Diabetes Diet and Exercise

What are the two keys to preventing a person from coming down with Type 2 diabetes?  Diet and exercise.  Nothing fancy – no pills, no vaccines, do expensive treatments.  Just common sense and living right.  Type 2 diabetes is what used be known as adult onset diabetes, as opposed to juvenile diabetes (Type 1), which a person is born with.  Do you know why the name was changed from adult onset to Type 2?  One of the big reasons is that more and more kids are coming down with it.  It used to be that only adults got it.  And make no mistake; Type 2 diabetes might be “treatable”, but it’s still a a life threatening condition, and it’s terrible to have to live with.

But there’s good news about Type 2 diabetes – diet and exercise can almost always prevent it.  It’s a result of poor habits and lifestyle choices.  Tens of millions of American are making those poor choices, which is why there’s a Type 2 diabetes epidemic.  Never before in American history have there been so many overweight and obese citizens.  Fat kids used to be a rarity; now you see them everywhere.  Americans gorge themselves on rich, sugary, fatty foods, and they don’t get enough exercise.  Soda pop consumption has quadrupled in recent decades, and it’s one of the main causes.

So if you want to prevent Type 2 diabetes, diet and exercise are the keys to doing so.  Which doesn’t mean you have to start living like a monk and eating only rabbit food.  And you don’t need to start running marathons or take up cross country skiing.  Not at all.  Just cut way back on sweets, like desserts, snack cakes, and soda pop.  Eat sensible portions.  Avoid those all you can eat restaurants like the plague.  Get out and take a brisk walk every day, or at least 4 days a week.  Work up to where you walk for 45 minutes a day.  Preventing Type 2 diabetes isn’t hard; it’s quite simple.  But how many of us will make the necessary effort?