December Health Blast
megabeln
Posts: 36 Member
Pot Roast, Ice Cream, Glucose, and You
Pot roast, ice cream, trees in the bathtub, salt in your coffee. Some things are great in one place but not in another.
Too much glucose in the blood is like that. Glucose is essentially sugar; your body turns food into glucose for energy. Glucose is essential, if there was no glucose in your cells, you’d be lying on the floor like a puddle of goo. However, if your body can’t move the glucose from your blood into your cells, bad things can happen. Glucose in the cells: good. Too much glucose in the blood: bad.
The ingredient needed to move the glucose in your blood to the cells is insulin. When your body either doesn’t produce enough insulin, or it ignores it, glucose builds up in the blood, where it doesn’t belong. That’s diabetes.
Millions of Americans live with diabetes, and about 80 million- about one third of all adults- are at risk for developing it. In fact, about 2 million American adults are diagnosed with diabetes every year- around 1 every 17 seconds. While many people are able to manage their diabetes well, adults with diabetes have at least double the rate of heart disease and stroke. Diabetes is also the leading cause of new cases of blindness for children and adults and is the leading cause of leg and foot amputations. It has contributed to almost a quarter million deaths in the U.S. each year- more than breast cancer and AIDS combined.
In most cases, the development of “type 2” diabetes is completely up to the individual. Type 2 diabetes generally occurs in adults; our future health depends on what we do now. One in three Americans will be at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Look to the person to your left, now the one on your right. One of you is at risk. Are you the one?
Prevention
If you’re at risk for diabetes, you may not have noticeable symptoms, so it’s a good idea to have your blood glucose checked with a fasting plasma glucose (FPG) blood test. Healthy blood glucose is under 100 while unfavorable zones fall between 100 and 125, and anything over 125 indicates diabetes. Too much glucose in the blood indicates that the glucose the body makes from the foods you eat isn’t being moved into the cells to be used for energy. The cells don’t get the glucose they need, and the glucose builds up in the bloodstream, causing kidney damage, eye damage, heart disease, nerve damage, and stroke.
To keep your cells from becoming “glucose resistant,” maintain a healthy weight and blood pressure, and exercise regularly—even a brisk 30-minute walk once a day. Some medications may delay the development of diabetes, but just 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise and a 5-10% reduction in body weight can lower your risk of diabetes significantly. The good thing is that these efforts will also lower your blood pressure.
Small Steps
Small steps, taken one at a time, can make a big difference.
There are lots of ways to lose weight, some more effective than others, some faster than others. If you’ve tried to lose weight before and failed- or failed to keep off the weight you’ve lost- approaching it the same way again is likely to have the same outcome. It’s better to make changes “for life” than changes that are only for the time when you’re “dieting.” They’re easier, more effective, and have many more choices.
Rather than declaring a weight loss goal of 20 pounds within a month, make some small, specific, measurable changes. “Measurable” means you can tell easily whether you have met the goals or not. Instead of “exercising more” say “walk 20 minutes three days each week at lunchtime/after work/after dinner/before breakfast.” Instead of “lose 20 pounds” say “buy 1% milk instead of whole milk” or “eat two pieces of fruit every day.” Instead of weighing yourself every day, judge your progress by how your clothing fits or how much energy you have. If you aren’t obsessed with looking at the scale every day but instead focused on adding health habits, the weight will come off. It may be slow, but better a slow success than a fast failure. Set realistic goals that fit into your life. Later, after you’ve had some success, you can work toward more difficult goals.
Other simple, good habits to add include:
• Replace chips with carrot sticks
• Replace fries with a salad or apple slices
• Replace sugary cereals with whole grain cereal
• Replace polyunsaturated oils with canola or olive oils
• Have one vegetarian dinner each week
• Limit red meat consumption to three times a week by choosing fish, poultry, or vegetarian dishes instead.
• Park farther away from work, the grocery store, or the doctor’s office, rather than looking for the closest spot.
See? These are simple things. You don’t necessarily have to do it all at once—add one good habit a week, or one every couple of weeks. Just stay away from the pot roast ice cream.
Pot roast, ice cream, trees in the bathtub, salt in your coffee. Some things are great in one place but not in another.
Too much glucose in the blood is like that. Glucose is essentially sugar; your body turns food into glucose for energy. Glucose is essential, if there was no glucose in your cells, you’d be lying on the floor like a puddle of goo. However, if your body can’t move the glucose from your blood into your cells, bad things can happen. Glucose in the cells: good. Too much glucose in the blood: bad.
The ingredient needed to move the glucose in your blood to the cells is insulin. When your body either doesn’t produce enough insulin, or it ignores it, glucose builds up in the blood, where it doesn’t belong. That’s diabetes.
Millions of Americans live with diabetes, and about 80 million- about one third of all adults- are at risk for developing it. In fact, about 2 million American adults are diagnosed with diabetes every year- around 1 every 17 seconds. While many people are able to manage their diabetes well, adults with diabetes have at least double the rate of heart disease and stroke. Diabetes is also the leading cause of new cases of blindness for children and adults and is the leading cause of leg and foot amputations. It has contributed to almost a quarter million deaths in the U.S. each year- more than breast cancer and AIDS combined.
In most cases, the development of “type 2” diabetes is completely up to the individual. Type 2 diabetes generally occurs in adults; our future health depends on what we do now. One in three Americans will be at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Look to the person to your left, now the one on your right. One of you is at risk. Are you the one?
Prevention
If you’re at risk for diabetes, you may not have noticeable symptoms, so it’s a good idea to have your blood glucose checked with a fasting plasma glucose (FPG) blood test. Healthy blood glucose is under 100 while unfavorable zones fall between 100 and 125, and anything over 125 indicates diabetes. Too much glucose in the blood indicates that the glucose the body makes from the foods you eat isn’t being moved into the cells to be used for energy. The cells don’t get the glucose they need, and the glucose builds up in the bloodstream, causing kidney damage, eye damage, heart disease, nerve damage, and stroke.
To keep your cells from becoming “glucose resistant,” maintain a healthy weight and blood pressure, and exercise regularly—even a brisk 30-minute walk once a day. Some medications may delay the development of diabetes, but just 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise and a 5-10% reduction in body weight can lower your risk of diabetes significantly. The good thing is that these efforts will also lower your blood pressure.
Small Steps
Small steps, taken one at a time, can make a big difference.
There are lots of ways to lose weight, some more effective than others, some faster than others. If you’ve tried to lose weight before and failed- or failed to keep off the weight you’ve lost- approaching it the same way again is likely to have the same outcome. It’s better to make changes “for life” than changes that are only for the time when you’re “dieting.” They’re easier, more effective, and have many more choices.
Rather than declaring a weight loss goal of 20 pounds within a month, make some small, specific, measurable changes. “Measurable” means you can tell easily whether you have met the goals or not. Instead of “exercising more” say “walk 20 minutes three days each week at lunchtime/after work/after dinner/before breakfast.” Instead of “lose 20 pounds” say “buy 1% milk instead of whole milk” or “eat two pieces of fruit every day.” Instead of weighing yourself every day, judge your progress by how your clothing fits or how much energy you have. If you aren’t obsessed with looking at the scale every day but instead focused on adding health habits, the weight will come off. It may be slow, but better a slow success than a fast failure. Set realistic goals that fit into your life. Later, after you’ve had some success, you can work toward more difficult goals.
Other simple, good habits to add include:
• Replace chips with carrot sticks
• Replace fries with a salad or apple slices
• Replace sugary cereals with whole grain cereal
• Replace polyunsaturated oils with canola or olive oils
• Have one vegetarian dinner each week
• Limit red meat consumption to three times a week by choosing fish, poultry, or vegetarian dishes instead.
• Park farther away from work, the grocery store, or the doctor’s office, rather than looking for the closest spot.
See? These are simple things. You don’t necessarily have to do it all at once—add one good habit a week, or one every couple of weeks. Just stay away from the pot roast ice cream.
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