#WorldDiabetesDay: 5 Things To Eat To Reduce Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes

#WorldDiabetesDay: 5 things to eat to reduce risk of type 2 diabetes

Pre-diabetes is diagnosed when your blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be classified as having type 2 diabetes.
Pre-diabetes is an early alert that your diabetes risk is now very high. It is ten to 20 times greater compared to the risk for those with normal blood sugars. What you choose to eat, or avoid, influences this risk.
Diabetes Prevention Programs
Studies around the world, including Finland, China and the US have shown diabetes prevention programs prevent or delay progression to type 2 diabetes. When people eat more healthily, drop their body weight by 5-10% and walk for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, they lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by about 58% over two years.
We recently gave 101 men with pre-diabetes a self-directed diabetes prevention program over six months. We found they were able to reduce their portion size of potato and meat and improve their variety of health foods.
They were able to reduce the proportion of energy coming from junk food by 7.6% more than the group who didn’t change their diet and got a four-point increase in their scores from the Healthy Eating Quiz. These improved eating patterns were associated with an average weight loss of 5.5kg and better blood sugar regulation.
This is great news for the 318 million adults around the world, who have pre-diabetes.
The original diabetes prevention studies started in the 1980s. Back then the advice was to reduce your total kilojoule intake by eating less fat, especially from take-away, processed and fried foods and to eat more foods rich in carbohyd Continue reading

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Drinking most days may protect against diabetes - new study

Drinking alcohol most days of the week significantly protects against developing diabetes, a new study suggests.
Data from more than 70,000 drinkers found that having a drink on three or four days per week was associated with a reduced risk of 27 per cent in men and 32 per cent in women, compared with abstaining.
Wine had the biggest effect, with scientists suggesting that its chemical compounds improve blood-sugar balance.
However, researchers have warned women to stay clear of gin and other spirits, which were associated with an increased of diabetes for women by 83 per cent.
Our findings suggest that alcohol drinking frequency is associated with the risk of diabetesProfessor Janne Tolstrup, University of Southern Denmark
Previous studies had already suggested that light to moderate alcohol consumption can cut the risk of diabetes, but the new research is the first to focus on drinking frequency.
Scientists studied data on 70,551 men and women taking part in a large Danish health survey who were quizzed about their drinking habits and monitored for five years.
The authors, led by Professor Janne Tolstrup from the University of Southern Denmark, who said: "Our findings suggest that alcohol drinking frequency is associated with the risk of diabetes and that consumption of alcohol over three to four weekdays is associated with the lowest risks of diabetes, even after taking average weekly alcohol consumption into account."
During the follow-up period, a total of 859 men and 887 women from the study group developed diabetes.
The investigation did not distinguish between the t Continue reading

Magnesium To Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

Diet may play a major role in magnesium and its association to type 2 diabetes.
Nutrients and their effect on diabetes prevention have become a major topic of research in numerous studies. Magnesium is of significant interest because it has been recognized that almost half of the U.S. population has a magnesium deficiency. Low magnesium intake is also known to impair insulin function. Magnesium deficiency tends to be more distinct in individuals with prediabetes and diabetes. It has also been suggested that low magnesium intake results in an increased risk of prediabetes and diabetes development. Previous studies have shown that a higher magnesium intake does in fact result in decreased diabetes risk. However, few studies have analyzed how diet and carbohydrate quality affect this relation.
The following study analyzed data from three large cohorts conducted in the U.S called the Nurses’ Health Studies (NHS and NHS2) with a total of 160,647 participants and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) with a total of 42,096 participants. The study aimed to determine whether a higher magnesium intake results in type 2 diabetes risk reduction and how high glycemic index (GI) diets, those low in cereal fiber and high in carbohydrates, more specifically foods high in sugar and foods made with white flower, affect this association.
Participants in the three cohorts were followed for 28 years and evaluated for onset of type 2 diabetes. Food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) completed at baseline and every 4 years were utilized to obtain specific details on dietary intake. FFQs Continue reading

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is a progressive, chronic disease related to your body's challenges with regulating blood sugar. It is often associated with generalized inflammation. Your pancreas produces the hormone insulin to convert sugar (glucose) to energy that you either use immediately or store. With type 2 diabetes, you are unable to use that insulin efficiently. Although your body produces the hormone, either there isn't enough of it to keep up with the amount of glucose in your system, or the insulin being produced isn't being used as well as it should be, both of which result in high blood sugar levels.
While this can produce different types of complications, good blood sugar control efforts can help to prevent them. This relies heavily on lifestyle modifications such as weight loss, dietary changes, exercise and, in some cases, medication. But, depending on your age, weight, blood sugar level, and how long you've had diabetes, you may not need a prescription right away. Treatment must be tailored to you and, though finding the perfect combination may take a little time, it can help you live a healthy, normal life with diabetes.
What Causes Type 2 Diabetes?
Type 2 diabetes is most common is those who are genetically predisposed and who are overweight, lead a sedentary lifestyle, have high blood pressure, and/or have insulin resistance due to excess weight. People of certain ethnicities are more likely to develop diabetes, too. These include: African Americans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Asian Americans. These populations are mo Continue reading

What to eat to avoid diabetes

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With one in nine Singaporeans suffering from diabetes, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently described Singapore as “almost world champion” among developed countries in diabetes prevalence. The proportion of sufferers in Singapore is second only to the United States, which has the highest rate of diabetes among all developed countries.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday (20 August), PM Lee urged Singaporeans to choose healthier foods such as yong tau foo and sliced fish soup, and eat less to combat diabetes.
Diabetes mellitus, commonly referred to as type 2 diabetes or simply diabetes, is a chronic illness characterised by a high level of sugar or glucose in the blood. Blood sugar builds up when your body either doesn’t make enough of the hormone insulin which helps in the regulation of sugar, or is unable to properly use the insulin it produces (insulin resistance).
Diabetes is a lifestyle disease that occurs more frequently in individuals over the age of 40, particularly those who are overweight and physically inactive. It can be prevented if you maintain a healthy weight, have a balanced and nutritious diet and get sufficient physical exercise.
“You can easily consume a lot of sugar in soft drinks, food with added sugar, and it is hidden in a wide variety of processed foods. The sugar in these foods is absorbed into the bloodstream very quickly and causes a rapid increase in blood sugar levels. Over time, this leads to difficulty in maintaining normal blood sugar and predisposes to diabetes,” says Dr Joan Khoo, Chief and Senior Consultantin the D Continue reading