If you don’t already have an exercise regime, you don’t need to take up CrossFit – any movement counts. When you use your muscles, they need to take in more energy – so their insulin receptors become more sensitive. Exercise: Exercise increases insulin sensitivity.B12 and B9: Metformin, a common medication taken to help manage type 2 diabetes, can deplete your body of vitamin B12 and B9 (also known as folate).Supplementing chromium has been shown to help people with type 2 diabetes improve glucose and lipid levels. Chromium: Chromium is a mineral required by our bodies to help insulin regulate blood sugar levels.The pancreas (the organ that produces insulin) also requires zinc to function. Zinc: Chronic inflammation makes the body use up zinc faster than normal, meaning that people with diabetes are often low in zinc.Low levels are associated with insulin resistance, and people with type 2 diabetes are often deficient in magnesium. Magnesium: Magnesium is responsible for over 300 processes in your body, including regulating blood sugar, making energy and firing muscles and nerves.Your body can make ALA or get it from many common foods, such as flaxseed oil, walnuts and avocados, but you may also want to consider a supplement. It’s main job is converting glucose into energy, and it’s often low in people with diabetes. Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA): ALA is a fatty acid found in every cell in your body.These nutrients are often found to be low in people with type 2 diabetes: No matter which diet you’re following, keep this in mind: you’ll need to figure out a way to balance all three macronutrients ( fat, protein and carbohydrates) in order to keep your blood sugar stable.įat and protein help you feel full for longer, and the fibre in fruit and vegetables slows down your digestion to keep your blood sugar nice and even instead of spiking up and down. Macronutrient ratios are one of the key variations in different diets. In fact, it’s been shown that traditional hunter-gatherer populations who were previously healthy, rapidly develop high rates of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity when they begin eating a standard Western diet. Industrial seed oils (like soy and canola oil).Ħ0% of the standard American diet now comes from these refined plant and grain products.Refined carbohydrates (like white bread, pasta, cookies and cakes).Still, every healthy diabetes diet agrees that it’s important to avoid: Eating for Diabetes and Insulin ResistanceĬhoosing to follow a specific diet to manage diabetes will alter the macronutrient ratios you’re aiming for or focus more or less on specific groups of foods. Your diet can make a huge difference to your condition and your overall health – in fact, there’s increasing evidence that type 2 diabetes can be reversed through diet and lifestyle interventions. How Can Diet Help?Īlthough there are some risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes that can’t be changed (such as your genetics, age and racial background), the good news is that type 2 diabetes is largely a lifestyle disease. This leads to tissue damage in your eyes, nerves, kidneys and blood vessels, as well as high blood pressure, hormonal issues and weight gain (when insulin can’t get any more glucose into cells for energy, it has to get it out of the bloodstream by storing it as fat). The combination of high blood sugar and too much insulin causes oxidative stress and inflammation. Your pancreas has to pump out more and more insulin to get glucose into your cells, a state known as “insulin resistance” – until eventually, it gets to a point where it can’t produce enough to keep your blood sugar within a normal range. In type 2 diabetes, your body loses sensitivity to insulin over time. Without insulin, you can’t get glucose out of your blood and into your cells. In type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune response or a virus destroys your body’s ability to make insulin. Think of each cell in your body as a tiny club, with insulin as the bouncer – before a cell can access glucose, it needs insulin to lift the rope and let it in. Insulin is like a key that allows your cells to take in sugar (known as glucose) to make energy. It is now also the 7th leading cause of death in the US.Īlthough people think of diabetes as a blood sugar issue, it’s actually a problem with a hormone called insulin. Type 2 diabetes can lead to cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, blindness, limb amputations and cognitive decline. In the United States alone, 11% of adults now have type 2 diabetes – and a further 38% have prediabetes. We’ve rounded up the latest science to help you understand the best options for your health. If you’ve been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, prediabetes or insulin resistance, you may have discovered that there’s a lot of competing, outdated, or just plain dubious advice out there about how and what you should eat.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |