Surprisingly simple ways to reduce diabetes risk

The healthcare community is rightly concerned about the diabetes epidemic sweeping North America. Here are some surprisingly simple ways you can reduce your risk.

Diabetes is a serious condition with serious consequences that can impact your life. But is there anything you can do to prevent diabetes?

According to doctors, if there were only three things they believe you could do to prevent diabetes, here are the things they would recommend. Together, they can slash your risk of the disease by nearly 60 per cent:1. Lose weight. 2. Be physically active. 3. Add more fibre to your diet.

• Spinach is high in magnesium, which a large study suggests can help to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes.
• One study in women found higher intakes of magnesium (also found in nuts, other leafy greens and fish) reduced diabetes risk by about 10 per cent overall, and by about 20 per cent in women who were overweight.
• Another great source of magnesium? Avocados.

• One study found that women who had a glass of wine a day cut their risk of diabetes in half compared to teetotallers.
• Not a wine lover? The study found the same effects for beer.

The reason you want to avoid saturated fat is simple: American scientists evaluated 3,000 people and found that those with the highest blood levels of saturated fats were twice as likely to develop diabetes.

• That's all it took in one large U.S. study to slash the risk of dying from diabetes by more than a third.
• Believe it or not, if you walk 10 kilometres (six miles) a week, you'll be nearly 40 per cent less likely to die from all causes and 34 per cent less likely to die from heart disease, the leading cause of death in people with diabetes.
• The reason? Walking makes your cells more receptive to insulin, which leads to better control of blood sugar. It also raises levels of "good" HDL cholesterol.

• Harvard researchers found that women who snored were more than twice as likely as those who didn't to develop diabetes – regardless of weight, smoking history or family history of diabetes.
• If you do snore, see your doctor. You may have a physical problem, or you may simply need to lose some weight and change the way you sleep.

• "Good" carbs — whole grains, fruit, vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds — are full of fibre for reducing the risk of diabetes.
• "Good" fats — the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated oils in nuts, seeds, olives, avocados and fish — also reduce the risk of diabetes.