These Everyday Habits Could Be Pushing You Towards Diabetes
Without realizing it we often indulge in risky behavior, especially developing habits which are more harmful for our overall health than is commonly recognized. It could something like reaching for a sugary cold drink when you are thirsty and hot on a summer’s day. Once in a blue moon is okay. When it develops into a habit, something which is a part of your daily activities, that the issues emerge.
Count Your Daily Calorie Intake
One way of avoiding potential diabetes caused by faulty eating habits is to count the calories of everything that you eat and drink. Those innumerable cups of tea and coffee at work, glasses of nimbu paani after a long hectic day or workout, that bite of a pastry or cupcake — they all add up. Few people realize that dipping even a healthy snack like air fried or baked multigrain chips or crackers into a mayonnaise, or using a thousand island dressing for your salad multiplies the daily calorie count. Toppings of cheese or hummus are technically very healthy as they are dense proteins, but should be taken in limited quantities as the body converts excess protein into starch or fat.
Watch Out for Quantity
Too many portions of even very healthy food can add up the calories, thereby putting a strain on the pancreas by stimulating it to produce more insulin. In certain cases, the body produces too much insulin to convert the high carbohydrate meals, leading to hypoglycemia about two hours after a heavy meal. This, in turn, needs to be countered with some carbohydrate dense food, or very sugary stuff like confectionery or lozenges. So, be it salad or vegetables, tofu, fish, meat, or eggs: watch how much you eat.
Don’t Skip Meals
Your body thinks you are starving when you skip meals and compensates by storing everything you eat as fat. Being overweight does lead to diabetes 2, which is often reversible when it is significant, and sustained weight loss. Many people rush off to work, school, or college without eating any cereals in their breakfast. They think a glass of fruit juice or milk is adequate nutrition. It isn’t. Since there has already been quite a gap of time from dinner, it is important to have a balanced meal at breakfast. It is the only time of the day when a relatively heavy meal might help and will prevent your feeling ravenous by mid-morning.
Have Several Small Meals in a Day
As long as you watch the portions, snacking lightly on fresh fruit, nuts, and raw vegetables keeps your body thinking it is well-fed. The fibers in these snacks create a sense of fullness which slows down the metabolism. Having three heavy meals in the day invites diabetes because there are major swings in the blood sugar levels all day.
Don’t be afraid of feeling hungry:
If you keep eating to prevent yourself from feeling hungry, don’t. It is inviting diabetes. Let your body use up all the calories you’ve consumed. Since hunger is the best sauce, you won’t find munching on vegetables, and fruits, or eating a bowl of soup a hardship. Rather it will be just as tasty — and satisfying — as club sandwich smothered in cheesy and mayonnaise, or a burger. Eat slices of fruits, rather than drinking its juice, to give your body something to munch on, instead of overloading it with fructose and glucose.
You Behave Like Jerry When Eating
When Jerry Mouse swallows his hot dog or a club sandwich in a flash, it makes for a funny visual in a cartoon. When you bolt your food, you are inviting trouble as it increases the risk of acid re-flux, and type 2 diabetes. Chew your food slowly to ingest it properly.
Don’t eliminate fats from your diet:
Some kinds of fats — unsaturated fats like those obtained from olive oil, nuts, seeds, fish, and avocados — will protect your body in two ways. Since they eliminate the bad cholesterol from your body and make it feel full longer; you could be staving off diabetes and other health issues.
Too Much Fast Food, Not Enough Fruits, and Vegetables
If you think that the lettuce and tomato in your burger; the olives, peppers, onions, and mushroom toppings of your pizza; or that potato fries count for vegetables, you are deluding yourself. Too much fast food actually puts you on a fast lane to diabetes 2. Pasta, white bread, noodles, polished rice, and other foods which have dense carbohydrates, or are processed head you to type 2 diabetes street. Any diet which is high in fat, calories, and cholesterol increases your risk of diabetes.
Other Dangerous Habits Which Invite Diabetes
If you don’t get adequate sleep at night, you are disrupting hormones that control blood glucose and hunger, increasing your risk of diabetes 2. Linked with late nights are midnight snacking is buying and eating junk food or high carb snacks which cause spikes in blood sugar levels. When snacks or comfort food are eaten to fight depression or tension, you are taking a shortcut to type 2 diabetes. The one thing you must avoid is being stuck to a desk for too long periods at a time to prevent diabetes. Activity, especially which requires you to move around a lot, is a must for those who have sedentary jobs.
Last updated on: August 17, 2018
Originally published at www.aimsindia.com on August 13, 2018.
