans could account for as much as 20% of these populations' increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes - the origins of which are complex and poorly understood.
"To date, genetic studies have largely used samples from people of European or Asian ancestry, which Continue reading

Majority of California adults have prediabetes or diabetes

Up to 30 percent of people with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within five years, and as many as 70 percent of them will develop the disease in their lifetime.
Nearly half of California adults, including one out of every three young adults, have either prediabetes — a precursor to type 2 diabetes — or undiagnosed diabetes, according to a UCLA study released today. The research provides the first analysis and breakdown of California prediabetes rates by county, age and ethnicity, and offers alarming insights into the future of the nation’s diabetes epidemic.
Conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and commissioned by the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, the study analyzed hemoglobin A1c and fasting plasma glucose findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey together with California Health Interview Survey data from over 40,000 respondents.
The study estimates that some 13 million adults in California, or 46 percent, have prediabetes or undiagnosed diabetes, while another 2.5 million adults, or 9 percent, have already been diagnosed with diabetes. Combined, the two groups represent 15.5 million people — 55 percent of the state’s population. Because diabetes is more common among older adults, the study’s finding that 33 percent of young adults aged 18 to 39 have prediabetes is of particular concern.
“This is the clearest indication to date that the diabetes epidemic is out of control and getting worse,” says Dr. Harold Goldstein, executive director of the health advocacy center. “With limited availa Continue reading