Diabetes is a disease prevalent among those who maintain an unhealthy lifestyle. It’s never too late to start maintaining a healthy diet and incorporating good habits into your routine to prevent diabetes. The good news is that you can avoid this disease by taking precautions — precautions that you can turn into lifelong habits. In this article, we’ll discuss how to avoid diabetes with seven simple habits.
Let’s dive right in.
How To Avoid Diabetes With Seven Simple Habits
Here are seven simple habits that’ll help you avoid diabetes.
- Exercise Regularly
Exercising can generally help you physically and mentally. Here’s how exercising can help you stray away from diabetes.
– It reduces your overall weight.
– It decreases your blood sugar levels.
– It increases your sensitivity to insulin which helps keep your blood sugar at bay.
Start small by engaging in 20 minutes of physical activity every day. This can be aerobic exercises, light jogging on the treadmill, or just a brisk walk. Doing these consistently works wonders.
- Avoid a Sedentary Lifestyle
We covered exercise, but part of living a healthy lifestyle is avoiding sedentary behaviour. In addition to physical exercise, make sure you don’t sit for long periods at your desk. Take a break in between your work to walk around. Recent research shows that sedentary behaviour is strongly linked to type 2 diabetes because it affects the metabolism of sugars.
- Cut Down on Carbs and Sustain a Plant-Based Diet
Try to limit your carb intake as much as possible. Carbohydrates are broken down by your body into small sugar molecules. These molecules are then absorbed into the bloodstream, which results in a rise in blood sugar. This stimulates your pancreas to produce insulin, which is a hormone that aids in the transport of sugar from your bloodstream into your cells.
People with prediabetes are resistant to insulin; hence they maintain high blood sugar levels. To compensate for this, the pancreas produces more insulin in an attempt to lower blood sugar levels. This can progressively lead to higher blood sugar and insulin levels over time, eventually leading to type 2 diabetes. Now that you know the science behind why you should avoid carbs as much as you can, replace them with wholesome plant-based meals filled with fibre and vitamins.
Fibrous foods help you lose weight and reduce sugar absorption in your body, lowering blood sugar levels. Incorporate non-starchy vegetables, such as lettuce, spinach, and cauliflower, into your everyday meals. Avoid bad carbs like white bread, rice, pasta, maida-based products, and processed foods; they tend to be high in sugar and fats.
- Drink Plenty of Water
Making water your primary drink of choice will help you limit sugary beverages. People who consume carbonated drinks high in sugar or even sweetened fruit juices are at a higher risk of developing diabetes. Increasing your water consumption will result in better blood sugar management and insulin response.
- Quit Smoking
Tobacco use can increase insulin resistance which can lead to diabetes. Apart from just diabetes, many other serious health conditions like heart disease and lung cancer are linked to smoking. Studies suggest that quitting smoking can lower the risk of developing diabetes.
- Reduce Your Portion Sizes
Reduce excessive eating to maintain a healthy diet and support weight loss. Eating portion sizes that are appropriate to your needs will aid in the prevention of diabetes. Avoid midnight snacking or mindlessly munching on processed foods that’ll increase your blood sugar levels. Following a well-structured, portion-managed meal plan will help you drastically reduce body fat, thereby hence reducing your chances of getting diabetes.
- Strictly Avoid Processed Foods And Make Healthier Choices
Processed foods like pre-packed and frozen meals, chips, sodas, and candy bars all have added sugars, unhealthy fats, and lots of chemical preservatives that aren’t good for the body. Research shows that a high intake of highly-processed foods leads to an increased risk of diabetes. Make healthier choices. Switch out your chips and candies for nuts and fruits. Opt for healthier fats like avocado and olive oil instead of refined grains and vegetable oils.
Source: Ayu Health
