#worlddiabetesday

What are the primary causes driving diabetes II development?

Over 65% of the American population over 45 years of age are either pre-diabetic or have full blow diabetes type 2.

In support of world diabetes day, and the huge continuing surge in diabetes type 2 incidence across the globe year on year, I’d like to bring you all a bit more information on the subject to learn more about what exactly drives the condition…….

“The greatest killer of human populations today is chronic disease (heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, dementia etc)” World health organisation (WHO).

“It has been projected, that by 2020, chronic disease will account for ¾ of all deaths worldwide” WHO

Over 40% of these deaths occur prematurely (i.e. in people under 70 years of age. That means that nearly 1/3 of all deaths worldwide occur years before the course of a natural lifespan).

“Chronic diseases are largely preventable” WHO….

…Mainly through alterations to diet and lifestyle (physical activity, sleep, stress, smoking, alcohol consumption etc).

Over 65% of the American population over 45 years of age are either pre-diabetic or have full blow diabetes type 2.

It’s not too different here either……

The incidence of diabetes type 2 is occurring earlier and earlier in life, with childhood diabetes type 2 rates rising year on year. The UK has the highest incidence of type 2 diabetes in children across Europe.

Diabetes type 2 is simply characterised as the body’s inability to maintain blood sugar levels within the normal range.

The primary driver of this condition is excessive carbohydrate consumption, particularly sugars and refined carbohydrates which are loaded in processed foods and “junk foods”.

Let me explain how….

Simply, when we consume sugars or carbohydrate containing foods they get converted into glucose through digestion and enter the bloodstream to be utilised as energy or stored as glycogen or fat. Insulin is the hormone secreted which regulates the uptake of glucose into the body’s cells.

If you consume high amounts of carbohydrates over a chronic period of time (months/years) insulins signalling ability reduces because the body’s cells become resistant to insulin, resulting in more insulin having to be produced to signal the uptake of glucose into the cells.….

This is called insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance gets progressively worse over the years (greater amounts of insulin has to be produced and insulin levels remain elevated for a longer period of time) until the body is no longer able to efficiently signal glucose to enter the body’s cells, causing blood glucose levels to become elevated for much longer than normal (body’s inability to maintain blood glucose levels within normal ranges).

The number of years or decades it takes for this condition to develop varies person to person, with genetics, lifestyle factors and other health conditions largely determining the time frame.

However, I will point out that simply being very active does not protect you from developing insulin resistance leading to pre diabetes or diabetes type 2.

Exercise can help to improve blood glucose control, but dietary changes are the only means of reducing insulin resistance.

Diet is the primary driver of the disease.

The World Health Organisation recommends no more than 5% daily calories from sugars. That’s 25g per day for women and ~32g per day for men.

To put these recommendations into perspective, there’s roughly 25g of sugar in a single 250ml glass of apple juice or 22g sugar in a small 48g snickers bar.

If you, like many women, were to consume a seemingly innocent 40g bowl of granola with a banana for breakfast, you’ve already exceeded the recommended intake before you’ve even started your day….

We need to be checking food labelling and building an awareness of how much of the foods we consume contain added sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup or any of the other variations of sugars.

I don’t want to deter anyone from enjoying the foods they consume, but I do want to make you all aware of the severity of this epidemic across western populations….

The amount of misinformation that’s churned out through the media is causing complete confusion when it comes to diet and healthy eating….

Diet drives the disease.

Change your diet, repair your damaged metabolism, prevent or even REVERSE this disease.

Stay well….

TheLakesCoach