Lowering Your Risk of Diabetes

Diabetes runs rampant in this country with over 23 million people affected by the disease. Many factors contribute to the risk as well as causing it to be out of control. Diabetes can be controlled with proper diet and exercises and a few life changes. The following tips will help you lower your risk of contracting the disease or help you control it if you already have it.

Remember that diet is the number one cause of diabetes being out of control and having high blood sugar. Get educated about food, how the body processes and utilizes certain foods and how to eat balanced meals to keep these reactions at bay. One important thing to remember is that diabetics do not need to eat corn, potatoes, pasta and bread in the same meal. These combinations play havoc on blood sugar levels. Since these food combinations cause a spike in a diabetics' blood sugar level, you can bet it causes the same spike in people who don't have diabetes. No one should ever put that many starchy carbohydrates into one meal. It's a common fast food meal or Sunday dinner to have fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, macaroni with cheese and a roll or biscuit. This is just an accident waiting to happen and should be avoided by everyone.

If you are overweight, lose it now. Change your diet and your lifestyle. Being overweight greatly increases your chances of developing diabetes and is extremely unhealthy for the control of diabetes.

Choose healthier snacks. Research has shown that cottage cheese is one of the best snacks for diabetics because it's rich in the amino acid leucine. This amino acid helps muscle cells soak up and use blood sugar.

Add a little spice to your life. Certain spices are shown to help stabilize blood sugar by helping the liver convert the sugar and fat into fuel. These spices include cinnamon, ginger, cayenne, turmeric and cilantro.

Eat complex carbohydrates instead of simple carbohydrates. The body breaks down complex carbohydrates at a slower rate than simple carbohydrates so the blood isn't flooded with sugar. These include whole grains and foods in their raw, natural state. But even though they are complex and digest more slowly, you should never eat too many together at one meal.

Stored belly fat is another risk of diabetes. The body often stores fat around the midsection to prevent famine. This is caused from skipping meals. If you eat regular meals within a regular time-frame it signals the body that it will have food on a regular basis and it won't need to store extra fuel as fat. If you skip meals or eat only once a day, this signals the body that famine may be approaching so it begins to store unused calories as fat. It's the body's self-sustaining mechanism to avoid starvation. Quite a design, don't you think?