Evelina Adomaityte, Author at MyBody

High sugar levels in the blood are the diagnostic feature of diabetes. This may be from the body’s inability to produce enough or any insulin or utilize the insulin produced. Insulin is the hormone that aids body cells in absorbing glucose for energy production.

Some symptoms of diabetes include constant urination, fatigue, glycosuria, etc. Glycosuria is a condition where the urine contains more sugar than it should. Since the body cannot absorb sugar for energy production, it is often excreted, causing fatigue and constant urination.

The excess glucose then overwhelms the kidneys’ filter and reabsorption system. Hence, excess glucose is present in urine. This article discusses the relationships between diabetes, glucose in urine and urine glucose testing.

What are the Urine Tests for Diabetes?

Urine tests, often referred to as urinalysis, involve examining a urine sample. The reason why they are used for diabetes is that once there is excess diabetes in the blood, it is eliminated into the urine. Hence, if there’s too much glucose in the urine, it is a sign of diabetes.

They could be also important in diagnosing several other health conditions, such as kidney stones. The tests can be performed in a laboratory or home using self-test kits. Other than glucose levels, the glucose urine test may detect ketone levels and microalbumin.

What is a Urine Glucose Test?

In simple terms, a glucose urine test measures the urine glucose levels in your urine sample. Glucose sugar is the primary source of energy for the body’s cells. A urine glucose test is one of many other tests used to detect blood glucose levels.

A healthy person shouldn’t have glucose in their urine – not more than 0 to 0.8 mmol/L (millimoles per liter). When it exceeds this healthy range, it’s often a sign of a disease condition, with diabetes being the main culprit. Other names for the test include the urine sugar test and glycosuria test.

Why do I Need a Glucose Urine Test?

Your healthcare provider may request you take the test as part of a regular checkup. Or perhaps, you just made some complaints in the line of following symptoms – frequent urination, fatigue, increased thirst, blurred vision, etc., and cannot take blood glucose tests for one reason or the other.

If you are pregnant, your doctor may request you do a urinalysis, including a urine glucose test. Elevated urine glucose levels may indicate gestational diabetes – a form of diabetes that only occurs during pregnancy.

You might then need to do a blood glucose test to confirm the earlier diagnosis – gestational diabetes. Often, pregnant women are requested to take a blood glucose test to test for gestational diabetes during the third trimester.

Blood Glucose Test

In previous years, a urine glucose test was the go-to test for diagnosing and monitoring diabetes. Now, it is known that they are not all that accurate and effective; the blood tests for glucose appear to be the way forward. Blood tests measure the precise quantity of glucose in the blood.

The interpretation of your blood glucose test result depends on the kind of test you take. The two common ones are the fasting and non-fasting sugar tests. However, the fasting sugar test is often recommended, as it may be challenging to account for the sugar levels in food taken before the test.

Fasting Sugar Test

Before a fasting sugar test, the patient must not have eaten or drank anything for 8 to 12 hours. Hence, healthcare professionals suggest taking the test immediately after waking up in the morning.

This test is preferred because it is more convenient and easier to read. Also, the test gives a more accurate value of the blood glucose reading since the patient has not consumed anything before the test. However, the test is performed more than once to get a mean result.

Normal fasting blood glucose level should be between 3.9mmol/L (70 mg/Do) and 5.6 mmol/L (100 mg/dL).

When results show 5.6 to 6.9 mmol/L (100 to 125 mg/dL), doctors recommend lifestyle changes and routine monitoring of glycemia (glucose in the blood). However, if results show a blood glucose concentration of 7 mmol/L (126 mg/dL) or more on multiple tests, it indicates diabetes.

Can a Urine Test Tell My Blood Glucose Levels?

Urinalysis can only tell you the contents of your urine, not necessarily what’s in your blood. However, the presence of glucose or other ketones, like galactose, lactose fructose, etc., may indicate diabetes or other conditions such as kidney disease or urinary tract infections.

Who should take Urine Tests?

A urine test may just be part of a series of tests during a routine exam. Though, when you make complaints in line with diabetes, your doctor may request you take a urine test. These tests often check for the presence of glucose and detect ketones. A positive result may mean your pancreas isn’t producing enough insulin.

How to Prepare for a Urine Test

Before taking any urine test, ensure you drink sufficient water so you can provide enough urine samples for testing. Ensure you inform your healthcare provider of all medicines you are taking, including supplements, as certain medicines may affect test results.

Prior to giving your urine sample for a test, you could just clean your genital area with water to prevent contamination of the sample. After which, you can then expel your urine into a container provided by your healthcare provider. You shouldn’t experience any discomfort; it’s basically normal urination.

How to Perform Urine Test Using At-home Test Strips

Test kits for urine glucose tests are available at pharmacies or online stores, requiring no prescription. Ensure you read the package directives and instructions carefully on how to carry out the test. Also, before using it, ensure to confirm that it isn’t expired.

Generally, carrying out the glucose urine test with the self-test kit involves the following procedures.

Urinate in a clean container.
Dip the test strip into your urine. The strips contain chemicals that detect sugars.
Shake excess urine off the strip.
Wait, the instructions should indicate the time it’d take for the sugar in your urine to react with the chemicals on the test strip.
After the strip changes color, compare it to the color chart on the packaging. The range with which the color your strip gives is the amount of sugar in your urine.
You may need to write down the results, especially if it detects the presence of sugar.

What do my Urine Glucose Test Results Mean?

After performing your test using a self-test kit, if the test results indicate the presence of glucose in your urine, you don’t have to panic. You may not even have diabetes. It just means you have to visit your doctor. Blood glucose testing gives a better picture of the actual amounts of glucose in your blood.

A urine glucose test doesn’t show current blood glucose levels; it is just an indication of whether or not glucose is present in your urine. However, it’s a mirror of your blood sugar over a couple of hours before taking the test.

What’s Next After a Urine Test for Diabetes?

If your urine test shows the presence of glucose or other sugar in your blood, your doctor will request further testing to detect what’s causing it. One of such tests is the blood sugar test, as it is a more accurate test for diabetes.

If your doctor confirms that you have diabetes, they will provide you with therapeutic measures to manage this disorder. Management of diabetes includes the following;

Lifestyle changes – include diet regulation, routine exercise, stress management, quitting smoking, and reducing alcohol intake.
Diabetic medications – your doctor may prescribe some drugs for you, and some may cause you to urinate frequently.
Regular checkups and at-home blood glucose testings.
Your doctor may prescribe insulin therapy, especially for type 1 diabetes.

Diet Management in Diabetes

Lifestyle changes are perhaps the most critical aspects of diabetes management, especially in type 2. The role of adjusting one’s diet cannot be overemphasized. Try to cut down on carbs instead, include more fruits, vegetables, proteins, healthy fats, and fibers. Avoid fruit juices, snacks, and foods that contain added sugars.

It is best to work with your doctor or dietitian to assist you in working out a dietary plan to get the best outcomes.

Besides your doctor’s directives, the use of diabetes management apps is another good way to monitor your condition closely. These apps assist you in tracking blood sugar levels, exercise, and physical activities. A typical app for this purpose is Klinio.

Conclusion

Urine sugar test plays a role in diagnosing diabetes and other disease conditions early. However, blood testing confirms if a patient has diabetes or not. If tested positive, patients need to work closely with their healthcare provider to get the best results in managing the condition.

Diabetes is a common condition that many adults experience globally and is usually considered a major health concern. Currently, there are over 350 million people diagnosed with the condition, while a significant number live with the condition without an appropriate diagnosis. In the United States alone, over 20 million people are considered to have the condition, both diagnosed and undiagnosed.

The stunning increase of diabetes in people has made many health institutions—including the American Diabetes Association (ADA)—carry out various health awareness campaigns on why people should live a very healthy life and eliminate many unhealthy practices that trigger the disease. These campaigns are usually considered from the perspective of diabetes being a metabolic disease that proper health management can prevent. However, new findings over the years have, in a way, suggested that diabetes may not be entirely genetic and metabolic.

Several expert studies and their respective findings suggest there’s a possibility of diabetes being an autoimmune disease. While these studies are continuing, the possibility of diabetes as an autoimmune disease generally affects how people and health experts may consider the condition.

This guide examines what autoimmune diseases are, if the immune system’s natural response may trigger diabetes, and steps people can take to decrease the diabetes risk, including the best diet practices.

What Are Autoimmune Diseases?

Autoimmune diseases are one of the common diseases people develop despite doing nothing wrong. Unlike most conditions triggered by unhealthy choices, extreme stress, and poor exercise, diseases classified as autoimmune conditions naturally occur independently. As far as modern research can show, genetics is the only factor that makes people develop autoimmune diseases.

An autoimmune disease is a major condition where the immune system confuses healthy tissues and cells with harmful invaders, attacking them in the process. The immune system—comprising different immune cells like the T cells and B cells—is scientifically and medically known to fight off diseases that attack the body and do a great job of it. However, there are situations where these cells may malfunction and confuse the healthy tissue that allows the body’s smooth running as invading diseases and attack them.

There are many diseases resulting from immune cells attacking other cells and tissues. Some of these diseases are extremely complicated and are well attributed to causing possible mortality, outlining the risk they project to humans. Some of the popular ones include:

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a condition where the immune system’s B cells and T cells attack the human joints after confusing them with disease-carrying cells. The attack on the joints is often gradual but steady and could cause a range of health discomfort and complications. These include unhealthy warmth in the joint areas of the body, redness, soreness, severe pain, and stiffness in the joint.

Psoriasis/Psoriatic Arthritis

Psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis is another autoimmune disease where skin cells abnormally multiply such that the process of growing and shedding is disorganized due to more extreme supplies of what’s needed. Excessive growth of cells can cause red patches and inflammation, silver-white scales, and joint stiffness.

Blood Cancer

Blood cancer is another condition attributed to the immune cells attacking healthy cells. It’s a possibly fatal condition with a high mortality rate.

Additional Facts on AutoImmune Diseases

From the above, it’s clear that many popular diseases are categorized under autoimmune diseases. We’ve also successfully outlined the danger and health complications these conditions could cause.

Generally, for a disease to be autoimmune triggered, the immune cells must have been evidently proven to attack the human body. Once that’s been established, the disease can be classified to be triggered by autoimmunity.

A key area of focus in this guide is whether diabetes can result from the immune cells attacking human pancreatic islets or any other tissues that directly contribute to insulin production. So, is diabetes an autoimmune disease? This detailed guide successfully answers this question in subsequent sections.

Is Diabetes an Autoimmune Disease? — Breaking It Down

Diabetes is a metabolic disease, implying that it’s a condition that develops following a negative alteration of the body’s metabolism. While there are many classifications of the condition, type 2 diabetes comes to mind following general consideration, possibly due to its widespread nature and impact on general health. Type 2 diabetes has long been considered a problem related to blood sugar levels rise caused by obesity-related insulin resistance and other risk factors.

The second most popular type of diabetes is type 1 diabetes, established as an autoimmune disease. However, since it doesn’t account for most diabetes cases globally, it’s barely regarded as diabetes. Below is a complete definition of the different types of diabetes that people experience:

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition prevalent in children and is characterized by uncontrolled blood sugar rise due to damage to insulin-producing cells. The cell damage is due to the body’s immune cells attacking the healthy cell that supply insulin, making the problem one of autoimmunity.

Type 1 diabetes could be fatal, and children need a constant dose of insulin shots to have their blood sugar under control. As kids grow, though, the condition may faze out. If adequately handled, this phenomenon makes type 1 diabetes more of a temporary problem.

Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA)

LADA may be said to be the adult version of type 1 diabetes. While it’s not as popular as general type 1 diabetes, it’s not rare among adults. In adults, the immune system cells attack the healthy pancreas cells after mistaking them for disease and infected cells.

LADA is often misdiagnosed and is usually treated as type 2 diabetes — a therapy error since it’s not a metabolic condition.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes—the more common condition responsible for many serious complications and mortality rates globally—is typically considered a metabolic disease. It’s a condition where our bodies develop insulin resistance due to a poor supply of insulin from the pancreas.

Poor health choices, unhealthy lifestyle activities, and other avoidable factors are the major factors behind developing insulin resistance. So, unlike type 1 diabetes and its related ailment (LADA), people either inherit or develop type 2 diabetes due to risk factors like obesity and high sugar food consumption.

Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is diabetes that women experience during pregnancy. It’s a temporary condition as women’s blood sugar levels usually return to normal after childbirth. It’s one of the recognized type 2 diabetes, and women who experience it are at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later if they don’t implement healthy practices.

So, Is Diabetes an Autoimmune Condition?

From the above points, it’s clear that type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition, while type 2 diabetes is considered a purely metabolic disease. However, type 1 diabetes and its subgroup, LADA, are mostly temporary and significantly rare. On the other hand, type 2 diabetes and its related condition, gestational diabetes, are common. Type 2 diabetes, in particular, could be—and is usually—a permanent feature in the lives of many people diagnosed with it.

Diabetes experts have only considered type 2 diabetes from the lens of it being a metabolic condition. It’s believed to occur when people’s life activities affect their health such that their cells promote insulin resistance.

However, new studies prove that type 2 diabetes may not be a 100% metabolic condition. In fact, there have been some convincing research that places it as a condition triggered by adaptive immune responses. While type 2 diabetes being an autoimmune condition hasn’t been fully confirmed yet, if acknowledged as such, it becomes similar to type 1 diabetes and alters its treatment options.

What the Experts Say: A New Outlook?

Although there are considerations that push the ideology of diabetes being an autoimmune disease, health institutions haven’t formally confirmed this line of thought. However, this doesn’t imply that the condition isn’t connected to improper functioning of the immune system targeting diabetes-preventing cells.

Several studies indicate that type 2 diabetes could be an autoimmune condition just like type 1 diabetes, as pathogenic IgG antibodies were used to treat some of the immune cells that are believed to play a major role in triggering diabetes. The majority of these studies on type 2 diabetes showed that while other factors cause the condition, the possibility of the immune system targeting other healthy cells and tissues is also an eligible factor.

The Nature Medicine journal published one of the most reputable studies on diabetes being an autoimmune disease. The institution focused its research on finding treatments for type 2 diabetes by targeting the immune system instead of the traditional move of controlling blood sugar.

The study suggested that the B cells, a major part of the immune system, are among the causes of type 2 diabetes. The researchers who performed the study on mice used the anti-CD20 antibody to eliminate mature B cells in some samples, and the result showed that those with lesser B cells were less prone to the progression of type 2 diabetes.

The result was remarkable as anti-CD20 is a popular antibody for treating chronic advanced autoimmune diseases, including blood cancers. For the mice that didn’t get anti-CD20, the mature B cells and other related cells in the immune system attacked healthy tissues, including the cells that produce insulin. This particular trend drew an overlapping situation between type 1 and type 2 diabetes as the former is also triggered by immune cells attacking insulin-producing cells in children.

Daniel Winer, an endocrine pathologist and major scientist in the study, remarked that the study had the potential to redefine what’s known about type 2 diabetes and the reality that it may not be solely a metabolic disease. He further stated that confirmation of the condition as autoimmune-related will also impact medicines and treatments used for controlling the condition. Notably, alterations will have to be made so that drugs and other management tips focus on reducing the impact of immune cells on the disease.

The study, “Type 2 Diabetes: How Much of an Autoimmune Disease”, outlined the possibility of type 2 diabetes being considered autoimmune diabetes. The study didn’t consider any respondent for data but rather the progression of diabetes and its connection to other important cells like the B cells.

The research identified why ageing and obesity are the major causes of type 2 diabetes progressing into reality and causing further complications. There’s a possible connection between the disease and a low-grade inflammation triggered by the immune system attacking healthy cells and tissues.

The research—which cites other publications on diabetes as an autoimmune condition—states that evidence points to low-grade inflammations causing insulin resistance (IR) and beta-cell failure, a common feature in type 2 diabetes. Inflammation also causes the body to have an increased demand for insulin that can’t be met while triggering the development and destabilization of atherosclerotic plaque.

Apart from the inflammation autoimmune disease causes, the study on people with type 2 diabetes also pinpointed other psychological distress common in people with autoimmunity. It revealed lack of self-tolerance to be common in people with type 2 diabetes due to chronic and excess B cells and T cells reactivity.

The two studies highlighted are among the few that successfully suggest type 2 diabetes to be an autoimmune condition. On the one hand, the second study confirmed that inflammation triggered by the immune system does cause slow but steady progress of the disease in people. On the other hand, Winer—the major scientist in the first study—confirmed in another study that lifestyle factors cause the reaction of the immune cells.

According to Winer, in an independent study, mice exposed to significantly high-calorie foods had more risk of the B cells attacking the insulin-producing cells.

How Does the Possible New Implication Affect Current Day Treatment?

Generally, type 2 diabetes has been considered a metabolic condition that could degenerate into worse complications like fatty liver disease caused by too many fatty acids, heart disease, kidney failure, and stroke. However, considering what research now shows, it’s possibly more than that and could also result from autoimmunity.

The studies show that type 2 diabetes could develop from low-grade chronic inflammation following an attack on immune systems cells. This new revelation means that diabetes treatments may need to undergo significant changes to handle the new type 2 diabetes better. It’s believed that these changes could finally help treatment focus on type 2 diabetes control more effectively.

Currently, the two major ways doctors treat diabetes are through lifestyle adjustments and medications. The former comprises healthy living, dieting, and keeping fit — a strategy whose overall goal is to achieve consistent blood sugar control and weight management. Since obesity is linked with the condition, doctors usually recommend lifestyle adjustments as the healthiest and most natural way to tackle diabetes and blood sugar.

The other form of controlling type 2 diabetes is through medication. Some of the more common treatments are GLP-1 RAs and insulin injection. These medications are targeted to decrease blood sugar levels and improve insulin sensitivity.

However, since there’s now the possibility that type 2 diabetes is also an autoimmune condition, the new treatment expected to be included for its management would be immunosuppressant medications.

From the expert studies considered, it’s obvious that one of the treatments that doctors will bank on is the anti-CD20 antibodies. The main medicine packing these antibodies is Rituximab which has been proven to successfully reduce the immune cells (B cells and T cells) that attack the pancreas and other insulin-producing cells.

While anti-CD20 is currently effective for handling almost all types of autoimmune disease, the progress achieved in the mice experiment—where it eliminated the mature B cells that attack the insulin-producing cells—makes it a viable option to look up to. Over time, health experts are also expected to develop more immune suppressants to treat the condition.

Examining Other Diabetes Risk Factors

Diabetes is likely to be declared an autoimmune-metabolic disease in the future. However, it’s still considered a metabolic disease due to the extremely high connection with many lifestyle factors.

As such, it’s critical that people at risk of the condition or having the ailment take already established health practices seriously. To achieve this, there’s a need to apprise oneself of other risk factors that contribute to its development and further life-threatening complications.

Below are the risk factors that people with diabetes should be aware of.

Age-Related Factors

Diabetes is most likely to affect people as they age. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) reports that 25% of people with diabetes in America are 65 years and above. Moreover, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults over 45 years should get tested for diabetes. This indicates that older adults and middle-aged people are at a high risk of developing diabetes.

In 2015, people in the 45–64 years age group accounted for a large proportion of those diagnosed with the disease. Here’s a clearer outline of the distribution:

355,000 people diagnosed with diabetes were from the ages of 18 to 44
366,000 people diagnosed with diabetes were between the ages of 65 and above
809,000 people diagnosed with diabetes were between the ages of 45 to 64

Medical Conditions

People who have the following medical conditions are at a high risk of having diabetes:

Hypertension higher than 130/8 mmHg
Polycystic ovary syndrome
High levels of cholesterol
250 mg/dL or higher levels of triglyceride
Acanthosis nigricans: A skin condition that causes the skin to look darker than normal
High blood sugar that’s not normal or pre-diabetes
Gestational diabetes in women that give birth to babies weight 9 lb or more (increased type 2 diabetes risk)

Environmental Factors

Individuals who had an unknown virus at the early stage of their life could develop type 1 diabetes. Other people living in cold climates are also likely to have the disease. This is why doctors diagnose more people with diabetes in the winter than in the summer. Research also shows that air pollution could put you at a higher risk of having diabetes.

Genetic Factors

Doctors haven’t found the root of type 1 diabetes. People who have a family member with type 1 diabetes have a high risk of having the condition. According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), anyone who falls under the following category has a chance of developing type 1 diabetes:

A person whose father has type 1 diabetes has 1 in 17 possibilities of having the condition.
A person whose mother has type 1 diabetes has 1 in 25 possibilities of having the condition if born when their mother was younger than 25. If the woman had the child when she was 25 years or more, the child has 1 in 100 possibilities of having type 1 diabetes.
A person whose both parents have type 1 diabetes has between 1 in 4 and 1 in 10 possibilities of having the condition.

Additionally, a parent with type 2 diabetes also exposes his offspring to the risk of having the disease. This is because diabetes is connected to lifestyle. Children can inherit poor habits from their parents and a genetic predisposition.

All of these factors either increase a person’s risk of having either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. However, people from certain ethnic groups are also at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The following ethnic groups put people at risk of having the disease:

Native Americans
Pacific islanders
Asian Americans
Hispanic Americans
African Americans

Additionally, women who have a family member with gestational diabetes have a higher risk of having the condition.

Lifestyle Factors

It’s still unclear if lifestyle factors increase one’s risk for having type 1 diabetes. However, lifestyle choices determine a person’s risk for type 2 diabetes. These are the lifestyle factors that put people at risk for the disease:

Physical inactivity
Unhealthy diet
Smoking
Obesity

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) regards obesity as the highest risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes.

How to Prevent Diabetes

In the above section, we considered some of the major risk factors that cause type 2 diabetes. Currently, the established diabetes risk factors are the only major cause of the condition since its autoimmunity hasn’t been globally recognized.

Here, we outline some of the natural means that people can use to control high blood sugar, live more healthily and prevent the risk of autoimmunity as much as possible.

Eat Food High in Fiber

Eating food with fiber is essential for weight management and gut health. It could also prevent or reduce your risk of diabetes. Research on prediabetic people and old women with weight issues suggests that fiber helps lower insulin and blood sugar levels.

Fiber can be grouped into categories of soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber absorbs water while insoluble doesn’t. Water and insoluble fiber create a gel in the digestive tract that causes a decline in food absorption resulting in a slow rise in your blood sugar. So, eating foods with soluble fiber can reduce insulin and fasting blood sugar levels.

Research has also linked insoluble fiber to lowering blood sugar. Many studies on diabetes and fiber focused on supplements, but foods high in fiber are likely to be more beneficial in preventing diabetes.

Cut Down Consumption of Processed Foods

Reducing the intake of processed food will benefit your health in general. While many foods go through processing, processed foods containing frozen vegetables and plain yogurt aren’t naturally unhealthy. Thus, highly processed foods contain chemical preservatives, added sugar, and unhealthy fats.

Examples of such food are chips, soda, hot dogs, candy bars, and frozen desserts. An observational study links a diet high in processed food with the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Similarly, cutting down processed foods high in additives, refined grain, and vegetable oil could help lower your risk of diabetes. This is because of the anti-diabetes impact of whole foods like fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Remarkably, research shows that a diet with highly processed food increases your risk for diabetes by 70%, while eating whole foods lowers such risk.

Stay Active

It’s essential to stay active and reduce sedentary behaviors like sitting all through the day or getting little physical activity to help prevent you from having diabetes. Observational research has consistently connected sedentary behaviors with a high risk of type 2 diabetes. A study of over 6,000 elderly women discovered that those who indulge in sedentary behaviors for 10 hours or more in a day had an increased risk of diabetes than those who had eight hours or less of inactivity.

Staying active could involve spending a few minutes walking around every half hour or walking a short distance instead of driving. You can use a fitness device or watch to help remind you to take a walk every hour.

However, it can be challenging to cut back on entrenched habits. Research that designed a one-year program to help young adults at risk of having diabetes stop their sedentary behavior discovered that they did not reduce their sitting time. Hence, it’ll be best to set realistic goals like taking the stairs when you get the chance or standing while on the bus even when there are free seats.

Avoid Salt if You Can

Cut down on the salt in your meals as it could help keep your kidney safe and reduce your blood pressure. It may not be enough to stop adding salt to your dish before eating. This is because most of the salt in our diet is found in processed foods.

So, avoid processed food and use fresh ingredients for cooking if possible. When cooking, choose spices and herbs over salt. It’ll be best to talk with your doctor about the amount of sodium ideal for you daily.

Summing It Up

This comprehensive guide has successfully considered the possibility of diabetes being an autoimmune disease. While type 1 diabetes is undoubtedly an autoimmune disease, the more popular type 2 diabetes—known for causing the majority of diabetes corporations and death—has been treated as a metabolic disease for decades. However, new studies discussed in this guide suggest there may be some connection between diabetes type 2 development and immune cell attacks.

However, it’s important to know that there’s no major confirmation of type 2 diabetes being an autoimmune disease. While it does have the characteristics common with normal autoimmune disease development, more research is needed to confirm that it’s indeed an autoimmune condition. Since the condition is yet to be acknowledged fully as autoimmune-related, it’s best treated with traditional and lifestyle practices.

Although there are many lifestyle choices one can take to better their diabetes condition, eating the right meal trumps all of them. As outlined in this piece, eating healthy, diabetes-friendly foods can help you control the progression of type 2 diabetes and even effectively reverse the condition. More importantly, food choices control your health and even determine to what extent exercising can work in controlling your condition.

There are several ways you can always eat diabetes-friendly meals. First, you can seek the help of a dietitian or an endocrinologist for expert recommendations on the best food to eat. Alternatively, you could use a diabetes meal app with expert diabetes meal app recommendations.

Our diabetes management app, is one of the quality resources people with the condition can trust to help them make excellent decisions regarding their food choices. The icing on the cake is that our team of experts regularly updates this virtual caregiver with the newest changes so patients can select the best meals for them in terms of taste and health.

Diabetes is a chronic condition that most patients tend to live with. As far as conventional treatments are concerned, almost all drugs and treatments available are for management purposes. There’s currently no direct cure for the condition, which doubles as one of the most popular causes of preventable disease death in the United States. However, many drugs help control the disease symptoms and give people with the condition a close to normal healthy life.

Most drugs for diabetes are designed to control the symptoms like blood sugar spikes and hyperglycemia due to the respective complications each present. Some of the medications that experts prescribe include insulin injection, which boosts insulin insensitivity and reduces insulin resistance.

There are also recommended medications meant to control the disease so that it doesn’t lead to more complications like cardiovascular disease. One of the groups of drugs in this category is the GLP-1 RA class.

The GLP-1 RA is believed to be an advanced group of drugs that help people with established cardiovascular disease caused by worsened diabetes recover gradually. For patients who’re yet to develop more diabetes complications, these drugs are designed to prevent them from experiencing further complications.

This in-depth guide aims to shed more light on the effectiveness of GLP-1 RA as a diabetes treatment and how it could affect the daily lives of people with the condition.

What Is the GLP-1 RA Drug Class?

GLP-1 RA, as they’re generally called, is a group of drugs for controlling and treating advanced type 2 diabetes. The abbreviation GLP-1 RA stands for Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists, and both patients in their early and later stages of diabetes have found them pretty useful in treating their condition.

These drugs are also effective in treating cardiovascular conditions, especially when it comes to heart and kidney health. Many cardiovascular outcomes trials have shown a high correlation between recovery rate from kidney and health issues and the use of GLP-1 RAs.

GLP-1 RAs are available in many forms, and therapies employing them usually influence blood sugar levels uniquely. This means that GLP-1 RAs don’t react the same way in every person. Another important note for people with diabetes is that all GLP-1 RAs regulate food appetite and, by this action, control weight.

The Different Types of GLP-1 RAs

GLP-1 RAs come in different forms, and each one has its respective benefits. All of the different forms are divided into two major categories, including:

Long-acting GLP-1 RAs
Short-acting GLP-1 RAs

The difference between the two categories is that the effect of the former lasts for days after administration, while that of the latter only lasts several hours. The choice of which to follow totally depends on the type of blood sugar spikes that the patient experiences and their frequency.

Let’s examine common examples of each class in detail.

Long-Acting GLP-1 RAs

Here, we focus on the examples of GLP-1 RAs with an extensive duration of action.

Exenatide (Byetta)

This is an injectable drug that helps lower blood glucose levels. It’s an FDA-approved medication used to treat people with type 2 diabetes. This drug falls under the group of incretin mimetics as it acts like the incretin hormone that the intestine produces and deposits in the blood in a reaction to food.

It increases insulin secretion through the pancreas, slows down insulin absorption through the guts, and lowers the glucagon action. This helps reduce the glucose levels in the blood and reduces appetite.

Research proves that this man-made hormone that behaves like GLP-1 has helped lower blood sugar and weight in people with diabetes.

Lixisenatide (Adlyxin)

This medication is an injectable solution designed as a pen injector given through the skin. It’s used to treat people with diabetes and helps control blood sugar levels by allowing the pancreas to produce insulin efficiently.

This FDA-approved medication works effectively when combined with exercise and diet. While adults with diabetes can use it safely, it’s not approved for children or anyone below 18.

Oral Semaglutide (Rybelsus)

This tablet is swallowed, comes in strengths of 3 mg, 7 mg, and 14 mg, and is taken once daily. It’s used to treat people with type 2 diabetes as it helps manage blood sugar when combined with exercise and diet.

This FDA-approved drug contains an active ingredient called semaglutide that falls under the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) group. Research indicates that Rybelsus helps reduce blood glucose more efficiently than treatment without an active drug. Remarkably, a 26-week study of adults with type 2 diabetes who took Rybelsus proved that they experienced less than 7% HbA1c level.

Short-Acting GLP-1 RAs

Lasting in your body for less than 24 hours, the following drugs have found extensive use in diabetes management:

Dulaglutide (Trulicity)

This is a liquid solution in an injectable disposable pen taken through the skin once a week. It’s used to treat adults who have type 2 diabetes as it helps reduce blood sugar when combined with exercise and diet.

This FDA-approved drug is also prescribed to help reduce a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, and stroke. More particularly, Trulicity minimizes the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

The medication contains dulaglutide, which belongs to the group referred to as glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1).

Exenatide Extended-Release (Bydureon)

This is a liquid suspension in the form of an injection taken through the skin, and it comes either as a pen injector or syringe. It’s used to treat people with type 2 diabetes as it helps improve blood glucose levels.

Bydureon enables the pancreas to produce insulin efficiently. When combined with exercise and diet, Bydureon helps improve blood sugar control in people who have type 2 diabetes.

This medication contains extended-release exenatide, which belongs to the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) group. Both adults and children 10 years and above can use this medication.

Liraglutide (Victoza)

This is a liquid solution formulated as an injection taken through the skin, and it comes either as a pen injector or syringe. It’s used to improve the blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes. Victoza also helps to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and heart attack.

This medication contains an active ingredient called liraglutide, and it falls under the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) group. Victoza has been shown through research to effectively improve the blood glucose levels in children and adults with type 2 diabetes. The FDA approves it for use in adults and children 10 years and above.

Semaglutide (Ozempic)

This is a liquid solution designed as an injection taken through the skin, and it’s formulated as a pen injector. The pen injector is of two types, and both contain 2 mg of semaglutide but don’t give the same dose. It’s used to treat people with type 2 diabetes to improve blood glucose levels.

This FDA-approved medication contains an active ingredient, semaglutide, which falls under the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP- 1) group. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends Ozempic to treat adults with type 2 diabetes and other conditions like heart failure, kidney disease, or cardiovascular disease.

How Are GLP-1 RAs Taken?

GLP-1 RAs are mostly in liquid forms injected into the body. The only pill form of GLP-1 RAs is oral semaglutide. Its effects are the same as those of the other GLP-1 RAs, with its target patients being people who aren’t keen on taking shots.

The injectable forms of GLP-1 RAs are packaged in disposable injection devices. These devices are much smaller than the normal syringe. These mini syringes are designed so that patients don’t feel any more than a small sting after being injected.

Most pen injections of GLP-1 RAs are to be used only once and come with pre-measured GLP-1 RA doses. The ones without pre-measured doses will typically need the guidance of a doctor or endocrinologist.

Taking any medication is quite simple. You can administer the treatment yourself by injecting it into your stomach, thigh, or upper arm. As already stated in this guide, some medications require taking shots twice a day or once a week.

Finally, you may need to start your dosage gradually. You have to follow your doctor’s recommendation and gradually increase the dose steadily if need be.

Expert Considerations on GLP-1 RAs Use

In the medical world, the major way to confirm the efficacy of a drug is through clinical trials and other related research. There have been many established and currently ongoing GLP-1 RAs-focused clinical trials that confirm the effectiveness of these drugs in handling diabetes, its related symptoms and possible complications. The results of many of the observations on GLP-1 RAs in cardiovascular outcome trials (CVOTs) showed encouraging results that patients with diabetes and pre-existing cardiovascular disease can rely on.

Here, we consider some of the trials to help patients make a more informed choice on GLP-1 RAs.

An observed clinical trial published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information analyzed the effectiveness of GLP-1 RA drugs. Titled “GLP-1 Receptor Agonists: A Review of Head-to-Head Clinical Studies,” theparticipants were all parts of the stage III program, which involved an examination of the effectiveness of different GLP-1 RA agonists on them.

The major GLP-1 RAs were tested on patients to see their results on the A1C. The clinical trial result showed that the drugs, in their own right, are incredibly effective against diabetes systems and cardiovascular disease.

Eight head-to-head comparisons were performed with some of the patients taking exenatide once weekly, exenatide twice daily, and other agents such as liraglutide, lixisenatide, dulaglutide, and albiglutide.

The trial results confirmed that all agonist agents of the drugs were highly effective in reducing A1C. Some of them were better at reducing A1C and blood sugar than others. However, they all moved towards the same goal.

The different drugs also showed effectiveness in the area of weight reduction. Patients exposed to the same causative factors outside the drugs all lost weight differently. Those exposed to the same agonist had a similar weight loss trend different from another group of patients that lost weight after using a different GLP-1 RA entirely.

None of the GLP1 RAs used in the trial triggered any type of hypoglycemia or risk that too many diabetes control treatments could cause. A key finding was that patients who usually have acute coronary syndrome didn’t present with as many manifestations as during the observation period.

However, a major difference that the trial presented was how each agent affected other factors of the people in the trial. The rate of weight loss among the patients was quite different in people. Also, the side effects of each GLP-1 RA were different in patients. Notable among these was that aftermath reactions to the drugs were more pronounced in people exposed to the long-acting exenatide weekly than those injected twice daily.

This reaction was believed to be caused by the body not getting used to the administration of the former pattern. The body’s metabolism was forced to change each time following the administration of a new exenatide shot after seven days. The outward reaction of the weekly shot was the formation of small nodules at the skin area where it was administered.

The risk of weekly shots in patients who had to take shots once a week didn’t in any way deter them from continuing treatmenet, as the trend of the clinical trial confirmed. There was more discontinuation of patients in the group that had to take two shots daily, which was a major concern among the researchers. The result gave an idea of how people are likely to react to therapy that involves daily shots of injected agents.

The discontinuation rate of people exposed to two shots daily was almost 10% higher than those who only needed to take exenatide once weekly. Experts believe this figure is likely to be higher for normal treatments than in randomized controlled trials where patients were made aware of their participation.

Another 2021 study titled “GLP-1 Receptor Agonists and Cardiorenal Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes: An Updated Meta-Analysis of Eight CVOTs” focusing on how GLP-1 RAs affect type 2 diabetes and major adverse cardiovascular events gave promising results. People exposed to all forms of GLP-1 RAs were found to enjoy a decreased risk of high blood sugar spikes and myocardial infarction. The major issue with the primary outcome was the inability of some volunteers to complete the entire observation.

Note: CVOTs stand for cardiovascular outcome trials.

Potential Benefits of GLP-1 RA for People With Diabetes

Having examined research’s stance on this group of antidiabetic medications, let’s outline the different means by which they mediate their actions.

Reduces High Blood Sugar

GLP-1 RAs are among the major treatments that reduce blood sugar in advanced diabetes stages. Unlike other drugs and treatments, GLP-1 RAs effectively reduce spikes to the minimum and, if not moderately administered, could even lead to hypoglycemia (unhealthy low blood sugar).

GLP-1 RAs also reduce blood sugar by focusing on the liver. The liver is one of the major organs that release extra blood, and GLP-1 RAs medication slows down the rate at which the liver performs this function in people with diabetes.

Increases the Production of insulin

GLP-1 RAs increase the production of insulin in people with diabetes. Most meal choices usually lead to an increase in insulin, which is especially common at night when the body’s metabolism is at rest. GLP-1 RAs force the pancreas to produce more insulin that combats extra sugar and glucose in the bloodstream.

It is, however, important that diabetics take the medication with caution and not use it with an insulin pump. Doing so could trigger excessively high insulin levels and cause hypoglycemia.

Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

While there’s a need for more research, all indications prove that GLP-1 RAs treatment helps against cardiovascular mortality. Diabetes and cardiovascular death are somewhat related as the latter results from the former and have a high mortality risk.

While many diabetes medications are more effective for controlling blood sugar and do little to help against cardiovascular risk, all GLP-1 RA drugs/medications cause a significant reduction in cardiovascular diseases and improve general cardiovascular safety. Most research indicate that kidney and heart diseases are the major conditions that GLP-1 RAs effectively control.

A randomized placebo-controlled trial also confirms that GLP-1 RAs effectively reduce the risk of heart and chronic kidney disease.

Decreases Appetite for Sugary Foods

This is crucial in controlling diabetes. Excessive consumption of food leads to an increased urge to consume carbohydrates. GLP-1 RAs decrease appetite and subsequently reduce how much carbohydrates people with diabetes consume. This benefit also translates into healthy weight loss.

Examining Interactions: How Safe is the Use of the GLP-1 RA Drug Class With Other Diabetes Drugs?

An important consideration that people with diabetes who depend on drugs must consider is their interaction with each other. It’s not uncommon for diabetics to take different treatments that are unrelated in certain circumstances, leading to a mix that could affect their health positively or negatively.

In most cases, diabetes therapies may combine GLP-1 RAs with other drugs to better people with the condition. The typical first-time treatment recommendation for diabetics is metformin, which focuses on reducing blood sugar spikes to the healthy range. However, if this medication isn’t effective, the next step will be to add GLP-1 RAs to control blood sugar.

Health experts usually recommend patients a GLP-1 RA agent alongside metformin. There are no complications when the two medications are taken. Moreover, since they’re often prescribed together, the chances that GLP-1 RAs will need to be taken alongside another drug are pretty slim.

When GLP-1 RAs aren’t prescribed alongside metformin, certain therapies may combine them with insulin medications. Unfortunately, the odds of GLP-1 RA negatively interacting with insulin medications are quite high. There’s a significantly increased possibility of patients experiencing too much low blood sugar and hypoglycemia. Hence, it’s mostly recommended that patients only take one of either insulin medications or GLP-1 RA agents.

GLP-1 RAs also reduce digestion significantly, one of the main ways to reduce the rate of high glycemic index foods converting to blood glucose and potential spikes. While these effects are great, patients who aren’t well informed may experience a change in their digestive capability and get drugs or medications that aid digestion. This results in the simultaneous use of two medications with contrasting effects.

Due to the possibility of GLP-1 RAs interacting with other drugs, patients should seek medical experts’ recommendations for better health.

Other Ways to Control Your Diabetes Condition

GLP-1 RAs effectively control high blood sugar and cardiovascular diseases like heart complications and kidney failures. These benefits make these medications one of the reliable therapies that people at the beginning and delicate stages of diabetes can trust. However, like most diabetes medications, there’s no doubt that GLP-1 RAs have possible side effects that pose legitimate risks to patients’ health.

Due to the concerns that GLP-1 RAs and other supportive treatments present, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and other health institutions recommend that patients opt for more natural ways to handle their condition.

Here, we’ll now consider different health steps that patients can implement to handle their condition.

Watch Your Carb Intake

When making dietary decisions that’ll help prevent the risk of diabetes, you need to consider the quality and quantity of the carbs you consume. Sugar is absorbed through your bloodstream when the carbs you take are broken down into sugar molecules. This increases blood sugar, stimulating insulin production from the pancreas and promoting the movement of sugar from the bloodstream to the cells.

The body cells of pre-diabetic individuals become insulin-resistant, causing the blood sugar to remain high. To remedy the situation, the pancreas attempts to lower the blood sugar by producing more insulin. Over time, this leads to a high progression of insulin levels and blood sugar until it results in type 2 diabetes.

Many researchers have linked a frequent intake of refined carbs or added sugar to diabetes risk. It’s recommended that you replace the carbs with food that won’t negatively impact your blood sugar but help reduce your diabetic risk. While all sources of carbs, refined carbs, and sugary foods stimulate insulin production, refined carb digests faster than complex carb.

Mixed evidence suggests that blood sugar increase from food is connected with the risk for diabetes. This should prompt you to manage your overall carb consumption and go for carbs that contain more fiber—rather than limiting your carb intake—to help reduce your risk for diabetes.

Some food and drinks containing refined carbs or added sugar are candy, white bread, soda, sweetened cereals used for breakfast, and pasta.

Better alternatives are mushroom and broccoli, non-starchy vegetables, oatmeal, whole-grain bread, and whole fruits. These food options are better as they have a high fiber content to help reduce blood sugar spikes.

Choose fish with lean protein, avocado, and olive oil, which contains healthy fat, seeds, and nuts, as they have less impact on insulin or blood sugar. Notably, they’d be suitable for your diet to reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes.

Increase Your Intake of Vitamin D

To control your blood sugar, you’ll find vitamin D essential. Some studies associate type 2 diabetes with a deficiency in vitamin D and insulin resistance. Others suggest that pre-diabetic people can use vitamin D supplements to improve their blood-sugar management. However, current studies are still trying to discover if taking vitamin D supplements can prevent pre-diabetic from progressing to type 2 diabetes.

Generally, taking an adequate amount of vitamins is essential for good health. You can get vitamin D from cod liver oil, fatty fish, and sun exposure. Some people need to take vitamin D supplements daily to achieve an optimal level. However, before taking any supplement, it’d be best to see the doctor to check your vitamin D levels.

Reduce the Portion Sizes of Food You Eat

Eating food in portion sizes that suit your needs could help to prevent diabetes. Studies indicate that those at risk of diabetes who overeat can increase insulin levels and blood sugar. Conversely, having a smaller portion could result in weight loss as you consume fewer calories, lowering your chances of developing diabetes.

Research in adults who’re obese and have type 2 diabetes shows that eating from a planned meal where the portion sizes are controlled—and the right portion of various healthy foods—resulted in a decrease in body fat and weight loss. However, recommendations for managing and preventing type 2 diabetes endorse controlled portion sizes to help people keep a healthy weight.

When managing the portion sizes of your food, ensure your plate has a few complex carbs, lean protein, and more non-starchy vegetables. If you prefer eating in a restaurant, go for a small portion of an appetizer to avoid large portion servings. When having packaged snacks take out the appropriate portion sizes and eat from a plate.

Final Words & Summary

We can’t overemphasize the effect of GLP-1 RAs in controlling and regulating diabetes. This group of drugs is incredibly effective in people whose diabetes is at the earliest stage and those experiencing serious complications due to a lack of care for their condition in the long run. This guide focuses on the different GLP-1 RAs and highlights expert sources that prove their effectiveness in helping patients recover. The respective result showed that GLP-1 RAs are crucial in protecting people’s health and ensuring they live as normally as possible.

However, GLP-1 RAs also have some side effects that patients who use them as support treatment must be wary of. As such, dependency on drugs alone isn’t exactly a good decision in the long term. The best way to use the treatment for the best benefit is to couple it with other natural healthy life practices like proper exercising and conscious effort to eat the right meals.

As was emphasized throughout this guide, it’s obvious that food choices play a critical role in blood sugar spikes. Therefore, it’s essential that the first step people struggling with diabetes and its related complications need to implement is to cut down on unhealthy options.

Many online resources help people with diabetes stay disciplined against unhealthy foods by giving them top-notch alternatives that don’t put their blood sugar spikes at risk. Diabetes management meal apps are among the top options that people with diabetes can trust to help them control and regulate their condition.

Our Klinio app is an incredibly trustworthy resource for people with diabetes as it helps them make the right meal choices to better their health. Our team of experts regularly updates the app’s resources and diet portfolio, which comprises the best and most recent meals confirmed to be extremely healthy for people struggling with diabetes. So, if you battle diabetes and want to effectively avoid further deterioration of your health, the Klinio app is for you.

Diabetes is one of the conditions that experts and various health institutions have recommended different ways to tackle. The condition is among the most popular chronic diseases with a high mortality rate. According to top health institutions like the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 20 million Americans have the condition. This staggering stat justifies the continuous sensitization to help people know how to prevent and control the condition.

The major factors that experts try to control are those that people with the condition can avoid or take proactive steps towards for better health security. For example, dieting is one of the steps recommended for people with diabetes to help prevent the worsening of the condition and live healthier.

However, while one can control most factors that increase the risk and complication of the disease, one is generally uncontrollable — genes. Experts believe it plays a significant role in causing the condition.

Genetics isn’t just believed to be one of the many diabetes risk factors; it’s considered the main reason for diabetes in most people. Many studies back the stance that diabetes is genetic, with people who already have affected family members having a higher risk of getting it.

This guide deeply highlights the role of genes in diabetes development and tips that genetically disadvantaged people with the condition can do to manage their health better.

Diabetes and Genetics: A Broad Overview

Diabetes is an autoimmune disease that’s significantly dangerous to health and even life. It’s often recommended that people who suffer from the condition adopt healthy life practices that help control their condition.

Experts believe that the vast number of persons with undiagnosed diabetes in the United States are those who’re genetically compromised. A large proportion of these people don’t know they have a serious diabetes disease risk. In fact, it’s often until the disease becomes worse and negatively affects their health and life before they become aware that something isn’t right.

However, while studies have good proof that diabetes is genetic, the situation isn’t entirely black and white. First, the reality is that most people that have the condition are naturally genetically compromised. “Compromise” here doesn’t mean that people having a genetic diabetes risk have bad or non-sustainable genes. Rather, it pinpoints that they have diabetes-inclined genes that could trigger the condition when other factors come into play.

Many observations have shown that not everybody with genetic vulnerability will have diabetes. There are records of many genetically vulnerable people due to inherited compromised genes who’ve never had diabetes. Observed studies have shown that those with diabetes typically suffer from more than genetic factors. Other factors, including environmental, diet, and lifestyle factors, are the major triggers of the condition in people with a genetic vulnerability.

Experts in large-scale association analysis studies performed by top government institutions like the ADA and CDC prove that inheritability is nothing more than a genetic contribution that would never lead to diabetes on its own. Several risk factors have to be present in a person with a genetic predisposition to the disease for them to have diabetes. Most people who develop diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes, are affected by genetic and lifestyle factors. Summarily, it’s somewhat difficult for a person without any genetic predisposition for diabetes to develop the condition.

The topic of genetic roles in having diabetes is pretty extensive. A person who inherits a risk for the condition usually has at least one gene mutation. The condition only develops if there are more mutations of the genes, and this is only possible with unhealthy behavioral patterns.

This pattern usually includes poor dieting, especially excessive consumption of sugar-concentrated foods. Also, lack of exercise and a heightened intake of carbonated drinks escalate gene mutations.

People who suffer from high gene mutation will develop the disease and also pass their altered genes to their offspring. This phenomenon has been proven through different studies suggesting that the latter cycle of offspring from a family of diabetes has a higher risk of developing the condition than earlier offspring. The reason isn’t far-fetched — offspring from the latter set usually have more altered genes than those birthed years back. The trend—which is of clinical relevance—outlines how much behavioral factors increase the risk of diabetes in people who already have a genetic predisposition.

Research and Experts’ Take on the Role of Genetics in Diabetes

Many studies and experts alike outline how genes play a major role in increasing the risk of diabetes in people

Monica Alvaro, a licensed genetic counselor, and the regional administrator for genetic services in Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, California, explains how people develop diabetes. She stated that most people who have diabetes are usually susceptible to genetic and environmental factors.

Monica Alvaro speaking more on type 2 diabetes and genetics, said the influence of family history increases the risk of people having type 2 diabetes more than other types of diabetes. She asserts that the increased risk is because people with type 2 diabetes also have family members with risk factors like obesity.

A 2013 research on how genetics influence type 2 diabetes proves that people can inherit the disease from one of their parents, both parents, or a first-degree relative. Here’s an outline of how this plays out in each case:

One Parent: In this case, a person who has a parent with type 2 diabetes has a 40% lifetime risk for the disease.
Both Parents: A person whose both parents have type 2 diabetes has a 70% risk of having the disease.
First-Degree Relative: As people, we share 50% of our genes with a first-degree relative. The research suggests that you are three times at risk of developing the disease if you have a first-degree relative with type 2 diabetes.

The main study that explicitly proves how much role genetics play is twin studies. Twin research on diabetes is among the most popular proof that the condition is connected to genetics. The study featured almost 35,000 pairs of twins from different countries to study the progression of type 2 diabetes while ensuring randomness. The countries involved in the study were Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Australia.

The study aims to identify if twins that share the same ancestry with diabetes are more likely to have altered genes than those who don’t share such ancestry. The research’s second focus was to study monozygotic twin pairs and share ancestry with people with altered diabetes genes against those that share the same ancestry but aren’t monozygotic. Of the total twin sets, 13,970 twin pairs were monozygotic with type 2 diabetes risk.

The result of the research showed that of all the twins with type 2 diabetes genetic risk, monozygotic twins were more likely to develop the condition than fraternal twins. This result confirmed that the more similar twins’ genes are, the more likely they both are to develop diabetes if they inherited their ancestry’s risk of the disease. In other words, the result confirms that diabetes is genetic.

Also, the result reinforced the claim that twin pairs that have ancestors with diabetes are more likely to develop the condition compared to those whose ancestors don’t have diabetes.

While both results show that diabetes is truly genetic, it’s important to note that the result of the research was complex due to the environmental factors that also play a contributing role in diabetes development and respective complications.

The subsequent sections outline how much genetics influence diabetes and the role of other lifestyle factors in causing more gene alterations.

Identifying the Genes

As stated in the above section, diabetes is more paramount in families with a history of the condition. It’s also confirmed that other factors like lifestyle, environment, and diet help it become active in patients with genetic predispositions.

There are major genes responsible for the inheritance of diabetes traits from one’s ancestors or immediate parents. Experts confirm that several gene mutations affect the risk of type 2 diabetes. Although the input of each gene is relatively small, additional mutations—mostly occurring in potential diabetics—usually trigger the condition or its risk.

According to expert studies, mutations in the gene connected to maintaining sugar levels can increase your chances of having type 2 diabetes. This revelation shows how much the diet choice of a person already exposed to diabetes risk can activate the condition. The major genes responsible for inherited diabetes include:

Genes responsible for the production and management of insulin
Genes responsible for producing glucose
Genes responsible for how the body recognizes glucose levels

The specific genes that studies have been able to connect with the risk of diabetes include the following:

TCF7L2

The TCF7L2 is the gene that influences the production of glucose and insulin secretion.

CAPN10

This gene is connected to the risk of type 2 diabetes in Mexican Americans.

ABCC8

The ABCC8 gene helps manage insulin.

GCGR

The GCGR is a glucagon hormone that helps in the regulation of glucose.

GLUT2

This gene helps the movement of glucose to the pancreas.

HNF4A

This gene manages glucose in the pancreas and liver.

KCNJ11

This is the gene responsible for the activation of insulin release and is meant for potassium passage.

PIK3R1

The PIK3R1 gene plays a vital role in the signaling of insulin.

PPARG

This is the gene that helps manage the differentiation of fat cells.

LPL

The LPL is a water-soluble enzyme known as the lipoprotein lipase and is responsible for breaking down fat (triglycerides).

Ethnicity and Diabetes: How Do Social Groups Influence the Condition?

One of the major areas of genetics is ethnicity. This particular metric is much bigger than the role of ancestry as it gives a broad view and better explanation of why certain individuals are more predisposed to diabetes than others. Ethnicity considerations usually focus on people from certain races and regions and their interaction with diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes affects people over 45 years and is found in 92–95% of people who have diabetes. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) suggests that being obese or overweight is a significant risk that exposes people to the disease. However, people from various ethnic groups can also be at risk of the illness if the measurement of their body weight—the body mass index—sits at 25 or more.

For example, people from the Pacific Islands, known as the Pacific Islanders, are at risk of type 2 diabetes if their body mass index is 26 or more. Similarly, Asian Americans are exposed to the condition if their body mass index is 23 or more.

There are other ethnic groups who—despite not being obese—are known to have a high risk for type 2 diabetes. This group includes the American Indians, Alaska Natives, Latinos, Hispanics, and Native Hawaiians.

The following tables offer a comprehensive look into how ethnicity influences the risk of diabetes among Americans:

Type of Diabetes	Ethnic Groups at Risk
Type 1 diabetes	African American & Hispanic/Latino American
Type 2 diabetes	African American, American Indian, Alaska Native and Hispanic/Latino American
Prediabetes	American Indian, African American, Alaska Native, Hispanic/Latino American
Gestational diabetes	American Indian, African American, Hispanic/Latino American, Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native, and Pacific Islander

Table 1: Different American ethnics groups and their risk of diabetes

Ethnic Group	Rate of Diagnosed Diabetes (%)
Non-Hispanic whites	7.5
Asian Americans	9.2
Overall Hispanic Americans	12.5
Non-Hispanic Blacks	11.7
Native Alaskans	14.7
Native Americans	33

Table 2: The rate of diagnosed diabetes in different American ethnic adults from 20 and above.

The Environment: A Major Factor That Triggers the Condition in People With Possible Genetic Compromise

Epigenetics processes occur when one’s genes connect with their environment to either allow their genes to be in control or not. This process plays a vital role in the risk for type 2 diabetes. While epigenetic changes can’t alter the DNA sequence, they influence the expression of the genes.

However, environmental factors like infection, exercise, and diet can also cause an epigenetic change. A 2020 paper shows that dietary fiber and carbohydrates can alter genes and cause serious mutations that increase type 2 diabetes.

The role of the environment in diabetes is highly important and has just as much influence as genetics. People who successfully manage their external factors are often safe from developing diabetes and will live a healthy normal life. On the other hand, people who don’t pay any real attention to dieting are more likely to experience serious issues with their health and could develop diabetes fully.

Certain environmental factors pose serious risks to people already genetically compromised, and it’s critical to know them to help implement healthy practices. Some of the major environmental risk factors you should be concerned about include the following:

Having incredibly poor eating habits and patterns
Being 45 years or older
Being overweight
Not being significantly physically active and not dedicating up to 3 times a week performing moderate to intense cardio
Not having a sufficient HDL (“good” cholesterol) and yet having high triglycerides
Not regularly visiting a doctor due to a perceived belief that you’re not ill. Males are much more often in this category as research indicates they’re less likely to visit a hospital to check up on their health status
Having depression episodes often
Being diagnosed with any heart disease, stroke or cardiovascular disease

All of the above conditions can single-handedly activate diabetes in people struggling with the condition due to their genes, ancestry or ethnicity.

The ADA’s Stance on Diabetes

Like many national institutes of health and diabetes, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) confirms that diabetes is indeed genetic. The organization asserts that people can inherit genes for the two types of diabetes.

However, they’re majorly docile and will only become a concern if other environmental factors cause more mutations. The organization outlines the importance of environmental factors contributing to the genetic condition by confirming that most twins are likely to have it with the probability of being three out of four. The high rate of twins getting the condition is mainly because of their genetic similarity and partly because they’re mostly exposed to the same environmental factors.

Due to the significant effect of environmental factors on diabetes, the ADA focuses on providing the general American public with tips and expert recommendations on how they can live more healthily. These tips majorly focus on deliberate personal decisions that one can make without the help of a physician.

The organization recommends diet adjustment and insulin therapy for those who already have the condition. Exercise is another major preventive and control measure that the health organization recommends for people at risk of getting the disease or experiencing further complications.

The ADA generally recommends safe and DIY methods for patients. However, there’s a serious emphasis on diagnoses if a person notices symptoms and signs that are somewhat common with diabetes. The body also recommends expert help in an event where self-applied control has become more difficult.

Expert help could be from an endocrinologist, enabling people at risk of the condition to apply the most effective treatments and methods of controlling the disease. The organization also recommends “support groups” for patients at risk or who already have diabetes. These groups usually comprise people with similar conditions pursuing a similar goal of living healthier and restricting the effect of diabetes in their life.

The Different Genetic Tests for Type 2 Diabetes

While it’s impossible to fix your genes if they’re genetically compromised, you can take certain steps to reduce their likelihood of causing diabetes. Most of the above sections have considered steps that people can take to reduce the effect of their genes in causing the condition. However, the first step one should take is to perform a test.

The best way to know whether you’re genetically vulnerable to diabetes is to perform certain tests that can predict and give you a better idea of your condition. Several tests can help people identify if they’re genetically compromised, and they include the following:

Genetic Test (Ancestry Test)

This test focuses on your family history and provides information on whether you have diabetes genes based on your ancestral tree. It’s among the most reliable predictors for patients with ethnic vulnerability.

Body Mass Index (BMI) Test

The BMI test provides information on whether you’re obese or have a healthy weight. This particular measurement calculates your weight with respect to your height.

High Blood Pressure Test

If you consistently test for high blood pressure, you’re extremely likely to be genetically vulnerable to diabetes.

The above tests can help a person know whether they’re genetically compromised or not. In addition, women who continually experience gestational diabetes during pregnancy and birth are usually also genetically vulnerable.

Tips to Prevent Diabetes

The relationship between the environment and genetics makes it challenging to determine the cause of type 2 diabetes. However, that doesn’t stop you from minimizing your risk by adjusting your habits and lifestyle.

A randomized clinical experiment from the Diabetes Intervention Accentuating Diet and Enhancing Metabolism in 2020 for people with type 2 diabetes shows that increased physical activity and weight loss can reverse or prevent type 2 diabetes.

The blood sugar level of some of the participants returned to normal, while others had diabetes remission. Other researchers have also discovered a similar result.

In light of these, the following tips can help you modify your lifestyle to lower your risk for type 2 diabetes, despite being genetically predisposed.

1. Create an exercise program.

Gradually include physical activity in your everyday routine. For example, you can choose to walk into your office building by parking your car far away or use the stairs to avoid the elevators. You can also choose to walk while going to the grocer or when going for lunch.

With time, you can include various cardiovascular activities and lightweight training into your weekly routine. For starters, you can begin your daily exercise with just 30 minutes.

However, seek your doctor’s opinion before deciding on your exercise routine. That’ll help you choose a plan that suits your needs and capacity, enabling you to derive the most health benefits from it while you exercise safely.

2. Eat meals based on planned resource meals.

The easiest way to live a life void of diabetes is to cook your food while choosing the nutrients you need the most.

Create a meal plan for every week that comprises dishes for each meal. Restock the necessary grocery items you need and arrange or prepare some of the ingredients before time to make everything easier for you. Start the process by planning toward your weekly breakfast or lunch, and when you get comfortable enough, add other meal plans.

You can use different help resources to create a diabetes-friendly meal plan. One of the popular and proven help resources is diabetes meal planning apps. A diabetes meal planner is an expert app that provides people who have diabetes or have a genetic risk of developing the condition to eat the right meals.

A good meal planning app suggests the best foods people with diabetes should eat and when to have them. Many experts consider these apps just as effective as the dietitian’s recommendation.

3. Go for nutritious snacks.

Choose snack options that can help fuel your body and increase your energy levels. The following are nutrient-dense and easy-to-eat types of snacks to try:

Apples, clementines, pears, and other fruits
Hummus, cucumber, and carrot sticks

Here are other handy tips on healthy snacks:

Eat different nuts and pay attention to the serving size
Eat cheese and whole-grain crackers
Go for air-popped popcorn without adding lots of butter, sugar, or salt

4. Choose water instead of sugary beverages.

Drinking water instead of beverages would help limit your sugar intake. This is particularly true as sugary fruit juice and sweetened drinks are often associated with a heightened risk of latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) and type 2 diabetes. Research on 2,800 people discovered that participants who took more than two servings of sweetened beverages every day have a 20% chance of having type 2 diabetes and a 99% chance of having LADA.

Another research found that one serving of sweetened drinks every day could increase a person’s chance of having type 2 diabetes. This proves that more intake of water results in better insulin response and blood sugar control.

Furthermore, a 24-week experimental study found that overweight adults who use water in place of diet soda in their weight loss plan experienced a reduction in fasting blood sugar, insulin levels, and insulin resistance.

5. Avoid smoking.

Smoking has contributed to detrimental health conditions like intestinal and lung cancers, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Research has suggested smoking causes type 2 diabetes. Although the methods or process of this research aren’t fully understood, smoking is perceived to inhibit insulin secretion and increase insulin resistance.

Suffice to say, smoking heavily and more frequently increases the risk of having diabetes. Other critical research has shown that quitting smoking would decrease the risk of having diabetes.

6. Start a weight loss program.

Having excess weight could increase your chances of having type 2 diabetes. Excess weight such as visceral fat found around the abdominal organs and the midsection is associated with inflammation, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and insulin resistance.

Losing a small amount of weight, like 5–7%, could reduce your risk of having type 2 diabetes if you’re obese, overweight, or have prediabetes. Two years of research in over 1,000 people prove that dieting, weight loss plan, and exercise significantly lower the risk of having type 2 diabetes by 42–47% compared to participants in a control group.

There are several effective weight loss strategies. A great way to start is by having a balanced dish with lean proteins, healthy fat, non-starchy vegetables, and complex carbs.

Departing Words and Summary

Diabetes is genetic, and most people with the disease are those who inherit altered genes. The condition is often triggered in most people when other lifestyle factors exacerbate their genetic vulnerability to cause more altered genes. Realistically, some people with genetic compromise won’t have the disease if they manage other parts of their lives well. As such, it’s critical to consider other factors—apart from genetics— for proper prevention or management of the condition.

This comprehensive guide highlights several lifestyle factors that require proper management to reduce the impact of the genetic factor. Some of these factors include incorporating healthy exercise habits and proper dieting. These two factors are majorly responsible for the activation or prevention of diabetes in people already genetically compromised.

Unhealthy dieting, especially, is the major risk factor—after genetics—that causes diabetes. The types of foods you eat determine how much blood sugar rises or falls. This justifies why health experts and endocrinologists emphasize proper eating.

If you’ve performed a series of genetic analyses and are confirmed to be genetically vulnerable to diabetes, eating poorly will only lead to a higher risk of developing the disease. It’s essential that you meet a dietitian to help you choose the right food that works with your system for the best effect.

Alternatively, you can opt for a diabetes management meal app to get the best foods that work well for you. Our Klinio app is among the major apps you can trust for diabetes-friendly foods. Notably, the foods listed in our diet portfolio are regularly updated and are incredibly healthy for people who want to control the risk of poor dieting for diabetes. They’re also compatible with people managing their insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and seeking to avoid further complications.

Living with diabetes means that you have to follow a diabetic eating plan to keep blood sugar levels in control. This doesn’t mean you can’t eat your favorite foods; you just have to manage your portions and choose healthier versions of your usual recipes. Meal planning and preparation don’t have to be hard, and the process is much simpler when you have some example recipes in mind. Below are some diabetic side dish recipes to try today to spice up your meals.

Diabetes Eating Guidelines

Before jumping into recipes for the perfect side dish, it’s important to remember diabetes eating guidelines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides the following recommendations for eating when you have a diabetes diagnosis:

Include plenty of non-starchy vegetables in your diet, including broccoli, spinach, and carrots. One-half of your plate should include non-starchy veggies when you eat any sort of meal.
Eat a diet consisting of mostly whole foods rather than processed varieties.
Limit refined carbohydrates, like white bread, white rice, and white pasta.
Choose whole fruit instead of fruit juice since fruit juice raises blood sugar levels quickly.
Choose lean protein sources like chicken, turkey, and beans, which should fill one-quarter of your plate at meal times.

It’s important to keep these guidelines in mind when choosing a recipe for a diabetes side dish, as eating in this way will help you manage blood sugar levels. Remember that portion sizes still matter, even with the healthiest side dish, as portion control is also an important part of a diabetes-friendly eating plan.

Primary Considerations for Side Dish Recipes

Given the eating guidelines above, healthy recipes for side dishes typically include plenty of veggies. If you’re looking for some basic diabetic side dishes to help you stick to eating healthy, consider pairing a lean protein source like grilled chicken, ham, or pork with an easy vegetable as your side dish. A meal of chicken and veggies is chock full of nutrients, and it won’t make your blood sugar levels skyrocket.

Below are some simple vegetable side dish options:

Butternut squash
Brussels sprouts
Asparagus
Green beans
Other colorful veggies like carrots, peppers, and sweet potatoes.

You can add some flavor to an easy vegetable side dish by using one or more of the following when cooking or preparing:

Fresh herbs
Balsamic vinegar
Lemon juice
Garlic
Parsley.

The above will add nice flavor without additional calories or sugar, making them great side dish options. You might also add a bit of parmesan cheese or goat cheese to veggies to make an easy side that is nutritious, creamy, and full of good flavors. Just be sure not to go overboard with cheeses since they can add calories and fat. Sticking to one serving size is usually your best option.

Specific Side Dish Recipes

The general ideas above are helpful if you’re interested in diabetic side dish recipes, but it’s beneficial to have an idea of specific diabetes-friendly recipes to try. When you’re in a pinch, go with a tossed salad. Throw together spinach, cherry tomatoes, chopped carrots, and a diabetes-approved dressing like olive oil and vinegar or a low-sugar variety from the store, and you’ll have a simple side dish to serve with dinner.

For special occasions or when you want to throw together something a little more exciting, consider the favorite recipes for side dishes below.

Garlic Green Beans

This simple side dish recipe takes green beans and spices them up a little.

First, gather the following ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup sweet onion
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
3 minced garlic cloves
Lemon pepper seasoning to taste

Two 16-ounce packages of frozen, French-style green beans.

Use the following steps to prepare:

Heat oil at a medium temperature in a Dutch oven.
Add onion and cook while stirring until tender.
Add tomatoes, garlic, and lemon pepper, and cook for two more minutes.
Stir in green beans and cook while covered for 7-9 minutes, occasionally stirring.

Uncover and cook for 2-3 more minutes, or until liquid is nearly evaporated.

Confetti Quinoa

For this simple recipe, you’ll need the following ingredients:

2 cups water
1 cup rinsed quinoa
1/2 cup chopped broccoli
1/2 cup chopped zucchini
1/3 cup shredded carrots
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil

Prepare using these simple steps:

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan, and then add quinoa, broccoli, zucchini, carrots, and salt.
Reduce heat and simmer. Cook covered for about 12-15 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed.
Stir in lemon juice and oil, and remove from heat.
Fluff the mixture with a fork, and you’re ready to serve!

Cajun Grilled Eggplant

For those who want something with a little spice, this top-rated dish is delicious and still suitable for those with diabetes. Pair it with grilled chicken breast for a summer picnic at the park.

You’ll just need four ingredients for this diabetes-friendly side dish:

2 small eggplants
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
3 teaspoons Cajun seasoning

Take your ingredients and follow these simple steps to make:

Cut the eggplants into 1/2 inch slices.
Brush each slice with oil and drizzle the lime juice on top.
Sprinkle Cajun seasoning on and let sit for 5 minutes.
Grill the eggplant on medium heat for about 4 to 5 minutes per side. Eggplant is ready when tender.

Corn and Beans

This simple side pairs nicely with a Mexican dish like chicken fajitas.

You’ll need the following ingredients to prepare:

1 chopped onion
1 green pepper, cut into 1-inch slices
1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and sliced
1 minced garlic clove
1 tablespoon olive oil
Two 16-ounce cans of kidney beans
One 16-ounce package of frozen corn
1 can of diced tomatoes (do not drain)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Prepare the recipe with these steps:

Sauté the onion and peppers in oil, using a large skillet.
Add garlic and cook for one additional minute.
Stir in beans, corn, tomatoes, and spices (chili powder, salt, ground cumin, and pepper).
Cover and cook on low heat for 3-4 hours.
Remove from heat, and then top with fat-free sour cream to add some flavor.

Syrian Potatoes

According to nutrition facts, this tasty side dish has just 160 calories and 23 carbs per 3/4 cup serving, making it diabetes-friendly if you’re looking for simple side dish recipes.

You’ll need these ingredients below:

1 bunch of chopped fresh cilantro
1 minced garlic clove
1/4 cup olive oil
3 pounds of potatoes
Salt to taste

Once you have these ingredients ready, prepare the potatoes using these steps:

Peel the potatoes and chop them into small cubes.
Get a large cast iron skillet, and cook the garlic and cilantro in oil on medium heat for one minute.
Add the potatoes and cook while stirring for 20-25 minutes. The potatoes are done when they are tender and slightly browned.
Drain the potatoes and sprinkle with salt.

Roasted Broccoli with Parmesan Cheese

Rounding out our list of healthy recipes is this delicious yet diabetes-friendly dish. Not only will this nutritious pick be full of flavor, but it will also be simple to make.

Grab the following ingredients:

2 small crowns of broccoli
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 thinly sliced garlic cloves
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Make the broccoli with the following steps:

Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C).
Cut broccoli into quarters and drizzle with oil.
Sprinkle the broccoli with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
Place in a one-inch deep pan lined with parchment paper.
Roast for 10-12 minutes, add garlic on top, and roast for another 5 minutes.
Add parmesan cheese and roast for 2-4 more minutes.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle lemon zest on top.

The Bottom Line on Diabetes-Friendly Side Dishes

You don’t have to cut out your favorite foods to stick to your diabetes diet or consume boring foods without any special flavors. With the easy side dish recipes here, you can enjoy meals you love while controlling blood sugar levels.

The recipes here are delicious and appropriate for the holiday season when you have friends and family to celebrate and share a meal. Chances are that no one will even recognize that you’ve made diabetes-friendly dishes since the recipes chosen here are so full of flavor.

If you need to change up your routine with new side dishes, keep in mind that, as a general rule, vegetables are always a good choice, especially when seasoned with low or no-calorie ingredients like lemon juice or herbs. You can find additional side dish recipes in diabetes cookbooks, which usually have a range of recipes to suit everyone. You may even be able to find healthy pasta recipes in a diabetes cookbook!

If you have recently been diagnosed with diabetes, the first thing you should do is sit down, take a breath and relax! Getting a diagnosis like that can be a shock to the system, even if you have been experiencing many of the classic symptoms for longer than you might like to admit.

The first thing to remember after the shock is that diabetes, both types in fact, are very manageable with the right kind of diabetes treatment plan. Even though diabetes is not curable (at this time) it is totally manageable. If you can attach yourself to a good health care team, then there is very little reason why you can’t live a normal life and enjoy most of the normal things that everybody else enjoys.

Take time to understand your condition. Listen to your doctor who will explain the relevance of insulin and blood sugar levels for Type I Diabetes and the reasons why you have developed Type 2 Diabetes. Your doctor will also talk to you about a treatment plan including any medications you might require and any lifestyle changes you will be encouraged to make.

Of course, diabetes care is all about making sure that you maintain good blood sugar levels, insulin levels and good blood pressure, keeping a healthy weight for type 2 sufferers and overall attempting to prevent things like heart disease, nerve damage and other complications of the disease by managing the risks.

Getting all of this information in one go can be overwhelming at the start of a diabetes diagnosis, but we promise that once you have a diabetes treatment plan in place, you will have the support that you need in order to succeed and keep your blood sugar at the desired levels. Physical health and mental health both play a part.

Here are some of the best health tips for diabetes management, as recommended and approved by the American Diabetes Association.

Commit To Healthy Eating

If you have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, then this means that the problems with your blood sugar, blood glucose and blood vessels are predominantly to do with poor diet and health choices that you have made in your lifestyle. People who are overweight/obese and maintain poor diets are extremely likely to develop diabetes as they age, but the negative impact on your blood sugar level can be reversed if you make a commitment to start eating healthier.

Patients who are newly diagnosed with diabetes and are starting out at an obese level will need to begin with a classic calorie deficit intake to lose weight. Along with eating less food, you also need to focus on eating foods that are more nutritionally beneficial than what you have been eating to get to your elevated size.

Getting a healthy body when you have diabetes is not just checking food ingredient labels for sugar, glucose or the many industrial sugar equivalents used by the food industry. A good balanced, nutritious and healthy diet of the right food is needed.

Lots of leafy green vegetables are important, as are fruits that don’t contain too high amounts of natural sugar.

Lots of proteins like beans, nuts, pulses, fish, eggs and lean meats/poultry will help to keep you feeling fuller for longer, and good carbohydrates like brown rice, brown bread and whole grains pasta should be the basis of most of the meals in general for anyone with diabetes. Diabetes patients should absolutely avoid processed foods as they contain too much fat, salt and sugar and especially avoid white carbohydrates – white rice white bread, white pasta etc.

Obviously, with diabetes being primarily a problem with the way in which your body handles glucose and sugar, you need to stay away from foods that are too high in that particular department. Unfortunately, this generally means avoiding all the favorite things we love to eat like chocolate, candy and junk foods.

It can be really productive if you sit down at the start of every week and write out a diabetes meal plan to follow. This ensures that you always know what you will eat on any given day. You can easier manage your blood sugar if you preplan your meals. A menu will also keep you on track not to eat too much or to have more than one drink of alcohol per night. Whenever you can drink water over anything else! You need to keep pressure off your kidneys by taking in a good quantity of fluids every day and good old fashioned water is best.

A balanced, nutritional diet will also help you to have the energy you need for the next health tip.

Keep To A Regular Exercise Routine

Alongside a healthy diet, any good health care team are also going to suggest regular physical activity to make your body even healthier. Living a sedentary lifestyle (a lifestyle in which you partake in no physical activity at all) is not recommended when you have diabetes.

One of the best ways of managing diabetes along with all of the relevant diabetes medications is good exercise. Anything that gets your heart rate up and your blood pumping is good, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be really intensive.

Someone with diabetes who is only just starting out on an exercise regime can do things like walking, swimming and yoga. Any type of exercise that is low on the ‘impact’ scale can still be effective when it comes to diabetes management.

The healthier you can be thanks to regular physical activity, the less likely you are to suffer from further health complications outside of your diabetes. Being fit and healthy in all other areas means that you are able to focus on particular disease control and diabetes care, and this is valid no matter what type of diabetes you have from type 1 to type 2 to gestational diabetes. Of course, gestational diabetes disappears after you have given birth, but you still need to take care of your blood sugar and follow the advice of your health care professional while you have it.

Stop Smoking

There is absolutely no doubt that smoking is one of the worst habits you can have when you are a sufferer of diabetes. People who smoke are actually 40 per cent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people who don’t, and for those who have already been diagnosed, it has been proven that smoking makes it very hard for your body to manage your diabetes.

Smoking can have a very negative impact on how well your body is able to regulate your insulin levels, as nicotine has been proven to lessen the effectiveness of insulin. What this means is that smokers need even more insulin to help regulate their blood sugar levels, and when you are already battling diabetes, this becomes a near-impossible task!

One of the best things you can do to keep your blood sugar at an acceptable level and not allow the harmful chemicals in nicotine to interfere with your medications is to give up cigarettes. Not to mention, outside of diabetes management, smoking is one of the leading causes of so many other health problems that at this point in the 21st century, giving up is one of the best forms of disease prevention that you can do.

Try To Avoid Unnecessary Stress

Alongside all of the medical care that you will receive for things like low blood sugar and varied blood pressure, another way that you can help to keep your diabetes under control is by eliminating all threats of unnecessary stress in your life.

The more stress a person has to deal with, the higher their blood pressure, in general, is going to be, and high blood pressure is not something that you want to have to deal with when you are also trying to control your blood sugar levels.

Things like deep breathing and mindfulness can be very helpful when trying to manage stress, and these more holistic inclusions in your treatment plan can be just as beneficial as medicines to a certain extent.

There are many resources to help you manage stress, diabetes or not. As well as an encyclopedia of tips on the internet, your doctor or health professional may point you to local support groups.

Final Thoughts

Living with diabetes is definitely something that takes extra care and attention, but with the right diabetes care team in place, there is no reason that you can’t be a healthy and important member in your own life!

Help your blood sugar, insulin production and manage your diabetes through common sense life changes like a better diet with more fiber, more whole grains and less processed sugar. Start an exercise regime that will help you to keep your overall body healthy and a good weight for diabetes prevention. Give up bad habits like smoking and drinking too much alcohol, and try to eliminate as much undue stress as possible.

Type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes are the three main types of diabetes that you will come across, and though they have the potential to affect men and women in different ways, you can still treat them with the solid tips that have been listed above.

The more education you can have on how to control your blood sugar levels, what food to eat, what exercise to do, what other complications to treat, what resources to find and what to consult on with your doctor, the more successfully you will be able to fight your diabetes with your health care team.

When it comes to treating diabetes, many suggestions and recommendations are available online, including those that are indeed helpful and aren’t. This explosive number is significantly attributed to the consistent and steady growth of the condition despite the different efforts to control it.

For some patients, the usual complaint is that most of the supposed recommendations don’t work the wonders they expect and that their blood sugar levels consistently remain in the risk range.

The reality is that most supposed diabetes medications don’t bring the expected results due to improper prescription or poor adherence. Type 2 diabetes—the more common condition among US adults—can only improve if appropriately managed with effective and simple proven diabetes hacks. These hacks are known to work wonders on people with high blood sugars.

This guide outlines these diabetes hacks and how they help patients make better choices.

Treating Diabetics: What You Need to Know

For most people, treating diabetes means implementing everything they hear or see on the internet. Many patients erroneously choose the advice of non-professionals over that of endocrinologists and diabetes health experts due to a misplaced belief that the former have a better idea of how to tackle blood glucose spikes.

The reality, however, is that no two diabetes patients are the same. Moreover, that someone struggling with high blood sugar could recover by following certain rules doesn’t mean the same will work for you. You still need the direct help of a health professional to get the right treatment for your condition.

The next section reveals important steps designed to help you reverse your diabetes risk and ensure a completely changed blood sugar level. The aim is to ensure that your pancreas produces as much insulin as possible and that your body maximizes all of them.

A Look Into the Top 5 Diabetes Hacks

As already stated, there are certain steps that people can take to improve their health and feel better. Top professionals and endocrinologists confirm that these hacks help regulate blood sugar levels. More importantly, these hacks or steps aren’t difficult to implement and only require your deliberate commitment to derive their benefits.

However, it’s important to note that you need to follow these hacks moderately. Generally, it’s advisable to seek the assistance or consultation of a health professional due to their vast understanding of how each step works. That will help you preclude the danger of slipping into a low blood sugar condition.

Health professionals are generally well-grounded in their profession with several research experiences and can help you get the best benefits when accessing the appropriate treatments for your condition. That said, below are the 5 different hacks for diabetes you should try today.

Use A Diabetics Meal App

Irrespective of the health professional offering you blood sugar control advice, one of the major common grounds they all agree on is that “meal choice plays a crucial role in having a successful regulated sugar.” Implementing other diabetes control hacks and paying little caution to the kind of food you eat won’t leave you with many happy results. This underscores the need to meet with a dietitian on the best food choice to go for.

The major suggestion that you’ll get from most dietitians and online resources is to avoid carbohydrate-dense food as much as possible. However, this claim isn’t entirely right. Here’s why.

Firstly, the body needs carbs as the primary energy source, and totally substituting will lead to overstuffing other nutrients like fats and protein, which can also have side effects. Rather, you should go for “healthy or good carbs.” These types of carbohydrates don’t have a high glycemic index and can help people better regulate their blood sugar.

Fiber is one of the best carbs that people who have diabetes can eat due to its effectiveness in stabilizing blood sugar and reducing diabetes risk. Also, other whole carbs have considerably little sugar content and can serve as a better alternative to the more popular sugary carbs. For example, coconut sugar is a better alternative to white table sugar, and this is the same with brown rice over white rice.

While it’s essential to consult a dietitian to help you sort out the food that’ll work for you, you could also use a diabetes meal management app for better results. With a diabetic meal app like Klinio, you’ll get the right foods that work well with your body and blood sugar right from your mobile device. The best diabetic meal apps are regularly updated with the most diabetic-friendly foods to help you deal with blood sugar.

Self-Testing

It’s crucial to be able to perform a simple diabetes test all by yourself if you want to make headway on your condition. While you can get tested in a specialist care center, it may not always be convenient. In these instances, having the popular diabetes glucose monitors used to monitor blood sugar spikes will help you test your blood sugar at your convenience, allowing you to maintain it better.

Using a continuous glucose monitor can be quite helpful, and the good thing is that it’s relatively easy to use. Generally, you only need a drop of blood for the meter to read your blood glucose level. The result lets you know exactly how many calories you need to cut off or the level of physical activity you need to attain to ensure optimal blood glucose levels.

There are many ways to get a blood glucose meter and determine how much insulin sensitivity your body allows. You can often get one from a health specialist or a referred order given by your doctor or health professional.

Track Carbs

A key step you can take to handle your condition is to track your amount of consumed carbs. Carbs are apparently the major culprits responsible for high blood glucose, and they’re present in most foods we eat daily.

However, as stated in the first tip for controlling diabetes, you shouldn’t necessarily eradicate carbs from your diet as it makes up a significant part of a balanced diet. The best way to handle carbs such that they don’t negatively affect your condition is to ensure that you track your intake of them. While “good” carbs will always be the best option when considering carbs, you may also want to eat other moderately sugary carbs once in a while to avoid hypoglycemia.

Summarily, tracking your carb consumption can help you eat sugary carbs with minimal effect on your blood sugar. That way, you’ll be able to ensure low carb consumption and enjoy good health.

Occasionally Adopt a Keto Diet

Keto diet is one of the more famous diets that people with high insulin resistance are advised to adopt for blood sugar levels regulation. The keto diet is a zero carbohydrate diet made up of mostly healthy fats that don’t have lots of calories.

Typically, too much fat consumption is considered unhealthy and could lead to weight gain and other more serious health complications. However, keto diet fats are mostly polyunsaturated and monounsaturated healthy fats that don’t significantly affect the body negatively following appropriate consumption.

Keto diets aim to replace carbohydrates and make healthy fats the primary energy source. That way, people will successfully reduce their sugar intake and have their blood sugar in the healthy range.

Apart from fats, the keto diet may also include some vegetables and protein foods. However, fats are the dominating nutrients because they discourage blood sugar increase, unlike most protein-dense foods with considerable carb content.

There have been many commendable results regarding the success of the keto diet in controlling blood sugar. However, it’s important to know that this diet is only recommended for the short term. If your blood sugar range is incredibly risky, opting for the keto diet can significantly push it down.

Nevertheless, keeping up with a keto diet for the long term isn’t entirely healthy as there’s the risk of eating too much fat, leading to liver complications and causing other dangerous conditions. Also, it’s not sustainable to depend on only fatty foods as the blood needs carbs.

Furthermore, research has shown that many people who seek to adopt the keto diet as their regular dieting choice fail to do so and usually return to their former diet after a while. Therefore, it’s important to understand that this hack is only sustainable as long as it can help you reverse a significantly high sugar level.

Fasting

While there aren’t so many talks about how fasting can reduce sugar levels, it can be efficient for diabetes patients. Unlike the popular understanding that fasting usually connotes having to deal with hunger, there are ways that you can fast without exactly denying yourself food for long. As such, even diabetes patients that have ulcers can also implement certain fasting techniques and not feel the effect.

A major type of blood-sugar control fasting is intermittent fasting. Unlike most fasts, people with diabetes can eat more than one meal daily—up to three times—and still control how much they consume.

Intermittent fasting is a type of fast in which there are eating hours and fasting hours. The most popular and highly recommended type of intermittent fasting is the “16:8 window,” where you’ll need to abstain from food for 16 hours and only eat for 8 hours.

The most popular 16:8 window is the 11 am to 7 pm window. There are 8 hours between 11 pm to 7 pm, and you’re expected to eat for the day within this window. The other hours outside this window are the 16 hours of fasting.

This window is quite achievable as it’s somewhat easy to stay away from food in the morning until 11 am. After that, you could eat your lunch at 2 pm or 3 pm and must eat your final meal for the day at 7 pm.

You can drink water in the fasting period but must stay away from junk and all types of food. Ending your final meal by 7 pm will give your body enough time to use the extra food as fuel before you sleep.

Also, health experts recommend that people shouldn’t go to bed until three hours after eating their last meal. Eating by 7 pm makes this recommendation achievable as you can stay awake till 10 pm before sleeping.

Conclusion

Dealing with diabetes usually requires professional medical advice from a doctor and a diabetes management plan. However, there are simple steps you can take yourself to live healthily. This guide successfully outlines some of these steps and how you can implement them to manage your illness and enjoy better health.

Evident in the hacks outlined in this guide is that food and diet choices are significant in diabetes management recommendations. This, therefore, underscores the importance of watching what you eat. Even if you perform heavy workouts and exercise a lot, eating too many carbs and other unhealthy foods will render your efforts almost insignificant.

This guide outlines different ways to control what you eat, and the use of a diabetes meal management app is the easiest and most effective option to go for. While dieticians can help you with food choices, a meal app is generally effective in providing users with the newest healthy foods they can eat.

Klinio app is one of the top diabetes management apps you can trust to help you choose the best meals for adequate management of your condition. Namely, this virtual caregiver provides you with proven diabetic-friendly meals that are tasty and enjoyable.

Diabetes is a common condition that people around the globe experience. Over the years, there’s been a steady increase of people who have the condition despite health institutions’ continuous orientation and effort to curb its growth. This seemingly insistent growth has been attributed to many factors.

However, a major reason is peoples’ food choices. Over the years, there’s been a significant increase of unfriendly diabetes ingredients in foods due to the growing desire for junk and different sweetened high-sugary foods. These unhealthy choices tend to have considerably serious effects on blood sugar rise, making it difficult for people with diabetes to establish blood sugar control and prevent weight gain.

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), food choices play a major role in diabetes control. Namely, making healthy meal choices can help people control their blood sugar and avoid more significant health complications that the condition presents. In the same vein, eating food considered incredibly high in sugar or unhealthy fats, among other undesirable nutrients, can lead to a serious risk of further diabetes complications.

This article aims to help people with diabetes know the wrong foods they shouldn’t eat to reduce their dependence on diabetes drugs and predisposition to other serious health issues.

The Role of Food Choices for People With Diabetes

The three major factors that affect diabetes include genetics, food, and exercise.

People with genetic vulnerabilities (due to one or of their family members or ancestry having the condition) could easily have blood sugar spikes. Thankfully, people whose medical history shows that they’re genetically disposed to have diabetes may not develop the condition as long as they keep their blood sugar levels stable. To do that, though, they’ll have to adopt a healthy lifestyle regarding what they eat and their fitness level.

Genetically advantaged people could also have an increased blood sugar level if they don’t eat healthily. Even if they choose to keep fit, they won’t have the best results if they have a tacky diet.

From the two situations above, it’s clear that food choices are extremely important in maintaining a healthy blood sugar range. Whether a person is genetically advantaged or not in terms of diabetes, exercise regularly or not, if they don’t eat right, the ultimate result is raised blood sugar levels and serious diabetes complications.

Due to the significance of food in diabetics’ health, experts generally emphasize the need for people with the condition to make healthy meal choices. Notably, health professionals advise diabetes patients to avoid foods that increase their blood glucose.

Several high glucose foods suddenly raise blood sugar levels to astronomical heights, and the concern is that they’re among the major meals people eat. To make matters worse, they’re sold in restaurants and popular food chains and are major inclusions in home cooking.

Carbohydrate is the main source of glucose and is usually considered one of the major nutrient and food classes that people who have diabetes should avoid.

Carbohydrates’ Dominance in Foods

As stated above, carbohydrates are the main source of glucose in meals. Also, in most homes, people eat carbohydrates so much that it accounts for 70% of their daily diet. Suffice to say, carbs are the main component of most home meals and are present even in supposed high-protein and high-fat meals.

Carbohydrates’ dominance in peoples’ meals is due to them being the main sugar source. Humans love sweet things, explaining why junk and quick snack food thrives in modern-day meals. Also, carbohydrates provide people with energy to carry out daily activities. Carbohydrates could be in the form of processed foods, whole meals, and simple sugars.

Due to the evident level of dependence on carbohydrates, it’s almost impossible to cut it off from a normal diet, and this is where people with diabetes have a serious challenge in terms of their health. However, people shouldn’t cut carbs from their diet, irrespective of whether they have diabetes (or not). In the worst case of diabetes, a doctor may decide to provide a temporary keto diet to drastically reduce carbs intake. However, it’s not an incredibly healthy diet option for the long term, and health specialists confirm it to be too difficult to follow over time.

The Center for Diabetes Control (CDC) advises that people with diabetes consume carbohydrates daily in moderate proportion. The organization considers it healthful for diabetics to get half of their daily calorie requirement from carbohydrates. This helps them balance their health and provide their body metabolism with the appropriate fuel that can help them function properly.

However, this doesn’t mean that people with diabetes can eat all kinds of carbs they get their hands on. Both ADA and CDC advise that diabetics and those who suffer from high blood sugar focus on carbs that aren’t high in glucose (i.e., “good” carbs) and avoid “bad” carbs.

For clarification, let’s examine what “bad” and “good” carbs are.

“Bad” Carbs

The so-called “bad” carbs contain a lot of starch or sugars. They’re usually unusually high in glycemic index and range from 71 to 100. Most of the carb foods that people eat qualify under bad carbs as they’re among the sweetest and most desired option available in restaurants and made at home.

One of the key features of bad carbs is that they cause high blood sugar and are mostly processed foods. Most bad carbs rarely contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, essential for optimal cholesterol levels and a healthy heart.

Starchy carb foods include white rice and pasta and are generally unhealthy to eat. Highly processed foods—categorized under refined carbs—are also incredibly high in sugar and can increase blood pressure. Table sugars or snack food are other major types of carbs that cause serious blood sugar spikes.

“Good” Carbs

Dietitians generally consider “good” carbs a better alternative to “bad” carbs. Good carbs are typically low in glycemic index, making them a healthier choice for blood glucose.

The major healthy carb that people with diabetes are advised to eat is fiber. Fiber or roughages that provide energy are also incredibly tasty, making them excellent alternatives to starchy and sugary carbs.

Fiber has also been proven to improve blood sugar control because they’re non-digestible by the body. Following ingestion, it forms a thick mix that helps people fight excess sugar in the body and ensures they’re flushed out before they enter the bloodstream.

Certain fruits and vegetables are considered to be high-fiber foods. Whole grains are also considered fiber and are healthier than processed carbs.

The Top Food to Avoid With Diabetes

Typically, carb foods sold in high-chain restaurants or made at home will usually have a mix of good nutrients and bad carbs. However, some are much higher in sugar, while others pack more healthy nutrients than bad carbs.

The former are the foods to avoid to keep blood glucose levels in a safe range. These foods are usually filled with starch, sugars, saturated fats, and many other high-risk foods that could make it difficult for people with diabetes to lead a normal life.

It’s important to understand that while eating healthily doesn’t resolve all the issues that could lead to diabetes complications, it plays a major role in reducing the probability of sudden spikes in people with the condition.

This section considers certain foods you should avoid if you’re vulnerable to high blood sugar or have diabetes. Any food high in saturated fat, sugar, cholesterol, or saturated fat is apparently not great for diabetes, and we’ll see why shortly.

Trans Fat

Trans fats foods aren’t healthy for diabetic persons and should be avoided as they tend to negatively affect consumers. Trans fats are made by adding hydrogen molecules to unsaturated fatty acids.

Foods containing these fats include frozen dishes, peanuts, margarine, creamers, butter, etc. Trans fats help extend the shelf life of baked foods, crackers, and muffins, explaining why baked foods’ manufacturers often use them.

Trans fats aren’t good foods for diabetics as they cause a rise in blood sugar levels and insulin resistance. They’re also linked with impaired arterial function, belly fats, and increased inflammation.

These conditions are life-threatening; hence, diabetics need to avoid taking meals with artificial trans fats content. Diabetics who continually consume these meals are highly likely to develop heart disease.

Fruit-Flavored Yogurt

While ordinary or plain yogurt can be a great food option for persons with diabetes, fruit-flavored yogurts produce conflicting effects. This is because the latter is made from low-fat milk and contains much sugar and carbs, capable of increasing blood sugar levels.

A 245-g serving of flavored yogurt contains about 30 g of sugar, implying that most of the calories of fruit-flavored yogurts come from sugar.

Many people consider frozen yogurt a better alternative to ordinary ice cream. However, it’s important to state that frozen yogurts’ sugar content is much more than ice cream’s. In light of this, fruit-flavored yogurt is an unideal food option for diabetics.

As a diabetic, it’s healthier and better to opt for ordinary ice cream over flavored yogurts, as the latter can increase your blood sugar level.

Dried Fruits

Fruits contain nutrients like vitamin C and potassium that are important to consumers. Due to their reduced water content, dried fruits offer an increased concentration of these nutrients. While this may appear beneficial, it becomes counterproductive when you consider that their sugar levels are also raised, posing a significant risk to patients with diabetes.

A cup of grapes contains 27.3 g of carbs, including 1.4 g of fiber content. On the contrary, a cup of raisins (dried grapes) contains a whopping 115 g of carbs, including 5.4 g of fiber. These figures show that raisins pack four times the amount of carbs in grapes, further reinforcing why dry fruits are not a healthy option for diabetics.

Sugar-Sweetened Beverages

Sugar-sweetened beverages and drinks are desirable food options for persons having diabetes. These foods are exceedingly high in carbs and sugar, with cola packing a 38.5 g carb content in a mere 12-oz serving. These drinks also contain high fructose content, linked to insulin resistance and diabetes.

High fructose levels in drinks could also lead to belly fat and increased levels of triglyceride and cholesterol. Studies have it that consuming sugar-sweetened foods increases the risk of diabetes-related conditions such as fatty liver diseases. It’s also been established that overweight adults consuming 25% of calories from beverages with high fructose content on a weight-maintaining diet led to insulin resistance and worse heart issues.

Hence, it’s important that people, especially diabetics, reduce their intake of high sugar drinks. Instead, they should take drinks like club soda and unsweetened ice tea that reduces the risks of diabetes.

Rice, Pasta, and White Bread

These foods typically have a high carb content. Eating foods like bagels, white bread, and flour-flavored foods has been shown to cause a significant rise in the blood sugar of persons with diabetes.

This raised blood sugar level isn’t exclusive to products made with refined fine flour. Other studies on gluten-free pasta—especially rice-based types—established that these foods raise blood sugar.

Further research reveals that foods with high carbs increase blood sugar and reduce brain function in persons with type 2 diabetes. Hence, diabetics are advised to reduce their consumption of these kinds of food to avoid increasing the risk of developing serious health consequences.

Research has it that replacing foods like rice, white bread, and pasta with foods containing high fiber content reduces the sugar and cholesterol levels in diabetics.

French Fries

French fries, a common meal, are foods you may have to steer clear of if you have issues with diabetes. Fried foods have been shown to yield compounds such as aldehydes that exert toxic effects on consumers. These compounds increase the risk of diseases, especially in persons with diabetes.

To corroborate this, let’s consider the effect frying has on potatoes. One medium potato contains 34.8 g of carbs, with 2.4 g being fiber. However, when potatoes are peeled and fried in vegetable oil, they tend to trigger an increase in blood sugar. Studies have it that french fries and other fried foods are linked to cancer and heart diseases.

Diabetics should avoid foods like this because of their consequential health effects. It’s best to take sweet potatoes instead.

Honey, Maple Syrup, And Agave Nectar

Diabetics, because of their condition, often try to reduce and/or substitute their intake of table sugar as well as foods like pie, cookies, and candy. However, it’s important to know that foods like honey, maple syrup, and agave nectar can also increase blood sugar. These sweeteners aren’t highly processed, so they contain a significant amount of sugar and carbs.

Studies show that diabetics may experience increased blood sugar and inflammatory markers from consuming 50 g of honey and white sugar. This makes these sweeteners an unsuitable meal option for people with diabetes. Hence, diabetics should avoid these sweeteners because of their harmful effects, or rather they stick to natural low-carb sweeteners.

Flavored Coffee

Taking ordinary coffee isn’t a bad idea, as coffee is linked to many health benefits, including a reduced tendency of diabetes. However, flavored coffee may not be an ideal choice of drink for diabetics as it spikes blood sugar and increases the risks of other health issues. Namely, it often packs high carb and sugar contents, making it an unhealthy option for diabetics.

Studies indicate that the brain doesn’t process drinks the same way it does solid foods. When you take a high amount of drinks like flavored coffee, you don’t compensate for it by taking less later, leading to increased weight gain. In light of this, it’s essential that lovers of coffee—especially diabetics—cut down on their intake of flavored coffee to reduce the risks of developing health issues like insulin resistance and heart diseases.

Packaged Snacks (Junk Foods)

Junk foods—such as crackers, pretzels, and other packaged food—aren’t healthy snack options, especially for diabetics. These snack foods are typically produced with refined flour.

They supply few nutrients but contain high carb content that causes a rise in blood sugar. Hence, diabetics should reduce their intake of these snacks to minimize their risk of developing serious health issues.

Below are the highlighted carb counts for a 1-oz serving of some common snacks:

Pretzels: 22.5 g of carbs, including 0.9 g of fibers
Saltine crackers: 20.5 g of carbs, including 0.8 g of fiber
Graham crackers: 22 g of carbs, including 0.9 g of fiber

Studies show that some of these foods contain more carb content than their nutrition label suggests. You should take low-carb vegetables or nuts instead if you get hungry in between meals.

Sweetened Breakfast Cereal

Having sweetened cereal as breakfast could be one of the worst ways to start your day if you have diabetes. Cereals contain a high amount of carbs despite the claims on their box labels. They supply only a few amounts of protein to keep you full while ensuring a stable sugar level during the day.

It’s necessary to watch what you consume, as many of the tagged healthy cereals aren’t great breakfast options for persons with diabetes. For example, a half-cup of granola contains 44 g of carbs, while grape nuts pack 47 g. Each of them supplies no more than 7 g of protein, which we need in high amounts.

It’s advised you take low-carb or high-protein meals to help you maintain a stable blood sugar level.

Fruit Juice

Though considered a healthy beverage, fruit juice triggers a rise in blood sugar levels like the other sugary drinks. The same goes for fruit juices that are 100% natural as, in some cases, they contain a higher sugar and carb content than soda.

Suffice to say, they exert the same effect as other sugary beverages and also tend to trigger serious health consequences in consumers. Hence, you should avoid consuming fruit juices, especially if you have diabetes.

For instance, a 250-ml serving of soda and apple juice contains 21 and 23 g of sugar, respectively. An equivalent serving of grape juice provides over 30 g of sugar.

Another reason fruit juice isn’t an ideal beverage is that it has a high fructose content, a sugar linked with insulin resistance and heart disease. In place of fruit juice, you should consider taking water with lemon, which provides fewer carbs.

The Role of Diabetes Management Meal Apps in Eating the Right Foods

Knowing the types of food to avoid as a diabetic is crucial to keeping your blood sugar levels in a safer range. The food categories outlined in this article are among some of the major foods that raise blood sugar levels and trigger a series of complications. However, the goal isn’t just to know the types of foods to avoid but also those you should opt for.

While the ability to avoid foods in any of the aforementioned categories offers some respite concerning your blood sugar, eating the right foods will help you achieve optimal blood sugar control. This is vital as both high and low blood sugar levels are considered dangerous and can eventually become life-threatening.

Almost all major high blood sugar foods have their good alternatives. For example, you can easily replace white rice with brown rice. The same goes for white sugar, where the healthier coconut sugar passes as a better substitute.

There are various ways that people can get the right foods to eat. They could decide to book an appointment with an endocrinologist or a dietitian for the best meal plan. Similarly, they could decide to use a diabetes expert management meal app.

Diabetes meal apps are online digital resource apps designed by diabetes professionals or institutions to provide people with the condition with the latest healthy meal diets that they can opt for.

The food options recommended by these apps are healthy and easy to prepare with easily accessible ingredients. The only major difference is that they consist of “good” carbs instead of “bad” carbs and are more nutritious. Moreover, they usually contain good fats and considerably healthy proteins and vitamins that the body’s metabolism needs for normal functioning.

Besides the fact that diabetes management meal apps recommend the best foods that diabetics should eat, they can also help users set up a routine to plan what, when, and how they eat weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even annually.

In modern times, meal apps have become the leading diabetes-friendly meal resource that people with the condition generally opt for. They’re incredibly easy to use and don’t require any technicality whatsoever.

Conclusion

Diabetes is undoubtedly a serious condition that requires deliberate efforts from people that have it to live a normal life. The food that people with the condition consume clearly plays a great role in how much they’ll need to depend on drugs and their ability to live a less restricted life. So far, this extensive guide considers how unhealthy food avoidance helps people manage diabetes and the possible complications accompanying it.

Also, we touched on ways they could get possible replacements for meals that they need to avoid. A diabetic management app, as already stated, is one of the most trustworthy resources that people with the condition can use to live a healthy life and avoid complications like heart disease, kidney disease, and other cardiovascular issues.

Fortunately, Klinio app is one of the most reliable diabetes meal resources and planners that diabetics can trust for the best benefits. Our health experts have proved that all meal recommendations are low in blood sugar and incredibly nutritious. The great thing is that we regularly supply updates so that our clients don’t miss out on the newer diabetes-friendly meal plans.

Diabetes is one of the incredibly common conditions that many adults above 45 years are vulnerable to. However, the condition isn’t just limited to people of this age group. Any age category can suffer serious complications from diabetes if they lead unhealthy lifestyles that raise their blood sugar.

In the United States alone, over 20 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes, while a significant number of those with the condition are yet to be diagnosed. This leaves them extremely vulnerable to the complications of high blood sugar. This high number of diabetic patients simply points to the reality that many people lead and make unhealthy choices when it comes to their blood sugar.

In response, diabetes health institutions strongly recommend that patients make deliberate health choices that encourage and position their blood sugar range at a safe level. Patients are usually encouraged to eat healthier meals, exercise regularly, and stick to their health-given management tips.

Having a deliberate management plan as a diabetic can help control diabetes. However, most people barely have a plan for their condition, while those who do barely follow the steps and guidelines.

Due to the above barriers that realistically disrupt diabetics’ goal to improve their condition, top national health institutions have implemented different programs to help people prevent the disease entirely. The objective of these campaigns is based on the “Prevention Is Better Than Cure” mantra to help people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes gain control of their blood sugar by following a structured lifestyle change program.

This article considers these Diabetes Development Programs (DDPs), the type of technical assistance they offer, and their ultimate goals for patients.

What Are Diabetes Prevention Programs?

Diabetes Prevention Programs (DDPs) have become extremely popular in the United States and are considered among the most innovative mechanisms set up to tackle diabetes growth in the country. A Diabetes Prevention Program is designed to help people at risk of having diabetes and those who experience high blood sugar spikes for long periods adopt steps to control their glucose level.

While different institutions may have distinct guidelines on how their program runs, the general objective is to help people control their blood sugar so they don’t develop diabetes. For emphasis, the keyword and focus of these programs is ‘prevention.’ So, people who already have diabetes aren’t usually considered candidates for DPPs.

Some of the candidates that could qualify for these diabetes programs include people that have experienced gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes is a temporary diabetic condition that mothers experience during pregnancy or childbirth. It’s usually temporary, and blood sugar will go back to its normal level a few weeks or months after delivery.

However, the risk of developing diabetes in people that have experienced it in the past is considerably high. As such, most DPPs consider women with a history of gestational diabetes as high-risk candidates.

Private and government-owned national institutions usually sponsor Diabetes Prevention Programs. Typically, the programs are carried out by top government bodies that include the different national associations of health bodies. These bodies usually get private firms involved in the campaign, enabling a wider reach to more interested candidates.

Studies and research on DPP have shown that the different campaigns spread out have been a success. People with a high risk of the disease have gotten treatments and assigned lifestyle coaches to help them achieve better health. Some programs feature some of the best chronic disease directors and health professionals who understand the disease and offer expert management tips to ensure that candidates get effective treatments.

Summarily, DPPs have come to stay, and their preliminary recognition as firms that help achieve diabetes disease control makes them stand out.

Different Diabetes Prevention Programs Currently Available

There are currently different organizations that are heavily invested in DPPs currently, and they have helped thousands of patients achieve healthy blood sugar levels and a healthier lifestyle. These organizations are usually known for their different works in health and include the very best professionals.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the most reputable organizations known to help people prevent diabetes. The organization includes some of the best diabetes care specialists with proven effectiveness and efficiency to help patients recover steadily and safely.

The CDC isn’t the only organization that sponsors a Diabetes Development Program. Other organizations help prediabetes patients make more effective choices concerning their health and ensure that their blood levels are at the safe range.

The major work of DPPs is that they help a patient adopt a healthy lifestyle that positively reduces their blood sugar level and body mass index (BMI) while improving their confidence.

That said, let’s examine some of the major Diabetes Development Programs in detail:

CDC National Diabetes Prevention Program

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the leading bodies in the United States, spearheading a diabetes prevention campaign to help patients live better. The good thing is that the program is open to every person, and they can participate online. All they need to do is visit the CDC website or the program’s dedicated page to get the CDC-approved curriculum on how to start.

According to the CDC, about 96 million adults in the United States have diabetes. What’s more, the body believes the number will only increase over the years due to the continuous demand for high-sugar foods and the ease of developing unhealthy habits.

The CDC program is known as the National Diabetes Prevention Program but is abbreviated as National DPP. It admits interested applicants, enabling them to adopt good healthy lifestyles to prevent diabetes. Additionally, people with prediabetes can join the program and take a blood test to determine their blood range and susceptibility to finally developing diabetes.

Each test helps health specialists know how to group patients and subject each group to specific guidelines and medications. This helps reduce their blood sugar safely and effectively and minimizes the risk of developing diabetes.

The structured lifestyle guidelines for people who register with the CDC have proven significantly effective. Remarkably, it’s helped thousands of patients balance their blood sugar levels and eliminate their risk of being diabetic.

The CDC works with public and private organizations to reach more prediabetes patients to help them stop habits that put them at risk of developing diabetes.

YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program

The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) is among the global organizations known to encourage a healthy lifestyle through Christian biblical principles. The organization also operates a DPP in the United States and aims to help people with high blood sugar adopt a healthy life that helps control their blood sugar.

It’s clear that the organization’s DPP is only one of the lifestyle change programs offered by the YMCA. However, in the US, the DPP is the most recognized work performed by the firm.

Many candidates have been able to achieve better health under the YMCA DPP. As such, it’s a great campaign that people looking to prevent their condition from developing into diabetes can register with to achieve better blood sugar health.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Diabetes Prevention Program (NIDDK DPP)

The NIDDK DPP is a more dedicated research-focused campaign that not only helps candidates with how they can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes but also offers consistent research about their program. The organization has its recommended drugs, guidelines for eating healthy, and other important factors that can significantly manage abnormal blood sugar.

The institution’s DPP research on several candidates with high blood sugar risk shows that its campaign is effective in the short and long term. The research performed on the firm involved short-term results, 10-year results, and 15-year results. They all showed that the institution program could help people with diabetes development risk consistently keep their health in the safe range in the long term.

Private Diabetes Prevention Programs

As stated in the above sections, private firms collaborate with public and government-controlled institutions to campaign against diabetes development. These firms usually get their curriculum from top firms and organizations. As such, patients can trust their specialized care in the fight against diabetes development.

There are several top privatized institutions that you can connect with and follow their diabetes prevention program. The Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging is among the major institutions that sponsor diabetes prevention programs for people with a risk of developing the condition. The firm also has an excellent curriculum in line with government-owned institutions and can be trusted to give candidates the best results.

Exercise and Healthy Eating: The Major Features of a Diabetes Prevention Program

Diabetes Prevention Programs come with many benefits from simply following easy steps and guidelines. The good thing about these programs is that the specialists try as much as possible to reach out to the patients in the most personal ways. This approach ensures they don’t adopt a counterproductive lifestyle and destructive habits that could push their blood sugar higher and into the danger zone.

The programs, however, have similar management guidelines that diabetes health specialists offer. Among the different steps these programs provide candidates, exercise and healthy eating are the two major foundations most of them are built around.

While there’s no doubt that all campaigns have specific guidelines that their candidates follow, there’s a serious emphasis on physical activity and healthier eating. Both factors are the major determinants of blood sugar levels. Healthy eating, especially, can determine if a potential diabetes patient can recover from their dangerous blood sugar range.

The major source of glucose is carbohydrates, which double as the most consumed form of food. This explains why many people easily slip into a high blood sugar condition. Also, irregular eating patterns play a role in high blood sugar and unhealthy body weight gain.

Most health DPPs encourage patients to eat healthily and have a strict eating routine that all candidates are expected to follow. This further reinforces that eating diabetes-friendly meals is crucial to a possible recovery from dangerous blood sugar ranges. Fortunately, this revelation means that many people who aren’t disposed to register for the program can also help themselves by adopting healthy eating patterns.

Furthermore, there are many diabetes-friendly meal apps that people at risk of developing diabetes can use to handle their meal choices more efficiently. These apps ensure they eat foods that aren’t high in sugar and allow them to keep a better food routine. That way, they help fight against developing diabetes as their recommendations are in line with those of DPPs.

Conclusion

Diabetes Prevention Programs (DPPs) are deliberate, dedicated professional programs that help patients with diabetes limit how much their condition restricts their lives. These programs—sponsored by major health associations and diabetes-specialized private companies—have helped patients achieve landmarks that were considered impossible before. The good thing about these programs is that they’re modern and are consistently revolutionizing diabetes treatment so that patients can live as normally as possible.

As was discussed in this guide, healthy eating plays a major role in the success of Diabetes Prevention Programs, considering that carbs and glucose—the major cause of blood sugar spikes—are among the most consumed foods. Generally, the need for diabetes patients to watch what and how they eat is one of the major concerns for diabetes management. Fortunately, many online resources and meal apps—alongside Diabetes Prevention Programs—can help patients eat right.

Klinio app is a highly recommended diabetes meal app that helps patients eat well and right. Namely, it provides patients with the best foods out of a thousand resources, including the most popular restaurant and homemade meals. These foods are healthy, don’t increase blood sugar spikes in patients, and aren’t bland, implying you not only eat healthily but also enjoy your meals.

YES Foods

The YES Foods diet is a food plan that focuses on promoting the consumption of specific foods while restricting certain others. In this paragraph, we’ll explore the various foods that are allowed on this diet. The YES Foods diet emphasizes the intake of all meats and fish, including beef, chicken, salmon, shrimp, and more. The diet also allows a wide range of vegetables such as broccoli, kale, mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes. Nuts, seeds, and butters such as pecans, pistachios, and tahini are also permitted. In addition, the diet encourages the use of healthy fats and oils like coconut oil, olive oil, and avocado. Finally, the YES Foods diet permits a variety of beverages including water, unsweetened teas, and certain milk alternatives.

All meat & fish (including but not limited to)

Beef
Buffalo
Chicken
Clams
Duck
Eggs
Game meats
Salmon
Goat
Halibut
Lamb
Lobster
Mahi Mahi
Mussels
Pork
Red Snapper
Scallops
Shrimp
Swordfish
Tuna

Vegetables (including but not limited to)

Asparagus
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery/Celery Root
Cucumber
Garlic
Ginger
Green beans
Kale
Leeks
Lettuce/Salad mixes
Mushrooms
Onions
Parsnips
Peppers
Radicchio
Radishes
Rutabaga
Snow/Snap peas
Spinach
Tomatoes
Turnips
Zucchini

Nuts/Seeds & Butters

Fats & Oils

Animal Fats
Butter
Ghee
Avocado
Coconut oil/milk
Flax oil
Olive oil
Sesame oil

Dairy

Milk (whole-raw if possible)
Heavy cream
Cheese
Cottage Cheese
Yogurt
Kefir

Beverages

Water, mineral water
Club soda
Coffee, espresso
Unsweetened teas: green, black, herbal
Coconut milk (full fat)
Almond milk (unsweetened)

NO Foods

The following list of foods are not included in the YES Foods list and are considered NO Foods. These foods are to be avoided while following this diet plan. This includes certain vegetables like corn, peas, sweet potatoes/yams, and white potatoes. Fruits are also to be avoided with some exceptions. Refined carbohydrates such as bread, cake, candy, cereal/granola, and pasta are also off-limits. Additionally, all alcohol, sweet-tasting drinks, and artificially sweetened food or beverage items are considered NO. Read on for a detailed list of NO Foods.

Vegetables

Corn
Peas
Sweet Potatoes/Yams
White Potatoes
Winter squash

Fruit of all kinds

See sometimes list for exceptions

Nuts/Nut Butters

Refined Carbohydrates

Bread
Bagels
Breadsticks
Brownies
Cake
Candy
Cereal
Granola
Chips
Cookies
Couscous
Crackers
Croissants
Cupcakes
Muffins
Pasta
Oats
Pastries
Pita
Pizza
Popcorns
Rolls
Tortillas
Tortilla Chips

Beverages

All alcohol
Coffee “drinks” or shakes that are pre-sweetened
Energy drinks
Juice
Milk
Soda
Sweet-tasting drinks (besides herbal teas)
Protein powder

Sauces/Dressings

Soy sauce (You can use coconut aminos)
Bottled salad dressings (use the recipe in the book)

Supplements

Anything that includes sugars

Anything diet/sugar-free or artificially sweetened food or beverage items of any kind is NO. This means no chewing gum, either!

Conclusion

In conclusion, the YES Foods and NO Foods list is a comprehensive guide for individuals looking to adopt a healthier lifestyle. The YES Foods list comprises of meat, fish, vegetables, nuts, seeds, butters, fats and oils, dairy and beverages that are beneficial for the body. On the other hand, the NO Foods list comprises of refined carbohydrates, fruits, nuts, nut butters, beverages, protein powder, sauces, dressings and supplements that should be avoided as they do not contribute to a healthy diet. By following this list, individuals can improve their overall health and well-being by making informed food choices that nourish their bodies.