Diabetes Facts That Everyone Should Know

Diabetes is on the rise and with the state of the American diet, it is no wonder. When it comes to eating American's might be counting calories but they surely aren't reading the labels of the foods they eat, at least most Americans. The problem is that even people who  care enough about their health to read the labels really do not know what they are looking for and while the amount of calories, fat, salt, and sugar are obvious factors to look they are obviously only a part of the entire picture.

Since diabetes is a condition that has to do with a problem regulating blood sugar in the body it is essential to keep an eye on your sugar level, especially your fasting sugar level. And while many individuals know to watch their sugar and if there is a problem to keep it in check a lot of people are still not aware that even if you don't eat much sugar you could be at risk.

Diabetes is essentially a problem with digestion of sugars and the body requires insulin in order to effectively process sugars. Sugars however are derivatives of carbohydrates and studies have shown that sugar has a lot less of an effect on diabetics then the consumption of starchy foods does. This is because foods such as breads, pastas, and even potatoes turn into sugar in your body and while they can be natural they still require insulin for digestion.

For a long time it was assumed that individuals who became diabetic did so because of a genetic link. While heredity does play a role in how a person's body processes and how much insulin it has this is not the only mitigating factor. Most people, especially children are being diagnosed with Diabetes and have no genetic link what so ever. It is important to realize that while genetics is a contributing factor diet is still of the utmost importance.

When you think about avoiding diabetes it is very important make certain that you are not only reducing the amount of refined sugar that is in your diet but that you're also limiting the amount of carbohydrates that you're ingesting each and every day. Diet is ever so important in helping to avoid diabetes and if you're willing to put in the effort to keep your carb intake down than you can effectively reduce your risk of diabetes even if you do have a family history of this disease.