Food Habits Cause Diabetes

Food Habits That Cause Diabetes

Anubhav Kapoor

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Diabetes has become one of the most aggressively-spreading lifestyle diseases. 

It seems to affect people without any discrimination for gender, age or race. It has been established that the onset of diabetes can be prevented if our food habits are corrected. Thus, food habits responsible for causing diabetes should be properly understood. This includes:

Common Diabetes Causing Food Habits:

Eating High Glycemic Index Foods Glycemic Index (GI) is the calculation of how fast a type of food consumed by us is turned into energy, i.e. into glucose. Foods that are turned quickly into glucose are High GI foods. Such foods tend to create extreme spikes in the blood sugar levels.

High GI Foods include common food items like:

• White bread

• Pasta

• Rice

• Candy

• Backed items or snack foods made from refined flour

• Pastries

• Carbonated drinks

• White potatoes

• Pasta

• Noodles

• Sugary cereal foods

• Instant, ready-to-eat food items

Such food items are also called Easy Carbohydrate Foods. These foods have minimal or absolutely zero fiber which makes it further easier for the body to digest them. Such, quickly-digested foods create a glycemic overload by inducing excessive sugar in the blood stream. This is also referred to as a Glycemic Load. The intake of such foods should be restricted.

Instead of choosing such fast-release carb foods, the emphasis should be on fibrous, slow-release carb resources. A fine example of this is fruits like apples or peaches. Since fruits contain a lot of fiber, the release of sugar into the bloodstream is slower. This helps to negate severe fluctuations in the levels of insulin (the hormone deciding ability of bodily to absorb glucose).

Easily Preventable Food Habits that Cause Diabetes:

Consuming Unhealthy Fats

There is common misconception even among health conscious folks that all fats are bad. As a result, they tend to shun both the good and diabetes causing fats. However, the ideal approach is to sustain the consumption of healthy fats like those derived from walnuts, almonds and other types of nuts.

Again, olive oil is a healthy source of unsaturated fats. However, saturated fats found in dairy and animal products are pro-diabetic. These are also referred to as trans-fats and are found in heavy quantities in packaged, fast food items. Red meat, dairy products and foods containing semi-hydrogenated oils are unhealthy.

Sinful Eating Habits that Lead to Diabetes:

Irregular Eating Regimen

It should be understood that diabetes is essentially the inability to maintain uniform sugar levels in the body. One common food habit that induces unwanted changes in blood sugar levels is eating at irregular hours. Major meals need to be eaten at around the same time to prevent fluctuations in blood sugar levels.This is vital to ensure that the secretion of insulin is kept in check. Eating heavy desserts post dinner, particularly just before going to bed is essentially a health disaster that could be your stepping stone towards diabetes.

Ignoring Healthier Food Choices

• Tendency to overlook ingredients mentioned on the packaging of food times. Many ingredients lead to an overload of sugar and should be prevented.

• Tendency to snack upon artificially sweetened, packaged foods rather than nutritious, diabetes-controlling options like fruits.

• Over-frying cooked foods that lead to excessive consumption of harmful, trans- fats.

• Dependency on packaged, sweetened fruit juices rather than fresh juices. This leads to unnecessary intake refined sugar.

• Not eating salads regularly. Salads prepare from green veggies and sprouts are a nutritious, anti-diabetic choice. They take a very long time to be fully digested due to the high fiber content. This easy way of regulating sugar levels on a daily basis is often ignored.

• Not drinking sufficient water is perhaps the most common of food choice errors. Sufficient water intake ensures that kidneys are able to function properly and get rid of toxins that make our metabolism sluggish, i.e. more prone to retaining and storing glucose.

Common Diabetes Causing Food Habits:

Skipping Breakfast 

Skipping breakfast is akin to pushing yourself towards lifestyle problems like obesity and diabetes. Eating breakfast increases your chances of maintaining uniform sugar levels throughout the day as you are less affected by sugar cravings and hunger pangs.

Diabetes & Protein Overload

Most people seem obsessed about their daily protein intake, many of them overeating high-protein foods. However, merely eating more protein doesn’t make you muscular or healthier. It only leads to weight gain and makes you more vulnerable to health problems like diabetes. Excessive protein is handled by the body in a manner akin to fats or any other energy resource found in excessive amounts.

Our emphasis is to highlight the fact that diabetes is a preventable disease albeit we are ready to get rid of unhealthy food habits. If there is something we have missed in our endeavor to provide a comprehensive resource of how to eat in a healthier, anti-diabetic manner, Please Comment Below.