It has been widely publicized by  the American Diabetes Association that 25 million Americans have diabetes, and the number is 8 million more than a few short years ago.

You probably already know that you can strongly reduce your risks for diabetes with weight loss, exercise and a fat-free diet. As the American Diabetes Association says, “The key to preventing type 2 diabetes can be boiled down to five words: Stay lean and stay active.”

Those are great long-term goals, but today we will show you four baby steps for minimizing your risk for  diabetes.

In this week’s blog, The Center for Natural and Integrative Medicine will reveal four small alterations you can do immediately, to jump-start the long term changes in your lifestyle.

Use all four tips, and you will be putting up a giant four-way-stop-sign to your risks for diabetes.

We turned to a recent diabetes report from Harvard to give us authoritative research for some of our quick tip choices, below:
1. Banishing The Sugary Beverages:
One or two sugar-sweetened, non-diet, beverages per 24 hour period increases your chance of developing diabetes by 26 percent. “There is mounting evidence that sugary drinks contribute to chronic inflammation, high triglycerides, decreased “good” (HDL) cholesterol, and increased insulin resistance, all of which are risk factors for diabetes.”

We suggest you substitute water or green tea to combat the risk for blood-sugar disease.   (Surely no one would drink the tea pictured at right, but there might be just as much sugar in your favorite sugary drink!)

2. Relishing Your Food:

Rushing through business lunch hours, hurrying supper to get to meetings or social activities, gobbling fast food before it gets cold, are all symptoms that Americans eat too quickly. Eating more because we are eating fast has become an American habit.

Slowly savoring our food can help us to be satisfied with less.

Think about it. Enjoy the sight, the aroma, the taste, and the texture of each bite. Slowing your pace will help you eat smaller portions, and enjoy the moment more.

3. Moving After Every Meal:

At the Center for Natural and Integrative Medicine, we know that many of you are planning to reform your exercise habits to help combat diabetes. You have made your commitment to a program, registered for an active class, paid your payment to the gym. Again, these behaviors are all about life changes and long-term goals. A new study has developed a wonderful immediate habit you can develop.

It is not time-consuming; it is not rigorous; it is not expensive, and you can feel the results of it immediately! It is so simple:  Just take a brief, brisk walk shortly after your meal.

“Taking a 15-minute stroll a half hour after you eat lowers post-meal blood sugar levels for at least three hours…”
Dr. Loretta DiPietro, the professor and chair of exercise science at the George Washington School of Public Health and Health Services in Washington, D.C., said.
She added,”The muscle contractions resulting from the exercise are what help clear the blood sugar.” She also cautioned us that the 30-minute time frame is key. Aim for these short jaunts following every meal.”

4. Avoiding the Sitting Syndrome: Closely related to tip number three, this tip also involves activity. You have probably already heard that sitting for extended periods of time can become fatal. Research shows that people who sit six to eight hours a day are 19 percent more likely to have diabetes. “Extended sitting slows your body’s ability to metabolize glucose,” says Sheri Colberg, a professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia whose research and writing focus on diabetes and exercise. To put it simply, this tip requires that you move around for only two minutes every half hour. This is all it takes to ramp up your metabolism and lower your glucose.

Reading the research for the above tip has alarmed this writer so much that she now sets an alarm to remind her take her mini-breaks.

Changing your behavior in these four small ways is like putting a four-way-stop sign at the intersection of a busy crossroads. Taken together, as part of a long term overall diet and

fitness plan, they can help prevent a collision between your good health and diabetes.  We thank you for reading our blog of tips today, and we hope you will join us again next week, for more news, views, and tips you can use, to improve your changes against diabetes.