Defend yourself against pre-diabetes

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Even if you're not diabetic, diabetes is something you need to care about.

Why? Cos around two million of us have pre-diabetes (aka insulin resistance). Here, how to eat to shield yourself.

First, a rundown on what happens when you eat carbs

When they’re low-GI, insulin is delivered to your cells gradually. But if the carbs are high-GI (heavily processed or sugary), your glucose rockets. Your pancreas swamps your system with insulin, which takes so much glucose from your blood at once you go from high to low blood sugar within an hour.

After a few years of consistently eating high-GI carbs, your body’s cells refuse to keep taking glucose from your aggressive insulin – meaning you’re pre-diabetic. How do you find out? Your GP can test your fasting blood sugar level before brekkie. “In 50 per cent of cases, pre-diabetes will lead to type 2 diabetes within 10 years,” says WH health expert Dr Ginni Mansberg.

Arm yourself

Eat at least three serves of low-GI wholegrain foods and 25g fibre per day, limit your fat intake to less than 30 per cent of your daily kJs, exercise and add these to your arsenal:

FISH People who net at least one serve of fish weekly have a 25 per cent lower diabetes risk, according to a study in Diabetes Care. Your best bets: fish that contains vitamin D, like mackerel, sardines, herring and salmon, since it may reduce diabetes risk. But save shellfish for special occasions – in the same study, people who ate a weekly serve had a 36 per cent higher risk.

MAGNESIUM Low magnesium levels elevate blood sugar, so get your 320mg recommended by the Australian Department of Health and Ageing from foods like green, leafy vegies (especially spinach), pumpkin seeds, legumes and nuts.

EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL Olive-obsessed Spaniards at the University of Cordoba found feeding this to patients with metabolic syndrome (a cluster of conditions that can lead to diabetes) helped repress inflammation, also associated with diabetes.

CINNAMON As well as reducing cardiovascular disease risk and killing bacteria and viruses, the spice “seems to make insulin more efficient at taking glucose out of your blood”, says Dr Richard Anderson from the US Human Nutrition Research Center.

COFFEE A plantation full of studies has found three to six cups a day decrease your risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 50 per cent. But don’t OD – a Dartmouth Medical School, US, study found that 400mg of caffeine a day (about eight espressos) decreases insulin sensitivity (and your bank account, probably) by 35 per cent.

BLACK TEA Other teas tend to be green with envy about green’s benefits, and although a recent review of 105 studies found long-term green tea consumption can help prevent diabetes, Chinese researchers found black tea has more glucose-inhibiting properties.

EDIBLE ENEMIES

Foods to steer clear of in your fight against the big D

PROCESSED MEAT A review of 20 studies on meat consumption found that 50g of processed meat (think snags, salami) a day is associated with a 19 per cent higher risk of diabetes. EGGS Compared to egg rejecters, women who ate seven or more eggs weekly had a 77 per cent higher risk, according to a Diabetes Care study.

SUGARY DRINKS Surprise... A Journal of Biological Chemistry study found mice that drank sugar water as well as their regular grub developed insulin resistance.

WHITE RICE A Harvard School of Public Health, US, study found people consuming five or more servings of white rice a week had a 17 per cent increased risk of diabetes.