Can We Turn Diabetes Around?

11 October 2018 by Leanne Scott

Pre-diabetes affects 16% of adult Australians over the age of 25 years.

Changes in your diet and lifestyle can make a huge difference on whether you do develop T2 diabetes and for those diagnosed – it is possible to even reverse your condition.

We are not our genetic destiny – most diseases are a result of the epigenetic effects of diet and lifestyle.

Type 2 Diabetes definitely falls into this category but even Type 1’s can benefit immensely from dietary change.

The Australian National Diabetes Audit (ANDA) admits: ‘There has long been a perceived need for a more Education and Patient Self-care’.

Understanding how the food you consume affects your blood sugar is so important in this process.

Why is Diabetes dietary information so confusing? Not just confusing but misleading, particularly when one reads in a diabetes magazine headlines like: ‘Yes You Can Have Chocolate Cake!’

Sorry folks, not if it’s with ingredients that turn into sugar in the body and not if you’re serious about improving your diabetes.

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No one wants to live with diabetes, but it can be very difficult when vague and confusing information becomes the norm.

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With so much highly processed convenience foods available, blood sugar management should be a concern for everyone.

The standard Australian diet is not working very well to curb the situation, with 60 new Queenslanders diagnosed with diabetes every day.

It is also very confusing when much of the standard dietary information calls for vague advice like ‘limiting’ a food.

What is a limit for one might be an overindulgence for another.

Most pre/diabetics have significant carbohydrate tolerance issues but you will never know if you are not monitoring your blood sugar both before and after you eat.

What does chronically elevated blood sugar and insulin mean to you? Inflammation and further disease – this is a slippery slope that only improves by optimizing your diet and blood sugar – not just managing it.

This will be the ‘ground zero’ for everything else that goes wrong for you if you do not actively address diet properly. And let’s not be confused- this is completely about too many carbs – your fear of fat is dead science.

Changing eating habits formed over many years can be hard without help.

Navigating advice online can be very confusing and contradictory.

Correct monitoring and understanding your own blood glucose levels can arm you with so much information you will begin to really know what foods work best for you, and more importantly what foods don’t.

With a plan, great things can be achieved. Aim high, to reverse your situation – do nothing and you will allow it to worsen.

All you need is a starting point – first step? Understanding this is completely within your control.

Here’s a great resource written for you and your doctor by a doctor.

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