Give Up “liquid Candy”
Start quenching your thirst with water, club soda (with a spritz of lemon or lime), unsweetened tea, or fat-free milk instead of soda, fruit punch, or sweetened iced tea drinks.
A single daily serving of soda raised the risk of metabolic syndrome (described above) by a staggering 44 percent in a headline-grabbing study from Boston University School of Medicine. The reason? Experts have many theories. It could simply by all those extra calories in soda and other surgery drinks or in the high-fat, high-calorie foods we tend to pair them with (think French fries and pizza). Experts are also finding that drinking even a single soda a day is associated with being overweight – perhaps because the calories in the beverages don’t register in our brains, so we don’t compensate for them by eating less food.
Yet another possible culprit: high-fructose corn syrup. It’s essentially table sugar in liquid form, expect that for technical chemistry reasons, some experts believe it’s more likely to lead to insulin resistance.
For a healthier thirst quencher, drop several teabags (black, green, or herbal) into a plastic pitcher filled with water and refrigerator overnight, then enjoy. And don’t discount a glass of fat-free milk. The calcium, vitamin D, and others mineral in dairy foods may be the reason that getting at lest one serving of low-fat or fat-free milk (or yogurt or cheese) a day lowered metabolic syndrome risk by up 62 percent in a British study.
Turn Of The Tv And Go For A Walk
Exercise helps protect against diabetes by transporting blood sugar into fuel-hungry muscle cells and making cells more sensitive to insulin. A Harvard study of 40,000 women found that 30 minutes a day brisk walking plan a TV limit of 10 hours per week, cut diabetes risk by 43 percent. Bored by walking? Spend Friday night at the local YMCA recreational swim, take up bowling, gather the kids or grandkids for a nature hike, or just put on some music and dance.
Eat Less Fast Food
Does drive-through dining leads to diabetes? Consider this: When University of Minnesota researchers tracked the eating habits and health of 9,514 people ages 45 to 64 for up to 10 years, they discovered that those who ate two servings of red meat (like hamburger patties) a week were 26 percent more likely to wind up with metabolic syndrome. A daily helping of French fries or other fried foods raised it another 10 to 25 percent. These foods are high in saturated and trans fats, which have been linked to diabetes.
Trade Burgers And Butter For Fish And Olive Oil
Each bite of that burger and each smear of that butter is full of saturated fat. This stuff not only clogs arteries, it also increase insulin resistance, which jet-peoples you down the path to genuine diabetes. These fats also trigger inflammation, which is toxic to cells, including those that handle blood sugar. Fish and olive oil have the exact opposite effects and could actually lower your diabetes risk. The same goes for nuts (even peanuts) and canola oil.
Of course, you don’t want to overdo even these good fats, which are high in calories. Cutting total fat intake as well as saturated fat helped participants in the Diabetes Prevention Program study slash their diabetes risk. Participants limited saturated fat to 7 percent of total calories a day, about the amount in two ounces of cheese plus one part of butter if you eat 2,000 calories a day.