Best Life

Preventing pre-diabetes and diabetes

Bob Greene is an exercise physiologist and certified personal trainer. He is also a renowned author and frequent guest on “Oprah.”

Diabetes and pre-diabetes have reached epidemic levels in this country. Newly diagnosed cases of diabetes increased by 90 percent from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. And the number of Americans with diabetes has tripled from 1980 through 2006. As many as 95 percent of diabetes cases are type 2 diabetes, the type that is often triggered by obesity. (Type 1 is an autoimmune condition). Based on the number of people with pre-diabetes, it looks like there’s no end in sight to the trend: Nearly one-in-five people have pre-diabetes, a pre-cursor of diabetes.
     These are sobering statistics, but there is good news. You may be able to avoid these two conditions by making easy-but-significant lifestyle changes. This is the premise of my new book (co-authored by endocrinologist John J. “Jack” Merendino, Jr., M.D., and Best life lead nutritionist Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D.) “The Best Life Guide to Managing Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes,” due out Nov. 3.
     To reduce your risk, use these strategies:
• Maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight or obese significantly increases your risk for pre-diabetes and diabetes. In fact, people who carry their weight around their middle are most at risk for the disease. To find out your waist circumference, wrap a measuring tape around your bare abdomen just above your pelvic bone. The tape should be snug, not pressing into your skin. Exhale a little and measure. The healthy cut-off: Less than 40 inches for men; less than 35 for women. (If you’re of Asian heritage, the numbers are 38 for men and 33 for women.) Eating a healthy diet and following a regular workout plan (keep reading for more on this) can help bring down your waist circumference.
• Exercise regularly. Exercise can help you peel off extra pounds and maintain a healthy weight. It also helps you shed abdominal fat (called visceral fat), which increases the risk for diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses. Finally, it makes the body less insulin-resistant. Insulin resistance is a common cause of diabetes; if you have insulin resistance, the insulin that’s supposed to transport glucose (from the foods you eat) into all your body’s cells becomes less effective.
• Go for whole grains. Whole grains contain more fiber than refined grains. Not only does this help with hunger (fiber tends to dampen appetite), but it also helps keep blood sugar levels more stable. When you eat foods made with refined grain, like white bread or     corn flake cereal, the glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream quickly. Whole grains take longer for the body to break down, so you get a much slower and less severe blood sugar spike. Replace white bread and crackers with whole-grain versions
     Check out “The Best Life Guide to Managing Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes” or go online to TheBestLife.com/diabetes.