Diet and Nutrition Tips

5 Ways To Prevent Insulin Resistance and Diabetes

Insulin resistance has become one of the most widespread health problems in America. High-stress lifestyles, consuming too much fast food or chemical laden, high-carb processed foods, combined with lack of exercise has created an epidemic of insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes. But you don’t have to be one of those statistics!

Adopting these five simple lifestyle and diet changes corrects the problems that cause insulin resistance. If you are already insulin resistant, these five changes can prevent your condition from deteriorating into Type 2 Diabetes. And if you have already been diagnosed as a diabetic, it's still not too late to control blood sugar levels and improve your health with these vital five steps. Though each person is different, it is even possible for some people to reverse diabetes and restore normal pancreatic functions using these five steps.

1: Exercise!
30 minutes of brisk walking or similar exercise, 3-5 times a week, can prevent you developing insulin resistance or diabetes. If you're already insulin resistant or diabetic, exercise will help improve insulin sensitivity and lower blood sugar levels.

2. Avoid processed foods.
Packaged and processed foods contain two things that can lead to insulin resistance and eventually diabetes: high-fructose corn syrup and trans fats.

High fructose corn syrup is a chemically altered sugar that your body cannot use. Unfortunately, your pancreas still detects it as “sugar” and attempts to release it to your cells as fuel by secreting insulin. Consuming too much of it will send your blood sugar soaring, contribute to weight gain, hypertension (high blood pressure) and Type 2 Diabetes. This insidious stuff is in absolutely everything--even foods that you wouldn't suspect of containing sugar, such as crackers, salad dressings--even tomato sauce! Non-diet soft drinks and virtually all commercially packaged juices contain high levels of fructose corn syrup.

Trans fats are notorious for causing inflammation in the arteries and other problems. They also seem to contribute to the onset of diabetes, though how is not entirely understood. You'll find trans fat in most packaged cake and frosting mixes, many cookies and other baked products, non-dairy coffee creamers, and margarines. Virtually all "stick" type margarines contain trans fat--check the label, and you'll see. Your body cannot metabolize these chemically altered fats, which simply build up in your tissues, damaging cells and contributing to life-threatening arterial blockage.

3. Eat more whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies
Along with contributing important nutrients and aiding digestion, these foods can help to stabilize blood sugar and insulin levels by slowing down your digestive process. Unlike "simple" carbohydrates like white bread, potatos and pasta--which quickly break down into sugar, causing your blood sugar levels to soar and insulin levels to spike--these more complex foods digest more slowly, causing sugar to be released more gradually into your blood, avoiding the destructive "sugar spikes" that come from eating starchy foods.

4. Add the "right" fats to your diet
Not all fats are "bad". Fat is an essential nutrient that your body needs. The key is making sure the fat you add to your diet is the right kind of fat. Unlike synthetic or chemically altered "trans fats" or "hydrogenated fats", your body can digest "natural" fats, such as mono- and poly-unsaturated vegetable oils. Fats and oils high in "essential fatty acids" (EFAs), such as those found in salmon, tuna and avocados help reduce "bad" cholesterol levels and raise "good" cholesterol levels. Flax seed oil is another beneficial source of fat, as are those found in nuts. Nuts and flax seed or flax seed oil add other valuable nutrients to your dietary mix.

5. Add important nutrients to your diet
It's difficult for us to get sufficient nutrients from food alone--because processing strips food of nutrients, and because today's mass-production farming methods result in soil that is "depleted" of important minerals and vitamins. A good multi-vitamin/mineral supplement can help to solve this problem. But if you are insulin resistant or diabetic, you should be sure that your supplement contains certain trace elements and vitamins that have been shown to help control blood sugar and lower insulin levels. These include:

Chromium - in the form of chromium picolinate, it helps control blood sugar and insulin levels
Magnesium - this is the nutrient that most often seems to be lacking in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics, so evidence is strong that a lack of this trace mineral in your diet can be a determining factor in whether or not you develop diabetes, regardless of family history, lack of exercise, etc.
Manganese - its role in preventing diabetes and insulin resistance is stll being researched, but lower than normal levels of manganese are another thing most diabetics seem to have in common, so it would stand to reason that getting adequate levels in a daily supplement might help to prevent the onset of diabetes.
Vanadium - aids in the metabolism of sugar and increases the insulin sensitivity of cells
B Vitamins - Stress can deplete your body of all-important B-viatmins and cause blood sugar levels to rise.
B3 (Niacin) - is valuable for circulatory health, and also key to metabolizing carbs, fat and protein.
B6 - this powerful antioxidant helps protect you from the destructive effects of diabetes like nerve and heart damage.
B12 - vital to the proper functioning of nerve cells, B12 is another good anti-stress nutrient, and may actually help prevent the nerve damage associated with diabetes

Articles on this website are for informational purposes only. They are not intended, nor should they be used as medical advice. Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.

Copyright 2008