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How Diabetes Can Affect Your Body

How Diabetes Can Affect Your Body

Diabetes is a very serious disease, and if left unattended and untreated, can have some pretty serious effects on your body. Obviously, there’s a formidable mental role at play in diabetes, learning how to cope with the diagnosis and adjusting your lifestyle, but the physical dangers are even more serious.

One of the most common negative effects of diabetes on the body is the effect it has on your legs and feet. This area of the body is particularly affected by diabetes in that the nerves can get severely damaged if your blood sugar remains too high.

This leads to greater chance of infection, pain, and in severe instances, amputation of the leg, foot, or toes. This can all lead to further mental stress, as well. To combat these effects, you need to keep your blood sugar low by avoiding foods that may raise it.

The damage caused by diabetes isn’t just limited to the feet. Your entire body, anywhere where blood flows through, can be seriously hurt by diabetes. The most dangerous effects to the body can be found in the heart and in the brain, where the increased levels of sugar flowing through can lead to higher risk of blood clots, heart attacks, seizures, and strokes.

All of these can be fatal, so it’s extremely important that you regulate your blood sugar effectively. Another serious body part that gets effected by diabetes is the eyes. The blood vessels in the back of your eye, known as the retina, can be cut up by the excess sugar.

This can lead to permanent and very serious vision loss, and should not be taken lightly. You may also be at higher risk of developing cataracts, which is a bit less serious, but dangerous nonetheless.

Due to these risks, it’s recommended that diabetics visit an eye doctor at least once a year, if not more often, to make sure you catch any damage before it’s too late. Additionally, your internal organs can be affected by diabetes.

Diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure. Your kidneys are very important because they act as waste disposal for your blood, and without them, the waste will accumulate, often resulting in death.

While kidney transplants are an option, it’s not always guaranteed that you’ll find a kidney to match. Alternatively, you could undergo dialysis, but dialysis is usually costly and a very poor way to live.

Save Money and Get Your Diabetes Under Control Before Insulin Is Necessary

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Save Money and Get Your Diabetes Under Control Before Insulin Is Necessary

When you learn that you have diabetes, it can be a shock. Most people don’t know that diabetes is not only a manageable disease, but that it doesn’t have to lead to all the serious complications you hear about.

The key to avoiding long term complications as well as preventing it from progressing to the point where you need insulin is to make sure that you keep it under control because if you don’t control diabetes, you will end up on insulin – and that can add a lot of stress to your life thanks to the expense.

Some insurance companies have higher deductibles, so you could end up paying a lot more to get the diabetic supplies that you need – and that includes insulin. And unlike taking oral medications, when you go on insulin, you can’t afford to skimp on the dosage.

Insulin poses more complications for someone who has diabetes. You can end up with sudden drops in your blood sugar, which can cause seizures or unconsciousness. Surprisingly enough, taking insulin can also lead to weight gain in some people.

You want to do everything that you can to try to stay off of insulin because the cost of it is continuing to rise and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Studies have shown that more than 50% of those who take it could end up having to pay manufacturer’s prices for it and you can bet it’s not cheap.

If you have a moderate to high insurance deductible, you’re looking at paying right at $400 to $600 every month. That’s between $5,00 to over $7,000 per year. While pharmaceutical companies profit from the sale of insulin, it still costs money to make the drug.

As the costs of making it rises, it will trickle down to those who need to use it. Steps have been taken to make new insulin drugs available and while these do work as well if not better than animal or human insulin, they can still be expensive – depending on what type of insurance you have if any.

The cost of the medication has led people to try to find ways to make their insulin last longer. That includes dangerous practices such as skipping doses, or using out of date insulin drugs.

If you have type 2 diabetes, there are steps that you can take to get it under control so that you avoid having to take insulin. It’s been said that diabetes is a progressive drug, so eventually ending up on insulin is a given – but that’s not true.

If you control it, you won’t end up having to take this expensive drug. And you can reverse it if you’re currently on insulin and want to get off of it. You can control it by undergoing a lifestyle change.

Start with what you eat. Make sure that you eat healthy, balanced meals that are created with diabetics in mind. This means watching your carbs and cutting back on foods that are bad for glucose control.

Add exercise to your life. Even doing a little something at first is better than nothing because exercise helps your body to be able to effectively use your glucose. Monitor your glucose levels several times a day every day – especially after a meal.

You want to aim to keep your numbers within the guidelines established by the American Diabetes Association. With careful lifestyle changes that help you control your diabetes, you can end up with an A1C reading that’s well below even the pre-diabetes stage of 5.7 to 6.4.

Could Artificial Sweeteners Cause Type 2 Diabetes?

Could Artificial Sweeteners Cause Type 2 Diabetes?

In an effort to keep their weight down, many people are using artificial sweeteners. While these additives don’t have calories, they do contain something that actually increases your potential of developing a serious disease.

Artificial sweeteners have been linked to type 2 diabetes. One of the reasons for this is because – contrary to what many people believe – the use of artificial sweeteners can cause weight gain rather than weight loss.

Millions of people gave up sugar and replaced it with artificial sweeteners in the belief that doing so would inhibit their desire to consume sugar and high calorie snack foods or meals.

But studies have shown that just the opposite is true. People who use artificial sweeteners are more likely to gain weight because they interfere with how the body controls blood sugar levels.

This happens because the sweeteners act as a trigger within the body’s digestive system, making the person crave sweet foods. They also scramble the hormone responses in the brain that are responsible for feeling hunger.

So if you’re using artificial sweeteners as a way to try to lose weight to help manage your diabetes or avoid it, you’ll want to try a different approach. Not only will these cause you to want to eat and make you put on weight, but in an overall review of multiple studies, it was determined that sweeteners will also put you at risk for problems relating to your health.

Among these are things like developing diabetes or high blood pressure. In addition to studies determining that artificial sweeteners can cause weight gain, it was also revealed that they didn’t provide any type of boost for the health of the person taking them.

In further research into how artificial sweeteners affected the body, it was discovered that they can raise BMI numbers and cause something that’s known as metabolic syndrome.

While this is not a disease, it is still a health complication. It means that the consumption of artificial sweeteners can not only cause type 2 diabetes but it can greatly increase your risk of having a heart attack or a stroke.

Metabolic syndrome is also known to increase the risk of additional fat in the abdominal area, which leads back to an increased rate of diabetes diagnoses. For those who consume artificial sweeteners, they have a 40% risk factor of developing metabolic syndrome, but a 70% chance of developing type 2 diabetes.

One reason for the risk factors is thought to be that when someone tastes a product containing artificial sweetener, it causes a trigger response in the body that disrupts the way insulin is released. Because of the risk of diabetes that’s linked with the consumption of artificial sweeteners, more people are pulling away from use of the products.

Broccoli Could Greatly Benefit Diabetics

Broccoli Could Greatly Benefit Diabetics

Diabetes is a disease in which a person’s body can’t make or react to insulin correctly. As a result, glucose levels stay at a higher than normal level. This increase can cause a lot of damage to the person’s health.

More than 29 million people in the United States have the disease and if you add in the amount of people who don’t know they have it, more than 37 million people are diabetics.

Those numbers, which increase every year, are one of the reasons that studies are ongoing in the hopes of finding something that can either slow or reverse diabetes. Now, thanks to a new study, one vegetable is standing out as promising in helping those with diabetes – and that vegetable is broccoli.

It contains something called sulforaphane. This compound is a powerful antioxidant with anti-cancer capabilities. Patients who were heavily overweight were part of a study using sulforaphane.

When taking the concentrated compound, the results showed that diabetics have better control over the level of glucose in their blood. The compound also lowered the production of glucose.

This two-fold health boost meant that side effects of having diabetes – such as heart problems, neuropathy, and eye damage – could be reduced or even avoided altogether. For diabetics, the sulforaphane study means a potentially improved way to keep diabetes under control so that long term complications don’t negatively impact their health.

In people with diabetes who have a BMI of over 30 or their weight is 20% above the normal healthy range for their age and height, they’re considered to be obese. It’s this extra weight that makes the liver unable to be as sensitive as it needs to be with insulin.

As a result of this, the liver can’t help the body keep glucose levels normal. That’s one of the reasons why those in the medical field urge people with diabetes to change the way that they eat.

By losing weight, you can increase your liver’s ability to function properly with insulin production. Still, just losing weight isn’t always enough – especially if someone has been a diabetic for years.

While there are standard medications (such as metformin) used to treat diabetes on the market, many of them come with side effects such as fatigue, stomach cramps or bloating.

Because of these side effects, the study focused on finding relief for diabetics that didn’t cause pain or discomfort. The research of the study led to the finding that sulforaphane was the most helpful in lowering glucose levels in those who were obese.

When sulforaphane was tested during a three month study, it showed that by giving diabetics powdered broccoli extract, it could even reduce fasting blood sugar levels. The good news is that by lowering fasting blood sugar levels, it means that it also lowers the odds of developing diabetes related health problems.

Plus, the broccoli compound didn’t cause the same unpleasant side effects that diabetes medication causes. Superfoods that prevent and reverse disease are abundant, but for diabetics, broccoli may be the answer to your search for nutritional help.

Will Your Fitbit Now Be Able to Monitor Your Blood Sugar?

Will Your Fitbit Now Be Able to Monitor Your Blood Sugar?

Making sure that you take care of your diabetes is one of the keys to controlling it. The first step is always with self-monitoring and there are many ways already that you can do that, but new technology is being brought to the marketplace.

If you don’t watch it carefully, you’ll end up with complications. You should check your glucose levels frequently every day throughout the day and make any adjustments that are needed.

With millions of people having diabetes and that number continuing to rise, technology is needed to help promote better management of self-care. Thanks to the technology available today – a new and improved way to keep your glucose levels at a healthy number is at hand.

You can wear this technology right on your wrist and be able to effectively monitor your diabetes. Studies have shown that people who can easily track their diabetes numbers tend to stay in range more often than not.

Fitbit is now working to help those with diabetes to be able to better manage the condition. In conjunction with Dexcom, the company has created a smartwatch that will provide the necessary information and lead the way in diabetes management.

It’s easy to make the watch one of the tools in your self-care routine. All you need is to get one of the Dexcom G5 sensors to go with the Fitbit Iconic and you’ll soon be able to see your readings at a glance using either your smartphone or the watch face.

The new Fitbit will work with a variety of third party apps – including the one that can help you keep your diabetes under control. You’ll have access to immediate information concerning your glucose levels, thanks to the smartwatch, which will be released closer to the end of 2017 and the sensors working with the smartwatch will make an appearance sometime the following year.

The sensor has an approximate $900 price tag for the device that has to be inserted below the skin surface. However, the cost is well worth it as in investment in both your short and long term health.

Because it will have the ability to check your levels rapidly and as often as every five minutes, you’ll be able to stay on top of your diabetes and immediately correct any glucose reading that’s out of range.

The continual monitoring can give you real time information that can help you know when you need to adjust and knowing that can be one of the keys to weight management, which improves diabetes as well.

The smartwatch and sensor combo will allow those who have diabetes to understand the complete overview of their glucose levels. They’ll be able to get a picture of when their numbers were up and when they were down.

This is good information to relay to your doctor at your next visit. This will allow people to make improvements on how they care for their diabetes. These improvements lead to better care than you get from old fashioned meter monitoring.

Smart Contacts May Help Diabetics Control Their Disease

Smart Contacts May Help Diabetics Control Their Disease

Controlling diabetes is the best step to making sure that the disease doesn’t leave you with any serious long term health complications. But to do that, it means that anyone with the disease has to constantly monitor their glucose levels to make sure that they’re staying within a healthy range.

Numbers that go up too high have to be treated right away. The constant monitoring can be a problem at times. You have to prick your finger often or rely on electrodes to test yourself.

But now, thanks to smart technology, there might soon be a way to monitor glucose levels so that diabetes can easily be controlled. Smart contacts are on the horizon and what these do is monitor the glucose levels but without the pain, complications or irritations from pricking the finger or from under-the-skin electrodes.

These contact lenses are made with a bio sensor that can pick up on the amount of glucose that’s in a person’s tear production. Trial testing for these contact lenses are slated to begin in the next year.

Further good news about the bio sensors is that they can be developed to be able to tell when a person has other problems with their health besides diabetes such as cancer. By the time the contact lenses do come to market, they’ll be designed in such a way that no one will know that you even have these sensors in the lens.

The technology is comparable to the type that you would find in a cell phone and when the lenses are available, they should work in conjunction with smart technology linked with your phone or tablet.

The contact lenses will be designed with comfort in mind and the sensors won’t be felt within the eye because they’ll be placed within layers that won’t touch the eye. The way that the lenses will work to test the glucose is through the use of a small opening.

The sensors will be able to access tears and determine what the glucose levels are without having direct contact with the eye. As for how the information will be delivered between your eye and the smart technology, there will be a small antenna within the lens.

This lens is thin enough so that it’s not easily detected and can’t be felt, either. But this part of the lens will be used to transmit your information. This information can be used by people with diabetes to alert them when their glucose levels reach unhealthy levels.

As for how often the lens will be able to check how high the glucose is, it can do it second by second. After it’s transmitted to the app, you’ll be able to check your device to see what your levels are. If there’s a situation where your levels are too high or too low, the app will alert you to that information.

Superfoods For Diabetes

 

If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, particularly with type 2 diabetes, then you understand how important your diet is. In fact, doctors often mention that changing what you do or don’t eat on a daily basis is one of the crucial ways to help manage your type 2 diabetes. This is where superfoods come in.

Type 2 diabetes is the more common form of diabetes, which is where you have a lot of the same effects of diabetes, but you are not dependent on insulin. This occurs more often when you are an adult, but some children and teens may also be diagnosed with it.

When you have type 2 diabetes, you can still produce some of your own insulin naturally, but it isn’t enough to sustain proper health. This is where your diet comes in. You need to be able to balance out the glucose levels in your body, which requires a specific level of nutrition.

With the right superfoods, they contain all the nutrients you need to keep your blood sugar levels low, and help to maintain your weight, which often leads to type 2 diabetes in the first place. Here are the top 10 superfoods that you should be eating if you have diabetes.

Dark Chocolate

Surprise! You still get to eat chocolate if you have diabetes, but you need to be careful about what type you choose. You should not be loading up on sugar and sweets, so avoid milk chocolate, white chocolate, and similar variations. Instead, go for the dark chocolate.

Dark chocolate has a lot of the crucial nutrients you should be having when you struggle with insulin resistance or insulin sensitivity, starting with flavonoids. These can actually help to lower your blood sugar levels and level out the insulin levels in your body. People who have diabetes often think they can’t have any more sugar, but that’s not true. You just need to be smart about it.

Go for dark chocolate that has a higher level of pure cacao in it. Try to avoid dark chocolate that contains a lot of preservatives and ingredients you don’t need. Buying your dark chocolate from a small chocolatier business or health food store is usually the way to go. These businesses typically avoid chocolate that has been highly processed.

Here are some yummy ways to enjoy your dark chocolate:

Use dark chocolate shavings to top your coffee or dessert

Have a handful of dark chocolate nibs with a piece of fruit for a healthy snack

Make some dark chocolate fudge, having one piece each night for an extra special treat

Reduced Fat Diary Products

You can also still have dairy when you have type 2 diabetes, but look for the low-fat or fat-free versions, avoiding the full fat type of dairy. This includes both milk and yogurt, which can be good for your overall health and actually help if you have diabetes.

Dairy products contain calcium and vitamin D, which are important for keeping your bones healthy, particularly when you struggle with all the side effects from your diabetes. Even when you choose any of the fat-free or reduced fat forms of milk or yogurt, it still contains fortified vitamin D, which is the most important nutrient from the dairy products. Plus, if you are on a diet, the fat-free versions like fat-free yogurt or skim milk won’t add too much to your total amount of fat or calories for the day.

Try to add more servings of reduced fat dairy to your daily diet. This is easy to do by having a yogurt for your early morning snack, enjoying a smoothie with fruits, veggies, milk, and yogurt, or having a glass of skim milk with dinner instead of a soft drink or other beverages that aren’t as good for you.

Tomatoes

In terms of fruits and vegetables that are good for you, tomatoes are at the top of the list. Tomatoes contain a nutrient called lycopene, which can help reduce your risk for macular degeneration, which as you might know, is a risk for people with diabetes. This same nutrient also helps to protect you from heart disease and some forms of cancer, like prostate cancer.

There is a low GI ranking in tomatoes, which is the Glycemic Index. You should try to find foods that have a low GI number, as these won’t cause a rise in your blood sugar levels. Most fruits that don’t have a lot of starch, including tomatoes, will be low on the GI ranking. Watch out for your portions, trying to keep the amount to 1-2 tomatoes a day.

The good thing is that the ways to add more tomatoes to your diet are practically endless. Here are just a few simple ideas:

  • Have salsa with homemade baked tortilla chips
  • Add tomato to your favorite sandwich for lunch
  • Enjoy a side salad with tomato and cucumber
  • Make scrambled eggs with tomatoes and bell peppers
  • Eat a bowl of tomato soup for a light dinner

Oats

If you are looking for a healthy breakfast when you have diabetes, it doesn’t get much better than having a bowl of oatmeal. Oats can provide you with a lot of nutrients and are a popular superfood. Not only is it okay to eat oats when you have diabetes already as they have a low GI index, but eating them can actually prevent the development of type 2 diabetes.

What you want to look for are steel-cut oats. You should avoid the packets of oatmeal that you just mix with water and in 3 minutes have a bowl of oatmeal. They are heavily processed and don’t contain as many nutrients. Look for steel-cut oats that you soak overnight, then enjoy your oatmeal the following morning.

Steel cut oats have a lot of important nutrients for people with diabetes, starting with a high level of magnesium. Magnesium is essential for keeping your glucose levels low, while helping with insulin resistance. There is also protein, fiber, and antioxidants to provide better overall health with steel cut oats.

Olive Oil

As far as healthy fats go, olive oil is one of the best ones when you have diabetes. What you might not know is that when people are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, they are often told to go on a diet called the Mediterranean Diet. This includes a lot of healthy foods and healthy fats, with olive oil high up on the list. Doctors actually recommend adding olive oil to your diet.

Olive oil is of course a superfood, thanks to the omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients it contains. All superfoods have that label because they have a higher-than-normal amount of vitamins and minerals per serving, and olive oil is no exception. It contains a lot of antioxidants that help to protect you from illness and disease, including heart disease and cell damage in your body.

You can easily replace other fats like butter or vegetable oil with olive oil and be eating a healthier diet. Try making fried eggs with olive oil and serving them with some fruits and veggies for breakfast, or using olive oil to make a healthy stir-fry for dinner. The options truly are endless.

Citrus Fruits

You can still enjoy your citrus fruits, but you want to be careful about the GI score and track it throughout the day. This doesn’t mean you should drink a glass of orange juice with every meal, but instead keep close track of how much you are eating or drinking in terms of citrus fruits and their GI scores.

However, citrus can be a really good source of antioxidants, fiber, and vitamin C, making them a powerful superfood for you if you have diabetes. Make sure you are eating the entire fruit and not just the juice. If you juice citrus fruits, you will get the most from them. You can also get a lot of nutrients from zest, so add that to meals as much as you can.

The lowest citrus fruit is grapefruit at just 25 for one serving. This is also one of the lowest GI scores for all fruits, not just citrus fruit. Unsweetened orange juice is around 50, while an orange itself is lower and closer to 40. It is better to just grab an orange than have a full glass of OJ, but tracking your food in a food journal will be very helpful for you.

Fatty Fish

There are certain types of fish that are not only good for you because they are low in fat and excellent sources of protein, but because of the omega-3 fatty acids. These fish options are frequently referred to as fatty fish, which are types of fish with the omega-3 nutrients, and are typically your cold water fish. These fish also have a lot of other nutrients, like selenium and vitamin D, both of which are equally important.

The vitamin D and selenium are good for improving the health of your bones, and provide excellent nutrients for your hair and skin. The omega-3 fatty acids are going to reduce your risk of heart disease and help keep your blood sugar levels on the lower side.

Some good fatty fish to enjoy is wild salmon, sardines, tuna, herring, and mackerel. You can have these fish in fillet form with veggies and other healthy sides, or slice up the grilled fish and place it on your salad. There are a lot of ways to enjoy fish, depending on what your taste preferences are.

Quinoa

There are also some whole grains that are considered superfoods and can also help if you have diabetes, including quinoa. Quinoa has a nutty flavor that is a bit earthy, but it is also very versatile. It isn’t heavily processed like white rice and other rice that comes in a box. Quinoa tastes more similarly like a grain, and goes great with just about any vegetable or protein source.

Quinoa is considered a complete protein with about 14 grams of protein for just ½ cup of it. It also contains all 9 amino acids in the same serving size, which is going to be wonderful for getting more nutrition each day. Quinoa is known to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, help burn more fat and calories, and help convert fatty acids into energy. There is also a good amount of fiber with about 2.6 grams of fiber per serving.

It is easy to cook and prepare meals with quinoa. Many people even enjoy it at breakfast time. You can prepare a power bowl that includes quinoa, some veggies like tomatoes, onions, and peppers, with a fried egg on top. This is healthy, low in carbohydrates, and contains only healthy fats and protein that you need.

Cinnamon

Believe it or not, some herbs and spices are also considered superfoods, like turmeric and chia seeds. One of the spices that is a superfood and also ideal if you have diabetes is cinnamon. Cinnamon is commonly recommended for people with type 2 diabetes because it can help reduce your blood sugar and blood glucose levels. You can reduce your blood sugar efficiently with just a gram or more cinnamon each day.

Cinnamon has also been known to have other positive health benefits for people with and without diabetes. It can help manage your cholesterol, balance your insulin levels, and reduce the triglycerides in your body. It also provides good antioxidants for protecting you against serious illnesses and diseases.

Try adding cinnamon to your meals with other superfoods if you can. This combination helps to get the most from what you are eating. For example, you can add some cinnamon to your fat-free yogurt to get both, or you can enjoy sweet potatoes, other superfood veggies, and some cinnamon on top for a fall harvest side dish. There are many ways to use cinnamon in your food and drinks.

Kale

Last up on the list is a leafy green. Most leafy green veggies are good for you and in the superfoods category, like collard greens and spinach, but kale is best when you have diabetes. Kale contains over 200% of your daily requirement for just vitamin A, and over 100% of your requirement for vitamin C. It has even more vitamin K, which is essential for preventing blood clots. This is all in just one cup of kale per day.

In addition to these important nutrients, kale also has lutein, which is good for preventing eye diseases. They are common in people with diabetes, so it is important that you protect yourself from them as much as possible.

Try adding kale to your scrambled eggs or soup, as it cooks down so you don’t notice it much. You can mix it in with other greens for a salad and top it with veggies and nuts, which is another way to get more superfoods into your meals.

These are not the only healthy foods recommended if you have diabetes, but they provide a good start. Remember that superfoods are that way because of the large amount of nutrients they have. By adding as many of them to your diet as you can, you will be healthier overall, and on your way to managing your diabetes a little better.

3 Foods That Will Make Your Type 2 Diabetes Even Worse

Did you know that some “safe” foods might be making your diabetes even worse?
You know to stay away from sweets, but some so-called “healthy” alternatives could be hijacking your blood sugar.
>>>What if you could REVERSE your Type 2 Diabetes and throw away your insulin shots? A new medical discovery makes it possible

Keep these blood sugar-boosters off the menu to maximize your energy level:

Fruit Smoothies

You’ve been told your whole lives to eat your fruits and veggies, but here’s what they didn’t tell you…
Many smoothies contain as much sugar as three cans of soda…
…especially fast-food and restaurant smoothies.
So how can you get the necessary vitamins and fiber while avoiding blood sugar spikes?
The solution: make smoothies yourself.
Just make sure to stay away from super-sugary fruits like bananas and peaches.
Try these instead:
Apples
Blueberries
Strawberries

Potatoes

I know what you’re thinking:
“What could go wrong with a food that’s fat-free, cholesterol-free, and full of fiber and vitamins?”
The problem with starchy foods, like potatoes, is that they’re digested into the bloodstream lightning-quick and can trigger sharp insulin spikes.
Don’t scrap your spuds just yet, though. The key to a diabetes-friendly potato is in the preparation and portion size.

Preparation tips:
Cook them with a healthy fat, like olive oil
Add leafy greens or vegetables
Chill the potato or add lemon juice to slow digestion
As for portion size, stick to about 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes or a computer mouse sized baked potato.

White rice

In the diabetes world, white flour is like sugar’s evil minion.
Combine this with all the frying and processing involved with cooking flour, and your bloodstream is about to become a war-zone.
In fact, regularly eating white rice significantly increases your risk for Type 2 Diabetes. The risk increases 11% for each additional daily serving.

Thankfully, there is another option: brown rice.
Whole grains have fiber, which slows the rush of glucose into the bloodstream. Two servings of brown rice per week can actually lower your risk of diabetes, and help keep your blood sugar in check.

What if you could REVERSE your Type 2 Diabetes and never stop enjoying your favorite foods, here’s what you need:

A recent medical breakthrough at Newcastle University has revealed 3 Proven Steps to Reverse Type-2 Diabetes.

Feed Your Body the Right Food for Diabetes

After ridding yourself of toxins that keep your body in a perpetual state of insulin dependency, you’ll want to begin reversing this health problem by feeding your body foods that help it maintain balance.

There are certain foods that are superb for diabetics to eat.

Start by trying to add dark, leafy green vegetables into your meal plan. From spinach with your omelet to a side of greens at lunch and dinner, this superfood helps diabetics feel full without overloading them on unhealthy carbs and too many calories.

Kale is one of the best leafy greens to eat. But there are others (in addition to spinach), too. You can try a variety to see what taste you prefer – such as mustard green, collard greens, and turnip greens.

While pizza might not be healthy for a diabetic, the tomato sauce is. Pasta isn’t usually a good option, so what you can do is get your supply of tomatoes either by eating them raw or in a sauce poured over whole grain pasts instead.

Tomatoes are healthy for diabetics because they’re full of vitamins and nutrients. They include vitamin E and C as well as plenty of iron. You can get tomatoes in the form of soup, too – but make sure that however you eat them, you’re checking to see how much added sugar is in the product and how many carbs it’s loaded with.

Beans are a great food for diabetics. The fiber they pack is virtually unparalleled. They’re also very filing, and you get a lot of potassium and magnesium in each serving.

Even though they’re starches, they’re packed with protein, so you can forego the saturated fat that’s found in meat and eat healthy beans instead. The soluble fiber in beans binds to the carbs and helps slow the digestive process, keeping your insulin levels stable.

Potatoes are a food that aren’t usually good for diabetics, but those are Russet potatoes – not the sweet potatoes, which are one of the diabetic superfoods you can eat.

White potatoes have a high GI but sweet potatoes have a low GI, and they’re full of fiber and vitamin A. You can bake them whole or cut them into fries and bake them for a healthy snack.

If you’re diabetic, following a Mediterranean diet can be beneficial for you – especially if you eat fish that’s high in Omega-3 fatty acids. That includes salmon and tuna – but make sure it’s cooked in a healthy manner, like baked or broiled.

When it comes to fruit, not all fruit is good for a diabetic person to eat. But some can help – such as citrus options – oranges, grapefruit, and even lemons and limes – which you can put in your water for a flavorful option. You get fiber and vitamin C – and it helps boost your immune system in the process.

Bread is a hard thing to give up, but white bread is something that can cause a spike in your blood glucose. Go with whole grain options instead. That way you get some omega-3 fatty acids, folate and chromium to help your body heal, too.

Some of the other foods that are perfect for diabetics include berries (all kinds) – for their fiber and nutrients as well as nuts and seeds, such as walnuts and flax seeds, which fill you with fiber and help stave off hunger for long periods of time.

Diary products can be tricky. Just make sure you choose healthy diary that’s not flooded with sugar. You need the vitamin D for strong bones and healthy teeth, but you don’t want the spike in insulin.

When it comes to shopping for foods to treat and reverse diabetes, stick to the outer edge of the grocery store, away from the processed foods that won’t serve your body well.

Lear more about reversing your type 2 diabetes  here

Strong link yet between high blood pressure and diabetes

Well here’s another good reason to keep an eye on your blood pressure for as a major study just showed:

People who have high blood pressure are almost 60% more likely to develop diabetes, according to research on 4.1 million people.

The Oxford University study provides the strongest evidence yet of a link between the two conditions.

Experts behind the study said more research was needed to see whether using drugs to lower blood pressure would help prevent people developing type 2 diabetes.

Prof Kazem Rahimi, deputy director of the George Institute for Global Health UK at Oxford, which carried out the study, said: “This is potentially a game changer in the understanding and treatment of diabetes.

“Diabetes affects more than 400 million people worldwide and we know that diabetics are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, such as heart attacks, stroke and heart failure.

“We can’t say for certain that one causes the other, but this study helps to connect the dots, showing that if you have high blood pressure there is a significantly greater chance of developing diabetes.

“Understanding the link will help us better communicate risks to patients and can provide another motivation for patients and doctors to aim for tight blood pressure control.”

The research on UK adults was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

All the adults were free of diabetes and cardiovascular disease at the start of the study.

The result showed people were at almost 60% higher risk of diabetes if they had high blood pressure…

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