Living Healthy With Diabetes

By Karie Zipper, CNN, Board Certified Clinical Nutritionist

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Living Healthy With Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic disease that is reaching epidemic proportions among adults and children. If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, there’s a lot you can do. The secret to managing type 2 diabetes isn’t found in a pill. In most cases type 2 diabetes can be reversed by practicing healthy habits on a regular basis, like exercise and diet.

“Basic principles of good health like eating right, exercising regularly, and maintaining a healthy weight can be as effective as medicine in the management of type 2 diabetes for most people,” says Sue McLaughlin, RD, CDE, lead medical nutrition therapist at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha.

That’s backed up by the Look AHEAD study, a large clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The researchers found that over a four-year period, changes like eating a healthier diet and getting more exercise led to weight loss and improved diabetes control in 5,000 overweight or obese participants with type 2 diabetes.

Carbohydrates (starches, sugars, grains) have the greatest effect on your blood sugar. Carbs are broken down into sugar, or glucose, and are absorbed into your bloodstream.

When diabetics consume too many carbs at one time their blood sugar levels can spike to high levels that can be dangerous.  Over time, these high levels can damage nerves, kidneys, heart, etc. and lead to other issues. So, diabetics want to stay away from eating high carbohydrate processed foods.

Food To Avoid

These include: Sugar, sugary beverages, sodas, white bread, pasta, rice, bagels, refined-flour foods, especially ones with trans fats. Fruit flavored sugar laden yogurts, sweetened breakfast cereals, dried fruits, packaged snack foods like pretzels and crackers all produce a high insulin response in the body.

What Can a Type 2 Diabetic Eat?

It is suggested to balance your blood sugar by eating protein, healthy fats (including nuts/seeds, coconut oil, avocado), fruits low in sugar (berries), green vegetables and low starch veggies.  Keeping blood sugar steady throughout the day is very important, so frequent small meals and snacks are important.

Exercise Is
Important Too

Most type 2 diabetics are overweight and need to start moving more. Even if it’s just a 10 minute walk or parking farther away at a store and walking, or taking the stairs over an elevator, these all help.

The best exercise is to get some weight training in order to push glucose out of the muscles. So, creating a plan that has both cardio and weights is best.

More than 30 million people have diabetes in the US, including kids. Almost 7.2 million of those aren’t even aware of it. Another 34 million are prediabetic. We need to stop the epidemic.

Let’s make 2019 the year to “Get Healthy” and look at what we are consuming, what vitamins are we taking and what products we use on our skin, hair, and body, and get moving. We can make our bodies the best yet with some effort.