Type-2 diabetes advice

Published: Tuesday, 24 February 2009, 3:46PM

Top tips from the British Nutrition Foundation on diabetes treatment and prevention:

Maintain a healthy body weight (a Body Mass Index of 20-25kg/m²)
The rise in obesity rates in the UK is a main contributor to the rapid increase in the prevalence of diabetes. Obese people are often insulin resistant. Most people with newly diagnosed type-2 diabetes are overweight or obese. Use this NHS BMI calculator to calculate your figure.

Keep physically active
Lack of exercise is harmful because it can promote weight gain and it also impairs insulin action. Regular exercise has many benefits. Apart from improving the ability of insulin to act, it also helps overweight people to lose weight. Everyday activities, like cycling or walking to work, or walking up the stairs instead of taking the lift, can be helpful.

Eat a healthy, balanced diet. Eat more starchy foods, like potatoes, rice, pasta, bread and breakfast cereals.
Regular consumption of whole-grain foods has been linked by researchers to a reduction in risk of several diseases including type-2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.  Whole-grain foods provide many nutrients such as fibre, resistant starch, and certain minerals and vitamins.  They also contain several compounds such as antioxidants and phytoestrogens which may be important in disease prevention.  Some of these nutrients may be lost in the refining process.

Choose high fibre, wholemeal products. Eat more fruits and vegetables, aim for at least 5 portions a day.
Today, however, the most important message for people with diabetes is to eat healthily, in exactly the same way that is recommended for the whole population – that is a balanced diet based on starchy foods and plenty of fruit and vegetables, and is low in fat, salt and sugar. This means that a small amount of sugar and sugar-containing foods can be eaten, preferably as part of a healthy meal. Special diabetic cakes, biscuits or pastries are of no particular benefit and they may contain a lot of fat.  

Eat fewer fatty and sugar-containing foods, e.g. chips, sweets or pastries.
Recent studies have shown that a high intake of fat is the main dietary factor in type-2 diabetes. Since fat contains more calories per gram than carbohydrate or protein, fat contributes a significant amount of calories to our diet.

Choose lean meat, poultry, fish, beans and alternatives, instead of fatty meat or meat products.
Unsaturated fats are the healthiest for your body. This includes both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. You can find these "healthy fats" in foods like nuts, vegetable oils, olives and avocados.
The fats to cut back on are the saturated and trans fats. Saturated fats are found in full-fat dairy products like ice cream, half and half, sour cream, cheese, and meats, chicken skin, bacon and lard. Trans fats are found in margarines and shortening as well as many processed packaged foods and sweets. Trying to cut back on how much saturated and trans fat you eat is important to help reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke.
 
Choose low-fat dairy foods, like skimmed or semi-skimmed milk or low-fat yoghurt.
Research conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2005 found that men consuming higher levels of dairy products, especially low-fat dairy foods, had a significantly lower risk of developing type-2 diabetes during a 12-year period. Recent research has implied that dairy foods could help prevent insulin resistance, a precursor of type-2 diabetes. The researchers conducted the current study to directly examine the relationship between dairy consumption and diabetes.

Use vegetable oil in cooking but only in small amounts and choose products lower in salt and use less salt in cooking.