Seven Rules to Help Fight Diabetes

Keeping your blood glucose under control, losing weight and generally enjoying a healthier life are a matter of a few easy steps. These guidelines will inspire virtually anyone to say, ‘Yes, I can do that.’

1. Eat more often
Start your day by eating breakfast, then go no more than five waking hours without a meal or snack.

By keeping food in your system, you avoid wild fluctuations in blood glucose – deep valleys brought on by skipping meals or eating them late, and high peaks caused by a surge in glucose when you finally get something into your stomach. But just as important, you keep your appetite under control by not letting hunger build to the point where you’re ravenous.

Eating more often means, for a start, eating breakfast every day. According to several studies, this not only helps to keep your blood glucose levels stable, it also helps you to eat fewer kilojoules throughout the day. What’s more, it boosts your metabolism so you burn more kilojoules.

Research suggests that adopting this simple habit can result in striking health benefits. For example, a report presented to the American Heart Association in 2003 found that rates of obesity and metabolic problems such as insulin resistance were 35 to 50 per cent lower in those who ate breakfast.

If you’re planning a late lunch or dinner, you’ll need to have a snack in between. Again, the aim is to keep your blood glucose levels steady and make sure you never become too hungry.

2. Eat balanced meals
Forget the protein versus carbohydrates debate. Include some of both at each meal, plus at least one fruit or vegetable.

This is the best approach to controlling your blood glucose, feeling full longer and losing weight. It sounds simple, and it is. Yet clinical experience suggests that if you’re overweight, that is probably not the way you’re eating now. In fact, your nutritional intake may be so out of balance that you may be deficient in certain nutrients even though you’re taking in too many kilojoules.

Some nutritionists believe that the body’s need for a variety of nutrients triggers your appetite in order to make sure that you get them. But if you simply eat more of what you always eat, your body never gets enough of certain nutrients it really needs.