Lifestyle & Healthy Eating Tips For Diabetes Type 2

Sometimes, we all need a little nudge of motivation towards making healthy changes to our lifestyle and our diet.
The motivation can be as simple and straight forward as losing weight, or just being healthy to live a long and prosperous life. The motivation and the desire may come easy for those who do not have the burden of keeping their blood sugar levels in constant check. But when you have type 2 diabetes, you suddenly have so much more to think about.
It can be quite overwhelming and daunting to make appropriate decisions to stay on track when it comes to your nutrition and diet.
It could also be that you have no idea what little changes to make in order to manage your diabetes.
Fear not because we asked 51 registered dietitians to share lifestyle and dietary tips for those with type 2 diabetes.
Please read below to find out what they have to say to make your life a little less complicated.
1. Ellen Ratliff, RD
Aim for a consistent amount of carbohydrates at each meal, focusing on complex sources such as whole grain breads, pastas, and cereals, brown rice, beans, whole fruit, and low-fat dairy. Remember to incorporate small snacks if you are going longer than 4 hours between meals.
I advise reading the following articles:
Also, do not underestimate the role that exercise can play in lowering blood sugar, such as brisk walking. Check your blood sugar before and after exercise to make sure it does not go too low and have a quick source of carbohydrates on hand if you are away from home, such as in your purse or in the glove box of your car. If you are having trouble cont Continue reading

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Newly Discovered Link Between Sleep and Diabetes Warrants Early Bedtime for Children

Once a disease of adults, Type 2 diabetes is now affecting an increasing number of children in the United States. This disease is linked to increased insulin resistance and metabolic effects that can have devastating lifelong consequences. Doctors and scientists are struggling to discover the reason that so many children are suffering from Type 2 diabetes and other types of metabolic syndrome. New research finding links between sleep and diabetes suggests that our circadian rhythms may contribute to how sugar is processed, even at a very young age.
Diabetes in Children
There are two types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 usually begins in childhood. In this disease, the body wages an autoimmune attack on your pancreas that leaves you unable to produce insulin. Because insulin is needed to let blood glucose into cells, this leads to cells that are starved for food even with dangerously high blood sugar in the bloodstream. This disease is usually random and unpreventable, with rates remaining stable over decades.
Type 2 diabetes also affects glucose metabolism, although in a very different way. In this form of diabetes, people’s cells become insulin resistant. Even with the pancreas working harder than ever to meet increasing insulin demands, cells simply do not let blood glucose into cells as effectively. While people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes will both have high blood glucose, Type 1 patients will have no insulin at all in their bloodstream while Type 2 patients will have very high levels. Unlike Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes is caused mainly by lifestyle f Continue reading

Popular gluten-free diets increase diabetes risk – research

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Those with the least gluten in their diets had a slightly higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes over a few decades, according to Harvard University School of Public Health.
“We wanted to determine if gluten consumption will affect health in people with no apparent medical reasons to avoid gluten,” Dr. Geng Zong, a Harvard University research fellow, said Thursday at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Portland, Oregon.
Gluten-free diets adopted by rising number of consumers enhance risk of Type 2 diabetes: Harvard study https://t.co/rTXSJ62ckCpic.twitter.com/lyTxS2Maks
— National Post (@nationalpost) March 10, 2017
The Harvard team examined 30 years of medical data from nearly 200,000 patients. Over this period, just under 16,000 participants developed Type 2 diabetes. Wong’s team looked at people’s gluten intake and found that participants who ate the least gluten had a higher risk of development diabetes over time.
The gluten-free craze is a symptom of a bigger problem with medicine https://t.co/GgVfX2XvNxpic.twitter.com/Y7TLCaNjhb
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) March 10, 2017
Most people consumed no more than 12 grams of gluten each, (equivalent of two to three slices of wholemeal bread) with the average being 6 to 7 grams. Those in the top 20 percent for gluten intake were 13 percent less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes compared to the bottom 20 percent who typically ate 4 grams of gluten each day, the findings showed.
Zong’s team took into account other factors including people’s exercise habits, weight, typical calories in Continue reading

No, Gluten-Free Diets Do NOT Cause Diabetes: New “Study” Has Serious Flaws

Take a look at some headlines that have been flooding the internet for the last week or so:
Gluten-Free Diets May Be Tied to an Increased Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Going Gluten Free May Raise Your Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Downside to Gluten-Free Diets: Diabetes Risk?
Type 2 Diabetes Linked to Low Gluten Diets
Gluten-Free Diets Could Lead to Deficiencies and Cause Illness
Low-Gluten Diet May Be Linked to Diabetes Risk
Gluten May Be Healthier For You Than You Think
Going Gluten-Free Might Actually Increase Your Risk of Diabetes
What were your first thoughts upon reading those headlines?
Did they make you think that avoiding gluten will increase your risk of developing one of the most dangerous chronic conditions that plagues humanity…and that maybe consuming gluten is actually GOOD for you?
Here’s the source of disinformation those articles used as a reference:
There are many problems with this claim…first, this isn’t a study that is published…anywhere.
The “study” itself is filled with flaws, but none of the mainstream media outlets seemed to notice. All of them stuck with the narrative that was given. None questioned the veracity of the claims made.
The study comes from Harvard researchers, which may sound impressive, but they don’t always get things right. I’m not saying they are always wrong, but…Harvard “scientists” are largely to blame for the decades-long fear of fat trend that led people to believe that dietary fat causes disease. They also downplayed the role sugar plays in the development of heart disease.
An excerpt from my article Big Sugar Pa Continue reading

The International Diabetes Federation and Its Vision

WRITTEN BY: Alexi Melvin
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) has one vision – to live in a world without diabetes.
IDF is a federation of 200+ national diabetes associations, including the American Diabetes Association and the American Association of Diabetes Educators. It aims to support and strengthen its membership by promoting diabetes care and prevention through the development and dissemination of high-quality, evidence-based information and resources for health professionals, people with diabetes and policy-makers. Any national or international association that promotes and addresses diabetes related issues may apply for membership of IDF. IDF spans 7 regions and has a pulse of key issues in each region:
165 countries, and 235 total members.
IDF strives to promote diabetes awareness in a myriad of ways through advocacy initiatives on both local and global levels. Their main focus areas include:
Health professional education
Care & prevention
Epidemiology & Research
Humanitarian support
IDF’s most noteworthy initiatives include the IDF Diabetes Atlas, World Diabetes Day (last year’s theme being “Eyes on Diabetes,” a campaign promoting the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes), the IDF Congress (the next edition will be held in Abu Dhabi in December 2017), Life for a Child (which focuses on saving the lives of children with diabetes in developing countries), and the Young Leaders in Diabetes programme.
Beyond Type 1 sat down for a chat with Lorenzo Piemonte, IDF Communications Manager, to hear more about how IDF is Continue reading