Aging Well with Diabetes by Bottom Line Inc

Author:Bottom Line Inc.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2017-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Minor Missteps Can Make Your Diabetes Worse

Despite what you may have heard, type 2 diabetes doesn’t have to be a lifelong condition. It can be controlled and even reversed in the early stages or stopped from progressing in the later stages—with none of the dire consequences of out-of-control blood sugar.

The problem is, even people who are following all the doctor’s orders may still be sabotaging their efforts with seemingly minor missteps that can have big consequences. Among the most common mistakes that harm people with diabetes are oversights in the way they eat and exercise. For example:

Skimping on protein. The majority of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese. These individuals know that they need to lose weight but sometimes fail despite their best efforts.

Here’s what often happens: We have had it drummed into our heads that the best way to lose weight is to go on a low-fat diet. However, these diets tend to be low in protein—and you need more protein, not less, if you have type 2 diabetes and are cutting calories to lose weight.

What’s so special about protein? You need protein to maintain muscle mass. The average adult starts losing lean muscle mass every year after about age forty. If you have diabetes, you’ll probably lose more muscle mass than someone without it. And the loss will be even greater if your diabetes is not well controlled.

Muscle is important because it burns more calories than other tissues in your body. Also, people with a higher and more active muscle mass find it easier to maintain healthy blood glucose levels, since active muscle doesn’t require insulin to clear high glucose from the blood.

My advice: Protein should provide 20 to 30 percent of total daily calories. For example, if you’re on an 1,800-calorie diet, that’s about 90 to 135 g of protein a day. If you’re on a 1,200- to 1,500-calorie diet, that’s about 60 to 113 g of protein a day.

Examples: Good protein sources include fish, skinless poultry, nonfat or low-fat dairy, legumes, and nuts and seeds. A three-ounce chicken breast has about 30 g of protein; a three-ounce piece of haddock, 17 g; one-half cup of low-fat cottage cheese, 14 g; and one-quarter cup of whole almonds, 7 g of protein.

Note: If you have kidney problems, you may need to limit your protein intake. Check with your doctor.

Not doing resistance training. It’s widely known that aerobic exercise is good for weight loss and blood sugar control. What usually gets short shrift (especially among older people) is resistance training, such as lifting weights and using stretch bands.

When you build muscle, you use more glucose, which helps reduce glucose levels in the blood. If you take insulin for your diabetes (see below), toned muscles will also make your body more sensitive to it.

An added benefit: People who do resistance training can often reduce their doses of insulin or other medications within a few months.

My advice: Do a combination of resistance, aerobic, and flexibility exercises. Start with

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