If you have elevated blood sugar levels, but they are not high enough to be classified as diabetes, you may have prediabetes, also called insulin resistance, Prediabetes often becomes Type 2 diabetes in less than 10 years. Making changes in your diet and lifestyle choices now can help prevent diabetes in the future. Your high glucose levels could already be causing damage to your cardiovascular system, even before you develop Type 2 diabetes.
The Causes of Prediabetes
Insulin resistance may be genetic, but excess fat -- especially around your waist -- and an inactive lifestyle may also be factors. Your diet, specifically the number and type of carbohydrates you eat, can adversely effect your blood sugar. When you eat sugar, starchy vegetables and refined flours that your body can quickly convert to glucose, blood sugar levels rise dramatically. The faster your blood sugar rises, the harder your pancreas works to produce insulin, the hormone that helps move glucose from your blood in to your cells fro use as energy. Over time, your pancreas may not be able to produce as much insulin -- leading to insulin resistance, or prediabetes.
The Importance of Maintaining a Healthy Body Weight
You can reverse prediabetes by losing weight, changing your diet, exercising more often and perhaps by taking medications -- which should only be used as a last resort and in conjunction with lifestyle changes. According to the American Diabetes Association, losing just 10 percent of your body weight can lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by almost 60 percent. People with prediabetes are also at an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Losing weight will improve cardiovascular health as well as help prevent type 2 diabetes.
Dietary Changes
Diabetes is the number one cause of kidney disease, and if you have prediabetes, you may already have some impaired kidney function. The ADA doesn't recommend a high-protein diet for weight loss because of the burden protein metabolism can place on your kidneys. Instead, try making some simple changes to your diet. The ADA suggests adding more fruits and vegetables, using whole grain, rather than refined grain pastas and breads, eating more legumes, choosing lean proteins and fish rather than high-fat red meats, using low fat dairy products, using unsaturated oils instead of saturated fats -- choosing olive oil instead of butter and limiting snack foods such as cookies, chips and candy.
Diabetic Exchange Diet
If you prefer a more structured diet, follow the diabetic exchange diet, which will help with both calorie and portion control. Developed specifically to help control glucose levels by controlling carbohydrate intake, the exchange plan divides food into six categories: starches, proteins, vegetables, fruits, fats and milk. You'll eat a set number of exchanges from each category depending on your total caloric needs. The plan is user-friendly --exchanges are designed to teach correct portion sizes. For example, one starch exchange could be a slice of whole grain bread, 1/2 cup of rice or pasta, or 1/2 cup of a cooked cereal such as oatmeal. A fruit serving s a medium apple or orange or a small banana.
