If you have come across headlines about Type 2 diabetes being on the rise across the globe or have even been told by your doctor that you are pre-diabetic, you may be feeling confused and also a little scared.
Getting informed is half the battle, so do speak to your GP or organisations such as Diabetes UK if you feel you lack knowledge about your particular health situation. Maintaining a healthy weight and staying active are both really important for blood sugar management and overall health, so anything you can do to improve your habits around these will be really beneficial.
Maybe now feels like the wrong time of year to make changes with Christmas coming up but even just little tweaks in your habits will be beneficial without ruining the festive fun. Being aware of added and/or hidden sugars, not drinking alcohol on an empty stomach (and alternating alcoholic drinks with water on a night out) and deciding what to eat at a restaurant before you get there by looking at their menu online before you get there all helps.
Aim to include complex carbohydrates like brown rice, oats, vegetables, beans & pulses which all provide healthy fibre for blood sugar management and good gut health
Choose healthier fats like those in unsalted nuts, seeds, avocados, oily fish and olive oil
Reduce the amount of sugar you eat by checking labels and reducing sugar in drinks (to learn about better habits around eating sugar, why not sign up for the online self-paced "Ditch the Sugar" course?
Cut back on alcohol - there are too many health reasons for avoiding this to list here but one is the amount of calories alcohol has, so it doesn't do us any favours in trying to maintain a healthy weight.
Try to aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week. You can split this into 10 minute sessions at a time throughout the week but make sure it is an activity that raises your heart rate, makes you breathe faster and feel warmer.
For some basic information on blood sugar levels and insulin, I have put together a few slides on how the mechanisms in our bodies work - check out this information at the end of this post and please let me know if you have any questions.
The first step to making better choices for our health is to understand why we need to do certain things - I hope this information helps you with that.
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