Diabetes: It’s Time to Take Control of Your Diet
Baby Boomers & Diabetes: It’s Time to Take Control of Your Health
November is Diabetes Month Baby Boomers & Diabetes: It’s Time to Take Control of Your Health
Diabetes. It’s the eight-letter word that should be top of mind for most baby boomers. In fact, 29 million Americans have diabetes and 16 percent of them are in the boomer generation.
First discovered in 1889, this auto-immune disease has primarily two forms: Type 1, which is often diagnosed in young people when their pancreas stops producing insulin, and Type 2, which is more commonly diagnosed in middle aged people. Those with Type 2 may have obtained the disease due to a variety of risk factors including a family history of diabetes, being over the age of 45, eating high carbohydrate/sugar diets and being overweight.
Diabetes is a global health epidemic affecting “boomers” across the world. It’s a disease driven by lifestyle choices that is striking people in their mid-forties by the masses.
For most people with diabetes, food seems to be the major challenge. After eating certain foods your entire life, it’s hard to have someone tell you “you can’t eat this, you can’t eat that.” Fact is, you’re human. You want what you want; and oftentimes what you can’t have.
I too have diabetes. Personally, living with the disease has been tough. Whether it’s fighting high and low blood sugars, or trying to choose the food that will hurt me least, it’s taught me one thing: Keep Moving Forward.
After all, according to the CDC, losing just 5-10 percent of your body fat will help reduce your Type 2 Diabetes risk by 58 percent. It’s an astounding fact to think that all you need to do is make some changes to your diet, increase your exercise and you’re on the road to stopping diabetes.
But for those of you who do have diabetes or want to try and avoid a diabetes diagnosis, here are 5 simple steps to make managing your blood sugar easier:
- Eat less carbs and sugar: Yes, this means cutting down (if not removing) juice in the morning, fries with lunch and pasta at dinner. These foods are loaded with excess carbs and sugar that send your blood sugars to the moon.
- Get your family and friends involved: Having a cheerleading team in your corner will be a great reminder of why you’re working hard and making those sacrifices.
- Think about seeing a dietitian: They can help you craft a food plan to best suit your blood sugars and your taste buds.
- Test your blood sugar and weight: The only way to know you’re improving is to track and chart your changes. Knowledge is power.
- Be realistic: You will have good days and bad. Managing diabetes is a process not an event. Small changes over time lead to big wins down the road.
You can do this. You know you can. It’s time to take the bull by the horns: manage your blood sugar and diabetes before it manages you, so you can Keep Moving Forward.
About Ethan Lewis, Type 1
Ethan Lewis is the Founder of LEVEL Life, a modern diabetes management company. He started the company because he struggled living with diabetes—LEVEL Life offers delicious snack products & a step-by-step lifestyle Program that makes living with diabetes easy. Keep Moving Forward with Ethan by following @LEVELFoods on Twitter, “Liking” the page on Facebook and following the company on Instagram.
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