World Diabetes Day: 5 Top Food Myths Around Diabetes Revealed

Its the World Diabetes Day today! The day which was initiated by International Diabetes Federation to spread awareness and promote better diabetes management amongst people who have been suffering from the condition. Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by high blood sugar either because of the inability of the body to produce enough insulin or the inability to respond to the insulin so produced. There are many myths associated with diabetes and its long term treatment . And while it is a good idea to maintain caution with your diet and lifestyle to manage diabetes better, it is also important to be able to tell myths from facts. To commemorate World Diabetes Day 2017 and create awareness,we bust the top food related myths around diabetes.
1. Diabetics Should Stay Away From Fruit Juice
It is always more advisable to eat fresh, whole fruits- they have more fibre and are more filling. Also, it helps to exercise certain portion control. It is easy to chug down more glasses of juice than eat whole fruits, which further helps keep blood sugar in check. Why fruit juices are not advisable for diabetics is for their excessive sugar content, the packaged juices that you find in are loaded with sugar, calories and carbs, all of which can result in unnecessary sugar spike. Juices, because they are in liquid form are easy to digest which means easier metabolism of sugar and carbs- which further means faster rise in blood sugar. If you do want to have juice, limit it to 4 ounces.
2.Diabetics Should Not Have Potatoes
You don't need to eliminate potatoes from your diet, Continue reading

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Diabetes Before and After

The word ‘Diabetes’ comes from the Greek word that means “pipe-like” or “to pass through”. Not many people realize that it is responsible for claiming the lives of people for over thousands of years. In the body of someone with diabetes, they are unable to use the nutrients in the food for energy, this causes extra glucose to collect in the blood as well as the urine. Food them simply just “passes through” their body and does not absorb any nutrients. Before the discovery of insulin, diabetes was a fatal disease.
Treatments Throughout History
The Egyptians treated people with diabetes by using a combination of water, bones, lead, wheat and ground earth.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, opium helped to reduce the pain and despair that was felt by dying patients with diabetes.
In the 19th century, doctors also tried other common practices of healing such as cupping, bleeding and blistering.
The starvation diet was regularly prescribed to patients with diabetes prior to 1922.
The Prognosis of Diabetes Before Insulin
Imagine being a doctor, who got into the field of medicine to treat and heal patients, but after countless tries they always failed to treat patients with diabetes. Children began to waste away, suffering to take their next breath right before their very eyes and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it.
Before the discovery of insulin, this was the very fate for patients young and old diagnosed with this deadly disease. Adults typically lived under two years, while children rarely lived longer than one years’ time. They suffered greatly Continue reading

Why Drinking Tea May Help Prevent and Manage Type 2 Diabetes

The fountain of youth still remains elusive, but there's something that seems close: green tea. People have been drinking tea for centuries, and today it's the second most popular drink in the world (after water). Some of that popularity may stem from the many widely recognized benefits of tea, including its reported power to prevent cancer and to sharpen mental health. But tea may offer health benefits related to diabetes, too.
“We know people with diabetes have problems metabolizing sugar,” says Suzanne Steinbaum, DO, a cardiologist, director of women’s heart health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “Insulin comes along to decrease sugar, but with type 2 diabetes, the body isn’t so sensitive to insulin, so blood sugar levels go up. Through a complex biochemical reaction, tea — especially green tea — helps sensitize cells so they are better able to metabolize sugar. Green tea is good for people with diabetes because it helps the metabolic system function better.”
A 2013 research review published in the Diabetes and Metabolism Journal outlined the potential benefits of tea when it comes to diabetes as well as obesity, which is a risk factor for diabetes. It highlighted a Japanese study that found that people who drank 6 or more cups of green tea a day were 33 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than were people who drank less than a cup of green tea a week. It also reported on Taiwanese research that found that people who drank green tea regularly for more than a decade had smaller waists and a lower body fat composition than those who were Continue reading

Dealing with Emotions: How Diabetes Can Affect Your Mood

Having type 2 diabetes can affect not only your physical health but also your emotional health. Getting a diagnosis of diabetes adds an emotional weight onto your shoulders which can be challenging to carry day in and day out. Sometimes this weight can come out as other conditions such as anxiety or depression.
There are multiple studies that have shown that external stressors, such as feelings of anxiety or depression, can lead to difficulties in managing self-care. Decreased physical activity, bad food choices, not regularly taking medication are some examples of poor self-care management. Anxiety and stress can lead one to taking up bad habits such as smoking or drinking excessively, which can put a person with diabetes at more risk for developing diabetes related complications.
The Grief of Diagnosis
When you are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, you may notice that you start to experience a grieving process. Many people experience the same emotions associated with the loss of a loved one. When you consider the diagnosis of diabetes, it changes your life, you have lost something and you’ve lost your normal carefree life that you had before.
These common emotions are explained in more detail below as well as various the ways you can learn to control these emotions or even overcome them.
Common Emotions of Diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic condition that requires diligent almost 24/7 management. Sometimes this type of schedule can seem like a burden. When this happens, other common emotions or conditions may manifest, causing even more difficulty in managing your blood sugar Continue reading

Diabetes BREAKTHROUGH: Type 2 'can be REVERSED in weeks by following THIS diet'

Scientists say lifestyle driven Type 2 - a condition that almost 12 million Britons are thought to be at risk of developing - is caused by excess fat in the liver and pancreas.
Findings due to be presented today have given fresh hope that the debilitating disease need not to a life sentence.
They reveal that even if sufferers have been blighted for years the condition can be brought under control by sensible eating.
Professor Roy Taylor, from Newcastle University, said: “The good news for people with Type 2 is our work shows that even if you have had the condition for 10 years you are likely to be able to reverse it by moving that all important tiny amount of fat out of the pancreas. At present, this can only be done through substantial weight loss.”
The good news for people with Type 2 is our work shows that even if you have had the condition for 10 years you are likely to be able to reverse it by moving that all important tiny amount of fat out of the pancreas
Nine in 10 Type 2 sufferers are overweight or obese and do not produce enough insulin, or the insulin they produce does not work properly.
Professor Taylor, who has spent 40 years studying the condition, will deliver his research to an international collaboration of experts at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Lisbon.
He will claim excess calories leads to excess fat in the liver.
As a result, the liver responds poorly to insulin and produces too much glucose.
Excess fat in the liver is passed on to the pancreas, causing the insulin producing cells to fail.
He says losing less than 1 gram of Continue reading