Type 2 diabetes is a lifelong disease in which there are high levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. With type 2 diabetes, the body either doesn't produce enough insulin or resists insulin.
Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas, a gland located near the stomach. This hormone regulates the process of converting the sugar from food into fuel for your body.
Type 2 diabetes cases have reached epidemic proportions. However, simple diet and lifestyle changes can prevent and even reverse the disease.
In order to diagnose this problem, have a look at some quick preventing points below:
1. Stop snacking
Removing foods with added sugar from your diet is essential. This means cutting down on confectionery, biscuits, cakes, ice-cream, desserts, and sweet fruit. Fill up at main meals and then aim to stop eating between meals.
If you feel peckish, try a small piece of cheese, a few strawberries, vegetable sticks, a handful of nuts, a hard-boiled egg, or a piece of dark chocolate.
2. Cut out all sugary drinks
Not just the obvious fizzy drinks but smoothies and fruit juice (yes, the sugar is 'natural' but fructose, or fruit sugar, is still sugar) and even hot drinks containing sugar, syrup or honey.
Wean yourself off with sweeteners, if you need to, but they can cause cravings, so aim to eventually limit those as well. The best drinks are water and unsweetened tea and coffee.
3. Have a healthy meal
Think meat and two vegetables for main meals - avoiding potatoes, pasta and rice. Avoid flour-based sauces and limit starchy root vegetables.
4. Have a starch-free breakfast
So many people eat cereal and toast out of habit, which is sugar molecules holding hands. Just like sugar, it increases glucose and insulin levels in the blood.
5. Watch your alcohol
Limit consumption to 14 units a week or less and avoid beer, cider, sweet liqueur al liqueurs, alcopops, and low-alcohol wines and beers.
And one more thing, Do you know how does genetic risk affects you?
Everyone starts life with genetic risk factors for various diseases, for instance, diabetes, cancer, and dementia. Some people have very few, some people have a lot. You're born with this risk and you cannot change it.
Over the course of life, people are exposed to other factors like sunshine, smoking, and alcohol, which increase the chances of harmful genes becoming active. If you're born with more genetic risk factors to begin with, it takes fewer other risk factors for a disease to develop.
But even if you have a high genetic risk for a particular condition, it doesn't mean you will get it. By working on factors you can change, such as giving up smoking and moderating your drinking, you may be able to reduce the chance of developing it.
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