TOI, Crest ( 24/10/09)-Diabetes

Fast Facts

• People with pre-diabetes have impaired fasting glucose (IFG), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), or both — conditions where blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes

• People with pre-diabetes are five to 15 times more likely to develop Type II diabetes than people with normal glucose values

• Progression to diabetes among those with prediabetes is not inevitable

• People with pre-diabetes who lose body weight and engage in moderate physical activity of at least 150 minutes per week can prevent or delay diabetes and even attain normal blood glucose levels

• If one parent has diabetes, the child has a 33 per cent higher risk of becoming diabetic after the age of 40

• Around 35 per cent of those who suffer from IGT go on to develop diabetes in a period of eight years

• Over the course of a lifetime, as many as 85 per cent of people with IGT, who neither lose weight nor engage in moderate physical activity, will develop diabetes

• The risk of coronary heart disease is at least two to three times higher in patients with pre-diabetes

• Indians convert faster to diabetes from pre-diabetes

How can you reverse pre-diabetes?

Healthy choices of food: Restrict your diet to food with low fat and low calories. Increase your intake of fresh fruits and high fibre vegetables
Lifestyle modification: Keep yourself as active as possible. Use the stairs instead of an elevator. Walk for at least 45 minutes a day and, if possible, practise yoga
Maintain an ideal body weight: People who are overweight develop more complications in the maintenance of normal blood sugar level, so control your weight
Eat smart
Drink at least eight glasses of water a day
Include wholegrains, nuts, raw vegetables and dairy products in your diet
Eat at least five fruits every day, the best being pomegranate and citrus fruits
Try to consume more cucumber, lettuce, onion, garlic, carrot and spinach
Eat a high-fibre diet to lower your body’s need for insulin
Take half a teaspoon of cinnamon twice a day; it has the potential to reduce blood sugar by as much as 50 points
Take bitter gourd (karela) as a juice or in cooked form to boost body glucose tolerance
Include herbs like fenugreek, mustard, neem, turmeric and cumin in your diet to help regulate your blood sugar levels
Foods to avoid
Refined sugar, syrups, jam, ice-cream, cakes, sweet biscuits, chocolates, soft drinks, condensed milk, cream and fried foods
Fats like butter, ghee and hydrogenated vegetable oil should also be avoided
Salt consumption should be reduced to a minimum. Reduce caffeine and alcohol. Have green tea instead