9 Tips to prevent Diabetes – video
- Prevent Type 2 diabetes by combining a healthy diet, regular physical workouts, and maintaining a normal body weight.
- Choose water or tea over sweetened drinks and consume at least three servings of fresh vegetables and fruits daily.
- Replace saturated fats like butter and coconut oil with unsaturated fats like olive, canola, and sunflower oil.
- Engage in at least 45 minutes of physical activity five to six days a week to avoid a sedentary lifestyle.
- Maintain normal body weight by aiming for a target weight calculated as your height in centimeters minus 100.
- Screen for diabetes early using Fasting Blood Sugar, HbA1c, or Oral Glucose Tolerance tests if you have a family history.
Prevent Diabetes with a good healthy diet, doing some physical workouts & keeping your body weight in the normal range. In this video, you will learn 9 diet modifications, and changes that can help you stay away from diabetes. You just have to switch from the unhealthy diet to the new & widely accepted healthy diet! You will also get some tips on easy home workouts to reduce your body weight.
I’m Dr. Prasoon, If anyone in your family is suffering from diabetes, you should be worried. How can you prevent diabetes.? That’s coming up in this video so let’s get started!
Many studies have repeatedly shown that our modern lifestyle, sedentary behaviors, lack of physical activity and an unhealthy diet, These are the three main factors which leads to the development of diabetes in the human population right now.
Though not much can be done to prevent type 1 diabetes which is also known as insulin-dependent diabetes, you can actually do and prevent type 2 diabetes which is the most common type of diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is also known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes. insulin is the hormone which keeps the balance of blood sugar in our blood. We get blood sugar from all the food that we eat and this blood sugar is used in our cells to produce and release energy. insulin acts as a key for the entry of blood sugar into the cells.
Now, what happens in type 2 diabetes is that there is something wrong with the insulin. Due to some defects, Our body cannot make use of it and therefore glucose or blood sugar cannot enter into the cells.
The level of blood sugar therefor rises in the blood and this condition is called hyperglycemia or diabetes.
3 Steps to Prevent Diabetes
The prevention of diabetes is mainly concentrated on three factors.
- Adopting a healthy diet
- Doing some physical activities or workouts
- Maintaining your body weight in the normal range.
9 Diet Changes to Prevent Diabetes
I will tell you 9 points about diet modification. That you can do and these modifications are also recommended by the International Diabetes Federation. point number one.
#1 Choosing water, tea, and coffee instead of other sweetened drinks, carbonated drinks sodas, and mainly fruit juices. Avoid fruit juices at all costs
#2 Eat at least three servings of vegetables including green
leafy vegetables every single day. Because in most persons diet vegetables consume only a very small portion and this should be changed.
#3 Eat at least three servings of fresh fruit every day.
instead of making fruit juices. get your hands on fresh seasonal fruits.
#4 We cannot live without snacks! Instead of using bakery items, use a slice of fruit or some nuts for your snacks.
#5 Limit the consumption of alcohol to a maximum of two standard drinks per day.
#6 Instead of using processed and red meat such as beef, pork, and mutton, use white meat, poultry or seafood and keep in mind that cooking the meat by steaming, grilling, making a curry is preferred rather than frying it.
#7 Use peanut butter instead of using chocolate spreads and jams.
#8 Instead of using the commonly available white rice & wheat, processed and refined grains switch over to brown rice, whole grains because these are rich in fiber and all the vitamins and minerals which are lost in the process of refining them.
#9 Use unsaturated fats such as olive oil, canola oil, corn oil and sunflower oil instead of saturated fats such as butter, ghee, coconut oil, palm oil, and animal fats.
That was about the diet modifications.
Do Some Physical Activity
Now, coming to physical activity or the workouts it is a well-known fact that most of us spend our time sitting or lying down idle. This type of behavior is called a sedentary lifestyle. We should be standing up, walking, climbing stairs and doing some simple physical activities which should amount to at least 45 minutes every day. This should be done for at least five to six days every week instead of using elevators to your office to climb those stairs.
Walk at least 10 or 15 minutes every day, Try to do any simple workouts in your home itself. you can do High kneels running in place. you can buy an aerobic workout machine and do workouts on that machine, you can go for swimming lessons, you can go cycling and practice yoga if possible.
Make sure that when you are doing any kind of physical activity or workout, your heartbeat rises to at least more than 100 beats per minute and that we are sweating well.
Before you step up those gears, To more demanding and physical exercises get the note from your doctor and lastly, you should maintain normal body weight.
Maintain Normal Body Weight
Suppose your height is 170 centimeters, subtracting 100 from it gives us 70 and that should be the range of your normal decide body weight. Try to keep your body weight in the desired level by cutting down on those fats, by working out and adopting a healthy diet.
Screening Tests to Find Diabetes Early
If someone in your family is already diagnosed with diabetes and is taking medicines, Then you should be doing all the screening tests for diabetes.
Because early detection of diabetes is very important in the management of diabetes. If diabetes can be detected early enough, you can actually control it with just diet modification and changes in your lifestyle and without using medicines and insulin. So, some of the commonly used screening tests for diabetes is
1. Oral glucose tolerance test – in this test, you will be given 75 grams of glucose to drink mixed in a glass of water and the blood sample is taken after 2 hours of drinking that sample. If the value is below 200 milligrams per deciliter, then you are good to go! there’s nothing to worry!
2. Another test that can be done to detect diabetes early enough is doing a fasting blood sugar value FBS test in this test at least eight hours of fasting should be ensured before the blood sample is taken overnight fasting is mostly recommended. Fasting blood sugar values should be less than 126 milligrams per deciliter
3. hba1c test is also known as glycated hemoglobin test. It is also used for screening and this gives an average estimated value of your blood sugar for the last three months.
Suppose your doctor finds that your blood sugar value be it a fasting one, or an oral glucose tolerance test value is more than what is recommended, he will ask you to repeat that test once more before reaching a diagnosis. So, if a close relative of yours is already diabetic, please do the screening test as early as possible and keep doing it every year!
it is said that at least one in ten percent is suffering from diabetes and as of now there are almost 500 million diabetic persons in the world right now! So, that’s how you can prevent diabetes.
If you have any doubts you can ask any questions to doctors using the Dofody app. This video was a special one dedicated to the World Diabetes Day which is being celebrated on November 14th of every year and this year’s theme is “family in Diabetes”
So, take care of those persons in your family who are suffering from diabetes. you can also share this video with others who have not yet been diagnosed with diabetes and prevent diabetes in all your family members. So, I will see you in the next one it’s me dr. prasoon take care and stay healthy and thank you so much for watching.
Frequently asked questions
You can prevent Type 2 diabetes by adopting a healthy diet, doing regular physical workouts, and maintaining your body weight in the normal range. These lifestyle modifications combat the effects of modern sedentary behaviors.
Switch from refined white rice and wheat to fiber-rich brown rice and whole grains. You should also replace processed red meats with steamed or grilled white meat, poultry, or seafood.
You should do at least 45 minutes of simple physical activities every day, for five to six days a week. Activities like brisk walking, cycling, or swimming should elevate your heart rate to over 100 beats per minute.
You can easily estimate your desired body weight by subtracting 100 from your height in centimeters. For instance, if your height is 170 centimeters, your target body weight should be 70 kilograms.
Common screening tests include the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT), Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS) test, and the HbA1c test. If you have a family member with diabetes, you should perform these screening tests yearly.
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Dr Prasoon C
Dr. Prasoon (MBBS, BCCPM) is a medical doctor with over 15 years of clinical experience. An active member of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), his clinical interests span lifestyle disease management, preventive fitness, and palliative care. He is on a mission to make trustworthy healthcare accessible through telemedicine—and when he isn't consulting patients online, he’s likely busy scrutinizing supplement labels to ensure they meet his strict clinical standards.
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