How to be a Health Nut

     Over the years, diabetes has been synonymous with sugar. That’s why people think their primary goal is to avoid sugary foods at all cost. However, simply avoiding sugar should not be your top priority if you want to avoid diabetes.

      I’ve found that the central goal you should be focusing on to reduce your chances of being prescribed with prediabetes is to reverse insulin resistance. What exactly does this mean? Well, insulin resistance means that the body is unable to use the insulin it produces. However, insulin is vital because it helps with the breakdown of fat in adipose tissue and allows glucose to enter. Being insulin resistant is a major problem because it doesn’t allow the body to properly regulate blood glucose levels.

      One piece of advice to counter insulin resistance is to eat healthy (which may be difficult for some of us haha), while losing weight and learning to keep it off once you lose it. A tip to help do that is to learn to make your own food. This may be hard for those of us who never cooked before, but learning how to cook has its benefits. One is that  you can pick and choose exactly what ingredients go in it. Some fatty things to  limit are butter, oil, margarine, cream cheese, sour cream, and salad dressing. In other words, it is always best to try to avoid highly processed foods!

      We should also be cautious of our carbohydrates intake. Although, people tend to believe the problem with carbs is that we eat too much of it, that’s not it. The bigger problem is that the carb containing foods we eat usually have poor nutrition quality. Many have too much added sugar. They also tend to be made out of refined grain and therefore be low in fiber. Instead, we should be eating more low-fat dairy foods, whole grains, and fruits & vegetables because these carbs are packed with fiber and nutrients.

      I had the chance to try out these tips myself and realized how much foods I usually ate that were high in fats and bad carbs. However, I’m learning how to replace these foods with healthier options. For example, I switched out my regular white bread for whole grain bread when making toast for breakfast in the mornings. I’ve also made sure to drink low-fat milk along with it.