Every day, in the United States, more than 2000 new cases of diabetes are diagnosed.  Type II diabetes, the most prevalent form of diabetes worldwide, often shows few or even no symptoms!
After eating, food is broken down into what is known as glucose, a sugar carried by the blood to cells throughout the body.  Using a hormone known as insulin, made in the pancreas, cells process glucose into energy.
Because cells in the muscles, liver, and fat do not use insulin properly in the body of a person with type II diabetes, they have problems converting food into energy.  Eventually, the pancreas cannot make enough insulin for the body’s needs.  The amount of glucose in the body increases, and the cells are starved of energy.
This starvation of the cells, paired with the high blood glucose level can damage nerves and blood vessels.  This leads to complications such as kidney disease, nerve problems, blindness, and heart ailments.
There are a lot of factors that can help to attribute to diabetes cases – lifestyle, environment, heredity – and those who are at risk should be screened regularly to prevent diabetes.  Those that are already diagnosed with diabetes should aim to keep their glucose level under control.
But how do you know if you have type II diabetes?  After all, it has few symptoms, often no symptoms in some patients.  However, if you notice an increased thirst or hunger, a change in weight, or blurred vision, getting tested for type II diabetes is necessary, as only your doctor will be able to help you find the treatment steps necessary to being able to manage your life with diabetes.
Simple changes such as eating right, managing your weight, and keeping your blood sugar level under control may be enough.  However, you doctor may prescribe diabetes-regulating medications to assist you in controlling your type II diabetes.
Diabetes is a serious ailment with extreme consequences if it isn’t treated properly.  But if you follow your doctor’s advice and maintain both your lifestyle and blood sugar levels, you can help to prevent the more serious consequences from occurring.
This article is for information purposes only and is not meant to treat, diagnose or prevent any ailment or disease.  See your physician for proper diagnosis and treatment.

There is no known reason for what causes diabetes.  There are certainly risk factors that make the likelihood of you being diagnosed with the disease higher.  One of the only risk factors that you have control over is your weight.  If you are obese, the single best thing you can do for your health and the prevention of diabetes is to lose weight.  Even in small increments, when you shed pounds you are increasing your health benefits.
These may be easier said than done.  There are new studies that are now showing that there is a genetic factor or mutation for people who are obese and have diabetes.  This genetic malfunction affects how the bodies use energy and insulin – two key elements in the functioning of your body and the cause of diabetes and obesity.
The studies also state that this is not a cause and effect case.  If you carry this defective gene you are not guaranteed to be obese or have diabetes.  But the link is there and it can be prevented.  You may have to work harder at it than others to maintain a healthy body weight and put off diabetes but it can be done.  Discuss with your doctor options and ways to prevent or put-off the onset of diabetes.
The gene that researchers have discovered as a precursor to diabetes has been found in young children.  It is scary to know that children in their preschool years are being diagnosed with obesity and type 2 diabetes due to genetics.  But parents can reduce or prevent these things from happening by giving their children healthy lifestyle choices.  Now that a DNA link has been found, the research can focus on finding a way to fix or prevent this from happening at some point in the future.

Since my diagnosis with diabetes at the age of eleven, my own diet has changed dramatically.  I maintain my current healthy weight with a great diet/eating plan. If you do plan on losing more than about a stone in weight then I would visit your doctor for more tips on how to do this without risk.
I’ve had diabetes for seven years now, but to tell you that how I maintain weight is perfect would be totally wrong of me.  However, I can advise you to follow my steps because I know what works and what doesn’t. Before I really begin I must also say that I have been brought up by great parents who taught me to eat everything, and so I do! If there is something that you don’t like, there are loads of other diabetic recipes and ideas that you will eat and appreciate.
I am a university student and I like to buy fresh and organic produce from where I live. I believe that this is important because it can be the most good for your body and contain more nutrients and vitamins than most supermarket produce. I like to source food from my fortnightly farmers market in town, which sells amazing meat and dairy produce and fresh in season fruit and vegetables. This is another important thing to remember, that eating fruit and vegetables in their season means that they will taste better as well as doing you good. I have a lot of influence from Western European cuisine (mainly France and Italy) as you will tell, but I do not profess to be a chef and everything is easy to make and very convenient.
I have read countless diet books and diabetic recipe/diet books, and I came to a conclusion that I think really works. I fused all the good things from the diets (but not from every diet) and sort of put together my own one. I call this my Juvenile Diabetes Healthy Diet!
The “rules” that I would lay down are as follows:
1. Cut back on snacks and then change the type of snacks you eat.Certainly my biggest downfall although it wasn’t really apparent to me. When I first started at University, I had little or no routine which meant that filling my day was difficult and popping into the kitchen for a snack, no matter how healthy it felt, was a regular occurence. This is one of the hardest things to do for some people, but establishing a great routine is essential to great diabetes care. The types of snacks to be eating are unsalted nuts, dried unsweetened fruit, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables (I love fresh red pepper and cucumber), dark chocolate (richer and nicer and you only want 2 squares usually).
2. Cut back on white flour and embrace wholemeal carbs.This is the most essential part of your diet, and the thing that can show the biggest increase in loss of weight. Some diets in fact jsut focus on this point, and are very successful. Wholemeal (especially stoneground wholemeal) is so good for you and has so much more flavour in it that switching is much easier than you think. Most people are really surprised at the ranges you can get in you supermarket, again remember that the bread that is best for you is the one that is freshest with least perservatives or added ingredients. Also, brown or basmati rice is great with a lovely nutty texture. Wholemeal pasta is great and for your potatoes I would totally recommend the smaller new potatoes.
3. Stop drinking cocktails, start drinking wine. Cocktails are full of sugar, colourants and preservatives. As a student I have had loads of practice at going out and not drinking cocktails, so my drink of choice is Malibu and Diet Coke if I feel I have to drink something and I make it last all night. I can then top up with Diet Coke (which has almost no sugar in it) and it looks as though I am drinking Malibu, who is to know. If you are out at a restaurant, red wine is much better than anything else you can order, (except water of course!) and it has been proven that the anti-oxidants in red wine are great for keeping a healthy heart. The recommended amount is one glass a day with your evening meal.
4. Start cooking more fruit and vegetables.Fresh fruit and vegetables are a great way to get all the vitamins and minerals you need. And there are so many different ways in which to cook vegetables, but I find that raw is the best followed closely by steamed. Both of these ways preserve all their natural goodness as well. I will follow this post with another diabetes recipes post.
5. Drink more water.I know you have heard people say this many times before, but the benefits of drinking more water are endless. A few tips on how to get more water into your day are firstly to put bottles of water at all the places you go in the house or work. So keep one in your desk, on your desk, a glass in the kitchen, the bedroom, the sitting room, etc. Try and drink all these glasses up and you will be well on your way to 8 glasses a day. The trick is to add a glass every few days or so, if you try to drink all that water in one go you won’t be so inclined to drink 8 glasses again, trust me! Have a go, it’s amazing how great you will feel.