I'm assuming that you're reading this diabetes diet article for one simple reason. You (or a loved one) have diabetes or a family history of diabetes and you want to find a healthy diet for diabetes that will help you manage the condition more effectively. Maybe you'd like to reduce your reliance on medication. Perhaps you're hoping to avoid having to resort to drugs in the first place. Maybe you simply want a diabetes diet plan that will allow you to do everything in your power to keep your blood sugar under control and to keep serious health problems at bay.
No matter what your situation, if you have Type 2 diabetes, there is a lot you can do to help you to tame it.
By following some healthy type 2 diabetes diet tips you'll be able to lose some weight and also boost your cells' ability to respond to insulin.
If you have Type 2 diabetes, your primary goal is simple: to bring your blood sugar levels under control. By doing so, you'll help to stave off diabetes-related complications that can compromise your quality of life, such as serious eye and kidney problems; you can reduce your risk of heart disease (did you know that people with diabetes have two to four times the normal risk of heart disease and stroke?); and you'll most likely live longer. Best of all, you will soon feel better both physically and mentally and more in control of your day-to-day health.
How to lower blood sugar levels is another matter entirely, and one that can seem anything but simple.
Medications can achieve this, of course, and you may need to be on some. But there are many more measures that you can take to control your diabetes and slow its progression, starting with changing your diet.
There are countless different ways to regulate your diet, from simple healthy eating to choosing the foods you eat according to their Glycaemic Index ratings. But we don't think you should have to research each and every food before you eat it.
Taking charge of diabetes doesn't have to be all that complicated. In fact, it shouldn't be, because the more complicated a piece of advice is, the less likely you are to follow it. Approaches that involve a lot of time, attention and planning can be difficult to stick with permanently.
The truth is that all you really need to do to achieve a radical change in your health is to make a few small changes in some of your everyday habits, such as what you eat for lunch or what you do during the commercial breaks on TV. How can such small changes possibly add up to controlling diabetes?
Lowering your blood sugar levels is reason enough to lose weight for someone with diabetes. But shedding surplus pounds may also help to relieve or prevent a multitude of secondary health problems, including
- High blood pressure
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Gallbladder disease
- Joint pain
- Sleep apnea
- Arthritis
- Breast cancer
- Colon cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Kidney cancer