20 million Americans are living with Diabetes and over 40 million have pre-diabetes, thus making this disease almost like an epidemic. This disease is caused by high blood sugar levels. There are a few different types of diabetes, and it can come into someone’s life at any time, and may or not be reflective of their diet. Insulin is a hormone that is produced by the pancreas in the body that helps the take glucose (sugar) into the liver to store, or be used by cells. Some people are dependant on a insulin prescription because their body has stopped producing it. Aside from Type I diabetes, where the pancreas fails, we each have control of regulating our blood sugar levels, and can get them tested to see how our body is functioning.
Here are a few ways to keep your blood sugar levels in check:
1. Protein-Eat things like eggs, chicken sausage, turkey bacon, or whey protein in the morning to “break-the-fast” from the night. Protein helps keep blood sugar levels more stable, unlike starches which spike and then decline, and leave you wanting more when glucose drops. Calculate your bodies needs with this handy tool http://www.healthcalculators.org/calculators/protein.asp?Submit=Close
2. Don’t Skip-Many people go without breakfast, lunch and catch up at night, or perhaps don’t snack. It is important to eat small frequent meals to keep your bodies metabolism in a working state. Often people have weight gain, because they are actually starving their body, which responds by storing fat, as a mechanism of survival. The more often you eat, the more you are “using” your metabolism and thus won’t “lose” it with weight gain, which puts you at risk.
3. Exercise-Daily ideally, or at least a few good workouts a week will make your body become more efficient at making insulin. Decreasing body fat also allows for greater use of insulin, known as “sensitivity”. Combining cardiovascular and weight training, when approved by your doctor, can give you many more benefits too. Many people argue that they don’t have time to exercise, well think of this, a cartoon from Randy Glasbergen, “What fits in your schedule better, exercising one hour per day, or being dead 24 hours per day?” (see cartoon at http://www.glasbergen.com/?s=dead+24+hours)
Good health is a function of healthy diet and lifestyle, and both of these things are controlled by you!
Dr. Alisha, ND 