Discover the Link between the Foods You Eat and Prediabetes
Over the past few decades, the statistics for diabetes has skyrocketed. In the US alone, over 50 million people have prediabetes. Getting diagnosed and checking if you’re prediabetes is crucial to preventing the onset on diabetes.
The main reason things have reached this state is the because of the food we eat. The standard American diet is unhealthy and high in processed foods and hidden sugars. Our diets are wreaking havoc on our bodies, and if left unchecked will lead to diabetes and many other health problems.
Our ancestors who were hunters and gatherers, lived off the natural foods that they got off the land. The raw food diet that thousands of people have adopted mimics this diet. However, most of us get our food from the supermarkets these days… and these foods come in boxes and contain additives and ingredients that we can’t even pronounce.
One of the biggest culprits causing obesity is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). This is sugar that creeps into a variety of foods from sodas to chocolates to biscuits and so much more.
When you’re eating sweet foods, your brain can’t register when your stomach is full because of the sweetness, and you’ll overeat. All the sweet pastries and sodas will give you a blood sugar spike and cause your body to release insulin.
Over time, you become insulin insensitive and this sets the stage for prediabetes and will lead to diabetes if left unchecked.
Besides HFCS, another major culprit is refined carbohydrates. These refined carbohydrates are usually stripped off good vitamins and nutrients that are found in the germ and bran. Food manufacturing companies refine their foods so that the foods have a longer shelf life. But, the foods are NOT good for you.
Most people think of sugar when they think of diabetes. Refined carbohydrates are forgotten. The truth of the matter is that when you consume refined carbs such as a donut or a sandwich made with white bread, the white flour in these products are quickly broken down by your body and turned into glucose.
Glucose is sugar and it spikes your blood glucose. It creates the same effect that sugar does and leads to insulin insensitivity too. You’d do well to minimize your consumption of the following foods: sodas, pastries, white bread, white flour products, white rice, cereals, granola, candy, white pasta, etc.
This glucose will be absorbed into the blood stream and end up getting stored in the fat as triglyceride. and stored in the muscles as glycogen. During daily activities, the body taps into the glycogen for fuel. That is why people keep gaining weight. The body is not burning the fat for fuel. It’s just relying on the food and glycogen.
One of the best ways to target the fats is with fasted cardio. When you do cardio such as walking on an empty stomach, your glycogen levels are low, and the body has no choice but to use the stored fat as fuel. One of the best things that you can do if you’re in the prediabetes stage is to lose your excess weight.
The more weight you gain, the less effective the insulin in your body becomes. Your pancreas will have to secrete more insulin just to cope with the glucose in your blood. Beyond a certain point, you’ll develop impaired glucose tolerance.
This is just one step away from diabetes. You absolutely MUST lose the weight and clean up your diet to reverse the process. Avoid unhealthy fats, refined carbohydrates and sugar. You’ll also need to get on a training regime so that you can exercise and burn off more calories.
Once you reach your ideal weight and get your diet under control, you’ll restore your insulin sensitivity, and this will prevent you from getting diabetes. Prevention is definitely better than cure because in this case, there is no cure for diabetes. Start acting today and reclaim your health.
