If your blood sugar levels are high but not high enough to qualify as diabetes, your doctor may say you are borderline diabetic or that you have pre-diabetes. The pre-diabetes definition is fasting blood glucose between 100 and 125 mg/dL. If you have pre-diabetes, making dietary changes may keep you from developing diabetes. If you don't change your diet and possibly make other lifestyle changes, like getting more exercise, you're almost certain to develop diabetes within the next 10 years, according to the National Institute on Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders.
Losing Weight
Weight loss is the key to reducing your risk of progressing from pre-diabetes to diabetes. Losing between 5 and 10 percent of your current body weight can reduce your risk of progressing to diabetes by 58 percent, advises the American Diabetes Association. The ADA makes no specific recommendations for losing weight beyond the weight-loss suggestions that apply to everyone with or without pre-diabetes. Weight loss accomplished by means of a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet is effective, the 2010 ADA Guidelines state.
Carbohydrate Recommendations
The ADA's advice on carbohydrates and diabetes is somewhat mixed. Unlike previous decades, when diabetics and borderline diabetics counted carbohydrates or consumed a certain number of carbohydrate exchanges per day, the current guidelines are less clear. The 2010 ADA guidelines state only that monitoring carbohydrate intake, whether by exchanges, carb-counting or experience-based estimation, is essential for good control of blood sugars. Stanford University suggests cutting refined sugars and starchy vegetables from your diet and eating more whole grains, fruits and vegetables in their place.
Low-Glycemic Index Foods
Following a low-glycemic index diet may be the best way to control your carbohydrate intake and reduce the risk of developing diabetes. Insulin resistance contributes to diabetes development. Your body releases insulin when carbohydrates enter the bloodstream. If you eat meals high in carbs that break down and enter the bloodstream quickly, your body releases large amounts of insulin. Eventually, the pancreas burns out and can't produce adequate amounts of insulin, and your blood sugar rises. Low-glycemic index foods are carbohydrates that break down slowly. The 2010 ADA guidelines state that consuming low-glycemic index foods, which break down more slowly after you eat them, may have a modest benefit on controlling blood sugars over high-glycemic index foods. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains are low-GI foods.
Fiber
Fiber, the indigestible portion of plant foods, can help control your blood sugars. Fiber, especially soluble fiber, which forms a gel when you eat it, slows down digestion. Because digestion slows, carbohydrates absorb more slowly into the bloodstream. This helps reduce high insulin levels and insulin resistance. Most vegetables, fruits and whole grains contain both soluble and insoluble fiber.
References
- Diabetes Care; Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes---2010; 2011
- Stanford University: Nutrition and Lifestyle Recommendations for People with Pre-Diabetes; Jane Borchers; June 2009
- Harvard School of Public Health: Carbohydrates: Good Carbs Guide the Way
- American Diabetes Association: How to Prevent Pre-Diabetes
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders; Insulin Resistance and Pre-Diabetes; October 2008
- Health Castle; Fiber 101; Gloria Tsang, R.D.; March 2011
