Pre-diabetes is diagnosed when your blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be classified as having Type 2 diabetes. Pre-diabetes is an early alert that your diabetes risk is now very high; 10 to 20 times greater than those with normal blood sugar levels. What you choose to eat, or avoid, influences this risk.
Diabetes Prevention Programs
Studies around the world, including Finland, China and the US have shown diabetes prevention programs prevent or delay progression to Type 2 diabetes. When people eat more healthily, drop their body weight by 5 to 10 percent and walk for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, they lower the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by about 58 percent over two years.We recently gave 101 men with pre-diabetes a self-directed diabetes prevention program over six months. We found they were able to reduce their portion size of potato and meat and improve their variety of health foods. They were able to reduce the proportion of energy coming from junk food by 7.6 percent more than the group who didn’t change their diet and got a four-point increase in their scores from the Healthy Eating Quiz. These improved eating patterns were associated with an average weight loss of 12.1 pounds and better blood sugar regulation.
