A recent estimate proclaimed that 25-35 percent of westernized populations could suffer from a degree of insulin resistance or some of the health consequences associated with this lifestyle disease in the future. After reading more websites and research papers, the following tips have been suggested to reduce the risk of getting diabetes.

The information does not claim to cure the disease, but because it is more of a lifestyle disease than anything else, scientifically validated information is available to help you reduce your risk. This is mostly information you’ve heard before, good nutrition, good health and exercise, but judging by the incidence of disease from the numbers presented above, people still haven’t been told enough.

The ideal diet to modify insulin resistance should reduce body weight, decrease fat while sparing muscle tissue, and improve insulin sensitivity. Insulin sensitivity refers to increased uptake of blood sugar by muscle cells, which is particularly important because high blood sugar levels (blood glucose = same) are associated with diseases. While it is relatively easy to find agreement in the literature on these general points, it is difficult to find agreement among experts regarding the ideal diet that will best help achieve these goals.

Briefly:

Diets rich in fiber are recommended, as well as reducing the amount of saturated fat in the diet. However, processed carbohydrates (high glycemic index carbohydrates) often replace fats, but excess carbohydrates can be very harmful because it leads to very high blood sugar levels. American diets are rich in processed foods, for example, 8 tablespoons of sugar in a 12-ounce soda, and excess sugar in the diet is probably one of the biggest contributors to the high prevalence of diabetes (apart from one style of sedentary life).

White bread, sugary cereals, pretzels, sports drinks and flavored beverages, etc. they’re all packed with high-glycemic carbohydrates ready to skyrocket your blood sugar levels. They are high in calories but severely lacking in nutrients. Sure, pies and ice cream flakes really are low-fat foods, but with chronic consumption, are these better breakfast foods than eggs and whole-wheat toast? Honestly, I can’t say for sure.

While it may not be necessary to completely eradicate high-glycemic carbohydrates from your diet, they should not be the staples of your eating plans. In fact, reduce your intake of high-glycemic simple carbohydrates immediately after training. Plan around vegetables, lean meats, and fruits, and include processed foods as a low priority.

Many people have used all kinds of diets successfully and unsuccessfully. NOTE: everyone is on a “diet”, this simply refers to the food they eat…for example, a college student may be on a diet of pasta, pizza, hamburgers and beer, and even though this student may get fat, he / she is still on a “diet” per se.

But still, some skinny people can eat a lot, and some skinny people can eat a lot of high-glycemic carbohydrates, while overweight people can eat relatively healthy, and average people can eat a wide variety of foods and all end up no change in their body composition. After seeing all of this, who’s to say what the best “diet” and macronutrient composition is for everyone or for you?

Like training, nutrition is sometimes best learned through trial and error, but reading healthy eating literature also helps, although you’re guaranteed to find two experts with completely opposing views on the best way to lose body fat, etc. . More importantly, if you can’t stick to your eating schedule due to a total hatred of the foods you’re eating, that eating plan is likely not going to succeed, no matter how well thought out it is.

Again, like training, nutrition is best suited to individual considerations, what works for a young man to “get beach slim” may not necessarily be the healthiest diet for a middle-aged prediabetic with overweight. Educate yourself. Learn what foods are healthy and choose the ones you like from that list. Eating can be enjoyable and healthy.

Bodybuilders and athletes often get caught up in overemphasizing the macronutrient profile of their meals (i.e., how much protein and fat is in a meal of chicken and rice). However, they won’t take into account how many micronutrients are missing from this bland food (ie too little vitamin C and other healthy antioxidants, etc.). The recommendations are for self-education and consultation with a true expert if necessary. Oops, I’m getting a little sidetracked, so let’s go back to other diabetes risks:

Cigarette smoking: from heart disease to cancer, from emphysema to diabetes. Cigarettes cause too many diseases. Please avoid them.

Stress: It is very difficult to prove that stress causes disease, but many experts believe that reducing the amount of stress and discomfort in life goes a long way in improving overall health. So, get rid of your stress. Sometimes you need to remember that there is nothing you can do about certain things in life, so accept it. But if you can change things, do it for the better.

Physical activity is important for disease prevention. Exercise may be the most important lifestyle factor in both preventing and reversing insulin resistance, but don’t let it be an excuse for a poor diet! Everyone should aim to maintain low (but healthy) levels of body fat and moderate amounts of muscle mass. The recommendations are quite simple, but regular exercise is a big step in the right direction, away from diabetes. Pick a few activities and do them consistently.

The importance of resistance training in general health is no longer just my opinion, but is gaining a lot of scientific support. If you jog 5 times a week for nothing more than health reasons, you could cut it down to 3, even 2 sessions, and replace the other days with resistance training for more overall health benefit. Why? Resistance training increases muscle mass.

Muscle serves 3 important functions: One, it is a highly metabolically active tissue, which helps to absorb and use more glucose in the blood, and therefore may help improve blood sugar profiles in diabetics. In fact, after several weeks of weight training in healthy young men, they needed to release less insulin to cope with a large amount of carbohydrate, indicating that insulin sensitivity increased with increasing muscle mass (Yarasheski , 1992).

Second, muscle provides strength for daily function and should help prevent injury (for example, more muscle should reduce the risk of injury associated with “hitting the pavement” (jogging) 5 times a week). And three, plain and simple, everyone looks a little better with some “pipes” instead of “pipe cleaners” up their sleeve.

As people age, they lose muscle, which, in my opinion, is mainly due to lack of activity, rather than aging factors. Again, in my opinion, it’s a matter of “which came first” – muscle loss followed by decreased activity, or lack of activity leading to decreased muscle? According to *Hasten and his colleagues, sedentary older men and women (over the age of 78) have lower rates of protein synthesis than their younger sedentary counterparts.

However, in just 2 weeks of resistance training, older people were able to increase their protein synthesis rates as much as younger men and women. Thus, it shows that older people retain the ability to increase muscle growth in response to short-term resistance exercise. My conclusion: It’s never too late to get out there and train for muscle mass and health. Goal…

IMPORTANT: A key point to remember if you are sedentary, don’t jump back into things too quickly! Any activity you do today is more than you did yesterday, so little by little, build exercise capacity and strength. As always, consult an expert if his knowledge is limited in this field.

Will we ever be disease free? No, unfortunately that is not likely to happen. But there are many simple steps that can help improve your health. If you improve your health, your fitness and performance are likely to improve. In the future, research will guide us down the path to better lifestyle choices and, hopefully, give us some help in correcting our mistakes. However, because lifestyle factors play such a prominent role in insulin resistance, we can change bad habits now so that insulin resistance can be avoided in the future.