Simple dietary changes you can make to prevent diabetes

If you're wondering why diabetes and heart disease remains a topical issue, it may well be because almost 80% of deaths among diabetics are due to cardiovascular and heart disease. While type II diabetes is irreversible, deaths may be preventable - especially if you never get diabetes at all. Read on to discover simple dietary changes to start off with to guard against diabetes...

Mainstream medicine will have you thinking diabetes disease prevention takes a medicine cabinet full of pharmaceuticals. But, the truth is, it could be as simple as a few tweaks to your shopping list.

But, do you know what to add and subtract from your shopping list to help reduce your chance of diabetes?

Implement these dietary changes to help reduce diabetes

The first item you should ditch from your list is white rice.

A new analysis from the Harvard School of Public Health found that eating white rice on a regular basis could significantly raise your risk of developing type II diabetes.

The study found that for each weekly serving of white rice consumed, the risk went up by 10%. And that’s because “white rice has a high score on the glycaemic index (GI), a measure that indicates the effect food has on blood sugar,” writes Christine O’Brien in Nutrition & Healing. So when your diet is full of high GI foods, your risk for type II diabetes increases.

In addition, white rice lacks the necessary nutrients like fibre, magnesium and essential vitamins that help prevent diabetes.

So what’s the alternative to white rice?

Your alternative grains to white rice could be barley, quinoa and buckwheat. They have a high content of essential nutrients.

And what should you be adding to your shopping list?

Items you should add to your shopping list...

You should add blueberries and apples. These fruits are linked to a lower risk of diabetes. “They’re chock full of flavonoids, which have been linked to protection against heart disease and cancer,” writes O’Brien.

Research also from the Harvard School of Health found that people eating two or more servings per week had a 23% lower risk of developing type II diabetes than people who didn’t eat blueberries. The same was true for people who ate five or more apples per week, compared to people who didn’t eat apples.

It’s that simple.

By adding these healthy food alternatives to your dietary regimen and eliminating unhealthy food choices, you could help prevent diabetes.

Tags: how to prevent diabetes, dietary changes to help reduce diabetes, blueberries, apples, white rice, diet and diabetes