Have you or someone you love just been told…

“You have prediabetes” (or “you have diabetes”)?

Unfortunately, this is currently happening at an alarming rate, and we have had numerous recent encounters with people facing this exact situation.  According to the CDC, almost 12% of the U.S. population has diabetes.  On top of that, 38% of adults over the age of 18 have prediabetes.  That is 50% of people that have either diabetes or prediabetes!

If you or someone you love receives this diagnosis, it can be devastating.  Your doctor may want you to start taking medication.  If you want to try to manage this through lifestyle changes, the advice is often not all that helpful (and very confusing).  It may be something along the lines of “count your calories and watch your carbs.”  Or maybe someone says, “you just need to eat more fruits and vegetables but be careful with fruits because they have a lot of sugar.” 

This can leave you feeling lost and alone, and overwhelmed with what to do.  It can feel like your world is crashing down and can even cause depression to creep in.

Don’t give up!

Whoever may be facing this…stop where you are at, take a minute and we want you to take a breath.  You need to know that you have the power to make HUGE improvements to take back your health by changing what you eat and making some lifestyle changes.  We have watched so many people with Type-2 diabetes or prediabetes reverse this diagnosis —

yes, you read right, we said “reverse it!”

Most recently we had an Eat REAL America member tell us, “my doctor was impressed at my checkups, and had only one other patient get to where my numbers were so quickly.  I went from 346 Glucose and 12.9 A1C to 179 Glucose and 9.7 A1C.  He also said that maybe he jumped the gun by wanting to put me on insulin, which I did not do.  As of today (7 weeks), my glucose level is at 106 and 5.8 on my A1C.”  Way to go!

And another Eat REAL America member just shared with us that after going to the doctor and being told “you are pre-diabetic,” she refused the recommended metformin and focused on changing her eating to include REAL food with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.  She used the website and our classes as a guide and, in 6 months, she just returned to the doctor to be told, “Your blood levels are completely normal!  Whatever you are doing, keep doing it!”  

How did they do it?

The biggest change they have made is how they are eating.  No surprise, they changed their eating habits to focus on REAL food and that’s where the magic happened!

Before we talk more about how to achieve this, let’s wrap our head around diabetes:

Diabetes is a chronic health condition that affects how your body turns food into energy.  When you eat, your digestive system breaks down food into glucose, which is a form of sugar.  Glucose is then absorbed into the bloodstream, and insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, helps cells take in and use this glucose for energy.

In people with diabetes, there are two main types:

1. Type 1 Diabetes.  With this type (5% to 10% of cases), your immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.  As a result, your body doesn’t produce enough insulin, leading to a buildup of glucose in the blood.
2. Type 2 Diabetes.  With this type (90% to 95% of cases), your body either doesn’t produce enough insulin, or your cells ignore the insulin that is produced (insulin resistance).  Without enough insulin or with ineffective insulin, glucose can’t enter the cells properly, and blood sugar levels rise.

When blood sugar levels are consistently high, it can lead to various health problems over time, such as heart disease, kidney disease, and vision loss, just to name a few.  This makes it important for people with diabetes to manage their condition by monitoring their blood sugar levels, taking medications if needed, and making lifestyle changes such as adopting a healthy diet and exercising regularly.

• Vegetables and fruits (aim for 8-10 fist-sized servings every day)
• Whole grains (especially whole grains like oats, wild rice, quinoa, and farro)
• Nuts and seeds
• Legumes (foods like beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas and edamame)
• Fish (salmon, tuna, and sardines, just to name a few)
• Poultry and lean meats (in “condiment-size portions,” making room for more veggies)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Water (ditch the soda and fruits juices)
• So many more (tempeh, tofu, and so many other delicious foods!)

By eating these foods, you will get the right combination of healthy carbs, protein, fiber, and good fats your body needs.

And when you fill your meals with these REAL foods, you will weed out all the foods that likely contributed to the diabetes in the first place (especially highly processed foods like white bread, cereals, baked goods, cookies, candies, soda, fruit juices, chips, crackers, and fast food).

Myth busting time!

There is so much confusion in this world we live in about what to eat (and what not to eat) to manage and reverse prediabetes and Type-2 diabetes.  Here are the top 3 that we hear most frequently:

What else can you do?

In addition to eating a wide variety of REAL food, these steps can help you reverse insulin resistance, high blood sugar levels, and prediabetes / Type-2 diabetes:

1. Move!  Exercise, both aerobically and strength training!  This will help you burn fat and glucose more efficiently, keeping everything at those healthy levels.  You might even adopt a habit of taking a short walk after meals to improve both your blood sugar and insulin sensitivity.
2. Get enough sleep!  If you want to read more about how lack of sleep contributes to so many health issues, check out our coaching tip, Insomnia? REAL Food to the Rescue.
3. Reduce stress!  Stress can trigger a physical response that actually raises blood glucose.  If stress eating is a challenge for you, you may want to read our coaching tip,  This May Be Harming You More Than You Think.
4. Limit caffeine!  Caffeine is known to increase blood glucose variability, although it tends to affect each person differently.  If you want to learn more, check out our coaching tip, What’s Your Cut Off Time?.

Over and over, we hear stories of Eat REAL America members who have taken the steps above and, when they return to their doctor for follow-up bloodwork, the doctor says, “Congratulations, your numbers are all perfectly normal again.  Whatever you’re doing, just keep doing it!”  

We know this can be you or someone you love!

If you or someone you know are ready to take control of your blood sugar and “shock your doc,” we highly encourage you dive all the way in to putting these steps into action by taking Zonya’s online 4-part course, Dodging Diabetes Deliciously.

Including expert exercise recommendations, this program, which is the education and inspiration you need, addresses what absolutely works in the short-term and LONG-TERM, helping you successfully trim down and improve insulin sensitivity so your blood sugar levels normalize and stay that way.  All by eating the most DELICIOUS REAL FOOD of your LIFE!

We can’t wait to hear your success story!