Health, Fitness and Nutrition: Food That Helps Prevent Sugar Diabetes

 

 

Since the time of my conception and spending time in my mother’s incubator, my body’s digestion system has always been designed to process the food I eat and drink to give me life and energy. Whatever I eat or drink is understood to be healthy and nutritious. However for most of us, as we become more independent, there are times, we get caught up in a bad food habit that becomes somewhat addictive and harmful in the long run. One of those harmful addictions is eating lots of carbohydrates such as pasta, white bread, white rice or consuming foods high in trans fats such as frozen dinners and peanut butter. Add to this list of our morning routines breakfast cereals, liquid desserts like flavored coffee and donuts or a fruit juice. Then for lunch we eat take in a fruit flavored yogurt or drink a sugary beverage with our French fries and burger or some processed packaged food. Little by little without getting an annual blood test to check our blood levels we end up harming ourselves because what we have been eating has become habit forming. One of the side effects of eating the wrong type of food repeatedly is diabetes.

What is Diabetes? 
Diabetes is when my pancreas stops or can not break down the sugar I have consumed. My body needs a certain level of sugar to flow through my bloodstream or blood cells because that’s one of the ingredients that gives my body life and energy. However when I consume too much sugary foods, my pancreas will start overworking, pumping more insulin causing my sugar levels to rise and set me up for type 2 diabetes. Whereas prediabetes and type 1 diabetes can be reversed, type 2 diabetes has no cure. What can be done is lose weight, change my diet well and exercise. These steps can help me as well as others manage the disease, which leads to what are the types of food we should eat to prevent sugar diabetes going forward?

The Healthy Tradition Starts with Me

To begin with, research has shown that most of our habits starts with family traditions or children, teenagers and young adult children left to their own decisions. There is prevention power in parents teaching their children, teenagers and young adult children to eat fruits and vegetables to combat a number of diseases beyond sugar diabetes. Broccoli, carrots, cabbage and spinach are four of the friendliest vegetables to eat on a regular basis because they are low in starch and keep our blood sugar levels in check. Sometimes they’re referred to as anti-inflammatory foods. Fruits such as avocado, grapefruit and blueberries are great. Whole grains such as bran, oats, and brown rice are good to eat as well as plain yogurt and garbanzo beans. In addition too, I cannot say it enough drink lots of water daily. Water keeps the digested food moving through the digestive track as you eliminate in the bathroom from the rectum. As for the types of meat, we here at Practice U highly recommend to avoid eating a lot of red meat such as beef (hamburgers and pizzas), pork (tacos and burritos), lamb, goat, venison and veal. Avoid eating lots of processed meat such as sausage with breakfast, hot dogs, salami, ham, cured bacon, canned meat and beef jerky from the grocery stores and corner liquor store because they all have been treated with salt and other additives before being sold to retain their flavor and shelf life.

Training the Brain

I encourage you to take a moment to talk to someone who has prediabetes, type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. I believe when you hear their story, you’ll understand how important it is to eat right and break away from some family traditions, weekend traditions or Sunday after church traditions. Prior to going over to the big gathering consider eating a green apple or banana before sitting down at the table. This early start will help limit your consumption of all the food your eyes can see. After all, you just want to get full. No need to overload the stomach with unhealthy food. Train the brain to do better. Instead of eating fried meat, choose baked, broiled or grilled meat. If you’re frying the meat at home, choose peanut oil instead of shortening. Cut back on the salt and sugar intake and make a plate that is at least 50% vegetables and 30% meat. Making changes such as these we believe are the beginning of breaking away from some of your past unhealthy traditions. It doesn’t matter if your traditions were family traditions or weekend with the friends traditions, paying attention to what you put in your body is better than going to the doctor and being told by the doctor(s) you have to get on meds to help bring your blood levels back to normal. Not to mention, you may have to pay for your meds out of your own pocket.The aftermath is no joke. Ask a diabetic.

In closing, practice remembering that while all the small corner fast food eateries and corner liquor stores are making big profits off our consumption of their goods, you and I become victims of what they advertise and promote such as buy 1 burger, fries and soda get a 2nd burger free ads. We’re the ones who suffer and end up with sugar diabetes from one kid to the next kid to a family of people. Remembering the consequences is a good practice for all of us individually and collectively. In a nutshell, practice is where it all begins.