5 SIMPLE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO PREVENT DIABETES
According to World Health Organization, the number of people with diabetes rose from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation. In 2019, diabetes was the ninth leading cause of death with an estimated 1.5 million deaths directly caused by diabetes.
Let’s look into ways of preventing or at least lowering the risk of diabetes. There are a couple of changes easy to implement in your daily life that will make a difference.
1.Move your body on every possible occasion
You don't have to be in the gym six days a week to get the benefits of exercising. Any physical effort counts: take the stairs, walk whenever you have the chance, stand up from your desk every hour. If you enjoy outdoor activities, go hiking or take a long walk on the beach. Living an active life will not only prevent diabetes, but it will impact you longevity and will boost your mood.
2.Make small changes in your diet
I have some good news for you. You don't have to give up your favorite foods.
You like fries and burger? Then get an air-fryer, it will cut up to 80% of the calories of your fries, chicken or burger patty. Moreover, it seems that when you put a fish in the air fryer the omega-3 fatty acids are retained, which are a helper in lowering blood pressure.
You like pasta and you can't live without bread? You don't have to. Choose whole wheat bread/pasta, brown rice instead of white rice. Complex carbs are completely fine when eaten in moderation. Eating fiber has tons of benefits. Moreover, it can lower the risk of diabetes as insoluble fiber appears to be closely connected to reductions in blood sugar levels.
You like desert? Then eat sorbet ice cream instead of chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Sorbet ice cream can have as low as 50 calories per serving, while chocolate ice cream has an average of 250 and it can go up to 350. You do the math.
3.Drink more water
I know you've heard this a million times before, but it's a fact. Drinking more water does have tremendous benefits over health, including keeping the levels of blood sugar under control and having a better insulin response.
4.Take care of your mental health
There is a strong connection between the mind and the body. Although stress, anxiety or depression (which are among the top leading struggles of humanity in the 21st century) are not directly causing diabetes, they do have an impact over our food choices and life habits. It's essential to make sure you take care of our mind in order to have a healthy body.
5.Drink coffee
Coffee contains antioxidants and several studies have shown that drinking coffee on a regular basis has reduced the risk of diabetes. Antioxidants are substances that can prevent or slow damage to cells caused by free radicals, unstable molecules that the body produces as a reaction to environmental and other pressures.