Did you know that Type 2 Diabetes is 100% preventable?
And yet, 11.5 million Canadians live with diabetes or pre-diabetes. So about 25% of Canadians are living with a 100% unnecessary disease; here is a list of complications from diabetes:
Heart and blood vessel damage
Nerve damage
Kidney disease
Eye damage
Skin damage
Hearing impairment
There are lots more….
With stats like that – all of us need to be doing EVERYTHING we can to prevent diabetes! Here are Mayo’s top 5 recommendations to help prevent Type 2 Diabetes.(with my comments and suggestions added in)
Lose extra weight:
In an extensive study – 60% of people dramatically reduced their risk of diabetes by losing just 7% of their body weight. I approach weight loss with lifestyle – I teach my clients how to find a balanced fitness routine and how to make slow, steady changes to their nutrition habits to find optimum health. My approach helps people keep their weight off LONG term!
Be more physically active:
Just exercise – put it in the same category as brushing your teeth and showering; you do it every day no matter what because it’s part of your self-care. Exercise helps you lose weight, lowers blood sugar and boosts sensitivity to insulin – this helps keep your blood sugar in a normal range. Everyone should include strength training as well as cardiovascular conditioning in their program.
Eat healthy plant foods:
Plants are where it’s at! (ps – I don’t think being a vegetarian is the most beneficial way to live – but we should all be eating SO MANY VEGGIES!). Focus on eating lots of veggies, a little fruit, piles of greens, plant-based carbs like rice/potatoes/squash. Eat things in their whole form, so you get all the great fibre that comes in these foods. Fibre will help slow the absorption of sugar and lower blood sugar levels, interfere with dietary fat and cholesterol absorption, help you eat less, and leave you feeling full!
Eat healthy fats!
Fat doesn’t make you fat! Eating good fats will help you stay full, slow sugar absorption, and be great for your skin, hair, hormones, and brain… the list goes on! Include healthy fats from nuts, seeds, healthy oils, avocados and fish as often as possible.
Skip fad diets
Focus on learning a healthier lifestyle! We’ve all seen our friends go on some miraculous “diet” and drop a pile of weight super fast… then something knocks them off the routine, and they gain it all back and feel like a failure. Diets don’t work – have you ever noticed that people who maintain healthy body weight for life are never
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