PWM Guide to Avoiding Diabetes
Even fit, healthy adults can develop diabetes but the risk is greatly reduced if you follow a lifestyle designed to keep your blood sugar in balance. Follow these guidelines for reduced diabetes risk, and be sure you to get an annual blood test to monitor your glucose levels.
Make a Healthy Diet a Family Habit: The food that is healthy for people with diabetes is healthy for everybody. You can make some changes that will be healthy for everyone in your family and reduce the risk for your loved ones.
Eat regular meals. Your body needs energy all day long, so try to eat three meals every day. Don't skip meals in your effort to lose weight, as you will get hungry and you might eat too much at the next meal. Instead, eat smaller meals more often.
Choosing a high fiber diet. Add plenty of high fiber foods, including--
Fruits and vegetables. Fresh is best, second choice would be frozen, then canned.
Healthy add-ons like flax seeds for taste, texture and extra nutrition. Sprinkle it on salads or soup.
Foods made from grain. Choose brown rice instead of white rice.
Dry beans, peas or lentils.
Cut down on carbs and fat.
Drink 1% or skim milk. We recommend Fat Free Fairlife Milk, available in your local grocery store. No fat but double the protein.
Eat chicken (remove skin), fish or lean red meat. Keep your servings small, about the size of a deck of cards.
Instead of cooking with shortening, use liquid oils such as corn oil, olive oil and canola. Try to use only a little bit of oil.
Instead of frying, cook your foods by boiling, broiling or baking them in the oven, microwave or air fryer.
If you drink regular soda, switch to diet soda. Or better yet, drink water instead. A SodaStream dispenser makes it easy to create your own bubbly water for variety.
Cut down on sweets. Utilize the bars and sweet snacks from PWM.
Eat less salt.
Use spices instead of salt to add flavor to your food.
Most of the salt we eat comes from processed food. Read the label to find out how much salt or sodium a serving contains.
Stay away from high-salt snacks such as potato chips or stick to PWM's healthy snack selections.
If you drink alcohol--
Be sure to follow each drink with an 8 ounce glass of water. It doesn't flush the calories but it can help flush the sugar alcohols.
Recognize the high caloric content in alcohol and adapt your food intake to account for the additional calories.
Restrict your alcohol intake to no more than one drink daily for women and no more than two drinks daily for men.
If you take diabetes medication or insulin, alcohol intake can lower your blood glucose levels.
Eat a meal or snack when you drink alcohol.
Take the Time to Exercise: Exercise helps to lower your blood glucose levels. There are also many other reasons to exercise:
Exercise helps with weight loss or weight control.
Exercise is good for your heart.
Exercise helps lower your blood pressure and cholesterol.
Exercise makes you stronger.
Exercise makes you feel good.
Here are some tips to help you get started exercising:
Find an exercise you like. Make it fun.
Start slowly. Work up to 30 minutes most days of the week.
Ask someone to exercise with you.
Make exercise a part of your life. It may help to exercise at the same time daily to establish a routine and habit.
If you are dependent on diabetes pills or insulin, be aware that exercise can cause low blood glucose levels. Always carry some form of sugar so you can replenish your glucose.
A Note About Weight Loss: Most people who have Type 2 diabetes are overweight. If you lose weight, your blood glucose levels will typically go down. Your blood pressure and cholesterol should also show improvement, and you don't have to lose a lot of weight to see these healthy changes. Losing weight could even mean you never need pills or insulin to control your diabetes. Or if you are already taking pills or using insulin, you may not need as much.