7 Easy Tips for Preventing Type 2 Diabetes

Lower Blood Sugar / Reverse Diabetes

The prevention of type 2 diabetes is very important if you want to grow old healthy.

If you know someone with diabetes, then you know how terrible this disease is. And therefore you should avoid it as much as possible.

In this article you will learn 7 things you can do to prevent type 2 diabetes.

More...

Click on the video for more information

The prevention of type 2 diabetes is important AND easy

I would like every healthy person to read this article. People would understand that type 2 diabetes is easy to prevent by making different choices. Because by changing your lifestyle you greatly reduce the chance of diabetes.

It is a pity that young people do not learn this at school. Because nowadays more and more young people have type 2 diabetes and this could largely have been prevented by the right lifestyle.

Not long ago this disease was better known under the name "old age diabetes". But with all the young adults who suffer from it, that term can no longer be used.


What is primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of type 2 diabetes?

With primary prevention of diabetes you do everything possible to prevent yourself from getting diabetes. Think of eating healthier and moving more.

With secondary prevention it is about screening for diabetes.

Think of a general practitioner who performs a test to see if you have (pre-)diabetes or diabetes.

This article is not about that. Do you want a test for diabetes?

Then go to your doctor and read this article beforehand.

prevention type 2 diabetes test

With tertiary prevention of type 2 diabetes it is about treating diabetes by improving the elevated blood sugar. This can be done in various ways. But the two main ones are:

  • You can use diabetes medication
  • You can live a healthier life (eating healthier, drinking and moving more).
  • Or a combination of both, of course

Purpose of this article

Below you will get 7 tips to prevent diabetes. So that you will never be confronted with the unpleasant symptoms of this disease. What can be prevented never has to be cured!

#1: Prevent overweight and obesity

Why, scientists do not know exactly. But overweight and obesity are strongly linked to diabetes.

"90% of all people with type 2 diabetes are significantly overweight."

Scientists suspect that too much fat around your waist affects your body's ability to handle insulin properly. As a result, sugars that you ingest are not properly cleared and you get a too high blood sugar level.

don't get fat or chances increase to get diabetes

That is not all. Being overweight is unhealthy in any case. You get various health problems from it.

An increased chance of type 2 diabetes is one of them.

Even people who do not have diabetes, if they become too overweight, have trouble processing their blood sugar.

Later, diabetes can still develop.

This is called pre-diabetes and in this article you will read what you can do if you suffer from that.

Now the question is: how do you avoid getting too fat?

In the rest of this article I give tips about nutrition. If you follow these, you will see that the kilos fly off. It will become impossible to build up overweight.

But what is just as important is that you move enough and are not too stressed. These are conditions that can help in developing overweight.

How do you prevent overweight?

Below you will find a number of lifestyle changes that will help you along with adjusting your nutrition:

  • Make sure you get enough sleep. At least 8 hours per night in a completely darkened room. Every half hour less or a bit of light that enters the bedroom causes your life expectancy to drop
  • After every big meal, take a nice walk. That does not have to be a long walk of an hour. No, fifteen to twenty minutes is enough. That helps dampen blood sugar spikes and keeps you fit
exercise to prevent diabetes
  • Do sports. In this article you read about moving with type 2 diabetes but it applies just as well for the prevention of diabetes. You will learn that strength training is best but that there are plenty of alternatives if you cannot do that
  • Ensure good social contacts. There is no stronger antidepressant than having people around who love you or who give you a good feeling about yourself. Depression is linked to obesity, so you want to avoid this as much as possible

#2: Do not eat sugar

Over the years fat has gained a bad reputation in the press. And that is not entirely undeserved. There have been many scientific studies that show that fats can be harmful...

As a result, we all started eating a lot more starch products and sugars:

"Because if fats are unhealthy, then sugars and carbohydrates will be healthy."

At least, that was the thought of the official government bodies that publish brochures about what healthy food is.

Unfortunately, something remarkable happened:

  • The more sugar that was consumed in a country, the more overweight developed.

As you can see in the bottom graph, the number of people with obesity in the United Kingdom exploded as more sugar was eaten there.

Even today they won't admit

Scientists are cautious in drawing conclusions when two things occur simultaneously.

People do not like to say that one causes the other if they are not sure.

But if you look at the explosive growth of the number of people with overweight and the increased sugar consumption, then it can hardly be a coincidence. That already hints at what you should do for the prevention of type 2 diabetes.

But letโ€™s pretend that it is not true

Suppose that too much sugar does not lead to severe overweight. Then it is still very wise to eat as little sugar as possible.

Every time you ingest sugars your body releases insulin. This is a substance that ensures that your body can use the sugars for energy.

When you eat too much sugar there is too much sugar in your body for the amount of insulin you have. Then damage occurs. This situation is what a diabetic patient experiences every day simply because he is insulin resistant.

If you do the above often enough, your body becomes exhausted. It can no longer keep up with the amount of sugar coming in and eventually stops trying.

From that moment on your body will become less sensitive to insulin. With all the unpleasant consequences that follow.

The best way to reduce your sugar intake

Therefore I want you from now on to avoid as much sugar and starch as possible. Believe me, that is easier than you think:

  • Vegetables are the safest and most filling foods. They are full of fibers and vitamins and give you a feeling of fullness. They prevent you from getting hungry again because you do not have vitamin deficiencies that make you hungry
  • Beans provide proteins. which are necessary for your muscles. And proteins are also needed for the maintenance of the other tissues in your body. In addition, they are more nutritious than vegetables, so you get hungry less quickly
  • Nuts contain healthy fats. People who eat more nuts die less quickly, to a certain extent of course. A handful of nuts per day is sufficient
  • Fatty fish contains fats that protect against cardiovascular diseases. Twice a week fatty fish ensures that you are satiated and protected against many of those nasty diseases

You can easily live on vegetables, beans, fatty fish and meat. Then you can eliminate all other foods:

  • Sugars
  • Carbohydrates
  • Dairy products

Now, I know that many people do not want to miss out on a nice piece of bread.

That is all fine and dandy.

  • But do you want to remain as healthy as possible? Then throw out sugars completely.
  • If you mainly want to prevent getting diabetes? Then eat only whole grain products and do so in small amounts.

These forms of sugars contain fibers so that they are absorbed less quickly.

Tip!

By "small portions" I mean "a little piece for the taste." Sugars are unhealthy, even in small portions. But I understand if you cannot say goodbye to them. So treat yourself and otherwise stick to vegetables, beans, fish and a piece of meat.


#3: Eat a Salad Before the Dinner Meal

A salad before the meal has many positive effects:

  • You start with vegetables that are rich in nutrients. You have already had the healthiest part. What you eat afterwards can serve as a filler or as an opportunity to do something extra healthy
  • Vegetables make you full because of the fibers they contain. When you start with these, you will eat less of everything that comes afterwards. In total, you get less energy, an important step in preventing overweight
  • When you wait half an hour before you start the main course, you prevent a blood sugar spike after your meal. Or you make it less sharp. How that happens you will read about in tip 5

All in all, there are no disadvantages to eating large quantities of vegetables in any form.

There are even only advantages. By starting your meal with these you prevent yourself from eating unhealthy things. And you are always nicely full.

This way you make the prevention of diabetes much easier.


Do you find this article helpful? Click on one of the buttons to share it!


#4: Use Stevia (or another safe sweetener)

Especially if you have children, this is an ideal tip.

Everyone sometimes wants something sweet. That craving will drastically decrease if you hardly eat sugars. Because your brain adapts to what it receives.

If you eat candy all the time, then your brain will expect it. But if you stop eating sweet products then your brain will actually no longer crave it.

Do you want to treat yourself occasionally? For example with a sweetener in your tea? Then use stevia. This is a safe sweetener that you can use as a substitute for sugar.

Stevia also has properties that are remarkable.

For example, it helps diabetes patients to lower their blood sugar. That is evident from scientific research which you can view here.

Stevia has been used in Japan for about twenty years.

replace sugar with stevia
  • In that country there are very strict requirements for what is brought to market, which go much further than in Europe. You can be sure that extensive tests have been conducted there to confirm that stevia is safe.

The reason it has only been on the market in Europe since 2011 is that the sugar industry long tried to block the introduction of stevia.

They are not happy that a competitor has been released that is 30 to 100 times sweeter than their product, without all the harmful effects.

Not everyone likes stevia

Some people experience a bitter aftertaste from stevia. Therefore, this sweetener is not suitable for everyone. But it turns out that many people only need to get used to the taste and then they no longer want anything else.

Fortunately, there are also other options if you are one of the unfortunate ones. Which sweeteners are healthy and do not raise your blood sugar you can read in this article.

I must add that if you want to prevent diabetes, you should see these sweeteners as a treat. Changing your taste (which automatically happens when you do not eat sugar) is a good development.

It would be a shame if you reversed that by constantly eating sweet things with stevia. Even if these are not unhealthy on their own.


#5: Eat smaller portions

What do you think raises your blood sugar more? One sugar cube or ten sugar cubes?

If you answered "ten sugar cubes", then you are of course right.

preventing diabetes smaller portions

The more sugars you ingest at one time, the more your blood sugar will rise. Eating less sugar is a good start. But you can also keep the portions you gulp down as small as possible.

In the tip about eating salads I already said that it is good to wait half an hour before you move on to the main course. If you are really a king, you split the main course into two parts.

You eat the first half half an hour after the salad and the second half half an hour later. This creates more time in between and your blood sugar will not rise quickly.
It may sound odd, but it is certainly wise to do so.

You can apply this to everything. If you have something to eat, eat it in small portions. This prevents a sudden spike in your blood sugar.

And it ensures that you get used to being less full. That prevents you from overeating and ingesting more sugars than you need. Ideal for the prevention of type 2 diabetes.

#6: Eat nuts as a snack

What do you do when you are on the go and get a craving?

Simple: always have a bag of nuts with you. They are very nutritious.
After a handful of cashew nuts I guarantee you that you will no longer feel hungry.

  • If you notice that you need more than a handful or cannot stop eating, you should check whether you are consuming enough at your breakfast, lunch and dinner.

When you eat enough during these meals, then that handful of nuts is more than enough to help you through a long meeting or a boring workday.


#7: Eat garlic and cinnamon (but not at the same time)

Garlic and cinnamon both have benefits for the prevention of type 2 diabetes. But I would not recommend eating them at the same time.

Not because this is unhealthy, but because these flavors do not go well together, or rather, are very unpleasant together...

Why are garlic and cinnamon so good?

  • Garlic increases the amount of insulin available and lowers your blood sugar. The result is that sugars have a less strong influence on your body.
  • Cinnamon makes cells more sensitive to insulin. As a result, sugars can be absorbed more easily and used for energy. They float in your bloodstream for a shorter time.

Garlic and cinnamon are very healthy and perfect for the prevention of diabetes. Therefore, use them generously when cooking.

Garlic can be incorporated into almost any salad or warm dish. Cinnamon is nice on desserts or in some types of tea.

Preferably, you buy both spices fresh. That way all the healthy substances remain intact and you can be sure that you are getting the right ones.

The Diabetes-Free Secret as a basis for the prevention of type 2 diabetes

You can do all of the above for the prevention of type 2 diabetes. But there is more possible than just the prevention of diabetes:

"You can also get rid of it if you already have it."

About the Author

Marloes Schuurman is a medical specialist and an expert in the field of type 2 diabetes.

>
Send this to a friend